Workshop on oral history by Dr. Betty Hoffman, President of the New England Association of Oral History

Please register by October 1^st by calling 508 999-8689.

When: Thursday, Oct. 8th, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Where: Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth
Directions: http://www.umassd.edu/vtour/

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announces a workshop, “Recording Oral History: The Basics,” organized by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives in collaboration with the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the Claire T. Carney Library.

The event will take place on Thursday, October 8^th, from 1:00- 4:00 P.M. in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, located in the Claire T. Carney Library. 

The workshop is designed for individuals who are interested in interviewing people about their lives and about events that have shaped the history of our community, especially people and events related to the immigration and settlement of the Portuguese in this region.    

This free oral history workshop will give you a chance to work with expert oral historian, Dr. Betty Hoffman, president of the New England Association of Oral History, in learning the basic principles and techniques for collecting and preserving stories and memories that might otherwise be lost.  You will be introduced to the oral history process, including planning, interviewing techniques, equipment and release forms and will get the opportunity to practice some of the techniques learned.

Dr. Betty Hoffman is an anthropologist who has extensive experience in researching and recording local history.  She has been involved in many projects including, Witness to War: 1941-1945: The Soviet Jewish Experience, an oral history and photographic exhibition, which became the focal point for Military History Month at the Connecticut State Library and then traveled to venues throughout the country.

Her publications include: Jewish Hearts: A Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union, Honoring the Past, Building the Future: the History of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and Jewish West Hartford: From City to Suburb.

Please register by October 1^st by calling 508 999-8689.

For directions to the UMass Dartmouth campus, see http://www.umassd.edu/vtour/.

Workshop participants should use Parking Lot 7.  For handicapped parking, available adjacent to the library, use Parking Lot 13.

These sessions are geared to transfer students, but anyone is welcome to sign up.

This is your opportunity!

Please sign up for one of the upcoming sessions:

• Monday, Oct. 5,  2-3 pm
• Thursday, Oct. 8,  3:30-4:30
• Wednesday, Oct. 14, 10-11 am
• Monday, Oct. 19,  11am-12noon
• Tuesday, Oct. 20, 10-11 am
• Wednesday, Oct. 21  2-3pm

Look over the full schedule; You’re sure to find something of interest there!

Faculty are probably familiar with the term “information literacy.”  It appears frequently in discussions of standards, especially NEASC standards, and in relation to life-long learning. Librarians use these standards with your students.

This Brown Bag session is the first open meeting of a departmental seminar series, funded by the Provost.

Led by Kari Mofford , this session will introduce the series and will focus on information literacy standards and learning outcomes.  Faculty participants in the seminar series will explore practical activities to integrate information literacy into their own courses and ways to encourage better student research projects.

Phase 1 of the Claire T. Carney Library Renovation Project/Renovation will begin this Tuesday, August 4th, 2009. This phase will consist of the removal of all concrete located beneath the bridge and lecture halls (campus gateway) connecting the Science and Engineering Building to the Claire T. Carney Library. Prior to removal of the concrete all asbestos-containing caulking adjacent to or located in the demolition area will be abated by a licensed professional. If you have questions concerning this abatement please contact Lee Nason at 508-999-8103.

During the construction process no access will be permitted through this campus gateway. The contractor will be building temporary access roads, installing fences, etc. to allow for traffic flow while restricting access to his work area. The demolition work is expected to take approximately 30 days. It is our goal to be 100% complete with the demolition portion of this work by September, 2, 2009. The contractor will install a new handicapped ramp adjacent to the library as part of this contract. This ramp will provide access through this gateway for a period of approximately two years.

During the demolition process entrance to the library will be limited to the west-side ground level loading dock door and the second floor corridor from the Science and Engineering Building. All other library entrance/egress doors will be open for emergency egress.  If using one of these two entrances would be a hardship, special access can be arranged through the library staff.

If you are a wheelchair user who requires building access and these arrangements would not meet your needs, please contact Deb Majewski at our office of Equal Opportunity, Diversity and Outreach (X9293); she will help address special circumstances that arise.

We apologize in advance for this inconvenience.  Questions may be referred to Peter Geldmacher of Facilities Planning, Design, and Construction at X-8938.

UMass Libraries Welcome You to Science Boot Camp!

This Science Boot Camp is a first effort to prepare librarians to be leaders and participants in E-Science initiatives.

Reference librarians will be introduced to the basics of recent emerging disciplines. Science Boot Camp will introduce participants to Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology and GIS. Speakers will provide an introduction to the science, provide insights into the types of data that
are used in the discipline and give examples of applications of the data. Participants will also be introduced to data sources, websites and resources that are used in these disciplines.

Participants will come away with a better understanding of these disciplines and will be more prepared to assist students, faculty and researchers in their quest for and use of scientific data.

Over 60 librarians from 5 states are participating in this year’s camp. More information about the boot camp …

Directions to UMass Dartmouth.

We are pleased to announce Spring 2009 extended hours and 24-hour computer lab and study space for student use during the last weeks of classes and final exams.

The Learning Commons, located in the lower level of the Claire T. Carney Library, is open as follows:

May 3 – May 9th
Open until 3am.

May 10 – May 20th
Open on a 24×7 hour basis until 7 p.m. on Wed, May 20th.

IT Assistants will be staffing the Learning Commons lab. Personnel from the Department of Public Safety will be present for security and safety escort purposes. Wireless access, vending machines and restrooms are available for your convenience.

Please note extended hours are only in the lower level . The main Library is not open during extended hours.

For more information, contact the Learning Commons Service Desk at
lcdesk@umassd.edu or 508-999-8884.

Extended hours are sponsored by the Student Senate and the Residents Hall
Council

Please note that the fee waiver applies to the four week sessions, not the shorter three to five day statistical workshops.  If you’re interested in being nominated for a fee waiver, or if you have questions, please contact Prof. Heidi Berggren (x8272).

The admission price of $25.00 includes a full buffet brunch and the writers’ discussion of their books. Tickets will be available at the door. It is preferred, however, that all reservations be made in advance.  Checks, made payable to The Claire T. Carney Library Associates, can be sent to Mrs. Rita Raymond, 1032 Sterling Street, New Bedford, MA 02745. There will be ample parking in the Wamsutta Club parking lot. All proceeds benefit the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Claire T. Carney Library. For more information about the UMass Dartmouth library, visit http://www.lib.umassd.edu.

For additional information about this stellar program of great British and American writers, please contact Damaris Berner at 508 999-8671 dberner@umassd.edu or, Professor Yoken at myoken@umassd.edu

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The four authors: Pat LaMarche, Nigel Hamilton, Nancy Rubin Stuart and Adam Braver, are highly acclaimed writers of historical fiction, biography and social history.  Books will be available to be autographed by the authors.

Pat LaMarche is an author, educator, journalist, and broadcaster who has successfully managed business and charitable organizations, and is well known for her innovative approach to public service. LaMarche writes a weekly syndicated column dealing with politics and current events, and has leveraged her popularity to help provide food, heating oil and medical treatment for many of her fellow Mainers, as well as support for the Maine National Guard and September 11th relief crews. In 1998 and 2006, LaMarche ran for Governor of Maine and, in 2004, she served as the Green Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate. LaMarche is the only Maine woman to establish a political party in that state.  A graduate of Bangor’s John Bapst High School and Boston College, she also pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Amsterdam.  LaMarche’s recent book, Left Out in America (UpalaPress, 2006) will be discussed at the literary brunch. She is also a contributor to Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader.

Nigel Hamilton studied history at Cambridge University and has published many acclaimed biographies of significant historical value. He was appointed The John F. Kennedy Scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and wrote JFK: Reckless Youth (Random House, 1992.) In 2000 he returned to the University of Massachusetts Boston, John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies to write, Bill Clinton: An American Journey (Random House, 2003.) While researching and writing the second volume of his biography of Bill Clinton, Hamilton also wrote Biography – A Brief History, which was published to great acclaim by Harvard University Press in the spring of 2007.  He has researched and written extensive biographies about Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. In Monty: The Battles of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Random House, 1994) Hamilton revised and compressed the battle accounts of his three-volume official biography for the general reader.  Early in his career, Hamilton broke new ground in biography by looking at the lives not of one writer, but of two, in terms of sibling rivalry in, The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann 1871-1950 and 1875-1955 (Yale University Press, 1979.) Most recently, he has undertaken a modern version of Suetonius’ classic biographical work The Twelve Caesars. Hamilton’s new version will be called American Caesars, and cover the last twelve American presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush and will be published in 2010. He will undertake the third and final volume of his Clinton trilogy after completion of American Caesars.

Adam Braver is an American author who has published four acclaimed novels, mostly of historical fiction.  His first book was Mr. Lincoln’s Wars (Harper Perennial, 2003), is a novel told from thirteen different perspectives in order to illuminate Abraham Lincoln’s inner life. Second was Divine Sarah (William Morrow, 2004), which fictionalizes actress Sarah Barnhart’s Tour of America. Crows Over the Wheatfield (Harper Perennial, 2006) told the story of a renowned Van Gogh scholar struggling to deal with her guilt after she accidentally kills a young boy in a car accident. The most recent, Nov 22, 1963 (Tin House Books, 2008) is a fictionalization of the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Braver’s short stories have appeared in journals such as “Harvard Review,” “West Branch,” “Ontario Review,” and “Daedalus.” Braver teaches at Roger Williams University.  He also has been a regular writer-in-residence and faculty member at the New York State Summer Writers Institute.

Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in women, biography and social history. She has appeared on national television and radio shows in connection¬ with her books. These included appearances on C-Span’s Book TV, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, Charlie Rose, Oprah, A & E Network’s “America’s Castles” and “Mansions, Monuments and Masterpieces.” Stuart was just nominated for a George Washington Book Award on behalf of her latest book, The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Beacon Press, 2008.) In 2005, Harcourt published her biography about the co-founder of American spiritualism, The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox. Stuart’s best-selling biography American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post has been reprinted in paperback by (Universe, 2004.) Her earlier books include, Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen (St. Martin’s Press, 1991,) The Mother Mirror: How a Generation of Women Is Changing Motherhood in America (Putnam, 1984) and The New Suburban Woman: Beyond Myth and Motherhood (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982.) As a journalist, she has contributed to many publications including The New York Times, American History Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, American History, The Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time, Business Week’s Careers, Family Circle, Savvy and Travel and Leisure.

The Learning Commons, or LC, integrates library, technology, and academic support services for students, faculty, and staff. A cross-campus collaborative effort, the LC will be administered by the Division of Library Services, Information Resources and Technology with a campus-wide advisory group.

The first-floor LC is designed for undergraduates to study, write papers, prepare presentations for class, collaborate with groups, do library research, and get help with technology. Service Desk staff can assist with a variety of questions, from library and reference resources to technology services such as COIN, email, and support for software applications. Students can meet with tutors from the Writing & Reading Center in the evenings for help with writing papers. As the LC develops, additional support services will be offered.

The Scholarly Commons on the library second floor is designed for faculty and students engaged in advanced research. Reference librarians will provide expert assistance and instruction in the identification, evaluation, and use of information resources. The Center for Teaching Excellence is also located within the Scholarly Commons.

Two LC Training and Computer Classrooms on the lower level of the library are available for classes and campus-wide training and professional development.

The LC will be open during regular library hours, with additional 24×7 access during study and exam periods. The lower-level computer classrooms will be accessible for student use during peak study times.

As the university plans for the future expansion and renovation of the Claire T. Carney Library, the opening of the Learning Commons represents a major step in the ongoing mission to provide integrated library, technology, and academic support services for students, faculty, and staff.

For more information about the Learning Commons, please visit www.umassd.edu/lc/, call x8884, or email lc@umassd.edu.

Sharon Weiner, Dean of Library Services, and Donna Massano, Associate Vice Chancellor for Computing and Information Technology Services
Date: 1/23/09