Submit Your Best NOW Image of Snell Library for a Chance to Win a $5 iTunes Gift Card

Snell Library is creating a THEN and NOW display on the first floor and we will be accepting submissions for best NOW image. Please submit your own artwork that captures Snell Library as you see it today, in our 20th year. Photographs, paintings, sketches, etc. are all welcome. Submit your NOW-themed entries by 8pm on Wednesday, February 23rd for a chance to be featured in our March/April display and a chance to win a $5 iTunes gift card! Submissions should include your name, major, graduation year, and email address. All questions and submissions can be sent to Jessie Contour at j.contour@neu.edu or dropped off in 242 Snell Library. For more information take a look at our promotional flyer. Send in your best work and good luck!

Photoshop Basics Workshop Today 2/16

There are still spaces available for the Photoshop Basics Workshop today. Photoshop Basics 2/16 @ 11:45am-1:25pm Let us teach you the basics of image adjustment and editing. In this workshop, you will learn how to paint, draw, and edit in Photoshop. After all the separate pieces are created, learn how to bring it all together to make a dynamic multi-layered project. [Register Now!] Workshop Flyer (PDF)

Listen to Grammy Award Winners

There were some surprises last night at the Grammy Awards, and you’ll be surprised that some of the award-winners and their recordings can be found at the Snell Library, too! The best new artist of the year, Esperanza Spalding, is featured on a 4-DVD set available at the Snell Library called “Icons Among us: Jazz in the Present Tense.” For pop and r&b artists, we may not have the winning recordings but we do have some CDs and DVDs featuring Jeff Beck, Eminem, John Legend, and Neil Young. Intriguingly, we happen to have a recording by the Nor’easters, Northeastern’s a cappella group, of a Lady Gaga medley. In the classical category, you can find the multi-award winning Metropolis Symphony and Deus Ex Machina by Michael Daugherty (Best Engineered Classical, Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary) streaming online from Naxos. I admit I have my issues with contemporary classical but I really liked Metropolis (which is based on the Superman Comics) a lot; it has great energy and is modern in the best sense, with echoes of Gershwin. Naxos also streams the Parker Quartet’s Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (Best Chamber Music Performance) and P. Jacobs’ organ recording of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement (Best Instrumental Soloist). We’ve also got recordings by these award-winners: If watching the Grammy Awards made you want to expand your horizons, scratch that itch at the Snell Library!

Join Our Student Advisory Group

Last week the Library’s new Student Advisory Group met for the second time. The group’s charge is to discuss and give feedback on issues concerning Library services and facilities. Participation in this group is a way for students to voice their concerns and participate in planning for new services and programs. Every student is welcome to join the Advisory Group. If you are interested, please contact Lesley Milner at l.milner@neu.edu or by phone at 617-373-4920. The following items were discussed: • The Library is partnering with the SGA on a pilot project to provide laptop computer locks for loan from the circulation desk. The pilot project will try and determine if having locks available for laptop computers would benefit students by reducing the opportunity for theft. We will start with providing locking capabilities at 10 tables on the first floor and the service will be available later this month. The Library will send out an announcement when the locks are available to be borrowed. A follow-up survey would be conducted to poll users as to their perceived value. • Students are still having problems with the temperature in the building. We reviewed the procedures for reporting area temperatures in the building when it is too hot or too cold. Either call Building Services at X2757, or report it to the staff at the Circulation Desk on the first floor. • The need was expressed to have more hours with fresh food available for purchase in the Cyber Café. Discussions have been had with Dining Services, the department that manages the Café, and this concern will be added to our future improvement planning processes. • We need to improve our communication. Ideas for the best ways to contact students and to post information included Blackboard, Facebook, the NU student portal, and campus e-mail. • Good news! Everyone raved about how great wireless printing was in the Library and how it eliminated waiting in long lines to get your print jobs from the InfoCommons. As a result of this discussion, the Library is putting together a new publicity campaign to increase student awareness of this great new service. • Opinions were expressed to expand the number of lockers available to students and to make a group of lockers available to undergraduate students as well as graduate students. • Actively ask for student feedback. The need is there to survey students about services and proposed changes in services and facilities at the library. The group offered to facilitate surveys as the need arose.