New EBSCOhost User Interface Now Available

The library’s EBSCOhost databases are now using a new redesigned interface! Here is what EBSCO has to say about the change:

Why is EBSCO changing the EBSCOhost user experience and interface?

We are redesigning the EBSCOhost experience and user interface to meet ever-evolving user expectations for accessing, searching, choosing and using the library’s resources. We are introducing many new features including personalized dashboards, new ways to share and save resources, reading eBooks, and much more.  

How is the new EBSCOhost different from what I have today?

We have reimagined the new EBSCOhost experience and user interface (UI) based on customer feedback, usage data, user research and usability studies. The redesigned UI presents users with new, intuitive ways to refine, save and share search results.

For more information, check out EBSCO’s Quick Start Guide or this YouTube tutorial on performing a basic search with the new interface.

The new EBSCOhost interface

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please contact your liaison librarian or the systems or technical services librarians.

Limited Computer Access During New Student Orientation – June 2025

New Student orientation will take place at the Claire T. Carney Library over several days in June. Please note that this will limit access to our public computers on the following days:

6/9: Transfer Orientation

6/12: First-year Session I

6/13: First-year Session II

6/17-6/18: First-year Session III (overnight)

6/23-6/24: First-year Session IV (overnight)

6/26: First-year Session V

New students will have priority access to the library’s 1st floor and 2nd floor computers as part of their training on UMass Dartmouth systems. If you plan to visit the library during orientation, you are welcome to bring your own laptop or mobile device. UMass Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff may also borrow laptops at the first floor circulation desk. If you have any questions, please contact Library Administration.

If you have any questions, please contact Library Administration.

Announcing the Publication of PLCS 42: Mapping the Public Rituals of the Portuguese Empire

We are pleased to announce that Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies (PLCS) 42, “Mapping the Public Rituals of the Portuguese Empire,” is now available! You can find this issue as well as all back issues available for free on the journal’s website.

Present in all spaces of the Portuguese empire—which in the early modern period extended to four continents—public rituals offer a unique lens to compare cultural and political practices in different geographies, and to study their transmission and transformation on a global scale. This special issue gathers articles that analyze and compare public rituals—including royal acclamations, solemn entries, religious processions, and autos-da-fé—in various areas of the Portuguese empire, from Lisbon to Macau and Goa in Asia; Bahia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; and Luanda in Africa. With a focus on the spatial dimensions of ritual and the ethnic diversity of participants, the essays illuminate the various agendas, tensions, and dialogues on display in public rituals, and challenge simplistic readings of the relationship of public ritual to power and discipline, harmony and hierarchy.

The Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture’s Tagus Press publishes its electronic version of PLCS on the library’s journal hosting platform.

Institutional Repository (IR) Virtual Information Sessions for Faculty

Faculty, join our librarians for an overview of a new platform to showcase scholarly work, facilitate collaboration, and provide open access to federally funded research. Virtual overviews will be an hour and are on Tuesday April 1, 11am, Thursday April 10, 4pm, Monday April 14, 1pm, and Friday April 25, Noon.  

Click on the links above to register.

If you have any questions about the Institutional Repository, please contact us at repository@umassd.edu.

Library Computers Unavailable During Titan Challenge

On Wednesday, March 12th, the Claire T. Carney Library will host area high school students competing in the Junior Achievement Titan Business Challenge. The challenge is “a day-long business strategy competition in which students compete against other high schools in teams of three using an online business simulation.” The teams are supported by volunteer business mentors who help guide and teach the students.

The library’s 1st floor and 2nd floor computers will be unavailable starting the afternoon of March 11 –  March 12. If you plan to visit the library during this time, you are welcome to bring your own laptop or mobile device. UMass Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff may also borrow laptops at the first floor circulation desk.

Open Education Week 2025

March 3 – 7 is Open Education Week, an annual celebration designed to raise awareness and acknowledge successes in open education worldwide. Open Education is a movement that seeks to make learning more accessible and free from financial barriers. Examples of Open Education practices include adopting free, openly licensed textbooks from Openstax or OER Commons. Here are a few ways you can explore Open Education and get involved in OER this week and beyond:

  • Libretexts is offering a full schedule of events this week, from a four-part series designed to get faculty started in the ADAPT open homework and assessment platform, to presentations on creating, remixing, editing, adapting, an adopting OER with LibreTexts.
  • Accessibility in OER Commons, Thursday, March 6th, 10:00am with Rachel Oleaga, Open Massachusetts Hub Coordinator – “Open Massachusetts” is a platform for sharing open educational resources created and adopted by faculty from Massachusetts Public Higher Education Institutions. Attend this webinar to learn about accessibility features of the platform.
  • Open Educational Resources: Pro Search Tips, Friday, March 7th, 10:00am – 10:45am with Rebecca Dowgiert of Framingham State University – “There’s no OER out there for my program/course.” You may be right… but you also just might be surprised at what’s out there these days. Literally – new OERs are coming out every month. Come learn OER pro searching tips (including the easiest tip of all).

For questions about the hub in OER Commons or about Open Educational Resources (OER) please contact our Scholarly Communication Librarian.

Claire T. Carney Library Associates host former Boston Globe TV critic Matthew Gilbert

On Sunday, March 30, 2025, the Claire T. Carney Library Association will welcome former Boston Globe television critic Matthew Gilbert for a talk, followed by a question-and-answer conversation with Gilbert on his insights into the world of television.

Since 1987, Boston Globe readers enjoyed Gilbert’s features on books, television, movies, and pop culture. When his weekly column focused on television in 1997, he reviewed such popular shows as “Deadwood,” “NYPD: Blue,” “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” and countless others. As television shifted to cable and streaming services, Gilbert explored outstanding shows that were now able to create deeper, more complex characters, calling “Breaking Bad” the second-best TV series ever. His column curated a viewing list for readers and thoughtfully analyzed the plot lines, characters, and cliffhangers that become discussion topics for many fans.

Gilbert holds an M.A. in English literature from the University of New Hampshire where he was the managing editor of the bimonthly arts magazine, Boston Review, from 1981-1986.  He also served as managing editor of a national magazine, The New Age Journal, from 1986-1987 and has contributed articles for Slate, Esquire.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Parade and Bark. His book, Off the Leash:  A Year at the Dog Park, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2014. Gilbert has also interviewed actors, writers, authors, and celebrities including Shirley MacLaine, Meryl Streep, John Travolta, David Foster Wallace, Richard Ford, and Barbara Kingsolver.  Gilbert’s column ran in the Boston Globe until 2024. He continues to write, working as a freelancer and developing a second book.

A Q&A and light refreshments will follow his talk.

Register for the event through the Alumni & Friends Site.

A $10 donation is suggested and will support the Claire T. Carney Library Associates programming and special projects for the library.

Free parking is available on campus in lot 13.

For more information, please contact Susan Ahearn at sahearn@umassd.edu.

AC-Library-MatthewGilbert-02.25.25Download

PolicyMap Trial

The Library has a new database trial running for the month of February: a demographic data resource mapping tool called PolicyMap. 

Build visualizations to better understand a wide variety of data points geographically. Access and map thousands of indicators from authoritative public and proprietary sources through the web’s largest geographic data warehouse. PolicyMap’s dedicated team expertly curates the data to ensure it is the most current and accurate available, with the greatest geographic coverage of national data available at the local level across the US. The data comes from disparate sources but is standardized to allow for simple analysis across indicators. PolicyMap also creates unique data, such as trends over time and indices that combine relevant indicators.

Limited Computer Access During New Student Orientation – January 2025

New Student orientation will take place at the Claire T. Carney Library over a few days in January. Please note that this will limit access to our public computers on the following days:

  • Wednesday, January 15 – Transfer Orientation
  • Thursday, January 16 – New Student and Family Orientation
  • Friday, January 17 – Back up day in case of snow

New students will have priority access to the library’s 1st floor and 2nd floor computers as part of their training on UMass Dartmouth systems. If you plan to visit the library during orientation, you are welcome to bring your own laptop or mobile device. UMass Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff may also borrow laptops at the first floor circulation desk.

If you have any questions, please contact Library Administration.

UPDATE: EBSCOhost Database User Interface Upgrades Coming in July 2025

EBSCO will be upgrading their database user interfaces in 2025! The rollout of this new interface at UMass Dartmouth has been pushed back to July 31, 2025.

EBSCOhost has been redesigned based on user testing and feedback to improve usability and accessibility. The new interface will be less “busy,” with filters located in pop-up menus instead of automatically visible side panes, and it will include new features such as dashboards for saved articles and searches and added options for citing and sharing sources. EBSCO hopes to provide a productive and intuitive research experience with this new design.

For more information, check out the Introduction to the New EBSCOhost Tutorial or contact a librarian.

Screenshot of new EBSCO search interface
Screenshot of new EBSCO results interface