MIT Libraries News

You will use a GPS (global positioning system) and your puzzle solving skills to work your way through the 12 clues and discover a hidden box of treasure. Each clue will help you discover places of information at MIT, while leading you virtually closer to MIT and surely closer to the treasure box. GPS units can be borrowed by the MIT community from Rotch Library (7-238). http://libraries.mit.edu/gis/geocache.html

The subject of the September Object of the Month exhibit by the Institute Archives and Special Collections is the Physical Science Study Committee, a group of university physics professors and high school physics teachers, led by MIT’s Jerrold Zacharias and Francis Friedman, who created new curricula for the teaching of introductory courses in physics.

Further information about the Physical Science Study Committee can be found in the Physical Science Study Committee Oral History Collection (MC 602), the Jerrold Zacharias Papers (MC 31), the Educational Services Incorporated Records (MC 79), the Physical Science Study Committee Records (MC 626), and other sources in the Institute Archives and Special Collections, 14N-118.

A new series of tech-oriented webcasts from “IEEE Spectrum” takes an inside look at what is happening in some of today’s hottest technology fields. A live Q&A follows each webcast.

Upcoming events include:

- Car Talk about MEMs (21 September)
- Career Accelerator Forum (12 October)
- Medical Technology (24 October)
- Design Automation and Convergence (9 November)
- Mobile Devices & Network Security (7 December)

Learn more and register at:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/webcasts

Calling all incoming graduate and undergraduate students! Do you like ice cream? Feeling a little nervous about your upcoming course load? Want to have a little fun before the term begins? The staff at the MIT Libraries is hosting a wide variety of events to welcome you to MIT. Join us to discover what the Libraries have to offer — our staff, collections, services, and resources – and find out what we can do to make your life at MIT easier!

Events for undergraduate students:

• Academic Expo: Wednesday, August 30, 3:00 – 4:30 pm
• Freshmen Explorations: Ice Cream Social: Thursday, August 31, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
• Hitchhiker’s Guide Library Tours: Saturday, August 26, 2:00 pm & Thursday, August 31, 11:00 am & 2:00 pm
• International Undergraduate Students Breakfast: Wednesday, August 23, 10:30 – 11:30 am

Events for Graduate Students:

• 7th Annual New Graduate Student Reception: Wednesday, August 30, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
• Graduate Student Orientation: Grad School 102: Tuesday, August 29, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
• International Graduate Student Orientation: Wednesday, August 30, 10:00 – 11:00 am

Events for all students:

• Health & Wellness Fair: Friday, September 1, 2:00 – 5:00 pm

For locations and more information, see: MIT Libraries Orientation 2006.

There are only two more weekends to take advantage of extra days when you borrow music CDs, DVDs, and iPods! Since the Lewis Music Library is closed Saturdays and Sundays through Labor Day weekend, these items can be borrowed for a longer period of time. This means:

• Music CDs and DVDs circulate for 3 days, but if you borrow them on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, they are due the following Monday (by closing, 5 pm).
• iPods circulate overnight, but during the summer an iPod borrowed on a Friday will be due on Monday.
• The MIT Libraries are closed on Labor Day (Monday, September 4) so for that weekend the materials will be due on Tuesday instead.

The Lewis Music Library is located at 14E-109. Summer hours are Monday-Friday 11am – 5pm; semester hours resume on the first day of classes, Wednesday, Sept. 6.

A trial version of the Cold Spring Harbor (CSH) Protocols is available through Vera until September 20, 2006. The database contains over 600 methods in molecular and cell biology and provides a wealth of laboratory techniques. It also includes an advanced online feature that allows scientists to interact with colleagues, contribute suggestions, and add comments to each protocol. For more information on CSH Protocols, contact Louisa Worthington Rogers at elworthi@mit.edu.

Full library borrowing privileges are available to spouses/domestic partners of MIT employees and students. To obtain an ID card, please visit the MIT Card Office at W20-021. Once you have a card, bring it to any library circulation desk for activation.

The MIT Libraries have an agreement with Harvard University’s Countway Library of Medicine that allows graduate students, research staff, and faculty to apply for borrowing privileges, and undergraduate students to apply for room use only.

You can now apply for FY07 privileges using our online form.

Applicants will receive a Countway access card via email no later than 5 pm the next business day. If you need same day service, or are planning to come to the library anyway, you can still apply for FY06 privileges at the Hayden Reference Desk, M-F, 10 am – 5 pm.

This application only covers privileges at Harvard’s Countway Library of Medicine. For full details about the MIT’s arrangements with Harvard Libraries, visit http://libraries.mit.edu/ordering/non-mit-access/harvard.html.

It’s that time of year again, and the Libraries have two easy ways to provide Reserve materials for your courses:

• Print Reserves Request Form
• Electronic Reserves

As always, you are welcome to drop off course reserve lists in person. See which library handles your course reserves.

The author of “The Indefatigable Inventor”, Charles S. “Bert” Fowler, provides a comical look at the field of engineering, the people in it, and their intuitive minds on and off the job in the July 2006 issue of “IEEE Spectrum” (v. 43, no. 7). From the evolution of the word “nerd,” to suggesting several inventions that are just part of an engineer’s job to “serve mankind,” this article dives into engineering culture and discusses dream inventions such as “The Headache Generator” and “The Dirty Clothes Compactor.”

-description from What’s New @ IEEE for Libraries, July 2006

Did you know that daily issues of newspapers from countries around the world are available in Factiva?

In the Factiva News Pages, select a country (or theme) of interest from the drop-down menu in the upper lefthand corner; the result will display articles from that country’s main news sources.

Access Factiva via Vera, the MIT Libraries’ gateway to databases and e-journals or directly at http://libraries.mit.edu/get/factiva.

Note: You may need to try to enter the database more than once, as our subscription allows a maximum of five simultaneous users.

Chill out with some good music! The Lewis Music Library circulates CDs and DVDs for 3 days, and over the summer you can get some extra days. If you borrow them on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, they are due the following Monday (by closing, 5 pm). Here are a few suggestions from the library staff and student assistants:

• Finn, William. A new brain: original cast recording.
  PhonCD F4966 newb
• Instrumental collection. (Hawaiian slack key guitar masters)
  PhonCD F G4380.I57
• Loesser, Frank. Guys and dolls: the new Broadway cast recording.
  PhonCD L8248 guy a
• Ma, Yo-Yo. Solo.
  PhonCD M11 solo
• Menken, Alan. Little shop of horrors: original motion picture soundtrack.
  PhonCD M526 lit
• Porter, Cole. Rosemary Clooney sings the music of Cole Porter.
  PhonCD P833.8 song b
• Schwartz, Stephen. Wicked: a new musical: original Broadway cast recording.
  PhonCD Sch94.8 wic
• Sigur Rós (Musical group). Ágætis byrjun.
  PhonCD P Sig27 aga
• Sondheim, Stephen. Into the woods: original cast recording.
  PhonCD So57.5 int
• Tango nuevo. (Music rough guide)
  PhonCD F G5350.T366

Selections from the very newest CDs, many with audio clips, are listed at http://libraries.mit.edu/music/news/906/cds.html. The Lewis Music Library is located at 14E-109 and summer hours are Monday-Friday 11am – 5pm; Saturday-Sunday closed.

The Institute Archives and Special Collections August Object of the Month is President Theodore Roosevelt’s letter appointing John Ripley Freeman (MIT 1876) one of six “engineers of high standing” to inspect and report on construction of the Panama Canal.

The Archives houses a rich collection of Freeman’s papers, including many photographs of the Panama Canal project. Among his many undertakings was a detailed presentation of designs for MIT’s Cambridge campus, “Study No. 7.”

Also in the Archives’ collections are the papers of Allen Hazen, another of the engineers appointed by President Roosevelt. Hazen, who attended MIT in 1888, was the subject of an earlier exhibit.

Pictured here: the six engineers. Freeman and Hazen, 1st row, 1st & 2nd from left