2010

The stacks get painted green

A new influx of books on sustainability, climate change, and all things green have hit the Library Stacks in 2010. In following its commitment to sustainable development, Northeastern has been obtaining more relevant sources on the topic for its students. Some new titles that are available and have yet to even be checked out are… A Global Green New Deal by Edward B. Barbier.
  • This book focuses on the need for global shifts in policy that will be able to meet short-term and long-term sustainability needs without creating economic or environmental crises in the future.
Co-Opportunity by John Grant.
  • This book follows the same theme of cooperation on a larger scale to achieve environmental change. It focuses on the relationship of the economy and the environment, the government’s current role and ideal role, and how individuals, communities, and countries can work cooperatively to achieve goals with relative ease and low expenses.
Mainstreaming Climate Change In Developmental Cooperation
  • This book gives a theoretical, political, and practical perspective on the role of developmental cooperation needed between developed and developing countries. The focus on climate change and aid theory make us rethink the need to help developing countries as a step to achieving global environmental progress.
The theme of environmental cooperation is obvious in these three examples and it fits perfectly with Northeastern’s commitment to the community and to cooperative education.

E-books Making It Harder to Meet (and Judge) People?

I just read an interesting piece in the online magazine Slate in which the author is lamenting the rise of e-books for a very specific reason: he thinks it will make it harder to meet people and form impressions of them or get to know them because we can’t see what they’re reading. Check out the article. The author, Mark Oppenheimer, notes that he enjoys looking around on the subway to see what books people are reading, and that he has learned more about people he was dating by observing the books on their shelves. If everyone on the train is carrying a Kindle or a Nook, and books on apartment shelves vanish in favor of an iPad on the coffee table, he fears, we’ll lose out on one of the best conversation-starters around. What do you think? Is this an unforeseen drawback to the e-book revolution? Or is Oppenheimer worrying too much?

Going Global

On Sunday, a few friends and I decided that the Christian Science Center was worth investigating after 2+ years of walking curiously in its shadow. Inside, we found this (above). This enormous glowing globe – house is called the Mapparium. Its a three story painted glass globe that you walk inside. It’s inside the Mary Baker Eddy Library on Mass. Avenue, and it’s preeeetttty awesome. There is a fee to enter the Mapparium, which is bogus, but hey, its a measly four dollars for a unique, thought-provoking experience — more than you’d get out of a Big Mac (also four dollars) from the McDonald’s next door. You enter on a bridge suspended in the earth’s core (super cool). Then a brief light show begins (super cool) during which you examine the foreign cartography of this three-dimensional map made in 1935 (super cool). Like, what is French Indo-China? Oh, and this happens to be super cool: the acoustics of the perfect sphere are quite unique. From the center, your voice is very loud. I happened to be standing in the center. I’ve never felt so powerful, or so entertained. Not to mention somewhat rude. From the edge of the bridge, your voice can be heard very clearly by the person on the other side of the bridge, but not by others in the center, so two can have a secret conversation in plain globe-light. Everything about this place is… well, I think you know how I feel about it. I vote we get one of these at Snell instead of an Alumni Reading Room. No offense, Mom (class of ’82).

Seeking New Writers for Snell Snippets

With the school year coming around and new students pouring in, not to mention some new Library employees who have started working or will soon begin working at Snell, I want to send out a call for all potential bloggers. At Snell Snippets, we are trying to branch out, both in our service to the library and in the way we encompass all sections of the library. This means we are promoting news, resources, and general updates at a good rate, but we are also looking to include more people as contributing writers. A contributing writer would be required to complete at least one post per week and they would be required to be trained as a blogger. All blog posts are intrinsically related to the library; either they are about a recent library development, or a book, film, CD, etc., that we have at Snell. Posts may also be about the broad topic of libraries, literature and literacy as it relates to our own goals. As one of the primary blog goals is to get more students reading it, we are therefore trying to get more students to write for it. As of now, the blog administrators are mainly divided between the 2nd and third floor; Karen, Rebecca and myself. The same can be said of all contributors. Having several students working at Circulation to blog about the library from their perspective would be just one of many welcome additions. Of course, this is only an example. I look forward to hearing from interested writers. Anybody with a skill for writing, reading and intellectual curiosity may apply. I know that includes a good many people here.

Smithsonian Global Sound’s Mobile App is Here!

Smithsonian Global Sound, Alexander Street Press‘s “virtual encyclopedia of the world’s musical and aural traditions,” has three convenient ways to access recordings from your mobile phone. Select a track you wish to listen to, click on the mobile phone icon, and choose one of three methods for accessing the track (and entire album!) from your mobile device. Click on the screen shot below of the Cajun Home Music Album to see the pop-up help menu you will receive. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at d.mandel@neu.edu. Debra Mandel