MIT Libraries News

Consulting: Interested in one-on-one help with statistical analysis and software? The Harvard-MIT Data Center (HMDC) Statistical Consultant can help you via email or an in-person consultation. Contact her via our email form.

Workshops: Interested in learning statistical analysis software? Get an introduction to Stata, the package used in many departments at MIT. With hands-on exercises, learn how to import and manage datasets. Taught by the HMDC Statistical Consultant. Novices welcome!

When: two repeat sessions, attend either one of the following:

• Tuesday, October 2nd, 12-2pm or
• Friday, October 5th, 12-2pm

Where: E53-220, Dewey Library

Space is limited. To register, contact: Katherine McNeill-Harman, mcneillh@mit.edu.

Fall GIS Lab workshops

This session will be offered twice: Friday, September 21 & Friday, October 19

Location: MIT GIS lab, Rotch Library (7-238)

The US Census holds an enormous amount of demographic information dating back to 1790. New and interesting relationships can often times be observed when looking at census data on a map. Come learn about what’s in the US Census and the tools available for mapping it.

Finding out about new titles in our collection is easy. Choose one of three ways:

• On the Web: New titles are posted weekly by subject on our Recent Additions to the Collections page.
• Via RSS Feed: Click on the RSS link next to any subject on our Recent Additions page to subscribe to the RSS feed. To find out about RSS feeds and how they can help you keep up-to-date, see the Libraries’ Guide to RSS.
• Via Email: See how you can get the content of Recent Additions RSS feeds delivered to your email.

Questions? Ask Us!

Fall GIS Lab workshops

Learn about GIS, and the basics of using ArcGIS, a powerful desktop Geographic Information System (GIS) available at MIT. Learn to work with data from the MIT Geodata Repository, analyze the data and create maps that can be used in reports and presentations.

The Harvard-MIT Data Center (HMDC) repository has a new look. Now it provides an MIT portal to the repository (MIT Dataverse), highlighting data sets available to, and produced by, the MIT community. Other new features include an increased number of search fields.

Check it out at its same URL: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/hmdc.

We welcome your feedback on the new system; please send comments to Katherine McNeill-Harman, Data Services and Economics Librarian, mcneillh@mit.edu.

Do you have others that help in your research? Need to enable someone else to borrow books on your behalf?

MIT Faculty: for your convenience, the Libraries offer designated borrower privileges. Authorized persons can check out materials from the Libraries for your use. To arrange this service, see our designated borrower form.

Need to put items on Reserve for your course? The Libraries have two easy ways to make course materials available to students:

• Print Reserves - fill out our online Reserves Request Form
• Electronic Reserves

As always, you are welcome to drop off course reserve lists in person. See which library handles my Course Reserves?

For detailed information about reserves in specific libraries, contact the library serving your subject area.

With so much information to manage for your research, how do you keep track of all of your references? Bibliographic software can help you to:

• import citations from your favorite databases and websites
• build and organize bibliographies
• format citations for papers
• take notes on articles and save them in your collection of citations
• save and organize pdfs, screenshots, graphs, images, and other files for your research

For more information on choosing the right software for you, and to compare the programs that are supported by the MIT Libraries, see the Overview of Bibliographic Software at MIT. To get help using particular programs, also see library guides on EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero.

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

WHEN: Friday, July 20, noon – 1pm

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 which will help de-mystify the patent literature and expose attendees to key resources for finding patent literature. Using patent literature is important for understanding competitive technologies and keeping abreast of current product innovations.

Feel free to bring your lunch! Drinks and dessert will be provided.

Sponsored by the MIT Libraries.

Contact the Science Library for more information.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2007 information workshops

MIT now has access to a new statistical software package on Athena: R (thanks to licensing from MIT IS&T). R is an open-source, free software environment for statistical computing and graphics with its own internal programming language. More information about the software is available at: http://www.r-project.org/.

Help with R and other statistical software packages is available from the Harvard-MIT Data Center Statistical Consulting Service. Contact a Consultant at http://libraries.mit.edu/askhmdc.

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

WHEN: Friday, July 13, noon – 1pm

Can you use and re-use your own work for future writing and teaching? Or is it locked tight behind a vault of copyright restrictions?

This session will help you find the keys to fully realize the potential of your own work for yourself and the world. It will provide a very brief summary of copyright law and how it affects your work, and an overview of actions you can take to improve the impact and reach of your research – including why retaining rights to your work matters, and how you can take advantage of such rights to increase citation and readership.

Feel free to bring your lunch! Drinks and dessert will be provided.

Sponsored by the MIT Libraries.

Contact the Science Library for more information.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2007 information workshops

EndNote Basics

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

WHEN: Friday, July 6, noon – 1pm

EndNote is a “personal bibliographic software” package which allows you to create and manage a database of bibliographic references. Your database can be used to automatically generate in-text citations and bibliographies in your manuscripts. It can also help you organize and manage your PDF files. This session will be a hands-on practicum. Attendees will create a personal database of cited literature by importing references from resources such as Barton, Web of Science, PubMed and other sources of published literature. You will learn how to search and manipulate databases, and to generate a manuscript and bibliography.

Feel free to bring your lunch! Drinks and dessert will be provided.

Sponsored by the MIT Libraries.

Contact the Science Library for more information.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2007 information workshops

What’s the big deal about open access anyway? If I’m writing an article, what rights should I keep? Where can I find out more?

Check out http://libraries.mit.edu/open-access to find out what’s happening nationally and beyond, and http://libraries.mit.edu/rights to find out how to retain your rights and increase the impact of your research.

Look for these posters showing current Open Access Models at the Engineering and Science Libraries (Barker, Hayden, Lindgren and Aero/Astro).

Photo of MIT’s Stata Center by Andy Ryan

A $724,415 grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has been awarded to the MIT Libraries to address the challenge of preserving digital Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files.

CAD has revolutionized the architectural industry, giving architects the ability to create astounding three-dimensional models.  However CAD models exist only in proprietary digital formats that are ever-changing and short-lived, making them difficult to preserve and manage over time.  Using the designs of renowned architect Frank Gehry and his work on MIT’s Stata Center as a test bed, the FACADE (Future-proofing Architectural Computer-Aided Design) project will study CAD architectural documents and create preservation strategies to stem their potential loss.

Over the next two years the MIT Libraries’ Digital Libraries Research Group (DLRG) will work with MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning to research the primary software products (such as CATIA®, AutoCAD® and Microstation®) that produce architectural CAD models. With the guidance of former dean of the School of Architecture and Planning Bill Mitchell, the researchers will examine the role of CAD files in the life cycle of modern architecture and building construction including the entire digital and paper trail from early designs and sketches to internal communications regarding onsite revisions. They will seek strategies for long-term preservation of this material and also investigate the optimal use of digital preservation archives, such as the DSpace digital repository system, to provide open-source solutions.

Read the full article in BiblioTech (pages 8-9)
Visit the FACADE project web page

The Hayden Library (Humanities and Science Libraries) will be open 24 hours a day, from the last day of classes through the last day of the final exam period: Thursday, May 17 through Friday, May 25.

NOTE: Overnight access to the library is restricted to members of the MIT community.

The Harvard-MIT Data Center (HMDC) has hired a new Statistical Consultant. Nealia Khan joined HMDC this spring and is responsible for helping researchers to assess and implement techniques for analyzing data. Nealia holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Sociology from Bryn Mawr College and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University.

Ms. Khan and the other Consultants are available to support MIT use of statistical software packages and can provide you with:

• help getting started with statistical software programs, such as Stata, SAS, or SPSS
• an introduction to basic statistical analyses
• advice on setting up advanced statistical analyses
• general statistical advice

To ask a question by email or arrange for an in-person appointment, contact the Harvard-MIT Data Center.

When: Friday, March 2, 2-4 pm
Where: MIT GIS Lab

The US Census holds an enormous amount of demographic information gathered over a long period of time. New and interesting relationships can often times be observed when looking at census data on a map. Come learn about what’s in the US Census, and the tools available at MIT for mapping it including: Geolytics, Pcensus, and the new Census Tool built into the MIT Geodata Repository for ArcGIS. More information available on the GIS workshops webpage

Spring GIS Lab workshops