Library News

Faculty and staff, it’s time to start thinking about submitting your course reserve requests for Spring 2018!  Classes begin January 8, and the sooner we receive your requests for materials, the sooner we’ll have them ready for students to borrow. The library is not open over Winter Break, so in order for your materials to be ready for check-out during the first week of classes, we recommend that you have your lists submitted by December 18, 2017. If you already have items on reserve for Fall 2017 that you’d like to keep in place for the Spring semester, please let us know before December 15, 2017!  After December 15, library-owned reserve materials not needed for Spring will be re-shelved in the regular stacks upstairs.  Personal copies expiring Fall 2017 will begin to be removed during intersession week (December 18-December 22). To request library materials for reserve, submit this form (myNEU login required). The library doesn’t purchase textbooks for courses, but we’d be happy to add your personal copies to our catalog; just print out the completed request form and drop it off with your textbooks at the Help and Information Desk on the 1st floor. Feel free to get in touch with me directly with any questions or concerns.

To read the full reflection, visit the Digital Scholarship Group’s news page. Design for Diversity is an IMLS grant-funded national forum project based out of the Digital Scholarship Group. The goal of the project centers around creating a collaborative Teaching and Learning Toolkit for practioners who are interested in designing and working with information systems that can represent diverse ways of knowing. The Design for Diversity Opening Forum – the first event – was held at Northeastern on October 16 and 17 to begin the collaborative process of building the toolkit. This two-day event consisted of case study presentations to inspire both larger and smaller group discussions as well as collaborative group note-taking; the Design for Diversity team has made available several of the slides from the presentations (available on links the schedule) and recordings of the presentations. These case study examples ranged from how to work with historically disenfranchised communities and their cultural materials, to how metadata can be exclusive or uncover previously hidden relationships and networks, and to how the constraints of digital tools and platforms’ might help or hinder identity representation. One of the most common questions during the event was how academics– who are situated in an institution that can continue to perpetuate the oppression of historically disenfranchised communities –can not only work with, but work for these communities. Another common theme that came up during the event was how well-designed workflows can center around this work. What are the methodologies that will lead to a successful, ethical, and healthy project ecology that will set up for the success of the project and those invested? All projects have constraints and recognizing them is an important step to acknowledging what a project can do. Designing a healthy project ecology also means understanding the affordances and limitations of individual tools and technologies. Using the examples provided at the Opening Forum and other places where these conversations are happening, information system practioners can continue to come together and share how we shape learning environments to foster conversations about justice, dismantling hierarchies, and making spaces for a multitude of ways of being and knowledges. If you would like to know more about Design for Diversity, there are several ways to participate in the project. You can also sign up for the Design for Diversity e-mail list or follow us on Twitter.

Happy National Distance Learning Week! Snell Library is committed to serving all Huskies—all over the globe. Here are some of the resources and services available for our online and distance students, faculty, and staff: –One-on-one research assistance: Did you know you can schedule an individual consultation with a subject specialist? Find your librarian and schedule an appointment online, or contact your subject librarian directly to ask about meeting options. –24/7 research support: the library offers an online chat service, available 24/7, that connects you to librarians from Northeastern and other academic libraries. You can get your research questions answered at any time of the day or night. –Research tutorials: Check out the library’s online research tutorials for help getting started with a research topic, developing keywords, or locating peer-reviewed sources –Interlibrary loan: Found an article you need, but can’t access the full text? Place a request through Illiad, the library’s interlibrary loan service. This service is free to use, and it typically only takes 1-2 business days to fill article requests. You’ll receive an email when your PDF is ready. –Local library access: Through a partnership with OCLC Shares, Snell Library is able to offer on-site access to a group of academic libraries worldwide. Want to see if there’s one near you? Check out the list of participating institutions

Would you like to learn how to create a bibliography or “works cited” page in a matter of seconds? Are you wondering how best to keep track of all the citations you copy and paste for all the articles and books you use? Do you wish you could just plug in a footnote while you’re writing in Word or Google Docs, and have it automatically format correctly? Are you interested in finding ways to store (and maybe even share) the citations and documents you’re accumulating in your research? Citation management software allows you accomplish all these things!

• download citations (and attach PDFs) from various websites and databases,
• store the citations in folders, and optionally share them,
• create properly formatted footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies using APA, ASCE, Chicago, MLA, and dozens of other styles painlessly in your word processor.

There are many commercial products out there for you to choose from, but at Northeastern we support Endnote, Refworks, and Zotero. Next week, the library offers several workshops and a drop in session to help you get started and answer questions.  Choose the right software for your needs, install or register your account, learn how to upload citations, and “cite while you write” in Word and Google Docs.           Workshop dates and times Getting Started with Endnote Monday, October 30 10:30-11:15 422 Snell Library Register Getting Started with Zotero Tuesday, October 31 9:15-10:00 422 Snell Library Register Getting Started with Refworks Wednesday, November 1 9:15-10:00 422 Snell Library Register Getting Started with Refworks (ONLINE) Thursday, November 2 noon-12:45 Register DROP IN Citation Help Friday, November 3 9:30-11:30 CoLab D, Level 1 Snell Library (near Argo Tea) (no registration necessary) Please join us!