Monthly Archives: November 2017

Migration and Mill Work: Portuguese Communities in Industrial New England – Free Conference

On Tuesday, December 5th from 2:30 to 5:30 pm the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archive will host three presentations as part of the Migration and Mill Work traveling academic conference. The presentations are free and open to the public. You’ll find the press release for the full conference at the bottom of this post.

Scheduled Presentations on Tuesday, Dec. 5th from 2:30 to 5:30
Ferreira Mendes Portuguese American Archive

Historical Exhibit: Understanding the 1920s in the South Coast. Sonia Pacheco, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archive

Using a variety of items—photographs, postcards, textual documents, oral histories— the exhibit will explore what it was like to live in the South Coast of Massachusetts during the 1920s. A time that saw both a burgeoning cultural scene but also a changing working environment for the Portuguese-American community that lived in this region.

Saving Portuguese American Labor History in the FMPAA. Daniel Georgianna. UMass, Dartmouth

The author of the Strike of ’28, a local labor leader, who collected many oral histories of Portuguese millworkers held in the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives will discuss his work, local Portuguese American labor history, and the wealth of research material in the FMPAA archives.

Racialism, Social Sciences and the Politics of Knowledge in the 1920s: the case of Two Portuguese Communities in New England Cristiana Bastos. ICS, Universidade de Lisboa

Although he used state-of-the-art social science research methods (including extensive statistical analysis) to address social problems like infant mortality in migrant cities, Donald Tafts’s 1923 Two Portuguese communities did not fully depart from the old racialist paradigm with some of the work stirring indignation among New England’s Portuguese. This presentation will discuss the political and intellectual context of the book’s contents and reactions to it.

Press Release for Migration and Mill Work

Press Release Migration and Millwork

 

 

Claire T. Carney Library End of Semester Announcement

Poster of Claire T. Carney Library and Open 24 HoursThe Claire T. Carney Library will open its doors to the UMassD community for 24/7 hours starting at noon on December 3rd (Sunday) until December 18th (Monday) when we will close at 10PM.  Library services for Circulation/Reserves, the Digital Media Center, and Reference will not have extended hours, so make sure to visit those service points during regular hours.  You will also need a UMass Pass to enter the building after 10PM and until regular opening hours the next day.

We hope you will find a variety of study spaces to choose from including our quiet study areas in the South Reading Room and Grand Reading Room (when no events are scheduled), several group study rooms available by reservation, and many individual and group study areas throughout the building.

Please be mindful that we will be close to seating capacity, so if you are at a group table and not expecting team members, please use our Open/Taken table tents to offer seats to others.

We also encourage everyone to be respectful of the space and other students by watching noise levels and picking up after yourselves should you bring any food/drink.

If you have any question, please contact our staff either at the Circulation/Reserve desk (x8750), the Learning Commons desk (x8884), or the overnight security staff.

We wish you all the best with your exams and a productive end to the semester!   

Using FastCase and HeinOnline for Legal Research

Are you doing caselaw or legal research, but confused on how to get started? Not sure if you have all the tools you need, or if there are accessible alternatives to Google Scholar or the Cornell LLI? If you’re researching these topics, you need to know about our library subscriptions to HeinOnline and FastCase.

FastCase provides access to federal and state case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, constitutions, and connects with HeinOnline to provide law review articles. Its search abilities and added tools are like the functions you’d find in other legal research platforms, and FastCase has the added benefit of being one of the most widely used tools for legal research thanks to many State Bar Associations providing it to lawyers (including Massachusetts).

HeinOnline is a database covering legal history, government documents and reports, legal reviews, and international law. The integration of HeinOnline with FastCase also allows you to quickly find the case law or court decision cited in a law journal or other legal classic. Together, these two platforms should cover your most of your legal research needs!

If you’d like to know more about how to use these powerful tools, contact your librarian liaison.

 

Position Opening: Web and Discovery Services Librarian

We are looking for a service-oriented librarian to develop and enhance our library user interfaces. This includes the library’s website and blog as well as our Primo discovery service. The Web and Discovery Services Librarian will be part of a creative and forward-looking team and will participate in a variety of new library initiatives. This librarian will lead the library’s usability efforts and will adapt new and existing web tools to improve the library’s online platforms and interfaces.  This position offers the potential for a librarian to grow and develop in the areas of web interface development and library systems.

Read the job description and apply at https://bit.ly/2Aob15y 

 

YouTube Channel for UMass Dartmouth Library Services

UMass Dartmouth Library YouTube Channel

You do research in all kinds of places—work, school, home, coffee shops—and at all times of the day, including late at night. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get help wherever and whenever you needed it?

Now you can! The UMass Dartmouth Library recently launched a YouTube channel chock-full of short videos to help you with common research questions. No librarian on duty at 2am? No problem!

The Library’s playlists include:

Locating or Requesting Full-Text Articles: Did you find a citation you like but can’t figure out how to get the article? This playlist will show you how to get from citation to full-text article.

EBSCO Databases: Most videos are a minute or less, and cover topics like limiting and sorting search results, emailing articles, and getting article citations. These are applicable in dozens of databases, including Business Source Complete, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, MLA International Bibliography, PsycINFO, and SocINDEX.

There are also videos geared toward those studying specific disciplines, like nursing and psychology. More videos will be added throughout the year, so be sure to subscribe to the Library’s YouTube channel!

SciFi Book Club to discuss The Martian

The Science Fiction Book Club has selected Andy Weir’s The Martian as our final book for the Fall semester. The Martian tells the tale of an astronaut accidently left on Mars and how he attempts to survive. While the book is very science-heavy, it’s readable by folks who didn’t major in any of the hard sciences.

The book was originally published in 2011 on Weir’s blog and became immensely popular. After readers requested it to be available in eBook format, Weir self-published it on Amazon’s Kindle Store and soon found his book on the best seller list. Weir was initially contacted by a small audio-book publisher and by Random House shortly after. The book was released in print in 2014 but for almost a year prior it was only available as an audio-book. Read more about the publishing process on NPR.

Within weeks of securing the book deal with Random House, Weir also had a movie contract in his hands. The movie, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, was released in 2015. It was nominated for several Academy Awards and won two Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and Best Actor.

Weir’s new book, Artemis, is about a high stakes heist taking place on the moon. It’ll be released on November 14th. Perhaps this will be a future book club read!

To find The Martian, look at your public library or request the book from interlibrary loan.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, November 30th from 12:30-1:30pm in LIB-314 to discuss The Martian.