Fall 2020 Library Opening: Know Before You Go!

Welcome back, Falcons! The library will provide services and resources online during the first week of classes. Our doors will open to the Bentley community on Tuesday, September 8.  Below are important things to know about the library’s operations this fall trimester. For more detailed information, FAQs, and to check for updates, visit the Back to the Bentley Library guide.

Key Opening Dates

For detailed hours information, including virtual Reference Desk hours, view the library hours calendar.

Monday, August 31 –
Friday, September 4
Online services and resources only
Saturday, September 5 –
Monday, September 7
Labor Day holiday: All online help services closed
Tuesday, September 8Library building opens

Visiting the Bentley Library (starting Tuesday, September 8)

  • The library is operating in accordance with state and university COVID-19 public health guidelines. All library users and staff are required to wear face coverings, maintain 6 feet physical distance, and practice hand hygiene. Please perform your daily health self-check and stay home if you have any symptoms of COVID-19.
  • The library is instituting card swipe access this trimester. All Bentley students, faculty and staff will need to swipe a current Bentley ID at the main entrance to enter the building.
  • Building occupancy will be limited and monitored. Due to the occupancy limits, we ask that you please be courteous to others and mindful of your time in the library. Do not leave any personal belongings in the building, as you may not be able to re-enter to get them if we are at capacity.
  • Disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer are available throughout the library. Please wipe down any shared surfaces before and after you use them.
  • Food is prohibited in the library until further notice.

Study Rooms and Spaces

  • The library’s study rooms are subject to reduced capacity and physical distancing guidelines. Many study rooms are limited to single occupancy; some of the larger rooms accommodate two people. Please check the occupancy sign posted on each room. Study rooms are available on a first come, first served basis. Reservations are not available.
  • Furniture has been removed and rearranged to ensure proper physical distancing. In areas where furniture has not been reconfigured (e.g. study rooms), signage will clearly indicate the allowable occupancy.
  • Face coverings are required in all library spaces at all times, including in study rooms, study carrels and pods, and at study tables.

Borrowing Library Materials and Using Course Reserves

  • The library’s stacks are open and you may browse without restrictions while maintaining proper physical distance.
  • To minimize face-to-face interactions, we request that you use the library’s self-check machine to check out your items.
  • Please return your library items in the book return drop, located at the main entrance.
  • Returned items will be quarantined for a period of 3 days before being re-shelved or checked out to anyone else. The exception to this policy is Course Reserves, which circulate in-house for short periods of time. In order to ensure that all students have timely access to Reserves materials, they will not be quarantined. We remind you to wash your hands before and after using all library materials.

Online Resources and Research Help

Whether you are near or far, the library website—library.bentley.edu—is your portal to accessing online library services and resources.

  • Your Bentley email address and password grant you remote access to most library databases and electronic resources.
  • Research assistance will be provided online throughout the trimester. Reference Librarians are available to help via live chat, email (refdesk@bentley.edu), and text (781.728.0511). You can also book an appointment for a research consultation via Zoom. Virtual Reference Desk hours and contact information are posted on the Research Help page.
  • Librarians have created research guides for popular topics and specific classes such as GB112 and GB214. The guides are a great help in getting started when doing research for projects and papers.
  • The library provides free subscriptions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times online. Visit the Current News guide for registration details.

See more details about remote library services and resources at Getting Starting @ the Bentley Library – Online!

Computers & Printers

Computers and printers (color and B&W) are available for you to use if you need one. To install the Bentley print drivers on your laptop, visit the Falcon Printing website. You will also find information about printing funds and costs on that site.

Get Updates

Don’t forget to follow @BentleyLibrary on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates, news, events, and photos.

We look forward to seeing you—whether in person or online—this trimester! If you have questions, please reach out to us. We are here to help.

The Changes to the Study Room Reservation System You’ve Been Waiting For!

We are thrilled to announce several long-awaited changes to the group study room reservation system! We have recently launched a mobile-friendly version of our reservation system.  And, as if that wasn’t exciting enough, you can use the mobile interface to make, view, edit and even cancel your reservations.

You don’t need to be on a mobile device to use the new system.  If you would like to make, modify or cancel a reservation simply navigate to http://studyroom.bentley.edu/rsmobile/Login.aspx (or visit the group study room page and click on “Edit/Cancel”) and log-in using your Bentley email address and password.

78 (and counting!) Things You Didn’t Know About the Bentley Library

Whether you’re a heavy user of the library or only have a vague idea of our existence, there’s probably a lot you didn’t know about the way this place works. We polled the staff and came up with 78 things you might not know about the library. Can you think of any others? Something you were surprised to learn that you suspect your fellow Falcons don’t know about? Tell us in the comments, and we’ll add it to the list.

78 Things You Didn’t Know About the Bentley Library

 

  1. The library has more than 6,000 DVDs—from The Sopranos to Inside Job to Casablanca—and you can borrow them for free.
  2. Everyone at Bentley has an online library account. You can log in through the library’s catalog to place holds and renew items.
  3. Each academic year, around 260 classes come to the library’s Research Instruction Center for personalized instruction sessions with our reference librarians.
  4. During the academic year, the library is open 110.5 hours per week.
  5. Through the library, Bentley affiliates have access to the full text of more than 35,000 magazines, journals, and newspapers.
  6. The Bentley School of Accounting and Finance was established in 1917, but the first Bentley library was not founded until 1958. Professor James Boudreau was the first director.
  7. The Baker Library Collection is named after Solomon R. Baker ’24, who donated $250,000 to Bentley when it broke ground in Waltham.
  8. The library’s clock tower was built in 1973, five years after the rest of the building was completed.
  9. The library has lockers downstairs where you can stash your stuff for the day. Check out a key at the Library Services Desk!
  10. Never attended an opening reception at the art gallery in the library? You’re missing out on free food and a chance to talk to the artist.
  11. The library has a collection of online research guides assembling the best resources for different subject areas and courses. Our most popular subject guide is Accountancy, and the most popular class guides are for GB301.
  12. The library’s Bowles Room is named for Edward L. Bowles, former Trustee Emeritus and world-renowned scientist who donated his personal library to Bentley College in the early 1980s.
  13. The library’s Bowles Room has six DVD players so you can watch movies that have been placed on reserve.
  14. There are two public scanners in Computing Services on the lower level of the library building.
  15. There is a fax machine on the lower level of the library where you can send documents anywhere in the world free of charge.
  16. The library has eight regular printers and one color printer. You can print to them from any campus computer.
  17. Cell phone dead? Use one of the library’s old-school pay phones, located at the bottom of the front staircase. On-campus calls are free.
  18. The Careers Collection on the second floor of the library contains hundreds of career guides and job search skills books.
  19. Time to kill between classes? Sit and enjoy a magazine in the Current Periodicals section on the main floor of the library. Yes, you could read them online, but isn’t it more relaxing to flip through the glossy pages of People or Rolling Stone while you enjoy your latte?
  20. The library’s vending machines not only dispense Pepsi, Cheetos, and M&Ms, but also index cards, highlighters, and Tylenol.
  21. Reference librarians love nothing more than to help you with your research. They’ll answer your questions in person at the Reference Desk or via email, IM, and phone.
  22. Large, colorful building directories on the wall near all the library staircases can help you locate your study room, that certain section of the stacks, or the nearest restroom.
  23. To ensure that we always have the most popular bestsellers on the shelf, the library leases—not buys—all of our popular reading books. Books that aren’t as popular anymore are returned to make room for new items.
  24. The library has more than 600 audiobooks. They come in two formats—CD and Playaways, pre-loaded MP3 players.
  25. Laptop being fixed? There are 120 public computers in the library.
  26. Beware—laptop batteries get very hot! Protect yourself by using a lap desk. The library has them on hand in the main floor reading room.
  27. Looking for a super-quiet place to study? Try a study carrel on the top floor of the library.
  28. The library subscribes to more than 80 research databases that give you access to hundreds of thousands of articles and reports.
  29. The library has passes for free or reduced admission at area museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, the New England Aquarium, and the Franklin Park and Stone Zoos.
  30. Members of the Bentley community are welcome to borrow books from the Brandeis library. Cards are available at the Library Services Desk.
  31. The library offers workshops on conducting research and citing sources throughout the school year. We advertise them in our monthly email newsletter, on Facebook and Twitter, and in the library’s In the Know blog.
  32. Each library group study room has its own thermostat. You can control the temperature within the range of 68 to 72 degrees.
  33. If you access Google Scholar through the library’s databases page, it will recognize you as a Bentley user and link you to articles in many of our databases.
  34. The full text of the Wall Street Journal going back to 1889 is available through ProQuest. Factiva has it too, from 1979 to the present.
  35. Looking for the full text of the New York Times? You can find it in ProQuest going back to 1857.
  36. The library has an archive of school newspapers going back to 1959.
  37. The library’s reference collection is a trove of information you won’t find anywhere else—including statistics, historical information, and well-researched overviews of topics. Our expert reference librarians can help you find anything you’re looking for, too.
  38. Save time formatting your Google Scholar citations! You can export them to your RefWorks account to cite later.
  39. Faculty videos can be checked out by any Bentley community member for three days (unless, of course, a video is on reserve for a class).
  40. ProQuest is the library’s most-searched database, averaging 25,000 searches per month.
  41. Bentley has won several awards in the Business School Beanpot Case Analysis competition. The library houses the plaques—you can find them near the Current Periodicals section.
  42. The library has more than 7,000 autobiographies and biographies on people ranging from Jackie Robinson to Sarah Palin.
  43. The chimes you hear coming from the clock tower are not actually bells. It’s a recording!
  44. The library’s self-checkout station is a quick and easy way to check out your books and DVDs.
  45. On average, the library adds 1,000 new e-books per month to the collection.
  46. The library employs more than 30 students who perform work vital to our operation, from processing new books to checking out DVDs and delivering the mail.
  47. The Opposing Viewpoints book series can help you prepare for a paper, presentation, or speech. The library has 237 of these titles on topics from cyber crime to illegal immigration to teen drug abuse.
  48. The library receives nearly 10,000 new physical books per year..
  49. Reference librarians with specialized knowledge of particular subject areas read hundreds of reviews and scour catalogs to select books for the library’s collection.
  50. Each year, all 10,000 new books are ordered by just two people from the library’s technical services staff.
  51. The library has digital voice recorders that you can check out to record interviews or lectures.
  52. Anyone can submit a review to the library’s book review blog, Book Buzz.
  53. The library is open 24 hours during finals.
  54. The library was entirely renovated in 2006 for $17 million. During the renovation our collection of 200,000+ books and DVDs was packed up and sent to a storage unit.
  55. The library has a small but growing collection of graphic novels, including classics like Watchmen and Ghost World.
  56. You can suggest books and DVDs for us to add to the library’s collection. If we purchase the item, we’ll let you know. Submit your requests via the Suggest a Purchase form on our web page.
  57. You can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and check in at the library on Foursquare.
  58. Look out for the big jar of free highlighters that appears periodically at the library’s Reference Desk!
  59. You can check out headphones to use in the library at the Library Services Desk.
  60. The library has guides for many popular standardized tests, including the LSAT, GMAT, GRE, CPA, CFA, CISA, and CIFM exams.
  61. Two Bentley reference librarians have appeared on the quiz show Jeopardy!.
  62. Holding a conference call in a library group study room? You can borrow a conference phone from the Library Services Desk.
  63. The library’s catalog includes not only the collections housed in the library building, but also materials in the Center for Business Ethics and Women’s Center libraries.
  64. Wondering where the Dewey Decimal call numbers are? Like most academic libraries, Bentley uses the Library of Congress classification system—based on the books held by the Library of Congress—to organize and shelve books according to subject.
  65. The library owns copies of books written—and owned!—by Harry Bentley.
  66. Since 2004, the interlibrary loan staff has processed more than 50,000 requests.
  67. The library borrows and loans materials worldwide through interlibrary loan. Our books have travelled to Denmark, South Africa and Brazil.
  68. The Bentley book that has been requested the most through interlibrary loan is The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life.
  69. The journal held by the Bentley Library that has been requested most often by other libraries, with more than 500 requests for articles, is the International Journal of Mobile Communications.
  70. Because some library materials are only available on microfilm, we have a microfilm reader in the Bowles Room. You can scan and save articles to a PDF or JPG file.
  71. Interlibrary loan isn’t just for books! You can request articles, DVDs, CDs, and audio books—all for free.
  72. All current Bentley students can get a library card at the Waltham Public Library.
  73. In 2010, 705,308 people walked in or out the doors of the library (did you know the security gates measure that?). That’s an average of 58,000 people per month!
  74. Bentley Library patrons checked out 53,605 items in 2010. That’s an average of 4,400 books, DVDs, and other items a month.
  75. On average, the reference librarians answer 6,000 questions a year—in person, over the phone, and through IM and email.
  76. For the 2009-2010 school year, the most circulated popular reading title was The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. From the stacks, the book that circulated the most was Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
  77. The library has 24 group study rooms. On a busy day in April 2011, there were 353 individual reservations for those rooms.
  78. The library has 19 staff members who do everything from answering reference questions to ordering and processing books to managing course reserves and keeping the building running smoothly. Eleven members of the staff have a master’s degree in library science, and two are Bentley alums!