Healey Keynotes

NEW - MideastWire.com

Frances Schlesinger — 2008-10-23T09:10:00-04:00

Daily Briefs from the Arabic and Persian Media

Responding to a request from the McCormack School, the library has purchased a membership with Mideastwire.com. For access to their website please send your university affiliated email address to info@mideastwire.com and they will activate your account.

Mideastwire started over three and half years ago as a service providing daily briefs translated into English from the Arabic and Persian media - these include all of the top newspapers, some satellite TV and radio. They do about 35 briefs each business day covering opinion, business, political and society/cultural pieces that appear in these various media outlets - you get that day's most interesting news emailed to you, something which they think gives subscribers a better sense of what the local and pan-Arab media is reporting on and discussing. Each brief also contains precisely translated quotes, statistics and context. In addition we have a searchable database of over 22,000 archived items on their website, making Mideastwire ideally suited for researchers, journalists, policy makers, advocates etc.

The Wall Street Bailout, or the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: H.R. 1424"

Frances Schlesinger — 2008-10-07T11:17:18-04:00

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: H.R. 1424 is a bill to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes.

If you want to trace the Congressional actions, statements, and documents that led to the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 two good sources of information are Thomas, the U.S. Library of Congress’s legislative information web site and LexisNexis Congressional database. They both serve as gateways to the legislative history of the law. In addition CQ Weekly reports on Congressional news and provides analysis of public policy issues.

THOMAS
Currently Thomas provides a link to the Act right from the Thomas homepage. On the Act's page, you have links to References to this bill in the Congressional Record and to the Bill Summary and Status page. The Bill Summary and Status page offers easy access to key information about the bill.

LEXISNEXIS CONGRESSIONAL

LexisNexis Congressional also provides you with the text of the act and key information regarding it. In LexisNexis Congressional select Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws - Get Document and choose the Bill Tracking option.

You will get the text, actions, the sponsors, and the legislative chronology with links to the Congressional Record Digest. You can also do a separate search of the Daily Congressional Record to read the entire account available in the Congressional Record.

To research House bill H.R. 3997, which failed on September 29, 2008 use the Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws search option as shown above. In addition, the House Rules Committee Report 110-903 includes the text of the House amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3997. Use the Congressional Publications - Search by Number search option to retrieve it.

CQ WEEKLY

CQ Weekly’s article Financial Rescue Becomes Law covers Congress’s twists and turns as it worked to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

For the bigger picture take a look at the Financial Crisis LibGuide created by Louise Feldman, Business and Economics Librarian at Colorado State University, which covers not only the United States's financial crisis but also the global crisis.

NEW - The Garland Encylopedia of World Music Online

Frances Schlesinger — 2008-09-19T14:07:14-04:00

With the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online, Healey Library now has an online encyclopedia covering music from all around the world - Africa; Australia and the Pacific Islands; East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea; Europe; the Middle East; South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean; Southeast Asia; South Asia: the Indian Subcontinent; and the United States and Canada.

It is an ethnomusicological delight. You can find illustrated articles on musical instruments from accordions to zithers, research composers and performers, and study an area’s musical heritage and genres. Plus it includes audio samples of music from each area of the world.

Enjoy!

HAPI: Health and Psychosocial Instruments

Louisa Tseng — 2008-09-15T11:03:19-04:00

HaPI: Health and Psychosocial Instruments

Researchers in nursing, public health, psychology will find HaPI to be a useful new resource for their projects. It is a database of information on measurement instruments in the health and behavioral sciences.

HaPI covers and describes: 450.000 records

From 1985 to present, with many earlier measures

Questionnarires
Interview Schedules
Vignettes/Scenarios
Coding Schemes
Rating and other Scales
Checklists
Indexes
Tests
Projective Techniques
And much more!

HaPI provides information on behavioral measurement in:

Medicine
Nursing
Public Health
Allied Health
Dentistry
Organization Behavior
Psychology
Sociology
Communication
Social Work

Elizabeth Mock's book gets front page in the Women's Review of Books

George Hart — 2008-08-06T15:21:14-04:00

The new book Hanoi Journal 1967 ( Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007) by Carol Cohen McEldowney and edited by Suzanne Kelley McCormack and Elizabeth R. Mock is featured in a review on the front page of the current Women's Review of Books.

The review is titled Blasts From the Past and is written by Alice Echols.

As Echols writes, "McEldowney never imagined that her journal would see the light of day, and, as a consequence it has an appealing off-the-cuff quality. Hanoi Journal 1967
is informative in all sorts of ways, and when she is not meticulously cataloguing the finer details of North Vietnamese society—the organization of its factories, neighborhoods, schools, and women’s organizations—and gathering evidence of American bombing and the resulting atrocities, it is entertaining as well."

Thanks to the work of Healey Library's Elizabeth Mock and her collaborator Suzanne Kelley McCormack, this book now sees the light of day.

Massachusetts Laws Online

Healey Library UMass Boston — 2008-08-05T15:28:25-04:00

Healey Library was delighted to learn that the Massachusetts Acts and Resolves 1960-1996 have been digitized by our State Librarian and are now online.

The State Library of Massachusetts has digitized volumes from 1960 to 1996 and the full-text of these laws is now available for searching and viewing on this site. Session laws from 1997 to the present are online on the Massachusetts General Court’s website (www.mass.gov/legis). Private Bills, such as that assisting the New England Small Farm Institute—below—are now at our fingertips.

Poet Laureate announced

Tina Mullins — 2008-07-21T15:59:18-04:00

On July 17th the Library of Congress announced Kay Ryan as this year's poet laureate. Her poems are known for their simplicity and accessibility. Ryan explains, "An almost empty suitcase–that’s what I want my poems to be. A few things. The reader starts taking them out, but they keep multiplying." The New York Times described Ryan, as an "outsider with sly style". She has written six books of poetry and as well as essays. Her poetry is included in 100 essential modern poems and Literature : an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama at the Healey Library.

You can find Ryan's poetry in Academic Search Premier.

Educational Videos Online

Tina Mullins — 2008-07-10T17:29:08-04:00

While YouTube offers seemly a endless number of videos, many have little educational value. However, the folks at Open Culture have compiled a list of videos with educational content. They identified 70 collections which are listed under 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube. Find everything from news broadcasts to science programs.

For those interested in arts, Boston Public Library now subscribes to Dance, Opera and Theatre in Video. These three databases contain close to a thousand performances and documentaries. UMB students and any Massachusetts resident can apply for a Boston Public Library eCard and view these videos for free.

Accessibility Resources

Healey Library UMass Boston — 2008-06-16T15:37:39-04:00

The Curriculum Resource Center (CRC) has collaborated with the Equity & Excellence in Higher Education committee for the past two years to focus on Universal Course Design. This collaboration has resulted in the CRC obtaining the following resources:

Boardmaker Software

"The premier software among educators for creating printed symbol-based communication and educational materials”.
It is a graphics database that can be used to build a Communication Board in any language.

Braille/Print Children’s Books

The CRC receives 12 Braille / Print children’s books a year, through the National Braille Press book-of-the-month club. Each book has print words and illustrations, with an overlay of Braille.

Kidspiration and Inspiration Software

"Strengthens critical thinking, comprehension and writing across the curriculum".

Kurzweil 3000 software

Can convert most PDFs to readable documents (for students with visual impairment or blindness)
Enlarges words on the screen
Has sophisticated Screen Reader
Scans and digitizes print documents, making them screen readable

Math Window

“Math Window consists of a magnetic board and tiles that allow blind students to build and solve math problems”.

In addition to the tools above, a resource map, Accessibility Resources at UMB, is now available at the Healey Library in print, Braille and large print, thanks to the Equity & Excellence committee (Carol DeSouza, Ginny Perelson, Kirsten Behling, Lori Mateljan, Marilyn Day, Stanley Dick, Tikeon Sealey, Valerie Carroll & Valerie Haven).

Please visit the Equity & Excellence website, to find information about Universal Course Design at UMB, such as:

Introductory Universal Course Design video (filmed at UMB)
Tutorials explaining how to incorporate UCD strategy into a course
UCD instructional tools, technologies, assessment, resources & environmental strategies

Moving forward at the Healey Library

Jeremy Seiferth — 2008-05-22T16:34:30-04:00

A few weeks ago, University Librarian Daniel Ortiz was happy to announce that the Healey Library had joined the Fenway Libraries Online (FLO.)

We have already begun to enjoy the fruits of this alliance; recently the staff at FLO regenerated the keyword index for Healey Library's Voyager catalog; upgrading subject headings, author names, and words in titles.

This will make searches of Voyager faster, more relevant, more robust, and allow you to find what you need on our shelves!

Dr. Ortiz, the staff of Healey Library, and the staff at FLO, are working on many more improvements in the coming months.

Soon, we will soon a new way to access eJournals will be introduced, making finding that important research article that much easier. We will be rolling out a complete upgrade of our Voyager catalog as well!

Summer 2008 is going to be an exciting time at the library, stay tuned for more announcements from Dr. Ortiz!