The Alumni Reading Room Opens!

It’s here! Today was the official opening of the Anna & Eugene M. Reppucci Alumni Reading Room. The room was a generous gift of Eugene M. Reppucci, Jr., an alumnus of Northeastern, donated in memory of his parents. The Reading Room will serve as a space for alumni to conduct personal research, relax, and experience the Library outside the bustle of the University. This room can also be reserved for alumni-related activities sponsored by student groups. There will be a reception in the Reading Room following the author talk scheduled for Parents’ Weekend, October 23, 2012. If you are interested in reserving the room for group functions, you can click here or contact the Office of the Dean of Libraries. To give the room a memorable opening, Paul Harding, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Tinkers, treated the Library to a reading from his novel as well as a revelatory discussion about the process of his work and his experiences as a child that led him to the creation of Tinkers.  

New: Use the DSM-IV Online!

The long-awaited e-version of the DSM-IV TR has arrived.  (Its formal name is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision, 2000.)  The Libraries’ new subscription to this resource means that NU students, faculty, and staff can now access the full text version from anywhere.  If this isn’t a household name to you, I should explain that the “DSM” is produced by the American Psychiatric Association and is considered the essential tool for mental health providers to diagnose patients in this country.  It is likely that you or someone you know, at some point, has been affected by this document.  It undergoes revisions approximately every 6 to 10 years, as researchers bring to light new information, which in turn changes the professional view and body of knowledge about how mental disorders are categorized and subsequently treated. You can read more about this diagnostic tool, and the history of diagnosis and classification of psychiatric disorders, in the article “Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Diagnosis and Classification of”: doi:10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/01285-7 . (This article comes from our subscription resource called the International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences.) To find the text of the DSM-IV TR itself, link here or go to the “All Databases” A-Z list and scroll down to “StatRef.”  This resource allows five people to use it at one time. (Other titles within StatRef vary from 1 to 5 users.) This is a frequently-used resource at Snell Library; we hope you will enjoy this improvement in access!

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Coming to Northeastern

A talk by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Paul Harding and An opening of the Anna & Eugene M. Reppucci Alumni Reading Room On Tuesday, October 12 at noon, Paul Harding will read from his award-winning novel, Tinkers, about a father-son relationship over time. A book signing and reception in the new Alumni Reading Room will immediately follow. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP to Jordan Hellman at j.hellman@neu.edu, 617.373-5452. Co-sponsors for this event are NU Libraries, Office of Alumni Relations, NU Humanities Center, NU Bookstore, and NU Disability Resource Center. About Tinkers An old man lies dying. Propped up on a hospital bed in his living room and surrounded by his children and grandchildren, George Washington Crosby drifts in and out of consciousness, back to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in Maine. As time becomes fluid, his memories intertwine with those of his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler and his grandfather, a Methodist preacher beset by madness. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkersis an elegiac meditation on love, loss, illness, faith, and the fierce beauty of nature.  – From Bellevue Literary Press “[A] beautifully written study of father-son relationships and the nature of time.” —Library Journal “Every so often a writer describes something so well … that you can smell it or feel it or sense it in the room. The writing does what all those other art forms do — evoke the essence of the thing.” —Susan Salter Reynold, Los Angeles Times

Reserve a Library Group Study Room Online

Note: The information on this post is out of date. Please visit our Rooms and Spaces page for the most current information on room booking in Snell Library.

Starting today, as a result of student requests, we are pleased to announce that NU students can reserve a Snell Library group study room online. All of our twelve group study rooms are now open for reservations through an online self-booking resource on the Library’s website that provides information on each room’s availability and size.

Simply go to http://www.lib.neu.edu/studyrooms, click on “Reserve It,” and follow the instructions on the next page to complete your reservation. Snell group study rooms are limited to one per day per group, and can be reserved for up to three hours at a time. For more information about room reservations and self-service please call the Circulation Desk at 617-373-8778 or stop by the desk, on the first floor of Snell Library, for immediate assistance.