Library

It's National Library Workers Day!

National Library Workers Day (NLWD) is a day for library staff, users, administrators and friends to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

How will you tell your librarian how much you appreciate their work? Submit a Star by visiting http://ala-apa.org/nlwd/

Helpful Services For Finals Week

Snell Library will be offering additional services during finals week to help you get the most out of your cram session before that big exam. The first is adding extended hours of public safety escort van services. Starting at 9:30pm on Tuesday, April 19th, personal safety escort van services will run from the Library Quad to student residence halls. The service will run every half hour from 9:30pm until 3:30am each night through Thursday, April 29th at 3:30am. For more information about public safety at Northeastern visit http://www.northeastern.edu/publicsafety/ In addition to the escort services, the Cyber Cafe will have extended hours to provide fresh food and snacks throughout finals week. The new hours of operation will be: Thursday, April 21st: 7am-12am Friday, April 22nd: 7am-5pm Monday, April 25th to Thursday, April 28th: 7am-12am And of course we also have so many resources here at Snell Library to help you wrap up that final research paper or close out that group project. Read through my previous post “March Madness at Snell” for more helpful tips! Good luck with your last exams of the Spring Semester! Hope to see you around Club Snell!

Husky ID Swipe Survey Starting April 11th

Many of you may remember the first issue of the card swipe machines that were put out early this year. Well, we found that many Husky ID cards were either damaged or inactive, causing some back up at the front door. To help eliminate this problem for students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northeastern, the Husky ID office is setting up a survey in Snell Library to identify and fix the number of cards that are running into these issues. We will be assisting the office with their survey starting on Monday, April 11th by placing four card swipe machines at the library entrance and testing each person’s card as they enter the building. With a quick swipe, the Husky ID staff will be able to tell if your card needs to be replaced or adjusted, however, no matter the result, you will still be allowed entry into the building. If your card swipe results in an error, you may be contacted in the future about replacing your card with a new Husky ID. If you do not have your Husky ID you will still be asked to show some form of identification, such as driver’s license, and sign in. If you have any questions please contact Lesley Milner at l.milner@neu.edu.

LibX Plug-in Updated for Firefox 4

Everybody’s favorite browser plug-in, LibX @ NU, (version 1.5.6) has been updated to be compatible with Firefox 4! If you’re already using LibX, you may be prompted to update the plug-in sometime in the next few hours. This version also works in Internet Explorer. If you use Chrome, there’s now a Chrome version too! LibX for the NU Libraries offers: • An optional search bar at the top of the browser window for NuCat, Nexpress, and WorldCat Local • The ability to highlight any text in a web page and drag it to the search bar (see video) • Right-click highlighted browser text and search in NuCat, Nexpress, WorldCat or Google Scholar (see video) • Click the embedded N in Amazon, WorldCat, Google, and more, and search in NuCat or Tour (see video) • Right-click a web page or URL, including Google Scholar, and log in from home with Library/myNeu login (see video) • Click any isbn, issn, doi, or PMID on the web, and link to NuCat or full text (see video). • Get links to COINs, a standard for creating citations (see a video of how it works in Wikipedia) The plug-in helps you avoid frustration and save time, and brings you access to the library’s content where you are on the web. Try it out! Download LibX for NU Libraries here

Happy Birthday Houdini

Many of you may have noticed today that Google is honoring the 137th birthday of Harry Houdini! So, in the spirit of the great illusionist, I thought I would see what we could uncover on the subject. Here’s what I discovered: Born as Erik Weisz, Houdini immigrated from Hungary when he was four years old. His most famous tricks involved making mind-boggling escapes from potato sacks dangling from bridges or glass cases filled with water. One of his most famous tricks is known as Metamorphosis. Houdini would be tied into a sack and locked into a trunk, a curtain would close and when it would reopen, Houdini would be on the stage and his assistant would be in the trunk. All of these facts, and many more can be found by searching “Harry Houdini” in the journal/article discovery search on the library’s website. Or search NuCat for books and resources on Houdini.