New Resources

• New search tool  Finding library resources just got easier with BartonPlus. It brings together many library collections in one search interface–searching most MIT-licensed e-resources like e-books and full-text articles, as well as collections in the classic Barton catalog like books, theses, music, DVDs, and more. 

• More options for borrowing  Borrow Direct, a partnership that allows library materials to be shared between member institutions, has expanded to include the University of Chicago. MIT users can search over 50 million volumes owned by Borrow Direct libraries through MIT’s WorldCat.

• New guide to APIs for scholarly resources  Many scholarly publishers, databases, and products offer APIs to allow users with programming skills to more powerfully extract data to serve a variety of research purposes. With an API, users might create programmatic searches of a citation database, extract statistical data, or dynamically query and post blog content. Learn more in the APIs for Scholarly Resources guide.

• Music Oral History Project  For over 100 years music has been a vibrant part of MIT’s culture. A new website features in-depth interviews with faculty, staff, and former students about their musical experiences at the Institute, as well as their professional careers in music or other fields.

• New e-resources  Find a number of new online resources including: the National Geographic Archive, Smithsonian Global Sound, several new titles in the Gale Virtual Reference Library, the Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, and Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences in the Wiley Online Library, and more.

Improved study spaces

• Upgrades to Hayden Library  The window bays in Hayden have gotten a facelift! The windows have been cleaned, frames painted, and new shades have replaced the curtains. Also check out the  new artwork by Dennis Oppenheim that adorns the first floor wall. Additionally, a number of tables and study carrels in Hayden were refinished this summer. Coming up – we hope to reupholster some of the comfy seating on the 1st floor.

• Finding locations, hours, and study spaces  New and improved webpages make it easier to locate current and future library hours with a date-picker option. Also find and reserve study spaces online and learn about what each location has to offer.
  

Upcoming events

• Music & Theater Arts Composer Forums  During the fall term the Lewis Music Library will host MTA Composer Forums. Stop by the library at 5pm on Oct. 9, Oct. 23, Nov. 6, Nov. 20 to hear from featured musicians.

•  Fall workshops Throughout the month of October the Libraries will offer a series of workshops on subject-specific resources. See the event calendar for details.
  

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news!

Art and Architecture in Video
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/artv
This streaming video database offers more than 400 documentaries and interviews illustrating the history, theory, and practice of art, design, and architecture. This database includes real-time transcript highlighting, the ability to make clips, and offers links for embedding in course management systems.

OnArchitecture
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/onarch
This streaming video package contains more than 150 interviews with architects, project walk-throughs, and other original video about architectural design. Watch an interview with Ai Weiwei: http://www.onarchitecture.com/interviews/ai-weiwei-0. This resource offers closed captioning.

OntheBoards.tv
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/ontheboards
Sponsored by On the Boards in Seattle, the videos in this collection cover contemporary theatre, dance, and performance art. All are recordings of performances at either On the Boards or other arts organizations around the country.

Smithsonian Global Sound
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/globalsound
This streaming audio collection of world music provides access to over 42,000 tracks from the Smithsonian Archives and world music archives in Asia and Africa. Coverage includes over 169 countries worldwide, 1,000 genres, 1,400 cultural groups, and 450 different languages.

For more information or to learn more about how these resources may enhance research or teaching, please contact an MIT Libraries subject specialist.

Join us for a community open house celebrating the historic restoration of MIT’s Great Dome, and the opening of Barker Library’s 24-hour reading room.

DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 2-4pm

LOCATION: Barker Library Reading Room (10-500)

DETAILS: Remarks by President L. Rafael Reif. Refreshments to follow.

Slingshot Hip Hop

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

“Documentary Competition” Sundance Film Festival 2008
Top 3 Finalist for the IDFA- “DOC U” Competition, Amsterdam
“Audience Award: Best Documentary“ Films de Femmes, France
“Audience Award: Best Film“ DOX BOX Film Festival, Syria
“Best Director” Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“Jury Prize” Festival Cinéma et Politique de Tours, Paris, France
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Arabian Sights/Washington DC International Film Festival
“Silver Hanoman Prize” JAFF film festival, Indonesia
“Best Mediterranean Film” Granada Festival Cine del Sur, Spain
“Audience Award: Best Documentary” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Audience Award: Best Film” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Most Anticipated Film” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Toronto Palestine Film Festival, Canada
“The Festival des Libertés Award” Festival des Libertés festival in Brussels, Belgium
“Aloha Accolade Winner” Honolulu Film Festival, Hawaii

Brown bag lunch event – dessert provided

Tuesday, 9 April 2013, 12:30 (film length 83 minutes)

7-134A (Rotch Library Conference Room)

Please join us!

This special presentation is made possible by the Aga Khan Program Documentation Center @ MIT Libraries

Questions? Contact: scsmith@mit.edu, 617.354.5022

Need to expand your skills in statistical methods and quantitative analysis? Attend the ICPSR Summer Program! Each year, ICPSR provides a comprehensive, integrated program of studies in research design, statistics, data analysis, and social science methodology. Registration is now open for the 2013 session.

For a listing of course offerings and application information, see the ICPSR Summer Program web site.  New and ongoing courses this year include:

• Assessing and Mitigating Disclosure Risk for Confidential Data
• Monte Carlo Simulation and Resampling Methods
• Network Analysis: An Introduction

Note that while most courses are held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the following three will be held nearby, in Amherst, MA or New York, NY:

• Analyzing Developmental Trajectories
• Designing, Conducting, and Analyzing Field Experiments
• Hierarchical Linear Models I: Introduction
• The Workflow of Data Analysis using Stata

———————————————

And don’t forget ICPSR as a source of quantitative data on a range of topics: from consumer behavior, election statistics, health, international relations, social attitudes and behavior, and more!  Recently added datasets include:

• Congressional Record for 104th-109th Congresses: Text and Phrase Counts
• Eurobarometer 73.1: The European Parliament, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology, January-February 2010
• Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century
• National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), 1994-2008
• State Vaccination Requirements and Exemption Law Database, 2011

In other news, ICPSR now is releasing all of its new data files in R software format.

For further information, contact Katherine McNeill, Social Science Data Services Librarian, at mcneillh@mit.edu.

About the piece:

I am Mit, as I am in Mit, just like a lot of other people are, 2011–2012
Granite, wood box on wheels, and lending cards
Courtesy of the artist and Chisenhale Gallery, London

This sculpture was lent to residents of the London borough of Tower Hamlets for an entire calendar year. The project was first conceived for Chisenhale Gallery, located in the borough, where people signed up to participate in its ongoing circulation. The piece is now being lent to members of the MIT campus community for the remaining duration of the exhibition. Each person cares for the sculpture for one week, passing it on to the next host. Participants fill out a lending card, which serves as a record of the nomadic sculpture’s travels. The piece changes titles according to the location in which it travels and includes the name of the area with a misspelling. The sculpture is a hand carving of an echeveria, a sturdy succulent named, in a misspelling, after the Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy.

Read the original Artist’s Statement.

Information courtesy of the List Visual Arts Center

• Researching soil chemistry properties in the scholarly literature? What database does the Chemistry guide suggest?

• Not sure what the first settlers in Massachusetts grew in their gardens? Try the Historical Newspapers guide.

• Want to do market research on produce? Have you seen the Do-It-Yourself Market Research guide?

We even have guides about organizing your references, managing your data, getting published, and so much more! Seriously, think of a topic – any topic. Yep, we probably have that, too.

And you’re always welcome to ask us for help!

Statista provides statistics on a wide range of topics, including industries, markets, demography, countries & economies.  It harvests data from market researchers, trade associations, scientific publications, and government sources, and compiles it in a central place for you to search.  Download data in tabular or graphical form and link to original data sources and related reports.  Find statistics such as:

• Global market share held by the leading smartphone operating systems in sales to end users from 1st quarter 2009 to 4th quarter 2012
• Percentage of U.S. population who has (or ever had) cancer, 1999-2011, by age
• U.S. organic food sales growth forecast from 2010 to 2014
• Monthly unemployment rate in the U.S. from January 2012 to January 2013 (seasonally-adjusted)
• and more…

Access Statista at: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/statista.

Researching local areas in the United States?  Govistics provides spending, revenue, employment and crime data for state and local governments and school districts across the U.S., pulling together data from different sources.  Find data such as the following for the City of Cambridge:

• Government spending and number of employees in all areas, including social services, education, and public safety
• Number of violent and property crimes
• Investment portfolio of the city’s retirement system, with data on membership and contributions
• and more…

Access Govistics at: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/govistics.

Need data on your research topic but have no idea who collects it?  Try the Statistical Abstract of the United States!  This online reference source provides summary statistical tables of everything under the sun, and detailed citations to the original source for you to find more detailed data.  Search not only by subject but also filter your results to those available at certain demographic (e.g., age, sex, race, education, marital status), geographic (e.g., state, smsa), and economic (e.g., industry, occupation) breakdowns.  Find data such as:

• Nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases in private industry by type of injury or illness and days away from work: 2010
• Coastline counties most frequently hit by hurricanes: 1960 To 2008
• Municipal solid waste generation, materials recovery, combustion with energy recovery, and discards: 1980 to 2010
• Research and development expenditures in science and engineering at universities and colleges: 2000 to 2010

Access the Statistical Abstract at: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/stat-abstract.

Want further information on statistics and data resources?  Try Social Science Data Services or other data resources listed on our subject-oriented research guides.

Photo by L. Barry Hetherington

The Barker Library reading room has reopened to reveal the grandeur of the restored oculus atop the Great Dome. Read about the details of the project in MIT’s Great Dome is reborn.

Natural light, as well as additional lighting around the perimeter of the dome, brightens the entire space revealing beautiful architectural detail. Additional improvements include the installation of acoustic panels and a new sound-mitigation system that will help soften echoes and ambient noise. Comfortable chairs, large tables, and individual study carrels have also returned to the reading room, making it a perfect space for quiet study.

The reading room is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week to members of the MIT community with an MIT ID.

Have you used data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) in your research?  If so, consider submitting your paper for the IPUMS Research Award, the annual cash prize award competition for research using the IPUMS microdata collection.

Cash prizes will be awarded for:

• Best published work, and
• Best work by a graduate student, published or unpublished.

Papers or publications submitted should utilize IPUMS-USA/CPS, IPUMS-International, or IHIS to study social, economic, and/or demographic processes.

Deadline for nomination or submission: February 15, 2013.

Submit your work.

Never used IPUMS data and want to learn more?  Want to know more about your options for utilizing microdata (i.e., record level research data) to answer research questions in the social sciences?  See our guide to Social Science Data Services and contact Kate McNeill, Social Science Data Services Librarian, at mcneillh@mit.edu.

photo by L.Barry Hetherington

Are you interested in music, video, literature, art or architecture? Join Libraries staff for a session highlighting some of the vast arts, culture, and multimedia resources available to you through the MIT Libraries. Learn how to access over a million tracks of streaming audio (everything from classical to jazz to popular music), over 150,000 online music scores, streaming video of foreign films, dance, theater, documentaries and more, and over one million high-res images of art, architecture, science and the humanities.

Please register for this class.

Questions? Contact Mark Szarko.

If you use Google Scholar, you already know it’s a great tool for finding citations to literature in your research area. It’s a massive index of articles, books and other publications of a scholarly nature. (It doesn’t cover ALL the scholarly literature in any discipline, however, so be sure to include the Libraries’ databases in Vera in your literature search.)

Many of the articles in Google Scholar are licensed by the MIT Libraries through our subscriptions, so – in many cases – the full text is available to you. If you are on campus, you’ll see this link in your results list:

Are you working off campus?   To take advantage of this feature, click on Settings and then Library Links.

Type MIT in the search window; select it; click Save.  You should now see the full text link in your results list for articles in any of MIT’s paid subscriptions.

To focus your Scopus search in the social sciences literature click the Social Science and Humanities button on the search screen:

Start searching Scopus now.

In the podcast, Professor Stiny speaks about the importance of appropriation in design. His comments hint at the limitations of the perspective copyright law offers on copying, for disciplines that necessarily and inevitably build on the work of others.

Art, Professor Stiny says, “is about using what you see around you in a new and fresh way, and if that means copying, that means copying.” He tells the story of his daughter, a young artist, who copied a van Gogh painting, even down to the artist’s signature. When he asked why she hadn’t signed her own name, his daughter said, with a smile, “Next time I will.” That is perfectly appropriate, Professor Stiny says, because “her copy added things to it that were fresh and new and let her see it in a new way…that is the source of art.”

His advice to students, the makers of tomorrow’s culture, is “don’t be afraid of copying.” Indeed, he says, copying is “the secret formula” in art and design, and is “as original and creative as anything else we do.”

Download the audio file. (8:43 minutes)
Listening to other podcasts in the series

This news is being reported in celebration of the third anniversary of the Open Access Articles Collection, which houses papers under the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy, and global Open Access Week, which runs from October 22 through 26.

More information:
Professor Stiny on the Copy in Copyright
Other podcasts in the series

To subscribe to the MIT Libraries’ Podcasts on Scholarly Publishing, paste this link into iTunes or another podcast reader: http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/6772/

Jay K. Lucker, former director of the MIT Libraries

Jay K. Lucker, former director of the MIT Libraries, and nationally known library building and planning consultant, passed away on Sept. 2. He was 82.

Lucker was a native of New York City who started his library career at the New York Public Library in 1954, following service in the U.S. Army. He earned an AB degree from Brooklyn College, and an MS degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Library Service. While at Brooklyn College he met his wife, Marjorie Stern.

Lucker came to the MIT Libraries in 1975 from Princeton University, where he was associate university librarian. During his 20-year career at MIT, he guided the Libraries through the beginning of the transition to many digital library resources and services.

“Jay Lucker led the MIT Libraries during a period of exceptional collection growth, as well as in the momentous early years of digital library development. His contributions continue to inspire, and he will be sorely missed,” his successor, MIT Director of Libraries Ann Wolpert, said.

Continue reading the full obituary on MIT News…

Courtyard in bloom, photo by: Grace Liang

The Lipchitz Courtyard within Building 14 (adjacent to Hayden Library) is a hidden gem—a quiet, leafy retreat where you can find a sunny or shady spot to pull up a chair and read a book, or enjoy artwork from MIT’s Public Art Collection.  The courtyard contains three sculptures by 20th century Cubist artist Jacques Lipchitz.

The flower beds and planters in the courtyard are full of colorful flowers, thanks to the generosity of an MIT alumnus.  Stop by and see what’s in bloom!

World Bank e-Library: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/elib – updated search engine and new open access repository

Provides electronic access to over 7,000 books, reports, journals, and working papers published by the bank, many going back as far as the 1970s.

Note: the e-Library has new terms of use, including Creative Commons licenses that allow for broader usage.   This change was made in conjunction with the recent launch of the Open Knowledge Repository —the World Bank’s new site for providing open access to many of its research outputs and knowledge products.  In addition, a new Open Access Policy will go into effect on July 1st.

World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/wdi – new interface

These two databases are now combined in a new interface with more functions for selecting and displaying data, performing customized queries, downloading data, and creating charts and maps.  Provides statistical time-series data on development and the global economy for countries worldwide. Includes a wide range of basic statistics, including social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. 1960 to present.

Also in the new World dataBank Suite: – new interface

• Africa Development Indicators: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/adi

Time series data for over 50 countries. Includes social, economic, financial, infrastructure, governance, partnership, and environmental indicators. 1960 to present.

World Bank Open Data Web Site: http://data.worldbank.org/

In a recent initiative, the Bank has created a new infrastructure for improving public access to its data.  Their Open Data site provides many new tools for accessing and visualizing their data, including:

• Downloads
• Data visualizations and a mapping platform
• Accessing World Bank Open Data in Stata
• Microdata Catalog (data available upon application)
• And much more

Library Catalog: Lastly, keep in mind that you can search for materials by the World Bank in the Libraries’ Barton Catalog by specifying it as the publisher in the Advanced Search.

Where: 14N-132

Want to find out how to obtain over one million tracks of streaming audio ranging from classical to jazz, popular, and contemporary world music? How about over 150,000 online music scores? Streaming video of poets reading from their work? Images so sharp you can see the shadow beneath the Mona Lisa’s smile? Or panoramic views of architectural sites from around the world?

Come to this session to learn how to bring these and other cultural treasures right to your desktop through the MIT Libraries.

Please register for this session. For more information, please contact Mark Szarko.

Where: Lobby 10

Celebrate National Bookmobile Day with the MIT Libraries! Check out new fiction and non-fiction, DVDs, and music (Bring your MIT ID if you want to borrow something).

For more information, please contact Theresa Tobin.

In conjunction with the Maihaugen Gallery exhibit opening of Glass at MIT: Beauty and Utility, the MIT Libraries have launched a new Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection website.

The website includes a slideshow and sampling of images from collection artwork, including stained glass panels and paper designs.  A history page provides insight into Connick as an artist, his studio, and how the collection came to MIT.  Additionally, it covers the contents of the collection and processing projects such as digitization and conservation.

Soon, researchers will be able to use the website to access digital images in the collection and to search a database of collection job files containing information on Connick windows around the country.

For more information on the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection, visit the new website or contact Jeremy Grubman, Project Manager, at jgrubman@mit.edu.

Date: Friday, February 10, 2-4pm
Location: Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130)

A new exhibition in the Libraries’ Maihaugen Gallery explores glassmaking as revealed in glassware from MIT laboratories, blown glass from the MIT Glass Lab, and stunning stained glass windows from the Libraries’ Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection. Tools, early photographs, and selections from rare books demonstrate the combination of artistry and engineering that goes into the creation of glass.

This event is free and open to the community.

Date:  Monday, Nov. 7th
Time:  2-3pm
Place: 6-120

Bio: G. Sayeed Choudhury is the Associate Dean for Library Digital Programs and Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center at the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University. He is also the Director of Operations for the Institute of Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES) based at Johns Hopkins. He is the Principal Investigator for the Data Conservancy, one of the awards through NSF’s DataNet program. He has oversight for the digital library activities and services provided by the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University.

NYC Parcels

Detailed tax lot data for New York City from 2002 – 2011 is available through the MIT Geodata Repository.  Attributes include ownership information, building characteristics (number of floors, total units, year built, etc.), valuations for tax purposes, and more. Easily find available datasets by using borough names, like Manhattan, to search.

Business analyst data for Boston's Back Bay neighborhood

This package combines detailed data about business, consumer spending, demographics, segmentations, and major shopping centers with tools for analyzing geographically.

Find out more about the data types available and its capabilities.

Business Analyst Desktop is available in the MIT GIS Lab for teaching and research purposes. Business Analyst Online is also available for teaching in MIT classes. Contact gishelp@mit.edu with questions or if you would like access to Business Analyst Online for a class.

New resources

• Have a smart phone? Now you can go to the MIT Mobile Web to search for and request books and more.
• Find out how to use and cite images (and other content) with a new guide on copyright & fair use.
• Need help managing your data? Get assistance, attend workshops, or schedule an individual consultation on the guide for finding and managing data.
• Download new ESRI ArcGIS 10 software and improved MIT Geodata Search Tool for ArcGIS. Find GIS lab hours, workshops and more.

Library hours & study space

• The Hayden Library group study room (14E-311) is now equipped with a touch-screen reservation system and new video conferencing equipment.
• Study under the Dome: new group study rooms on the 8th Floor of  Barker Library open soon.
• Longer hours have returned!  See hours for all library locations.
• Get answers to all your questions about borrowing with helpful new FAQs: Circulation FAQ and Course Reserves FAQ.
• Questions? Ideas or Comments?

Upcoming Events

• We’re offering a wide variety of events throughout the fall.  Find out about scheduled readings, talks, workshops, exhibits and more.

View the What we did on your summer vacation flyer (pdf).

Come learn about creating maps and doing geographic analysis!

Register for the Fall GIS workshop series.

Workshops include:

• Introduction to GIS – Friday, Sept. 23, 1-3:30 pm or Tuesday, Sept. 27, 4-5:30 pm.  This session will introduce students to open source and proprietary GIS options.
• Introduction to GIS for Architecture – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 12:30-2 pm
• Discovering and Using US Census Data – Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1-3:30 pm
• Exploring Spatial Patterns using ArcMap – Tuesday, Nov. 1, 1-3:30 pm
• Introduction to Spatial Statistics Tools and Analysis in ArcMap – Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1-3:30 pm
• Introduction to Regression Analysis in ArcMap – Tuesday, Nov. 15, 1-3:30 pm