MIT Libraries News

During finals week, take a study break…have a snack, pet a dog, and de-stress!

Cookies and beverages will be served near the entrance to each library on the dates below. Therapy dogs from Dog B.O.N.E.S. will make a special visit to Hayden Library for Cookies with Canines.

Cookies with Canines

Thursday, December 11, 2-3:30, Hayden Library (14S)

Study Breaks

Thursday, December 11, 2-3:30 pm, Dewey Library (E53-100)

Tuesday, December 16, 2-3:30 pm, Rotch Library (7-238)

Wednesday, December 17, 2-3:30 pm, Barker Library (10-500)

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for chances to win an MIT Libraries Tim t-shirt during the study breaks!

Three chemistry societies have new open access options for MIT authors that allow for open access publication without any fee.

• ACS Author Rewards, through which corresponding authors can apply credits gained by publishing articles with ACS towards open access fees, allowing authors to publish some articles open access at no cost.

To take advantage of this free open access option:  Look for an email after acceptance of your article, with a link into the ACS ecommerce system and an order for making that article open access; enter the ACS Author Rewards promotional codes you have received in the “Discount” section. Or, if you cannot find that link, access your ACS ChemWorx account and look for the ACS AuthorChoice app, where you can enter the article’s DOI.

• A new open access multidisciplinary journal, ACS Central Science, will launch in January 2015.

To take advantage of this free open access option:   Submit your manuscript to ACS Central Science any time starting with December 2014.  There are no author fees for open access publication in this new journal.

Also: ACS offers ACS Author Choice, a paid open access option, which is not free unless you use author rewards (see above), but which includes a 25% discount on open access fees for MIT authors because of MIT Libraries’ subscriptions.

• The “gold for gold” vouchers program where authors whose campus libraries have purchased the full RSC journals package — as at MIT — can publish open access free of charge.

 To take advantage of this free open access option:  request a voucher from the MIT Libraries.  A limited number of vouchers can be applied retrospectively to 2013 and 2014 articles, as well as to current articles.

•  The RSC’s flagship journal, Chemical Science, will switch to open access as of 2015. There will be no author fees for at least two years.

 To take advantage of this free open access option:   Submit your manuscript to Chemical Science in 2015 or 2016.

Ellen Finnie Duranceau / Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright & Licensing / MIT Libraries / x38483

Building Global Economic Prosperity: Who Profits, Who Pays, Who Protests

Discussion featuring:

• Dr. Daron Acemoglu: MIT Economics Professor & Author of the Bestseller “Why Nations Fail”
• Jean-Luc Schneider: Deputy Director, Policy Studies, Economics Dept., OECD Headquarters, Paris

A question-and-response session follows the program.

When: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 5:30pm
Where: Wong Auditorium – E51-115 (Tang Center)

For more information, contact the MIT OECD Student Ambassador, Caroline Shinkle, at cshinkle@mit.edu.

Leaders from three chemistry societies came to MIT during International Open Access Week to speak about their open access options for authors and their plans to provide more open access to the articles they publish. The panel, moderated by Steve Gass, Interim Director of Libraries, included Professor of Chemistry Christopher (Kit) Cummins, as well as representatives from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Electrochemical Society (ECS), and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

MIT Professor Kit Cummins’ comments underlined the problem authors want solved: “I would like my papers to be available to anyone who stumbles across them and wants to read them.” Cummins spoke compellingly of readers locked out, such as the “science teacher, the founder of a start-up – uses you hadn’t envisioned, that are enabled by open access.”

“The vast majority of my papers are locked behind paywalls,” said Cummins. “My heart just bleeds for those papers.” He doesn’t think he’ll ever have the funds to unlock the papers, even though the results they contain will be “equally valid 100 years from now.”

Pictured above, L to R from top: Professor Christopher Cummins; Jennifer Griffiths, RSC; Mary Yess, ECS; Kevin Davies, ACS

Fortunately, “the societies are doing a good job of figuring out how to offer open access,” he said. The society representatives, in what the moderator Steve Gass jokingly called a “speed dating” format, explained just what they are doing about offering open access in this evolving arena.

Mary Yess, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Content Officer & Publisher at the ECS, reported that in May 2013, the ECS committed to an open access plan that addresses the ECS’ concern that open access not simply “shift the burden” from page charges to open access article processing fees.

*As of early this year, all four of their journals have an open access option. This option is currently free for MIT authors.
*ECS has pledged to be free of all author fees and subscription fees within a decade.

Jennifer Griffiths, Editorial Development Manager for North America at the RSC, emphasized that the RSC offers open access options for authors through RSC journals, but also through a new open access repository – the Chemical Sciences Article Repository — which houses manuscripts from RSC and other publishers, and data as well. Griffiths described other details of the open access program, including:

*Offering the “gold for gold” vouchers program where authors whose campus libraries have purchased the full RSC journals package – as at MIT—can request a voucher that will allow for open access publication of their article free of charge.
*Switching their flagship journal, Chemical Science, to open access as of 2015, a move that was supported by Professor Cummins in his role as Associate Editor for the journal. There will be no author fees for at least two years.

Kevin Davies, VP of business development at the American Chemical Society, reflected wryly that the ACS is not exactly known as being one of the “leading evangelists in open access,” in part because they have not heard their authors clamoring for it, but noted that the success of the open access model has become clear, manifested in the dramatic growth of journals such as PLoS One. As a society publisher, Davies said the ACS felt a responsibility to the chemistry community to offer the appropriate menu of publishing models sought by authors and/or necessitated by funders’ mandates.
The ACS’s current open access strategy includes “four pillars”:

*A new multidisciplinary journal, ACS Central Science, edited by HHMI and UC Berkeley chemical biologist Carolyn Bertozzi, which will launch in January 2015 and “aim high.”
*ACS Author Rewards, through which corresponding authors can apply credits gained by publishing articles with ACS towards open access fees.
*ACS Author Choice, a paid open access option.
*ACS Editor’s Choice, through which one article per day, chosen by editors, is made openly available at the ACS site.

The audience probed about peer review mechanisms, drawn to the modified model offered by PLoS One – which Davies described as comparable to an ice skating competition where everyone agrees to skip evaluating “artistic impression” and just focus on the “technical merit” — whether the skater has “landed the jump.”

Others asked whether “open access goes far enough,” wondering about open access to original data and the complete methods section, so the work can be reproduced. Government mandates are beginning to require open access to the data, but as Griffiths of the RSC pointed out, open access to data is a “much more difficult problem” than for publications. Cummins noted that Xray crystallography data is submitted to a particular database that has evolved increased standardization of data formats, improving access as well as fraud detection. Journals are now also supporting access to data by allowing authors to submit a supporting information document with spectra included. ACS affirmed that they make all such documents open access; ECS allows posting of these materials.

Cummins reflected that “we are in a transitional period in scientific publishing,” while Mary Yess of the ECS reinforced the same point, saying that “the models of scientific communication and publication—which have served us so well for so long—are no longer fully meeting the spirit of our mission, may not be financially viable, and are hurting the dissemination of the results of scientific research.”

During this lively session, the panelists agreed that the time has come to provide more open access to chemistry, and that the societies have a special role to play in this shift. As Griffiths said about the RSC open access options, “We are doing this because we are a society.” From the author perspective, Cummins cut to the chase: “I want my work to be read by anybody.”

For more information about the open access options described here, contact:
Ellen Finnie Duranceau / Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, & Licensing, MIT Libraries / x38483 or
Erja Kajosalo, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Librarian, x39795.

By correspondent, David Rolnick, graduate student in Mathematics

This Friday at noon, the Lewis Music Library will continue its tradition of Open Mic, somewhere between a concert and a karaoke night. From noon to 1 pm, the MIT community is invited to sing a song, play a piece, or just listen and enjoy the show. Performers range from novices to professionals, and play in every style. It will be music, by us, for us, for an hour. And cookies.

“We have songwriters who come in, performing their own compositions,” said Peter Munstedt, Music Librarian. “Also classical music, jazz, Indian music – it’s a range.” The instruments also vary – although voice, piano, and guitar seem to be fairly popular. A piano is provided; otherwise, performers should bring their own instruments.

Photo by L. Barry Hetherington

When it’s not hosting Open Mic, the Lewis Music Library is one of the most quiet and serene study spaces on campus. Opened in 1996, the library looks new with its abundance of light and hardwood-glass décor. Study tables overlook a courtyard through huge windows, and students can often be discovered nestled with books in the famously comfortable seating.

The library possesses an astounding wealth of material that rivals that of many music conservatories. Within the shelves are packed some 40,000 scores and anthologies, 18,000 books on music, 25,000 CDs, and 1,500 DVDs. The 10,000 record albums are kept in storage. “If anyone’s looking for anything, we will find it for them,” said Munstedt. The library’s computers have composition software and there are study spaces for groups to listen to recordings and watch films. Visiting scholars and composers regularly give lectures at Lewis; see a complete list of events.

The library began its Open Mic project last spring. With the array of formal concerts and recitals at MIT, there is now a place for low-key music sharing. “It’s all over the map,” Munstedt described. “We have some professional-level people come in, some people who are just learning the instrument. It’s very informal, and it’s a very supportive group. If you’re just starting out, and if you want an audience, we’ll support you.”

NCBI is coming back to MIT! Come hear about recent updates to National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) resources and tools. Discussion topics include datasets available in and tools relevant to MedGen/GTR/ClinVar, GEO, dbSNP/dbVar, SRA/dbGaP and reference genomes and assemblies, as well as strategies for easy submission to these databases.  The purpose of this seminar is to inform and solicit user feedback. Bring your NCBI “wish-list” and questions you have about using NCBI resources and tools in your research. Light refreshments will be provided.

Registration encouraged. Questions? Contact Courtney Crummett, the Biosciences Librarian at MIT Libraries.

On Tuesday, November 11, the following libraries will open at noon (12pm):

• Barker
• Dewey
• Hayden (Humanities & Science)
• Lewis Music
• Rotch

All other library locations will be closed. Libraries resume regular hours on Wednesday, November 12.

Have questions? Ask Us.

Professor Noam Chomsky Photo by: Philip van Ootegem

A new website offers a glimpse at a lifetime of work, and the chance to support it.  

Two years after the MIT Libraries’ Institute Archives were chosen as the stewards of Noam Chomsky’s personal papers, over 260 boxes of the professor emeritus’ materials have been transferred, organized, and re-housed in the Archives.

A new website, “Unbox the Chomsky Archive,” offers a preview of some of the unique materials found in the collection, as well as a way to support the archival project. Through slideshows on the site you can explore Chomsky’s contributions to MIT, the field of linguistics, and his political activism, and dedication to social justice. Read notes Chomsky prepared for lectures, go to the front lines of political protests he attended, read his personal correspondence with other great thinkers, and learn how his views shaped the political discourse.

Additional funding is needed to further expand access to this valuable resource for students, researchers, and those wishing to preserve Chomsky’s remarkable legacy. A gift of any size will contribute to this important work. With your help we will:

• Process the collection, ensuring that any restrictions, fragile materials, photographs, and digital materials are handled with care, and that materials are described accurately for researchers and future digitization purposes.
• Digitize the collection so that researchers from all over the world can have access to the materials without physically visiting MIT.

To help us toward our $1.5 million goal, donate online by clicking the “Give Now” link on the site, or contact us at chomskyproject@mit.edu for more information.

October’s Furry First Friday

This fall we’ve expanded our popular therapy dog program. On the first Friday of each month you can stop by Hayden Library to spend some time with one of our furry friends from Dog BONES: Therapy Dogs of Massachusetts.

“Furry First Fridays” builds on the success of past therapy dog visits during final exams. These visits with dogs have been so widely appreciated that we wanted to make them available more frequently. Our first furry Friday in October was a big success.

Please consider taking a break from your studies to pet a dog and de-stress!

All are welcome; no registration required. Dogs and their human handlers will be available this Friday November 7 from 2-4 pm, and again on December 5 at the same time.

Our “Cookies with Canines” exam-time event will be Thursday December 11 from 2-3:30.

Photograph of Jordan and Rhoda Baruch in China, 1977. All Rights Reserved.

The Institute Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the addition of a new collection – the papers of Jordan J. Baruch. Baruch was an alumnus of MIT, having received both his SB and SM in Electrical Engineering through the Co-operative Course VI-A program in 1948, and his Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1950. He was also an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering department from 1950-1972. In addition to MIT, Baruch taught at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins. As well as being an educator, Baruch was an expert in acoustics, an inventor, and a businessman. He was integral in the founding of several Boston-area companies including Boston Broadcasters, Inc. (Channel 5), and Bolt Beranek and Newman, in addition to running his own consulting firms. In 1977 Baruch was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce by President Jimmy Carter, serving as Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology. During this tenure, Baruch initiated the founding of the first school of management in China, which helped establish business ties between China and the United States. He was also a decorated veteran of World War Two.

The Jordan J. Baruch papers include correspondence, research, publications, photographs, testimonies before the Senate and the House regarding science and technology policies, and documents relating to his work in China. The Baruch papers are currently being processed with support from donor funding and will be available to researchers once processing is complete.

For more information, please contact Dana Hamlin, Project Archivist, at dgoblask@mit.edu or 617-253-5705.

Last week, MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics celebrated its 100^th anniversary with a three-day Centennial Symposium. The events included a panel with nine astronauts, all MIT alumni, and a talk by inventor Elon Musk, cofounder of the company SpaceX, which has built several rockets and whose goal is to fly people to other planets, like Mars. Sending more humans into space was one of the themes of the celebration.

The AeroAstro department has been at the forefront of aerospace innovation since it started the country’s first aeronautical engineering course in 1914. In 1961, for example, members of the MIT Instrumentation Lab (now the Draper Lab) developed the computer systems for the Apollo program, which made it possible for Neil Armstrong and MIT alumnus Buzz Aldrin to walk on the moon in 1969.

“[Apollo] became an icon of what we can accomplish through technology,” Ian Waitz, dean of the School of Engineering and a professor of aeronautics and astronautics, told the MIT Spectrum.

As the aero-astro field has grown to include the study of unmanned aircraft, flexible spaces suits, and small satellites, MIT’s department is more popular than ever. “We’re seeing a 50% increase in our enrollment in the last two years,” said AeroAstro Department Head Jaime Peraire.

Explore Professor Waitz’s research and Professor Peraire’s research in the Open Access Articles collection in DSpace@MIT, where it is openly accessible to the world.

Since the MIT faculty established their Open Access Policy in March 2009 they have made thousands of research papers freely available to the world via DSpace@MIT. To highlight that research, we’re offering a series of blog posts that link news stories about scholars’ work to their open access papers in DSpace.

Pictured in clockwise order: Cornell University, Yale University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College

If your research takes you beyond MIT, you can now use university libraries around the country through MIT Libraries’ partnership with Borrow Direct–a cooperative association of academic and research libraries.

Beginning October 1, MIT students, faculty, and staff can visit and borrow from the libraries at Brown University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. See details on this service to learn how to use these libraries in person or for interlibrary borrowing.

And don’t forget, you can always search MIT Libraries’ extensive collections of 1.3 million print books, 540,000 ebooks, and 46,000 electronic journal and database subscriptions with MIT’s megasearch engine BartonPlus.

• Or search just books, ebooks, journal titles, and other media at MIT with Barton.
• Find materials at other libraries with WorldCat.
• If you can’t find what you need, we’ll help you get it. Or just Ask Us.

Save these dates!  Curation and Preservation Services will screen a series of webinars on the preservation of audiovisual materials in November and early December. These webinars are offered by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) and will be shown for free in 14N-132 (DIRC). The webinars are open to any member of the MIT community. Registration is requested but not required. Please register through LibCal for the individual webinars (links below).

Caring for Recorded Sound Collections
2-4 pm on Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Register

• Formats covered will include grooved discs, open reel, and audio cassettes
• Beginner-to-intermediate level
• More Information

Introducing IRENE – Digitizing Historic Audio
12:30-1:30 pm on Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Register

• IRENE is a system that uses digital imaging to reformat early audio recordings
• Beginner-level webinar for professionals and nonprofessionals
• More Information

Caring for Legacy Video Collections
2-4 pm on Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Register

• Formats covered include open reel and cassette-based video formats
• Beginner-to-intermediate level
• More Information

Caring for Motion Picture Collections
2-4 pm on Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Register

• Formats covered include motion picture film
• Beginner-to-intermediate level
• More Information

The MIT Libraries have launched a new service offering download data for articles collected under the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy.

MIT authors can log in and see how many times each of their own papers has been downloaded, and from which countries. Aggregated download numbers are available to anyone inside or outside MIT, including views of download data by department, lab, or center.

The service is available at http://oastats.mit.edu.

We would appreciate feedback from MIT authors about this new service. Please send any comments, suggestions, or questions, to oastats@mit.edu or to:

Ellen Finnie Duranceau / Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, and Licensing / MIT Libraries

This news is being shared in celebration of International Open Access Week.

Nearly 30 students, researchers, and staff stopped by the Office of Scholarly Publishing, Copyright & Licensing (OSPCL) table in Lobby 10 on Wednesday set up to celebrate the eighth international Open Access Week. About two-thirds were MIT undergraduates and grad students who hadn’t previously heard of open access.

Students who attempted a quiz question won a prize: an MIT Libraries t-shirt or the book Open Access by Peter Suber, a leader of the open access movement. (Other giveaways included MIT Libraries pencils and key chains, OA literature, and Halloween candy.) The most common response to the question, “Where can anyone, anywhere find research articles by MIT authors?” was, resoundingly, “Open Access!” (A good answer, though we were also looking for: DSpace@MIT, the digital repository that houses scholarly articles, theses, and other MIT content.)

Issues that particularly resonated with students were that increasing journal subscription prices are shutting out large numbers of readers around the world; that open access is way to democratize scientific research; and that through the Faculty Open Access Policy, MIT researchers have made more than 13,000 scholarly articles freely available online.

This is the second year the OSPCL has run an information table for Open Access Week.

DJing at a Glance: The History of Beatmatching with Mmmmaven’s General Motor.

About the presenter:
General Motor (Gareth Middlebrook) works with all aspects of DJ technology, yet has a particular fondness for vinyl and old-school mixing and DJing. He has opened for some of the most cutting-edge DJs and producers in the world, including Ben UFO and Pearson Sound, in addition to keeping the beat in Boston for years.

Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Reception follows.

The MIT faculty established their open access policy as an expression of their commitment “to disseminating the fruits of [their] research and scholarship as widely as possible,” and in the five years since the policy was established, readers have indeed been accessing MIT faculty articles from all around the world.

Recent comments from readers across the globe reflect the value of this open access:

Graduate student, Uganda: “I am grateful for making your online information resources freely accessible. I am a graduate student of labour studies and have greatly benefited from your noble generosity.”

Private researcher, Australia: “[I am] a disabled engineer researching gravity and inertia… My research is hampered by one thing alone, paywalls.”

Undergraduate student, Brazil:
“I am most thankful to MIT for freely sharing so many articles, for this attitude not only helps scientific knowledge to be disseminated across the globe,” but it also “inspire[s] those students who, like myself, do not have a chance of paying for many of these publications. MIT is not only sharing knowledge, it is helping those in need on the pursuing of their dreams.”

Doctor and master’s degree student, Italy: “Your material is precious, thank you very much.”

Access is important in the US as well. An independent researcher and open source developer in the US comments that he and a colleague researching in the same area “can each make more progress on our own, and collaborate together, more effectively thanks to the availability of a critical article.”

More reader comments are posted on the scholarly publishing website.

This news is being shared in celebration of International Open Access Week.

Downloads of articles in the MIT Open Access Articles Collection, made available under the faculty’s open access policy, now total over 2,460,000.

Monthly downloads from the collection of 13,700 articles routinely top 90,000, following a new peak of over 101,000 downloads in March of this year.

These downloads reflect the faculty’s wish, as expressed in their open access policy, to “disseminat[e] the fruits of [their] research and scholarship as widely as possible.”

This news is being shared in celebration of International Open Access Week.

If you use ebooks, the MIT Libraries would like you to be aware of privacy concerns recently raised about the use of Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) 4.0.

ADE is an ebook reader that enforces the copyright protection embedded in some ebooks; many of the ebooks licensed by the MIT Libraries require the use of ADE to download and read them. Recently it was discovered that ADE 4.0 collects information about the books and pages read using the software, and transmits this information to Adobe servers as unencrypted text files. As far as we know this information is not collected or transmitted with ADE 3.0 or earlier. Adobe plans to release an update the week of October 20, 2014 to repair the unencrypted transmission, but has stated that the collection of this information is covered by its Privacy Policy.

If you use ebooks, we strongly recommend that you delete ADE 4.0 and download Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 in order to protect your privacy.

Please see the press release from the American Library Association for more information about the situation.

The MIT Libraries welcomes families to campus for Family Weekend, October 24– 25!

Students, while your parents are here send them on a tour of the Libraries!

Tours offered:
Friday, October 24, at 10am & 2 pm

Did you know there is more than one library at MIT, each dedicated to a particular set of subjects? Take an exciting and informative hour-long walking tour to learn where they are located. Hear highlights of each library’s collections and services.

Can’t make one of the tours? Stop by any library location and say hello. Visit the original library reading room under the Dome in Barker Library, take in views of the river from Hayden Library, or visit our current exhibit in the Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130). Wired: A World Transformed by the Telegraph, is a fascinating look inside the Libraries’ special collections.

Also, follow MIT Libraries on Twitter and Facebook for the chance to win a Tim t-shirt!

As part of an effort to provide information about new open access requirements that are emerging from the White House Directive on “Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research,” the MIT Libraries will be tracking each agency’s requirements on a new web page.

The requirements of the Department of Energy, the first agency to release its Public Access Plan, are included, as are other existing policies, such as the NIH Public Access Policy, as well as the NSF’s existing policy on data management plans.

US federal agencies with more than $100 Million annually in R&D will be issuing their open access requirements in coming months, and those policies will be summarized on this web page as details become available.

If you have questions about open access requirements:

This news is being shared in celebration of International Open Access Week.

The MIT Libraries is pleased to announce the release of the 2015 National Agenda for Digital Stewardship, from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), a report focused on issues related to the long-term preservation of digital materials. It is the result of many months of individual effort and dedicated institutional support from NDSA community members, including those of the MIT Libraries’ Program on Information Science.

The 2015 Agenda provides funders and decision‐makers with insight into emerging technological trends, gaps in digital stewardship capacity, and key areas for funding, research and development to ensure that today’s valuable digital content remains accessible and comprehensible in the future, supporting a thriving economy, a robust democracy, and a rich cultural heritage.

This new edition of the Agenda builds on earlier work, updating the 2014 report, and highlighting new areas of focus, specifically the selection and preservation of content at-scale. It outlines the challenges and opportunities related to digital preservation activities in four broad areas:

• Key Issues in Digital Collection Building,
• Organizational Policies and Practices,
• Technical Infrastructure Development,
• and Research Priorities.

Each section articulates priority challenges, and then offers a set of actionable recommendations to address the challenges.

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is a consortium of over 160 leading government, academic, and private sector organizations committed to long term preservation of digital information. Dr. Micah Altman, Director of Research and Head/Scientist, Program on Information Science for the MIT Libraries, was recently elected to a three-year term as Chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee and was a contributor to the Agenda.

For the Executive Summary and the full Agenda, visit the NDSA site. Information about the MIT Libraries’ Program on Information Science, as well as associated projects, classes, and events can be found at the program website.

Pictured above, L to R from top: Professor Christopher Cummins; Jennifer Griffiths, RSC; Mary Yess, ECS; Kevin Davies, ACS

In honor of International Open Access Week, the MIT Libraries are sponsoring a panel discussion on October 24 which will give authors an opportunity to hear directly from three chemistry societies about their new open access publishing options, and future plans.

Please join us for this panel:

Date: October 24, 2014
Time: 12:00-1:00
Location: Room 2-105
Refreshments: a light lunch will be available at 11:45.

Each of these societies has recently expanded their open access programs, and has announced new ways for authors to make their journal articles openly accessible.

The panel will be moderated by Steve Gass, Interim Director of Libraries, and will include:

• Professor of Chemistry Christopher Cummins, who will offer his perspective as an MIT author and Associate Editor for the journal Chemical Science (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry).
• American Chemical Society: Kevin Davies, VP of business development.
• Electrochemical Society: Mary Yess, Deputy Executive Director/Chief Content Officer & Publisher.
• Royal Society of Chemistry: Jennifer Griffiths, Editorial Development Manager for North America.

Short remarks from each speaker will be followed by a discussion.

–Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, and Licensing, MIT Libraries

Pictured in clockwise order: Cornell University, Yale University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College

If your research takes you beyond MIT, you can now use the university libraries at Ivy League institutions around the country, through MIT Libraries’ partnership with Borrow Direct–a cooperative association of academic and research libraries.

Beginning October 1, MIT students, faculty, and staff can visit and borrow materials from the libraries at: Brown University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.

When visiting one of these libraries, simply show your campus ID card, and once verified, you will be issued a library card. The lending library’s policies and loan periods apply to guest borrowers. Borrowed items may be returned at either the lending library or your home library.

For access to Harvard libraries, MIT users should continue to apply for borrowing privileges online, to guarantee access to the greatest number of libraries.

When you’re not visiting in person, you can request materials from Borrow Direct libraries online. Search over 50 million volumes in the school’s combined library catalogs, and request circulating materials directly from the library where they are held. Most materials arrive in a few business days.

Pawan Sinha

In a paper published this month, MIT researchers suggest that many of the varied symptoms that characterize autism may be explained by a difficulty with making predictions. The ability to predict is fundamental to tasks as diverse as adjusting to sensory stimuli and inferring other’s mental states based on the context. When prediction is compromised, a person lives in a “seemingly ‘magical’ world wherein events occur unexpectedly and without cause,” write the authors, who include professors Pawan Sinha and Richard Held from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Impaired predictive skills can make the world feel overwhelming and may lead to some of the behaviors linked to autism, such as repetitive behavior or difficulty gauging social situations.

In devising their hypothesis, the researchers reviewed more than 100 studies and accounts of autism over more than three decades, with the goal of finding a common and coherent basis for the disorder. A new theory of autism could help researchers design to more effective therapies to treat it.

“At the moment, the treatments that have been developed are driven by the end symptoms. We’re suggesting that the deeper issue is a predictive difficulty, which may, therefore, be a better target for interventions,” says Sinha.

Explore Professor Sinha’s research in the Open Access Articles collection in DSpace@MIT, where it is openly accessible to the world.

Since the MIT faculty established their Open Access Policy in March 2009 they have made thousands of research papers freely available to the world via DSpace@MIT. To highlight that research, we’re offering a series of blog posts that link news stories about scholars’ work to their open access papers in DSpace.

You may know that for several years, MIT Libraries has had online books (2005+) from the prolific publisher Springer. Now we are pleased to announce the addition of approximately 47,320 more e-books across all fields of engineering, math, physics, life sciences, social sciences and more…through Springerlink!

Most of the titles in SBA were published between 1980 and 2005, but it does include some older books, such as Very’s Prize Essay on the Distribution of the Moon’s Heat and its Variation with the Phase (1891) and Economics Aspects of Immigration (1954). And, as before, you can still download chapters or whole books; great for a community on the go.

Another great service available to MIT is Springer’s MyCopy: a chance to buy a sturdy paperbound copy of a book for $24.99 regardless of the current price: Bargains!

Contact Michael Noga for further information, and enjoy your new access to older Springer books!

How can we make a better MIT library?

This question generated lively discussion among students in a feedback session held by the Libraries last week. Standing desks, iPads for checkout, headphones for loan, makerspaces, comfy chairs, and a cafe, were a few of the many ideas buzzing around the room.

The students met with architects from the firm Shepley Bulfinch to provide feedback on upcoming library renovations in Hayden, Barker, and Rotch. They viewed slides of other libraries and learning spaces at different universities to stimulate discussion, and organized their ideas on flip charts with titles like: study/learn, work+research, create, collaborate, and interact.

“I’m so impressed with the inner workings of the Libraries,” said Claire Webb (Grad, HST). “I’m amazed to be able to get any books that I want. The librarians are super helpful. These services dwarf the aesthetics of the library. The services work beautifully, but are so utilitarian, I wish these two things would align,” she said.

The students’ suggestions will inform the planning process as the Libraries embark on major space renovations in the years ahead.  Another student feedback session will be held Tuesday, October 14.

To learn more about the planning process, and add your ideas to the discussion go to the website: Planning the future of library spaces at MIT.

Missing a PMCID? Can’t figure out why a paper isn’t in compliance? Lost in NIH manuscript system? Join us for a problem solving session.

When: Tue October 14, 12:00 – 1:00 pm,
Where: 14N-132

This session is designed to provide an opportunity for hands on problem solving in the systems that need to be navigated in the process of submitting and authorizing manuscripts and reporting progress on NIH Funded Grants (eRA Commons; NIHMS, and MyNCBI). Please bring your NIH compliance problems and logins to this session to work through together. Registration encouraged.

For more information, please contact Courtney Crummett (crummett@mit.edu).

On Monday, October 13 the following libraries will open at noon (12pm):

• Barker
• Dewey
• Hayden (Humanities & Science)
• Lewis Music
• Rotch

All other library locations will be closed; the Libraries resume regular term hours on Tuesday, October 14.

Have questions? Ask Us.

Come hear Ellen Harris read from and discuss her latest book, George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends, published just this month by W. W. Norton & Company.

Ellen T. Harris, professor emerita at MIT, formerly the Class of 1949 Professor of Music, was MIT’s first associate provost for the arts. She is an internationally recognized scholar in Baroque opera, specializing in the music of Handel and Purcell. She is also a performing soprano.

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

5:30 pm

Lewis Music Library (Bldg. 14E, 160 Memorial Drive)

Refreshments will be served.

Free & open to the public – Questions? Contact: (617) 253-5249

authors@mit is a co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the MIT Press Bookstore