Snell Library

5 Ways to Maximize Your Creativity

Last week, creativity and brain expert Dr. Shelley Carson visited Snell Library. She shared these five tips for maximizing your creativity. 1. Continue to actively learn and gather information throughout your life. 2. Turn off the automatic ‘censor’ in your brain (e.g. “that won’t work because…”). 3. Carry around a notepad or recorder– breakthroughs often happen in the strangest of places, when your censors are turned down. 4. Read about and hang out with other creative people 5. Don’t be afraid of failure. Creative people fail. Dr. Carson’s book, Your Creative Brain, is available for checkout at Snell Library. Thank you, Dr. Carson, for encouraging us all to be engaged explorers of the Universe.

A Week Full of Events!

As many of you may know, this month is filled with an assortment of fun and exciting events. We are headed into the second week of March with four programs you won’t want to miss! We hope to see you at one, or all of the events this coming week! If you have any questions on these or other upcoming programs at the library please contact k.forsberg@neu.edu. Tuesday, March 15th @8:30am – Breakfast with Artist Deborah Davidson To kick off the Northeastern University Humanities Center’s Artists and Practitioners in Residence Program, featuring Deborah Davidson, we will be serving a complimentary breakfast for attendees to meet and mingle with the artist. Breakfast will be served in the Alumni Reading Room on the first floor of Snell Library. To attend please R.S.V.P. to nin.shah@neu.edu. Tuesday, March 15th @10am- Book Making Workshop with Deborah Davidson Following the breakfast, Deborah Davidson will be leading an informal book binding workshop in the lobby of Snell for those interested in seeing how a hand bound book is made. This event is open to everyone so drop in between classes or during your study break! Tuesday, March 15th @12pm- Meet the Analysts: Baseball Prospectus 2011 Join us in 90 Snell Library for a look into this year’s coming baseball season! The analysts of Baseball Prospectuss have insights into over 60 different players, their teams, and their managers. Wear or bring your favorite team’s baseball cap! Wednesday, March 16th @12pm- Considering Books: A Talk with Deborah Davidson Come by 90 Snell Library to hear Deborah Davidson talk about her interest in making and thinking about books. Her focus will be on the book Voices, a 27’ scroll, which is included in the exhibition, What is Contained: The Book As Subject and Object, now open in Gallery 360. Wednesday, March 16th @6pm- Meet the Artist: Patrick Rothfuss Fantasy fiction writer Patrick Rothfuss will visit campus for a talk and book signing of his latest publication, The Wise Man’s Fear. This program will be in 200 Richards Hall and books will be made available for purchase. We will also have copies of The Name of the Wind for purchase.

March Madness at Snell!

March Madness: Helpful Hints for a Successful Semester Spring break has come and gone and now students are gearing up for their own March Madness—that final stretch of the semester when the weeks race by and then, BAM, papers are due and final exams have arrived. Ready or not, it’s time to start getting research together for whatever projects you may have and Snell Library is here to help you find what you need. Check out the hints below to learn how Snell can help you get the wheels in motion: Ask a Librarian! Seriously—they know their stuff about digging up the research you need and not to brag, but I think our staff here at Snell is pretty exceptional. And really easy to get in touch with! You can meet them at the reference desk on the library’s second floor or you can email, text, and chat with librarians online. Group projects. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re a fact of life for many students. The first floor (especially the Cyber Café) is a great place to meet up and divvy up assignments. You can also book a group study room right on the library website. Finding Books and Articles. Sometimes that obscure book about realist perspective on the development of the dessert banana just isn’t available here on campus. Fortunately, interlibrary loan can help you get the things you need. You can also apply for a Boston Library Consortium card if you want to go raid BU’s bookshelves yourself. But remember, the card takes up to a day to process and it can take a little time for an article to be scanned and uploaded for you from another library. Start thinking about the research you need now so you can bang out that paper come April. Collecting citations. Creating a bibliography has never been easier. Northeastern provides a subscription to EndNote (ideal for grad students) and Refworks.com (perfect for undergraduates and researchers looking to share sources). Check out this post by Amanda to get started. Wireless Printing. You’ve burned the midnight oil, your paper is done, and you’re ready to print. Thanks to new software that you can download from myneu.com, you can send documents straight to the library’s printers from your own laptop. This can be especially helpful when you’re printing out a paper five minutes before it’s due. Not that any of us students do that… Phew! Well, I hope this list helps you out. Take it easy on those late night cups of coffee and stay tuned to Snippets for more hints on how to take advantage of everything our libraries have to offer. Good luck with the rest of your spring semester!

Submit Your Work to Our Spring Media Showcase!

To all students and faculty, your artwork (photographs, graphic images, video or audio) can be displayed as part of our Spring Media Showcase on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 which will be held from 12-1 p.m. in 90 Snell Library. All you have to do to be considered as a participant in the Showcase is drop off a storage drive of your work to the Digital Media Design Studio in 200 Snell Library between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. by March 11th. Just follow these guidelines: – Projects must have been produced within the last two academic years – Photography and graphic image submissions must be in .PDF format – Video submissions must be less than 5 minutes in length, in Quicktime format (.mov), and with a resolution of 620×480 pixels. Video submissions should include an open slate at the beginning of the video with name, project title, date and length. – Audio submissions must be less than 3 minutes long and in mp3 format For more information please contact Thomas Bary (t.bary@neu.edu or 617-373-3399) or Elizabeth Ochse (e.ochse@neu.edu or 617-373-4109). Get your creative juices flowing!

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!