Library News
Harvard Educational Review now available
The NU community now has access to the Harvard Educational Review online through the NU Libraries. It’s a scholarly journal of opinion and research in education, self-described as “one of the most prestigious journals in education, with circulation to policymakers, researchers, administrators, and teachers.”
When I first heard we were getting this journal, I figured it was for education geeks and not for me, but I found a really interesting and accessible article by Houman Harouni in the latest issue, on something really relevant to our work here at the NU Libraries.
The article is about the pedagogical problems and opportunities presented by Wikipedia, and how a high-school teacher worked with students to address them. Should he disparage Wikipedia? Allow it to be cited? Vandalize it? Assign students to contribute to it? Well, a little of all of the above…which led his class to some very interesting understandings of the issue of authorship and scholarly discourse.
I signed up for the rss feed so I get notified when new issues of the journal are published. Enjoy the Harvard Educational Review…you may be surprised at how relevant it is to your work, too!
Spring Author Series Announced
Each semester at the Library we host a diverse group of writers as part of our Meet the Author series. For me, it’s always an interesting opportunity to learn more about a subject I’m interested in, or sometimes one I know very little about. (For our Fall Football event in 2008, I read Mark Bavaro’s Rough and Tumble, and came closer to learning what the life of an NFL player is like, adding another layer to watching professional football games).
This semester is no exception, and there are some great authors who are coming to Northeastern:
Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq
Christina Asquith
Thursday, January 28 @ 2:30 pm
Alumni Center, 716 Columbus Avenue
Asquith’s book is the story of four women—two Iraqi sisters, one U.S. soldier, and a U.S. aid worker—whose narratives explain the choices and challenges women face in the new Iraq. Asquith spent from 2003 to 2005 reporting from Baghdad. As a journalist whose living situation grew more imperiled, she moved in with an Iraqi family and gained an intimate look at how the war affected their lives.
The Death and Life of American Journalism
Bob McChesney and John Nichols
Tuesday, February 2 @ Noon
90 Snell Library
In their new book, communications scholar Bob McChesney and award-winning journalist John Nichols explore the current crisis of journalism. They claim that journalism today can easily be overrun by commercialism and special interests and in many ways has strayed far from its earlier purpose as a tool for public service, made possible by government subsidies. McChesney and Nichols founded the nonprofit Free Press in 2003 with the intention to create a strong, public outlet for journalism. The Death and Life of American Journalism makes for riveting reading on public discourse and the informed citizen.
Anna In-Between
Elizabeth Nunez
Friday, February 5 @ Noon
421 Snell Library
Nunez’s colorful work of fiction focuses on Anna, a successful New York City editor who hails from an upper-class Caribbean family. When Anna returns home, she finds her mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has no intentions of traveling to the United States for medical assistance. Her mother believes that, as a black woman, she will receive inferior medical care. Throughout the book, Nunez beautifully illustrates the bond between family members and a community. Nunez is Provost at CUNY’s Medgar Evers College and has written seven novels.
A Tiger’s Heart: A Memoir
Aisling Shen
Tuesday, February 23 @ 6 pm
405 Ell Hall
Born in China’s Yangtze River Delta into a community of impoverished rice farmers, Shen was the first person from her village to attend college. Deeply dissatisfied with her government-issued teaching job, she left for the special economic zones of southern China in search of happiness and success in the business world. In 2000 Shen immigrated to the U.S. and graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 2005. She currently works as an equity research associate in an investment management firm in Boston. In her unflinching memoir, Shen’s personal story also reflects the early days of China’s economic boom and illustrates the massive economic and social changes that have taken place in the country over the past several decades.
Click here to see the full press release.
Chinese Progressive Association Historical Records Available for Research
The records of the Chinese Progressive Association are now available for research (in 92 Snell Library).
The Chinese Progressive Association has been involved in important projects since 1977, getting involved in local Chinatown issues and fighting to protect community rights.
1986: CPA organized with dislocated garment workers from P&L Sportswear and from Beverly Rose, another sportswear manufacturer, to win the first Chinese bilingual retraining programs in New England.
1993: CPA worked with other Chinatown organizations and the American Friends Service Committee to organize a plebiscite on the Parcel C parking garage proposed for the center of residential Chinatown, eventually winning the designation of the parcel for community development.
2005: The organization launched its Immigrant Workers Center Collaborative to build immigrant worker organizing and solidarity in the Chinese, Brazilian, and Latino communities.
2006: CPA strengthened ties with communities of color, tenant organizations, and housing advocates to secure changes in Boston’s Inclusionary Development Policy and its definition of housing affordability in an effort to stabilize Boston neighborhoods.
Take advantage of Northeastern Libraries’ material from the CPA, ranging from 1976 to 2006:
http://www.library.neu.edu/archives/collect/findaids/m163find.htm
And read the full press release here.
When 10,000 librarians come to town
This past weekend, the American Library Association held its midwinter meeting here in Boston. Many of us at the NU Libraries took advantage of being here in the host city, and we’ve been meeting with colleagues, visiting publisher exhibits, meeting with technology vendors, listening to speakers, and attending workshops. Several librarians here at Snell serve on national committees.
Regardless of how active we are, it’s always enlightening to step back and try to see our work from the perspective of the library profession. Going to ALA always makes me think of the library as something larger than the sum of all the tasks that take up my time on a daily basis. I get a chance to think about the implications of what I’m doing, where my priorities are and should be, and what I can learn from other librarians who have gone ahead of me.
For me, there were two special highlights from this conference: a great workshop on providing services to users with mobile devices like smartphones (view the slides here), and a reunion with a longtime friend and former mentor. All in all, the ALA Midwinter meeting fulfilled its purpose: professional renewal through learning and conversation!