Upcoming RefWorks Basics Sessions at Lamont Library

Steve Kuehler and Chris Lenney, members of the Reference Services staff at Lamont Library, will offer a 50-minute training session in the basics of RefWorks on Wednesday, February 17, at 2:00pm. The class will be held in Room 310 on the third floor of Lamont.

RefWorks is a citation organizer that can import citations directly from many of Harvard’s library databases; create your bibliography in the format you choose; and insert citations or footnotes in your text as you write. This session will get you started in building and using your own RefWorks database.

All students, faculty, and staff are welcome, just register in advance (space is limited). Please get in touch with Steve (kuehler@fas.harvard.edu) or Chris (lenney@fas.harvard.edu) to do so.

At your service,
Cheryl

The Index to Ming Dynasty Chinese Paintings

The Fine Arts Library has just announced the launch of a new electronic resource, the Index to Ming Dynasty Chinese Paintings, a searchable database of over 10,000 records with information on Chinese painters and paintings of the mid-fourteenth through mid-seventeenth century Ming dynasty period. This unique database also has searchable bibliographies about the history of Chinese painters and paintings.

The creators of the Ming Index are currently seeking queries and comments from scholars in the field. To contribute to the Index, please get in touch with Nanni Deng, Asian Art Bibliographer at the Fine Arts Library, Tel: 617-495-0570, Email: ndeng@fas.harvard.edu.

At your service,
Cheryl

Margaret Fuller: A Woman of the Nineteenth Century

From January 21 through March 26, 2010, the exhibit, Margaret Fuller: A Woman of the Nineteenth Century, will be on view in the Amy Lowell Room at Houghton Library. Margaret Fuller is credited with being the first woman granted permission to do research at Harvard, and during the 19th century she educated the country on women's issues, the problems of slavery, and the plight of Native Americans. She also reported from a war-torn Italy. The exhibit explores her various pursuits in honor of the 200th anniversary of her birth in Cambridge.

A reception will be held on January 21 at 5:30pm in the Edison Newman Room at Houghton. For details please get in touch with Heather Cole at 617-495-2449.

At your service,
Cheryl

The Islamic Heritage Project

Here's a new resource about which I'm very excited: the Islamic Heritage Project is a digital collection of over 145,000 pages, including more than 260 manuscripts, 50+ maps, and nearly 300 printed texts from Harvard's library and museum collections. Materials date from the 13th to 20th centuries, and represent many regions (including Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and South, Southeast, and Central Asia), various languages (primarily Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish, as well as Urdu, Chagatai, Malay, Gujarati, Indic languages, and several Western languages), and numerous subjects [including religious texts and commentaries, Sufism, history, geography, law, and the sciences (astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine), poetry and literature, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy, calligraphy, dictionaries and grammar, biographies, and autobiographical works]. The database is searchable by keyword, title, name/creator, subject, and form/genre. It is also browsable by title, author/creator, country of origin, language, and by selected topics. Many of the materials in the collection are unique.

The project was produced by two coordinating partners: the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University and the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program. It was made possible by the generous support of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. This is a treasury of research material and a true jewel of an online collection, and I hope you will explore it at length.

At your service,
Cheryl

College Library Workshops for Grads in JTerm

The College Library is offering a series of workshops for grad students during the January term. They include a Harvard Map Collection Orientation, Basic Geographic Analysis, Working with Digital Historic Maps, an EndNote Workshop for the Sciences, Bibliography and History of the Book, and a RefWorks Basic session. Some sessions have limits on size, and they all require registration; you can get the direct info. to do so here.

Enjoy the break, and hope you take advantage of these special, free programs!
At your service,
Cheryl

Holiday and J-Term Library Hours

All of the College libraries will be closed from noon December 24, 2009 through January 3, 2010. From January 4th - 24th library hours will vary, so please check the library hour's page to see if the library you wish to visit will be open.

Happy holidays to everyone!
At your service,
Cheryl

HCL is now Twittering

The College Library (HCL) has recently launched a Twitter page as one more way to reach library users. Find our tweets at twitter.com by searching for: HCLibraries, or go to: http://twitter.com/hclibraries if you'd like to follow our tweets.

At your virtual service,
Cheryl