MIT Libraries News

photo by Christopher Maynor

Have finals got you stressed? Take a break, have a snack, pet a dog and de-stress!

The furry friends from Dog B.O.N.E.S. a non-profit therapy dog organization, return to campus to visit with students at Hayden Library on Thursday, May 17, and Barker Library on Tuesday, May 22.

Additional (fur-free) study breaks will be offered in Rotch and Dewey libraries.

Cookies and beverages will be served outside the entrance to each library.

Cookies With Canines

Hayden Library - Thurs. May 17, 2-3:30 pm

Barker Library – Tues. May 22, 2-3:30 pm

Additional Study Breaks

Rotch Library – Mon. May 21, 2-3:30 pm

Dewey Library – Tues. May 22, 2-4:00 pm

Glass at MIT exhibition, Maihaugen Gallery, photo by: L. Barry Hetherington

Gallery Talk with Roberto Rosa

Roberto Rosa, Serpentino Stained Glass

When: Friday, May 11, 2pm

Where: Institute Archives (14N-118)

In conjunction with the Glass at MIT: Beauty and Utility exhibition, Roberto Rosa from Serpentino Stained Glass will discuss stained glass art and artists, and his work in the restoration and conservation of historic stained glass.

Rosa has restored windows in some of America’s most prominent buildings including the Massachusetts State House and Trinity Church in Boston. Most recently, he was the chief conservator for thirteen opalescent glass windows at Salve Regina University in Newport RI, designed by John La Farge.

After Rosa’s talk there will be time for questions and viewing the exhibit in the Maihaugen Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.

The 10th annual Prokopoff violin music concert will be held at 3 pm on Friday, May 4, 2012 in the Lewis Music Library. MIT students will perform selections by Bach, Chopin, Dvorak, and Sarasate.  This annual event honors the collection of over 2,000 violin music scores collected by Stephen Prokopoff and donated to the library in 2001 by Lois Craig, former Associate Dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Come enjoy some wonderful music in an attractive setting!

Date: Friday, May 4, 2012
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 3–4 pm

The concert is free and open to the public.

When: Thu, April 26, 2:00-3:00 pm

Where: 14N-132

Digital photos are fragile and require special care to keep them accessible. But preserving any kind of digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. Technologies change over time and become obsolete, making it difficult to access older digital photos. Learn about the nature of the problem and hear about some simple, practical tips and tools to help you keep your digital photos safe. This event is part of the American Library Association’s Preservation Week.

For more information, please contact: Ann Marie Willer.

When: Tue, April 24, 2:00-3:00 pm

Where: 14N-132

Do you want to save an old family quilt, a wedding dress, or T-shirts and flags from your fraternity or student club?  A conservator will present this webinar on how to care for the various types of textiles found in family collections including clothing, flags, furniture coverings, and framed textiles. The session will cover how to safely store and display textiles and how to determine when the services of a professional conservator are needed.  This event is part of the American Library Association’s Preservation Week.

For more information, please contact Ann Marie Willer.

When:  Wed April 25, 4:00-5:00 pm

Where: 14N-132

EndNote is a “personal bibliographic software” package which allows you to create and manage a database of bibliographic references. Learn how to find and use information more effectively in our hands-on workshop. Please pre-register for this session.

For more information please contact Peter Cohn.

A workshop in the DIRC, photo by L.Barry Hetherington

All sessions take place in the Digital Instruction Resource Center (DIRC), 14N-132, with the exception of the MIT Libraries Bookmobile and the Institute Archives sessions. The Bookmobile will take place in Lobby 10, and the Archives sessions will take place in 14N-118.

Pre-registration is required for some, but not all sessions. See below for details.

Patent Searching Fundamentals – Register
Tues April 3, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, 14N-132
Contact:  Howard Silver, hsilver@mit.edu

While you won’t come out of this session qualified to be a patent attorney, you will be able to successfully find patent references from all over the world and know how to obtain patent text and diagrams. The session will be a hands-on practicum that will help de-mystify the patent literature and expose attendees to key resources for finding patents through free resources available on the web.

Please register for this session.

MIT Libraries Bookmobile
Wed April 11, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm, Lobby 10
Contact: Theresa Tobin, tat@mit.edu

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).

RefWorks Basics
Thurs April 12, 12 – 1pm, 14N-132
Contact:  Anita Perkins, perkins@mit.edu

RefWorks is a web-based resource to help you organize references, create a bibliography, and easily cite references as you write your paper.  It allows you to create individual or group accounts.

Dear Diaries — Before There Were Blogs
Fri April 20, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, 14N-118 (Archives reading room)
Contact: Dana Goblaskas, dgoblask@mit.edu

Have you ever wanted to take a peek inside a day in the life of an MIT student or faculty member? Come explore some diaries from the Institute Archives & Special Collections and read accounts of…

• founder William Barton Rogers’s wedding trip
• a world cruise
• trekking across Texas in a covered wagon
• a future MIT president’s teenage adventures as a ship’s radio operator
• the founding of the United Nations
• working with radar during World War Two
• traveling in India, Australia, Germany, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Azores
• and more!

Diaries date from 1849 to 1973. You never know what adventures you’ll uncover!

This session will last 90 minutes, with a 10-minute introduction at the beginning and then time to peruse the diaries at your leisure. Drop by anytime and stay as long as you want.

Managing Your References:  Overview of EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero – Register
Tues April 24, 12:00 – 1:15 pm, 14N-132
Contact:  Anita Perkins, perkins@mit.edu

Using citation management software to create and maintain a collection of references is becoming more common and important in today’s academic world. These software packages (EndNote, RefWorks & Zotero) allow users to search databases, retrieve relevant citations, and build a bibliography to be added to a paper or thesis or stored for future reference. But which software package should you use, and how do you get started?

Please register for this session.

Taking Care: Family Textiles
Tue April 24, 2:00-3:00 pm, 14N-132
Contact: Ann Marie Willer, willer@mit.edu

Do you want to save an old family quilt, a wedding dress, or T-shirts and flags from your fraternity or student club?  A conservator will present this webinar on how to care for the various types of textiles found in family collections including clothing, flags, furniture coverings, and framed textiles. The session will cover how to safely store and display textiles and how to determine when the services of a professional conservator are needed.  This event is part of the American Library Association’s Preservation Week.

EndNote Basics – Register
Wed April 25, 4:00 – 5:00 pm, 14N-132
Contact: Peter Cohn, pcohn@mit.edu

EndNote is a “personal bibliographic software” package which allows you to create and manage a database of bibliographic references. Learn how to find and use information more effectively in our hands-on workshop.

Please register for this session.

Arts and Culture Multimedia in the MIT Libraries – Register
Thu April 26, 12:30 – 1:30 pm, 14N-132
Contact: Mark Szarko, szarko@mit.edu

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.

Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs
Thu April 26, 2:00-3:00 pm, 14N-132
Contact: Ann Marie Willer, willer@mit.edu

Digital photos are fragile and require special care to keep them accessible. But preserving any kind of digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. Technologies change over time and become obsolete, making it difficult to access older digital photos. Learn about the nature of the problem and hear about some simple, practical tips and tools to help you keep your digital photos safe. This event is part of the American Library Association’s Preservation Week.

Advanced SciFinder – Register
Fri April 27, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, 14N-132
Contact:  Erja Kajosalo, kajosalo@mit.edu

This advanced SciFinder session includes many useful tips & tricks for chemists, including:

• Advanced structure and reaction searching
• All of the newest tools and content added to SciFinder
• SciPlanner, the new synthetic planning tool for chemists
• Bioactivity and target indicator data
• Reaction experimental procedures
• Real time pricing and availability information from suppliers like Aldrich and Alfa Aesar
• And much more!

Please register for this session.

Is It What It Is? Tools for Understanding Your Digital Files – Register
Fri April 27, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, 14N-118 (Archives reading room)
Contact: Kari R. Smith, smithkr@mit.edu

In this session you will be exposed to a variety of software tools that are being used in the Institute Archives for understanding digital files that are being added to the Archival collections.  These software tools aid with the process of long-term access of digital material by allowing us to know what the digital files are when we receive them, detect any changes over time, and how to make them available in the future.

We will briefly discuss how these tools fit into work flows for digital content being developed for use in the Institute Archives and Special Collections department of the MIT Libraries.

Categories of tools that will be reviewed include:  file format characterization, fixity, packaging, metadata extraction, conversion / normalization, disk imaging, and metadata embedding.

Come learn how you can know that over time your digital files are what they are!

Please register for this session.

When: Fri April 27, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Where: 14N-118 (Archives reading room)

In this session you will be exposed to a variety of software tools that are being used in the Institute Archives for understanding digital files that are being added to the Archival collections.  These software tools aid with the process of long-term access of digital material by allowing us to know what the digital files are when we receive them, detect any changes over time, and how to make them available in the future.

We will briefly discuss how these tools fit into work flows for digital content being developed for use in the Institute Archives and Special Collections department of the MIT Libraries.

Categories of tools that will be reviewed include:  file format characterization, fixity, packaging, metadata extraction, conversion / normalization, disk imaging, and metadata embedding.

Come learn how you can know that over time your digital files are what they are!

Please register for this session. For more information, please contact Kari R. Smith.

When: Thu April 26, 12:30 – 1:30 pm

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.

When: Tues April 24, 12:00 – 1:15 pm

Where: 14N-132

Using citation management software to create and maintain a collection of references is becoming more common and important in today’s academic world. These software packages (EndNote, RefWorks & Zotero) allow users to search databases, retrieve relevant citations, and build a bibliography to be added to a paper or thesis or stored for future reference. But which software package should you use, and how do you get started?

Please register for this session. For more information, please contact Anita Perkins.

When: Fri April 20, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Where: 14N-118 (Archives reading room)

Have you ever wanted to take a peek inside a day in the life of an MIT student or faculty member? Come explore some diaries from the Institute Archives & Special Collections and read accounts of…

• founder William Barton Rogers’s wedding trip
• a world cruise
• trekking across Texas in a covered wagon
• a future MIT president’s teenage adventures as a ship’s radio operator
• the founding of the United Nations
• working with radar during World War Two
• traveling in India, Australia, Germany, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Azores
• and more!

Diaries date from 1849 to 1973. You never know what adventures you’ll uncover!

This session will last 90 minutes, with a 10-minute introduction at the beginning and then time to peruse the diaries at your leisure. Drop by anytime and stay as long as you want.

For more information, please contact Dana Goblaskas.

When: Thurs April 12, 12 – 1pm

Where: 14N-132

RefWorks is a web-based resource to help you organize references, create a bibliography, and easily cite references as you write your paper.  It allows you to create individual or group accounts.

For more information, please contact Anita Perkins.

When: Wed April 11, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

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.

When: Tues April 3, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Where: 14N-132

While you won’t come out of this session qualified to be a patent attorney, you will be able to successfully find patent references from all over the world and know how to obtain patent text and diagrams. The session will be a hands-on practicum that will help de-mystify the patent literature and expose attendees to key resources for finding patents through free resources available on the web.

Please register for this session. For more information, please contact Howard Silver with any questions.

Date: Friday, March 23, 2012, 2:30–5pm

Location: MIT Stata Center, Building 32, Rm. 155

Registration: Limited seating, please register in advance

What is fair use, and how can libraries use their fair use rights to better accomplish their missions? A new document, the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, provides powerful new insight into the ways that librarians can apply fair use principles to resolve recurring copyright challenges.

On Friday, March 23, 2012 the MIT Libraries will host an informative panel discussion with the co-facilitators of the Code, who are speaking to librarians around the country to introduce the Code and discuss how its principles can help solve local challenges and improve policies dealing with copyright and fair use.

Speakers include co-facilitators of the Code, Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media at American

Co-facilitators of the Code: Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi

University and Peter Jaszi of American University Law School, and local experts Kyle Courtney of Harvard University’s Law School and Jay Wilcoxson from the MIT Office of the General Counsel.

Local librarians are invited to join us for a discussion about the Code of Best Practices and how it can be useful in our community. To attend this free event, register online. Seating is limited so please register early.

The Code, along with supporting materials, is available for free online and hard copies will be also be available at the event.

About the Speakers:

Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. and founder-director of the Center for Social Media there. She heads the Fair Use and Free Speech research project at the Center, in conjunction with Prof. Peter Jaszi in American University’s Washington College of Law.

Peter Jaszi teaches domestic and international copyright law, directs the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, and writes about copyright history and theory. He is a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and a member of the editorial board of its journal.

Kyle Courtney is an intellectual property attorney presently working at Harvard Law School as the Head of External Resource Sharing and Faculty Research. His work at Harvard includes the formation of the first Library Copyright Working Group the creation of a “Copyright and Fair Use Tool” for use of the Harvard Library community.

Jay Wilcoxson is Counsel in MIT’s Office of the General Counsel since his arrival in August, 2007. His responsibilities include managing the Institute’s legal process and litigation and providing advice in connection with a wide variety of Institute affairs including a focus on intellectual property issues.

Over  the next five Tuesdays,  the MIT Libraries are launching a new series of quick demonstrations to highlight some of our resources. Called “Lunch & Learn: You Bring the Food, We Bring the Knowledge,” the series will take place every 10 minutes or so in the Information Intersection (the big orange cube in the Stata Center) between 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Topics covered are:

•     March 6th: Making Google Scholar work with MIT resources

•     March 13th: Setting up PubMed to access MIT resources

•     March 20th: Patents

•     April 3rd: Borrow Direct- Bringing the Ivy League libraries to you

•     April 10th: Online music resources

•     April 17th: Apps for Academics

Feel free to drop in anytime from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. These presentations are very short and informal–feel free to bring your lunch, or stop by on your way to or from the produce market. Five minutes could save you one hour!

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.

On Wednesday, February 22 the MIT Libraries will host Diversity and Social Justice Advocate, Art Munin for White Privilege 101 a presentation that will uncover how white privilege has evolved, how it persists and what we can do about it.

Date & Time: Wednesday, February 22, 10am-12pm

Location: Bartos Theater (E15)

Munin, the Dean of Students at DePaul University, will present a broad introduction to the concept of privilege.  He will discuss the evolution and perpetuation of white privilege in depth and hold an interactive conversation on what the concept means for us as individuals and professionals.

The event is cosponsored by the MIT Libraries’ Committee on the Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion (CPDI) and the Institute Council for Diversity and Inclusion. This event is free and open to the MIT community. For more information contact CPDI.

Please join us for the opening of the MIT Libraries’ latest exhibit GLASS AT MIT: BEAUTY AND UTILITY

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.

Photo: L. Barry Hetherington

Come hear interview excerpts of Herb Pomeroy, founding director of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (FJE), talking about the early days of the FJE, hiring Everett Longstreth to direct the MIT Concert Jazz Band, and recollections of notable alumni of these groups. Pomeroy was interviewed by Forrest Larson in 1999-2000 for the Music at MIT Oral History Project. Forrest will also play excerpts from interviews with Everett Longstreth and band alumni.

Friday, March 2, 2012, 1-2 pm
Lewis Music Library 14E-109
For more information: 617-253-5636