MIT Libraries News

Many of the services featured on the MIT Libraries’ web site are available from a mobile phone on the MIT Mobile Web.

To get to the MIT Libraries’ mobile site, visit http://m.mit.edu from your mobile device’s web browser.

The site is currently optimized for iPhones.  In the future, we plan to create versions optimized for other mobile phones.

From the Libraries’ mobile site, you can:

• View hours & locations for each library
• Ask questions and request a meeting with the librarian for your subject
• Read news from the MIT Libraries on our blog

Read more about the mobile web site.

What else would you like to see on the mobile web site? Give us your ideas!

Special thanks to Andrew Yu and the MIT Mobile Web team for their help in developing the MIT Libraries’ mobile web site.

MIT joined four other universities in launching a new “Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity” on Monday September 15, 2009.    The goal of the compact, according to its author,  is to allow “the two journal publishing systems to compete on a more level playing field” by providing  “equitable support for the processing-fee business model for open-access journals.”

To support this goal, the five universities have pledged to support fees for open access publication.  Specifically, the universities commit to “the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by [their] faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.”

MIT Provost Rafael Reif reflected on the significance of the compact:  “The dissemination of research findings to the public is not merely the right of research universities: it is their obligation.   Open-access publishing promises to put more research in more hands and in more places around the world.   This is a good enough reason for universities to embrace the guiding principles of this compact.”

In addition to MIT, the other initial signatories are Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley.   Other universities are encouraged to join at the compact web site.

MIT news story

Compact web site

Inside Higher Ed

PLoS article by Compact author and Harvard professor Stuart Shieber

There are now more reasons to come study in the Lewis Music Library! This summer some of the listening carrels on the mezzanine were removed to make room for four large study tables. The Music and Theater Arts Section has provided two iMac computers with music software — they have Finale notation software now, and more music software will follow. Use is restricted to the MIT community; show your ID at the service desk to get the password.

The tables were provided by the Class of 1982 Music Library Fund. There are also computers with Peak LE6 audio software on the mezzanine and Sibelius music software on the main floor. The Lewis Music Library is located in Bldg.14E-109 and library hours are posted on the web.

Renovations in Barker and Dewey Libraries have created great new spaces to study!  The MIT Community is invited to Open House events at each library.  Please come visit and celebrate with us!

Barker Library Open House
Where: Barker Engineering Library (10-500)
Reading Room (under the Dome)
When: Wednesday, September 16, 4-6pm
Remarks at 4:30pm, Refreshments served

The old “journal racks” in the Barker Reading Room have been removed to open up the space and give way to a more flexible design.  New area rugs, fresh paint, refinished furniture and improved lighting make this iconic space more inviting for quiet study.

Dewey Library Open House
Where: Dewey Library (E53-100), First Floor
When: Thursday, September 17, 4-6pm
Remarks at 4:30pm, Refreshments served

The new, improved Dewey Library offers a secure 24-7 study space, an area designated for quiet study, and numerous power-enabled study carrels. There are 12 brand-new group study rooms, each with LCD screen and white board, which can be reserved online. The brighter, more open space also features many ecologically-friendly touches, such as cork floor tiles and energy-efficient lighting.

We are happy to announce that Rotch Library has a new web site! http://libraries.mit.edu/rotch

One of our primary goals was to make the site more visually appealing, as well as more user-friendly.

Some new features:

• a slideshow on the home page (powered by Slideshow Pro)
• a list of exhibits with sample images
• quick links to our Research Guides
• a page describing the building and history of Rotch Library
• incorporation of the previously separate RVC pages into this site

Technical notes:

• The site is powered by Wordpress. This makes it very easy for staff to update; allows us to use professional templates; and makes it easy to incorporate new plugins and features. Rotch joins Dewey Library, the Scholarly Communication web site, and our News Blog as the 4th of our sites to be powered by Wordpress.
• The news page is automatically updated by the RSS feed from our central libraries’ news blog.

There are three more weekend to take advantage of extra days when you borrow music CDs, DVDs, or an iPod! Since the Lewis Music Library is still on summer hours and will be closed Saturdays and Sundays (and Labor Day Monday), you can get extra time to enjoy some great music:

• Music CDs and DVDs circulate for 3 days (limit of 5), but if you borrow them Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday during the summer they’re due on Monday.
• Labor Day weekend they’ll be due Tuesday, September 8 (Registration Day).
• iPods circulate overnight, but during the summer an iPod borrowed on Friday is due Monday (or Tuesday, September 8 for Labor Day weekend).
• The iPods contain over 2700 sample tracks taken from recent CDs in the library’s collection, which numbers over 20,000 CDs of classical, jazz, world, and popular music and more than 1,200 DVDs

The Lewis Music Library is located in Bldg. 14E-109 and summer hours are M-F, 11am-5pm. Semester hours will resume the first day of classes, Wednesday, September 9.

MIT Libraries has obtained a license for the Human Gene Mutations Database (HGMD). HGMD represents a comprehensive collection of data available on germ-line mutations in nuclear genes underlying or associated with human inherited disease.

Search for newly identified gene lesions to determine whether or not they are novel; search by gene to get an overview of the known mutational spectrum for that gene; and search for a type of mutation in a specific location.

HGMD is integrated with other bioscience resources such as OMIM, Entrez Gene and the Human Gene Nomenclature Committee. The free version of HGMD only contains 3 year old data while the licensed version contains current data and a better search interface, so take advantage of this great resource!

To access HGMD, search for “HGMD” in MIT Libraries’ Vera. Click on “BIOBASE Knowledge Library-ExPlain and HGMD” and then “HGMD.”

Contact Courtney Crummett with any questions.

The renovation of Dewey Library has created many new group study rooms which now can be reserved using an electronic room reservation system. The rooms are:

• E53-208 & 218 (large group rooms) : capacity 12 people in each room
• E53-201 & 223 (medium group rooms) : capacity 10 people
• E53-231, 237, 238, 296, and 298 (small group rooms) : capacity 2-6 people

Photo © Liang-Wu Cai

The last day of service in the Lindgren Library (54-200) will be Friday, July 31, 2009. Lindgren’s collection of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences’ books, journals, and CDs will begin to move to Hayden Library (14S-100) Monday, August 3.  The relocated materials are expected to be in place and accessible by the end of the week. If any Lindgren materials are needed during the move, please contact Joe Hankins (3.9325, jhankins@mit.edu) or Chris Sherratt (3-5648, gscherra@mit.edu). The Hayden Service Desk staff (3.5671) can also be of assistance.

Final arrangements for the future locations of maps and theses formerly housed in Lindgren will be completed during the upcoming weeks. Contact information for Joe Hankins and Chris Sherratt will remain the same.

Monday, July 20th marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, when heroic MIT graduate Buzz Aldrin took his historic steps on the lunar surface.

Institute Archives’ records reveal that it was an accomplishment he had only dreamed about as a graduate student.  In the dedication of his PhD thesis, Aldrin wrote, “In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space this is dedicated to the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!”

See Aldrin’s thesis in the current Fascination of Flight exhibit in the Libraries’ Maihaugen Gallery, or find it online in DSpace.

As of July 7th, access to Your Account is now via MIT’s Touchstone service, rather than the old usernames and passwords.

Your Account allows you to view and renew what items you have checked out, make requests and more.

• For MIT users, this means that you can now use your Kerberos username/password or MIT web certificates to securely log in.
• For others with borrowing privileges who don’t have access to Kerberos/web certificates (BLC, P-card, partner/spouse, etc.), you will now access Your Account via a Touchstone Collaboration Account.

For more information, please see: Access to Your Account in Barton Using Touchstone

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

WHEN: Monday, July 6 and Monday, July 20, 12pm – 1pm

Find out where Aero/Astro materials are now located. This session will highlight the various Aero/Astro collections and how to access them.

Contact Barbara Williams with any questions.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2009 workshops

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

WHEN: Friday, July 10, 12pm – 1pm

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 workshops.

Contact Peter Cohn with any questions.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2009 workshops

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

WHEN: Thursday, July 9, 1pm – 2pm

Learn about the organization of key NCBI databases, understand the database record structure, and work with the BLAST search tool.

Contact Howard Silver with any questions.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2009 workshops

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

WHEN: Wednesday, July 8, 9am – 12pm

Learn how to use this gene expression tool licensed by MIT Libraries. Bring data!

Contact Courtney Crummett with any questions.

Full schedule of JulyAP 2009 workshops

The July Object of the Month of the Institute Archives and Special Collections celebrates the transfer of the Project Whirlwind records from the MITRE Corporation to MIT.  The Project Whirlwind collection is a compilation of records of the  pioneering digital computing research conducted at MIT in the 1940s and 1950s. Whirlwind was developed as part of a project initiated by the Office of Naval Research to design a universal flight trainer that would simulate flight. Eventually the focus of the grant, a flight simulator (using an analog computer), changed to the development of  a high-speed digital computer.

In 2008 the Project Whirlwind records were transferred to the MIT Archives from the MITRE Corporation, where many research staff  had relocated in the late 1950s. For more information, including documents and digital objects available in DOME, the MIT Libraries’ digital repository, see http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/whirlwind.

Want to learn how to find an article database for your research? Or use bioinformatics databases? Or use the library catalog? Then try the Libraries video tutorials, now hosted on TechTV!

MIT TechTV is MIT’s free video posting and hosting service, specializing in science, engineering, and MIT-related videos. Feel free to comment on our videos or suggest other videos that the Libraries can produce.

Sample Video: Finding Articles, Part 2: Finding Journal Articles on a Specific Topic

The Broad Institute will transition from a department within MIT to a permanent non-profit organization on July 1, 2009. Broad employees who are affiliated with MIT as faculty or staff will continue to have borrowing privileges and access to the MIT Libraries’ collections, while all other Broad employees will no longer have the same access.

All Broad employees can use the new Broad Library for library services. Dave Richardson (617.714.7902), the Broad Librarian, can answer questions related to this transition. The Broad institute also has more information available on their intranet for employees.

Learn how to find and use information more effectively in these hands-on workshops. No advanced registration required. Light refreshments will be served at each session.

All workshops will take place in the Digital Instruction Resource Center (DIRC), 14N-132.

GeneGo Training
Wednesday, July 8, 9am – 12pm
Learn how to use this gene expression tool licensed by MIT Libraries. Bring data!
Contact: Courtney Crummett

Bioinformatics for Beginners
Thursday, July 9, 1pm – 2pm
Learn about the organization of key NCBI databases, understand the database record structure, and work with the BLAST search tool.
Contact: Howard Silver

EndNote Basics
Friday, July 10, 12pm – 1pm
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 workshops.
Contact: Peter Cohn

OAG as a Travel Planner Tool
Monday, July 13, 12pm – 1pm
OAG Travel Planner Pro is the premier customizable online tool for business and professional travelers who need to make and manage complex travel plans.
Contact: Barbara Williams

RefWorks Basics
Friday, July 17, 12pm – 1pm
RefWorks is a web-based resource designed to help you organize references and create a bibliography. RefWorks allows you to search, retrieve relevant citations, easily cite references as you write your paper, and build your bibliography. It allows users to create individual or group accounts.
Contact: Anita Perkins

Accessing the Aero/Astro Collection
Monday, July 6 and Monday, July 20, 12pm – 1pm
Find out where Aero/Astro materials are now located. This session will highlight the various Aero/Astro collections and how to access them.
This session is limited to 25 participants. To register, contact Barbara Williams.

Sequence Alignment
Wednesday, July 22, 10am – 12pm
Explore sequence alignment algorithms and their practical applications. Session will include a hands-on algorithm exercise and practical usage information (Clustal, BLAST, BLAT, Maq).
Contact: Charlie Whittaker

DSpace@MIT for Research Collections
Friday, July 24 and Monday, July 27, 12pm – 1pm
DSpace@MIT archives and makes globally discoverable the research output of MIT faculty, researchers, and students. The session will highlight MIT Libraries’ initiatives for easy upload of complete technical report and working papers series’ and will demonstrate how individuals and research groups can establish and begin populating new collections of research materials.
Contact: Craig Thomas

BLAST
Wednesday, July 29, 11am – 12pm
Learn how to use NCBI resources and optimize your BLAST protein searches to get the most out of your results. Attendance at Bioinformatics for Beginners and familiarity with BLAST are recommended.
Contact: Amy Stout

Data Management 101
Friday, July 31, 12pm – 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 and other relevant issues.
Contact: Anne Graham

Sponsored by the MIT Libraries.

As of Friday, June 26, the Aeronautics and Astronautics Library (Aero/Astro) will officially close its doors and its collections will be relocated to other areas within the MIT Libraries. The majority of the collections will move to the Barker Engineering Library. Barker will house all current, unbound Aero/Astro journals, as well as books, theses, CDs and DVDs. All materials are expected to be fully accessible to users by July 2nd.

Older bound journals have been moved to the Library Storage Annex. Electronic (PDF) files of articles from these journals can be requested through Barton. Whole volumes may also be requested through Barton and delivered to a library location of choice.

During the move, assistance is available for retrieving books formerly located in the Aero/Astro Library—call 617.253.5661, or inquire at the Barker Engineering Library Service Desk. Aero/Astro databases and other electronic resources will continue to be accessible 24/7, see http://libguides.mit.edu/aero for links to these resources. For additional information about Aero/Astro collections, contact Barbara Williams, the Aero/Astro librarian, via email or by phone at 617.253.5666.