Finally, It’s Finals!

After this long apocalyptic winter that buried Boston under an endless amount of snow Since, you know, Boston relocated to north of the wall   I think we’re all kind of glad that it’s finally finals. Well, some of us are   Sure, you have to get through a couple of research papers, lab reports, final projects, and exams…   But in just two short weeks it’ll be summer! No more coats = No more responsibilities   And to help you get there, Snell Library has quite a few de-stressors planned for you so look forward to study breaks with goodies and giveaways and a special finals-themed twitter challenge! Goodies…?   Speaking of the challenge… it’s not really a challenge. It’s actually really simple: Starting on Tuesday (4/21), you can share your best study tip with @ClubSnell and use #SnellStudyTips on Twitter for a chance to win a $10.00 gift card to the Northeastern Bookstore! Five randomly selected study tips will be chosen and announced next Tuesday (4/28) afternoon and we’ll reach out to those lucky winners on more information about how to receive their gift card. If you haven’t already, start following @ClubSnell on Twitter to keep an eye out for impromptu study breaks and to submit your #SnellStudyTip.   Happy Finals!  

More scholarly content from Taylor and Francis!

The ink has just dried on our license to 1,700 scholarly e-journals from Taylor and Francis! This means more full text PDFs available when you’re linking from Scholar OneSearch, PubMed, Google Scholar, or whatever your favorite research starting point might be. It means less ordering from Interlibrary Loan for you, the researcher. And more space for student work and study, as we can remove print volumes of bound journals from the Snell Library stacks to make room for new tables and chairs. The collection includes publications from Taylor and Francis, Routledge, and Psychology Press. Older issues are available going back to 1997 (if the journal is that old). Other features:
  • Search by keyword or use the advanced search fields.
  • Select and save favorite Taylor & Francis Online resources by adding them to a marked list.
  • Receive RSS feeds and email alerts in areas of interest.
  • Download articles in PDF or HTML format.
  • Import citations into common reference software.
View a list of e-journals here.

Language learning program trials: Try both out and let us know!

Looking to learn a new language, or brush up on one you are already familiar with? Snell Library has trials to two language learning programs: Mango Languages and Pronunciator. (Log-in information below.) Mango’s trial ends on April 16 and Pronunciator’s ends on April 10. Try them out while you can! Both programs offer similar features such as:
  • Key phrases and expressions in the target language
  • Narration by native speakers to show you how to pronounce each word
  • Cultural bits of information which help you get a sense of proper etiquette in the country where the language you are learning is spoken
  • Media in the form of radio broadcasts and films with subtitles to help you with your listening comprehension
  • Media can be played back at varying speeds to suit your level of comprehension
  • Exercises and quizzes to see what you have learned
  • Mango offers 63 languages, Prounciator offers 80
Now for the differences:
  • Pronunciator allows you to select any language as your source language and any language as your target language. If you choose German as your source language and Thai as your target language, you would be learning Thai with instruction in German.
  • Mango does not have mix and match capabilities, but it does offer English courses for non-English speakers of Polish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, Russian, Armenian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
  • Pronunciator will match the pitches of different vowels of words to music notes so you can hear the differing tones of different vowel sounds.
  • Pronunciator gives you the option of playing only the voice, the notes, or both the voice and notes.
  Screenshot from Pronunciator’s Vietnamese course.  
  • With Pronunciator’s writing tool, the narrator speaks a word or phrase in the target language, and you can write the word and insert vowels with diacritics using the virtual keyboard.
  • Pronunciator takes accurate diacritic marks into account. Red letters indicate that the diacritics are either incorrect or missing.
  Screenshot of Pronunciator’s writing tool.  
  • Mango color codes parts of speech in both languages to show the user which parts of speech in the language being learned correspond with those in the user’s native language.
  Screenshot from Mango matching English words to Vietnamese words.   Pronunciator and Mango have apps available for mobile devices including iOS and Android devices: Pronunciator apps | Mango apps   The URL for the free trials are: Pronunciator: learning.pronunciator.com/ne.php Log in: ne Password ne Mango:connect.mangolanguages.com/northeastern-university-trial/try/f814b6af0   Try out both and let us know what you think!    

Snell is full of Fanjimiles

Hey aspiring musicians! Check out the colorful and moving music of Anjimile and read about their journey on recording and releasing Human Nature, their new album inspired by the wonders of the human body, mind, and soul. Human Nature was written, recorded, and produced by these band members, who also happen to be Northeastern students: Anjimile Yvonne on vocals and guitar, Drew Wilcox on percussion, Jason Smith as a featured bass guitarist, and Lee Schuna who produced this album at The Ivy Basement

Here’s the deal: Anjimile, an indie band from Boston, is raising money for their first ever full-length album, Human Nature. It’s always been their dream to release a a full-fledged studio album, but now they need the help of fellow musicians, indie fans, kind-hearted souls… anyone, really, to fund a campaign with this pre-sale. In return, you’ll get a digital version of Human Nature and the chance to call yourself a true “Fanjimile”.

So, what does this have to do with the library? Human Nature has musical features that were recorded in the Digital Media Commons (DMC) Audio Recording Studio at Snell Library.

Anjimile shared their recording experience with us and said they enjoyed the environment of the studio and felt comfortable recording there. The state-of-the-art equipment eased the recording process and the studio was always readily available to them when they made appointments. Let’s think about why the DMC met the needs of Anjimile and how it can meet your needs:
  • Anjimile has an in-home studio where the majority of their album was recorded. However, acquiring equipment and soundproofing the space requires spending a lot of time and a lot of money, which not everyone can do.
  • Another option would be renting studio space somewhere in the city… yeah, right! Again, that requires a lot of time and a lot of money.
  • Finally, Northeastern does offer another audio recording studio in Shillman. Unfortunately, it’s only for music majors.
It’s a no-brainer! The DMC Audio Recording Studio is free, easy to book, and available to any student, faculty, or staff member at Northeastern. Book now and record or edit your own soundtrack! Or if you don’t have experience but are interested, check out the Audio Recording Workshop Series in April.

In the meantime, show your support: help Anjimile raise money for their new album and check out their next show on March 21st at 8 pm at NU afterHOURS where they will be performing with Massachusetts-based, nationally renowned indie band Speedy Ortiz.

ACI Scholarly Blog Index: Research Powered by Social Media

Academic bloggers work hard to get new research in the sciences, engineering, the humanities and social sciences out to the world as quickly as possible.

So how do you keep up with so much interesting and important scholarly material? Try taking a look at ACI Scholarly Blog Index, a very new resource that the Northeastern University Libraries is currently beta-testing. ACI Scholarly Blog Index was created with students and faculty in mind as a tool to help you spend less time looking at irrelevant material on the web.

Looking for the best bloggers in economics, medicine, or politics? Try a search in the ACI Scholarly Blog Index. You’ll learn about the authors of the blog and what kind of academic work they are engaged in. Want to know who is writing about chemistry from a particular university?  ACI Scholarly Blog Index is also perfect for that.

All of ACI’s blogs are individually chosen by researchers with expertise in that blog’s topic or field of study.  If you are the author of a scholarly blog, and would like to suggest your blog or one your read regularly be included, there is a recommend a blog form.

You can easily create an account to search and save material you locate via ACI.  Use your Northeastern e-mail address and then create a password, of your own choosing. Why else should you try creating an account with ACI? You will see the full text of the blogs, not just an abstract.  Blog records can be downloaded and saved and your citations can be exported to Mendeley, EndNote,  or Zotero. Without logging in, the default is MLA.

Watch this helpful video for more information about logging in.

To find out more about using ACI, see the Support site here.

Let us know what you think!  Review ACI Blog Index here!  
Photo: support.newstex.com/support/articles/201150-how-do-i-perform-a-search-in-the-aci-scholarly-blog-index