Library News
Try Mango Languages to Learn a New Language Online
Buongiorno! Guten Tag! Ni hao! As the librarian at Snell for foreign languages and literatures, I’ve received quite a few requests for the library to provide online language-learning products to the NU community. So I’m very pleased to report that we are currently offering a free trial of Mango Languages, a completely web-based language-learning system that focuses on actual conversation skills. The trial will last until the end of October.
The languages currently available from Mango are Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and English as a Second Language for speakers of Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, or Polish. They plan to add more languages in the future.
Mango is a very popular product with many public libraries and is supposed to be very easy to use. We are running the free trial now with the hope that we will be able to buy either this product or one like it. So, we need your feedback! Try Mango Languages and let us know what you think!
New York Times Historical Archive now at NU Libraries
All the news that’s fit to print just got easier to read. The Library has made an important addition to its digital assets with the appearance of the New York Times Historical Archive with Index. At present the database contains the fully digitized and indexed paper from 1851 – 2006; it is regularly updated with a three year lag. The archive is fully searchable, and articles can be displayed as pdf images of individual articles or in full page view. Abstracts are also available for many articles.
The detailed indexing permits highly flexible searching in the advanced search, and results can be limited to, for instance, the Book Review, or the Sunday Magazine.
But the most exciting feature is the presentation of history in its immediacy. Browse for the momentous:
ALLIED ARMIES LAND IN FRANCE IN THE HAVRE-CHERBOURG AREA; GREAT INVASION IS UNDER WAY
New York Times New York, N.Y.: Jun 6, 1944. p. 1 (1 page)
THEY ARE COMING,’ NAZIS SAY CURTLY
By Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
New York Times Jun 6, 1944;
…or the quirky:
BROOKLYN IS WRATHFUL; The Sunday Shaving Law Looked Upon as a Great Indignity. BARBERS TALK OF A MASS MEETING Citizens Must Shave Themselves, Come to New-York, or Raise Beards — May Increase Church Attendance.
New York Times Jun 1, 1895. p. 9 (1 page)
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Try out the New York Times Historical Archive
Archives reveal Co-op Centennial history
Environmentalism Books and more – at your finger tips
Do you want to keep up on the latest new and upcoming books on a specific aspect of Environmentalism?
Then every Wednesday check out The Green Life, or subscribe to their RSS feed and receive it on your computer.
If your interest is Food Politics, then maybe Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal is a book for you. This is written by Tristram Stuart who has become so dedicated to reducing food waste that he has become a FREEGAN (some one who lives off discarded or self-produced food). Through his investigations he finds out that it is not underproduction but waste that is at the cause of world’s food problems.
Or maybe it is Building Green Communities, then how about looking at Change the World for ten Bucks: small actions x lots of people = Big Change. This is by a London-based nonprofit We Are What We Do which has put together 50 actions that can lead to more sustainable communities.
Each week they cover a different subject, such as: Forests, Building Green Communities and making craft projects from recycled or eco-friendly materials.
You never know what you will find.
It could be something new that you might just become passionate about.
If you see a book that you think the Library should invest in, you can recommend it here.