Library News

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!

We know you had a busy summer and so did we. Check out what’s new in the library this fall semester.   1. We’re working to keep your library clean.  24/7 study can be a messy business, that’s why we worked with our partners at ABM to establish a nightly cleaning schedule for Club Snell.  Tuesday through Friday, each floor gets a whole night dedicated to cleaning. 2. You can now find textbooks easier than ever. Your professor can put your textbooks on reserve in the library. To find out if they did search on the library homepage or ask your professor. 3. Did you ever ask yourself, why are the Club Snell elevators were so dark?  No? Well we did! That’s why over the summer we replaced the drab old lights with high efficiency LED lights. 4. Ever forget you husky card but still want to get into the Library?  Too busy to commit your HuskyID to memory?  Well we installed a hand scanner just for you!  Register with Student Services to take advantage of this exciting pilot program. 5. Club Snell is the latest building to install an All-Gender Restroom and Lactation Room.  Both rooms were built on the 4th floor. 6. Get a jump start on your coursework by talking to your subject specialist. We have a specialist for everything you could need help with, from architecture to engineering, even 3D printing and video production. If you can’t stop into the library you can always search our FAQ or reach us 24/7. 7. Booking a room has never been easier. Northeastern’s space booking system got an update this Summer and it’s so easy you can book a room waiting in line at Rebecca’s.   As always, keep an eye on our calendar for workshops, film screenings, and fun activities (did someone say therapy dogs?)

In March, we welcomed Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight as our first Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, working to improve the presence of Wikipedia articles on women and writing before 1900. Her work is supported by scholars in the Women Writers Project and Northeastern reference librarians. Rosie will be with us, working remotely, through December of this year and has already made remarkable progress on bolstering the canon of women writers and their works on Wikipedia. She has created new pages for over 86 women and/or works by women, and has improved many others with additional information, context and citations. Through Rosie’s work, you can now learn about Birdie Blye, a descendant of John Hancock who was a child prodigy at the piano and gave concert tours in Europe at just 11 years old, before writing articles about her travels and music criticism. You can get to know Lilian Bell, a novelist who made waves with her first fiction book, The Love Affairs of an Old Maid. Bell’s mother was such a careful editor, and tough critic, that Bell found no reason to dread her books being reviewed: “What have I to fear from the public?” she asked. “Mamma has read it.”   You can also learn about Mittie Frances Clarke Point, a turn-of-the-century novelist who wrote 80 dime store novels under the pseudonym Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller; Emily Thornton Charles, a journalist who founded the Washington, D.C. newspaper National Veteran; and Mary Catherine Chase, a 19th-century Catholic nun who wrote essays and literature under pen names. You can keep up with Rosie’s work on her Wikipedia page. We look forward to seeing more of Rosie’s work throughout her time with us this year.