Do You Use JSTOR? Tell Me About It, Please

If you use JSTOR for your research, and have particular likes and/or dislikes about the current version of the database, please let me know what they are. As you can see from this blog post at my other blog, for Library Journal, I have some issues with it, and their Associate Director for
Education & Outreach has invited me to talk with her and one of their product managers about the database. I would like to gather information from scholarly researchers on what works well for you, and what might not work so well, so I can share it with the JSTOR folks.

You can simply comment to this blog, or to my e-Views blog, or send me e-mail directly (at: claguard@fas.harvard.edu) if you have any information you'd like to share.

Thanks for your help, and I continue to be --
At your service,
Cheryl

Books in Books: an online exhibition

Houghton Library launched today a new online exhibition, Books in Books: Reflections on Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages. It's a joint project of the Houghton Library and Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture, and Chair, Medieval Studies Committee, and is a complement to the General Education Program course “Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 16, Openings: The Illuminated Manuscript” taught by Professor Hamburger. A physical exhibition of the same name opens April 5th in Houghton Library.

If you're interested in medieval manuscripts, take a look at Houghton's Digital Medieval Manuscripts, a good resource for studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Western Europe. It gives strategies for searching Houghton's medieval manuscripts plus links to bibliographies related to these materials.

At your service,
Cheryl

Exploring Reading Online: New Site

Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History is "an online exploration of the intellectual, cultural, and political history of reading as reflected in the historical holdings of the Harvard Libraries." The site contains over 1,200 books and manuscripts which offer over 250,000 pages of web-accessible materials about reading.

Take a look to find out more about this hot intellectual and cultural topic.

At your service,
Cheryl

The Digital Collections of Harvard College Library

The Digital Collections of Harvard College Library is now available on the College Library web site. It features an index page called Explore the Collections that leads to individual descriptions each of HCL’s collections, as well as to information about Projects in Progress and other Harvard resources. There is also a page describing the HCL Collections Digitization Program.

There's a plethora of fascinating material here, and I hope it is useful to you for your research and study.
At your service,
Cheryl

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