Life Stories

On Display: Life Stories

Life StoriesOne question we get quite a lot at the reference desk is “Where is your biography section?”. This is not an easy question to answer. The library has thousands of biographies, autobiographies and memoirs in our collection, but these titles are classified under various topics/disciplines which puts them in different call number areas of the collection.

On Display: Life Stories via Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/bentleylibrary/

Currently on display in the Library lobby is a collection of biographies and autobiographies celebrating the wide variety of people and places published in this genre. Included are winners of the Pulitzer Award, National Book Critics Award, James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award. We have also included some brand new 2012 titles and some staff picks.

Please stop by and browse, or, check out the display on Pinterest!

Spring Break Hours: March 10-18

Those of you who are not headed out of town for spring break might be wondering if the library will be open.  You’ll be pleased to hear that we are, with some minor modifications to our normal hours.  Alas, Einstein’s will be closed, so you’ll need to bring your own caffeine and carbohydrates with you.

Saturday, March 10 & Sunday, March 11:
CLOSED

Monday, March 12 — Thursday, March 15:
8:00am to 6:00pm

Friday, March 16:
8:00am to 4:30pm

Saturday, March 17:
CLOSED

Sunday, March 18:
1:00pm to 2:00am

Please note: The Deloitte Cafe/Einstein Bros. Bagels will be closed Saturday, March 10 through Sunday, March 18.

The library and cafe will resume regular hours on Monday, March 19, 2012. To view more information about our hours please check our online hours calendarEnjoy the break!

March is Women’s History Month

Strikers ca. 1910-1915

Since 1987, March has been proclaimed National Women’s History Month in the United States. March 8 has also been observed  as International Women’s Day since the early 1900s, born out of the suffrage movements of that era. Learn more about women’s history by delving into the wealth of materials the Bentley Library and the Internet have on the topic!

Starting places on the library’s website include our research guides on both Gender Issues and History, which will point you toward key databases, books, videos, and websites in those areas.

Take a look at the Women’s Studies section of one of our latest databases, Films on Demand, to see videos ranging from a history of women at West Point to speeches given by key figures in women’s rights to a full-length PBS film on the introduction of birth control.

Singer/songwriter Billie Holiday

Our library catalog is packed with books, films, and electronic documents about women’s history; this is just a sampling:

Meanwhile, Bentley’s Women’s Center has its own library of books. Search it right from the Bentley Library’s catalog, or stop by LaCava 120 to browse for yourself. Keep your women’s history local by keeping up with the Women’s Center on Twitter and Facebook, and look for events on HerCampus Bentley, too.

Also locally, you may want to check out the centennial events going on this year at Orchard House in Concord, historic home of writer Louisa May Alcott and her family. More information can be found in this Boston Globe article.*

Learn more about Women’s History Month at the websites of the National Women’s History Project and womenshistorymonth.gov, both of which contain images, histories, and chances to test your knowledge.

The photos on this page came from a Library of Congress flickr set called “Women Striving Forward, 1910s-1940s.”

 

*(Thanks for the tip, Barb!)

Bentley Library Information Literacy Series: “The Future of Information Literacy”

Please join us on Thursday, March 29, for the spring installment in the Bentley Library Information Literacy Series, featuring Laura Saunders, assistant professor at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Light refreshments will be available in LaCava 325AB at 3:30 pm, with the event getting underway at 4:00 pm.

“The Future of Information Literacy”

Bentley Library Information Literacy Series

Speaker

Laura Saunders, Assistant Professor, Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science

Prof. Saunders is a former academic reference and instruction librarian who holds master’s and doctoral degrees in library and information science from Simmons. She is an expert on information literacy and will speak about the future of information literacy—how research and evaluation skills transfer from high school to college, and from college to beyond, and how faculty and students both contribute to students’ ongoing learning of information literacy skills and concepts.

More information about Prof. Saunders and her research and teaching is available on the Simmons College GSLIS website.

Please RSVP to Liz Galoozis by March 15 if you plan to bring a class to the event or will require students to attend.

For library colleagues attending from other institutions, a tour of the Bentley Library will follow the talk.

Upcoming Workshop: Citing Sources: Why, When, How (with the Writing Center)

Back by popular demand! The Writing Center and Library are once again joining forces to offer a workshop that takes the mystery out of citing sources:

Citing Sources: Why, When and How

Why do your professors spend so much time talking about citations? Does it feel like busywork? Come learn how to cite sources for any format. We’ll show you how to do it, where to find resources, and why you should care.

Have sources or a bibliography you need help with? Bring it with you!

Offered at two different times:

  • Monday, March 5, 5:00-6:00
  • Tuesday, March 6, 5:00-6:00

Both sessions take place in the Research Instruction Center (RIC), Room 11, on the library’s lower level.

Presented by: Greg Farber-Mazor, Interim Director, Writing Center and Liz Galoozis, Reference Librarian

Email library@bentley.edu to reserve your seat now – and tell us which session you’ll be attending!

Database of the Month: American FactFinder

American FactFinder is a web tool provided by the United States Census Bureau that offers access to some of the Bureau’s largest data sets, including information from the Decennial Census, American Community Survey, Economic Census and Population Estimates Program. American FactFinder helps you find population, economic, housing, industry, and business data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. Many of these statistics are broken down at the national, state, county and place levels.

On January 20, 2012, American FactFinder went through a major upgrade and now has a new look and features.

Searching American FactFinder

You can use the Quick Start box located in the middle of the screen to pull up tables or data files that meet your search criteria. You can search by topic or table or for a specific state, county or place.  You may use the links on the left side of the page (under Search Using the Options Below) to browse topics, geographies, race and ethnic groups, or industry codes associated with the many different statistical data sets contained in the site.

The data in American FactFinder comes from several censuses and surveys. To learn more about the individual surveys click on the symbol next to each table on the search results page.

Learn More About this Resource

Click here to discover more information about the new American FactFinder or to view an excellent (5 minute) virtual tour of this new service.  If you need any assistance using American FactFinder or any other library resources, please contact a Reference Librarian.

Connect to American FactFinder

American FactFinder is available at http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Please note: American FactFinder works best with Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. Other browsers may not perform as expected.

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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to an important research database, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases) please contact the Reference Desk.  If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact our Coordinator of User Education, Elizabeth Galoozis.

Drop-In Research Help: I Just Need Three Sources by Tomorrow!

In the library during activity period? Need help finding that scholarly article or deciding what information is okay to use for class?

This spring, the library will continue to offer drop-in workshops every Monday from 2:10 to 3:25 (during activity period) for students to get one-on-one help with finding sources for papers or projects.

Bring whatever you are working on to a reference librarian and get immediate, one-on-one, expert assistance in finding the information you need, whether it be articles, statistics, company information, or books. You will walk away with the source or two (or three) that you need!

There is no RSVP or appointment needed. Just drop by the library’s Research Instruction Center (RIC) any Monday from 2:10 to 3:25, February 13th through April 30th. (Some holiday Mondays this workshop will not be offered – check our events calendar for the full list.)