Snell Library

Let's Talk about Printing

We welcome all library guests to use our space, services, and resources here at Snell Library; however, just as a reminder, printing from Snell Library computers is available to students, faculty, and staff of Northeastern University. If you are an alumnus, a Northeastern parent, or a user of government publications and would like to print, you can visit the Circulation Desk on Level One or the Research Assistance Desk on Level Two to request printouts. If you do not fall into one of the above categories, we recommend emailing your files to yourself or saving them to a flash drive (available for sale in the NU Bookstore) in order to print them from another location. If you have any questions, please contact Lesley Milner at l.milner@neu.edu.

Help keep the busiest bathrooms on campus clean

Not to brag, but I think the Library tops the charts in terms of traffic in our restrooms making our bathrooms the busiest on campus! We try our best so that you can’t tell. To keep up with the number of bathroom visitors this Fall, NU House and Grounds have stepped up their efforts to keep the facilities clean with more frequent service (and a record of when it鈥檚 been provided), paper-free hand driers designed to be both green and mess eliminators, and the installation of locks on bathroom doors to ensure a really thorough cleaning. That being said, cleanliness is a joint effort amongst all library users – students, faculty, staff, etc. While bathroom etiquette seems like a no-brainer there have been some interesting messes in the past. Here are some tips on how to make sure the restrooms stay user friendly 馃檪 1. Do not dispose of food in the toilets or anything besides what is intended of being disposed in a toilet. 2. Avoid pressing the ‘flush’ button with your foot. This damages the flushing mechanism. Here’s a tip! Use a piece of toilet paper to press the button so you avoid touching it with your hand. 3. Paper, paper, paper. Please, be green and take only what you need. Do not leave paper on the floor, use the trash can. 4. Shut off the water when you are done using the sink. If you spill, pick up after yourself. 5. And finally, if you see a problem, report it. Call x2754 (NU Work Control) or submit a request online at www.workreq.neu.edu.

On This Day: December 2nd

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On December 2nd, 1970 (40 years ago!) the EPA began daily聽operations under Richard Nixon (one of few things he got right). This organization is responsible for researching and educating the public on environmental issues, as well as setting and enforcing environment-related聽legislation. Key聽programs you may be familiar with聽are vehicle聽emission standards, Clean Water Acts, and the聽Endangered Species Acts. As a part of NU Libraries’ Federal Depository program, we have government-issued reports available in print and online that explore various EPA related topics in detail. You can take out a print article from our government stacks on the oversight of recent EPA decisions, or you can read an online article on the EPA lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. There is much to choose from, so celebrate 40 years by taking a look at these resources. To view the library’s entire EPA collection, keyword search “EPA” in NUCat.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today. . .

(Click for larger image) Happy Birthday, Snell Library! November 1, 1990 was the formal dedication ceremony for Snell Library.聽It’s hard to imagine NU without Snell Library, but for most of the history of the University, the library was a small affair housed in Dodge.聽Inadequate for the needs of the growing NU community, it was replaced thanks to an alliance including George and Lorraine Snell, University faculty, staff, students, and alumni who undertook to raise funds, and support from a U.S. Department of Defense grant. As part of the project, our first online catalog, “Nulis,” was also established around the same time. In 1990, the things we take for granted today about Snell were inconceivable to most people. The concept of a catalog on a web site, to say nothing of a cell phone, was hard to imagine; so was the notion that most journal subscriptions would be online. There was no Digital Media Design Studio for students to create videos, nor a program to convert our printed archival records to digital form.聽Email delivery of journal articles from interlibrary loan… even a Cybercaf茅 was hard to imagine in those “no-food-in-the-library” days. One thing that hasn’t changed: the centrality of Snell Library. Architecture professor Peter Serenyi put it so perfectly:

“It is in its siting…that the library makes its most dramatic contribution to the campus as a whole…Opening up to the north and west, the Snell Library gathers the campus around itself, thus becoming not only the intellectual center of the University but its physical center as well.” (Tradition and Innovation, p. 33)

I think this is as true today as it has always been. In the coming year, on this blog and elsewhere, we’ll be reflecting on our anniversary and on what the next 20 years hold in store for Snell Library.聽 What do you think Snell Library will be 20 years from now?

Musical Talents of Snell’s Own David Jachimiak

David Jachimiak, a staff member of Snell Library, is also an extremely talented and experienced musician.聽Jachimiak studied music education and received his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Fredonia in 2006, and later went on to receive his master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Miami in 2009. Additionally, he is an alumnus of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ jazz residency program, Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead. He specializes in saxophone, and has played with a plethora of musical acts over the years, including The Drifters, Steve and Lindley Band, Michael Thomas, Troy Roberts, Michael Feinberg, Gary Keller and Adonis Rose.聽He also volunteered a jazz performance with his group, the Dave Jachimiak Quartet, at afterHOURS for Northeastern’s Music & Entertainment Industry Student Association鈥檚 (MEISA) Jazz Night.聽 Most recently, Jachimiak has spent his time writing songs and playing bass聽with Opal Puckett, a new upstart rock band.聽 Visit YouTube聽to watch some of Jachimiak’s performances.