In March, we welcomed Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight as our first Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, working to improve the presence of Wikipedia articles on women and writing before 1900. Her work is supported by scholars in the Women Writers Project and Northeastern reference librarians. Rosie will be with us, working remotely, through December of this year and has already made remarkable progress on bolstering the canon of women writers and their works on Wikipedia. She has created new pages for over 86 women and/or works by women, and has improved many others with additional information, context and citations. Through Rosie’s work, you can now learn about Birdie Blye, a descendant of John Hancock who was a child prodigy at the piano and gave concert tours in Europe at just 11 years old, before writing articles about her travels and music criticism. You can get to know Lilian Bell, a novelist who made waves with her first fiction book, The Love Affairs of an Old Maid. Bell’s mother was such a careful editor, and tough critic, that Bell found no reason to dread her books being reviewed: “What have I to fear from the public?” she asked. “Mamma has read it.”   You can also learn about Mittie Frances Clarke Point, a turn-of-the-century novelist who wrote 80 dime store novels under the pseudonym Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller; Emily Thornton Charles, a journalist who founded the Washington, D.C. newspaper National Veteran; and Mary Catherine Chase, a 19th-century Catholic nun who wrote essays and literature under pen names. You can keep up with Rosie’s work on her Wikipedia page. We look forward to seeing more of Rosie’s work throughout her time with us this year.  

  Whether you are new to Northeastern University community or returning from summer, the Northeastern University Libraries can help you prepare for the semester ahead. During new faculty orientation on August 29th, visit the University Libraries to meet with librarians and subject specialists to hear about the wide range of services and resources available in support of your research, teaching and publishing. A listing of library services is online under Information for Faculty and Staff. Check the Librarians-by Subject Directory for your librarian. Please feel free to contact us.

Faculty and staff, this is the perfect time to submit your course reserve requests for Fall 2017!  Classes will be underway in less than two weeks, and the sooner we receive your materials, the sooner we’ll have them ready for students to borrow. To request library materials for reserve, submit this form (myNEU login required). The library doesn’t purchase textbooks for courses, but we’d be happy to add your personal copies to our catalog; just print out the completed request form and drop it off with your textbooks at the Help and Information Desk on the 1st floor.  Feel free to get in touch with me directly with any questions or concerns.

On August 21, the earth’s moon passes in front of the sun and parts of the United States will experience a total eclipse for the first time since 1979. Here in Boston, we’re not in the “path of totality”–we’ll see just a partial eclipse. The sun will only be 63% covered by the moon and we won’t experience the midday darkness. More importantly, we won’t be able to look directly at the eclipse because so much of the sun will be exposed–it will be dangerous to look directly at sun’s rays behind the moon. How can you view the eclipse safely? If you have a pinhole camera, which you can make with a cardboard box, a digital SLR camera with a pinhole cap,  or even two sheets of paper,  you’ll be able to see the partially eclipsed sun as a crescent-shaped gleam projected onto a surface opposite the pinhole. You can also take pictures with a cell phone or digital camera (use a solar filter to avoid heat damage to the camera) as long as you don’t look directly at the sun while you’re doing it. And if you do want to look at the eclipse with your eyes, eclipse glasses will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at Snell Library on Monday beginning at noon or you can attend the events hosted by the NU Physics Department or Boston Public Library