MIT Libraries News

A study conducted by Kevin Lynch and Gygory Kepes in Boston, MA from 1954-1959 was the foundation for Lynch’s theories on city planning. The MIT Libraries have digitized many of the study’s 2,000 photos and 1,200 pages of text, making the materials available online.

The Perceptual Form of the City study addressed the legibility and imageability of the American city in terms of the individual’s perception of the urban landscape. The study focused on the cities of Boston, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, California, and Jersey City, New Jersey.

Records include field notes, interview transcripts, collected data, correspondence regarding the progress of the project, and hand drawn maps. See: http://libraries.mit.edu/lynch for additional information and to view a slideshow of photos from the collection.

Did you miss our April session on “Biotechnology Patent Fundamentals and Searching” with attorney Sonia Guterman of Lawson & Wetzen and Drew Lowery, Ph.D. in Biochemistry from MIT (currently at Global Prior Art’s Life Science Team)?

Feel free to watch the video on your own time! Biotechnology Patent Fundamentals and Searching

See also our other video tutorials and recorded workshops.

Contact: Darcy Duke

WHERE: 14N-132 (Digital Instruction Resource Center – DIRC)

WHEN: Friday, May 1, 12 – 1pm

Market research abounds on the web, but usually with a hefty price tag. This session will familiarize participants with market research accessible to MIT students and faculty. We will cover types of resources available, how to navigate them, and some basic tips for using these resources.

Contact: Maggie Bartley

Check out the full listing of IAPril 2009 Libraries events!

WHERE: 14N-132 (Digital Instruction Resource Center – DIRC)

WHEN: Thursday, April 23, 12 – 1pm

For researchers struggling to manage their data, basic strategies will be provided for
• best practices for retention and archiving
• effective directory structures and naming conventions
• good file formats for long-term access
• data security and backup options
• metadata, tagging, and citation
• other relevant issues

Contact: MacKenzie Smith

Check out the full listing of IAPril 2009 Libraries events!

Academic Media Production Services (AMPS), a group within the MIT Libraries, has launched a new website to showcase its work and the wide range of services it offers to the MIT community. The site provides information about:

• Video Production
• Video Post-Production
• Web Video
• Distance Education
• Video Conferencing and Consulting

It features a portfolio of videos produced by AMPS in support of MIT departments and initiatives. The website also provides rates and information about MIT’s video-enabled facilities and high-tech classrooms. To find out more visit the new AMPS site, email amps-info@mit.edu, or call 617.253.7603.

The Lewis Music Library will host the 7th annual Prokopoff violin music concert from noon to 1 pm on Friday, April 17, 2009.

Concert coordinator Sherman Jia G will be joined by fellow violinists Latifah Hamzah ’12, Brian Kardon G, Lissa Riley ’08 and David Somach ’11 along with pianists Pei-Shan Lee and Matthew Wright to perform music by Bach, Gershwin-Heifetz, Tchaikovsky, and Wienawski.

The music for the concert is selected from the large gift of violin scores given to the library in 2001 by Lois Craig, former Associate Dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. The scores belonged to her late husband Stephen Prokopoff.

Date: Friday, April 17, 2009
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: Noon – 1 pm

The concert is free and open to the public. Join us for this traditional springtime favorite!

The long weekend is coming! The long weekend is coming!

The Lewis Music Library is offering a special longer loan period for CDs and DVDs over Patriots Day weekend. Music compact discs and DVDs borrowed Tuesday, April 14 through Friday, April 17 will all be due Tuesday, 4/21/09. That’s up to a week, rather than the usual 3 days! Limit of 5, no renewals.

This corresponds to the Humanities, Science, and Lewis Music Libraries Bookmobile on Tuesday the 14th in Lobby 10 from 11 am – 2 pm. Come on by and check out some great music!

The Lewis Music Library is located in Bldg. 14E-109 and library hours are posted on the web.

Come and hear attorney Sonia Guterman of Lawson & Wetzen discuss the distinctive aspects of patents that make them valuable, the role of patents in capital development, along with issues surrounding filing biotech patents. She will be assisted by Drew Lowery, who received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from MIT and is a member of Global Prior Art’s Life Science Team. Drew will discuss and demonstrate alternative ways to search biotech patent art and their suitability. At the end of the talk attendees will have the opportunity to do hands on searching.

WHERE: 14N-132 (Digital Instruction Resource Center – DIRC)

WHEN: Thursday, April 16, 12 – 1:30pm

Contact Darcy Duke for more information.

Check out the full listing of IAPril 2009 Libraries events!

The MIT Libraries have launched a Budget Information Website to help keep the MIT Community informed about changes at the Libraries resulting from the Institute-wide mandate to reduce expenditures in this fiscal year and in upcoming years.

The site shares the principles that are guiding the Libraries through the current fiscal challenge, it also lists actions that have been taken by the Libraries to date, and provides links to the Institute-Wide Planning Site.

Updates will be posted on the site as details become available. Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome, and can be sent to: budgetfeedback-lib@mit.edu

The MIT Libraries subscribe to a number of databases that you can use to research companies and industries. Using these databases, you can:

• Target companies by industry and geography
• Conduct comprehensive company and industry research

We will discuss why this type of research is critical to the job and internship search process, and how to use these databases effectively.

WHERE: 14N-132 (Digital Instruction Resource Center – DIRC)

WHEN: Thursday, April 9, 3 – 4:30pm

Contact: Anita Perkins for more information.

Check out the full listing of IAPril 2009 Libraries events!

The Bookmobile is coming! The Bookmobile is coming!

Save the date, spread the word: the Bookmobile is coming to Lobby 10 on Tuesday, April 14. Stock up for Patriots Day weekend! The staff of the Humanities, Science, and Lewis Music Libraries will be pulling together a selection of materials to tempt your mental palates, so come by and check out something to enjoy over the weekend. Choose from:

• Books, audio books, and movies from the Humanities Library Browsery
• Books from the Science Library‘s new “Serendipity” Collection
• CDs and DVDs from the Lewis Music Library (which will be due on Tuesday, 4/21)

Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Place: Lobby 10
Time: 11 am – 2 pm

Learn how to find and use information more effectively in our hands-on workshops. No advanced registration required.

**NOTE that different events will be happening throughout the month of April and early May.**

WHERE: 14N-132 (Digital Instruction Resource Center – DIRC)

WHEN: Friday, April 10, 12 – 1pm

Class attendees will learn about the organization of key NCBI databases, understand the database record structure, and work with the BLAST search tool. The session is a hands-on practicum and an excellent starting point for people who are new to, or curious about bioinformatics research tools.

Contact Howard Silver for more information.

Check out the full listing of IAPril 2009 Libraries events!

William Barton Rogers’s ideas for a new kind of scientific institution were well received in Boston in the mid-nineteenth century.  In November 1860 a committee chaired by Rogers petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rogers summarized his plans in a pamphlet entitled Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology, the focus of the April Object of the Month exhibit by the Institute Archives and Special Collections. To gain support for the proposed institution, the pamphlet was widely disseminated among civic and commercial leaders, educators, and scientific and literary figures. The proposal was approved by the Massachusetts legislature, and on April 10, 1861, Governor Andrew signed the Act to Incorporate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Learn more about the Institute’s beginnings and William Barton Rogers, the extraordinary man whose vision made it happen.  Rogers’s papers and many documents concerning MIT’s early years are available for research in the Institute Archives, 14N-118.

German-Turkish poet and essayist Zafer Senocak will read from his book “Tursprachen/Door Languages.” The reading will be in both German and English, with translation provided by his translator Elizabeth Ochlkers Wright.

• When: Thursday April 2nd, 5pm
• Where: the MIT Humanities Library Reading Room (14S-200)

Keep up with the latest news and ideas from the MIT Libraries with Twitter.  If you’re a Twitter user, follow @mitlibraries, and we’ll follow you back! If you don’t use Twitter, you can still check out our updates on our Twitter page, or subscribe to our stream through an RSS feed.

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