Press Releases 2010

"Heavy machinery was airlifted to the top of the Du Bois library early Monday, as part of a project to replace the building's elevators.  The area surrounding the library and campus pond was roped off and the library closed for the day as a helicopter dropped the machinery on the roof of the 28-story building."  Story, video, photos

December 20, 2010  •  MassLive.com

On Monday, December 20, 2010, the Du Bois Library will be closed for work associated with the elevator replacement project.  More information

December 14, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries now provide access to the following databases and electronic resources, which can be found at www.library.umass.edu/.  These and many other resources are available to users anywhere with an OIT account and to all walk-in users.  More information

November 19, 2010

Camcorders, digital audio recorders, and their accessories are available to UMass Amherst students to assist them with multimedia class assignments thanks to the collaboration of OIT, the Provost's Office, and the Libraries. The equipment is available for 3-day loans at the Circulation/Reserves desk on the Lower Level of Du Bois Library.  More information

November 17, 2010

The Library will hold a holiday gift fair on December 10, from 10 am to 3 pm, on the Lower Level, Learning Commons (north side), Du Bois Library.  The fair will include hand-made crafts made by Library staff and students, including jewelry, woodcrafts, ornaments, cards, quilts, and much more.

November 16, 2010

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) is the newest provider in the Learning Commons.  OURS is located next to the Advising Link on the Lower Level of Du Bois Library.  Staff are available to answer questions about undergraduate research, internships, and other out-of-classroom academic opportunities, as well as application support for these opportunities.  The desk is staffed from 4:30pm to 7:30pm, Monday through Thursday.  More information

November 9, 2010

The vast archival collection of Mark H. McCormack, creator of the sport management and marketing industry, will be housed in the Library, providing an unprecedented opportunity for research and education in the field. The gift comprises McCormack’s writings, photographs and client-related memorabilia, dating to 1960 when a handshake with legendary golfer Arnold Palmer launched what would become the world’s largest sport management firm. Press Release   Boston Globe   CNBC  YouTube video

November 4, 2010

Gordon Fretwell, retired Associate Director of UMass Amherst Libraries, has received the 2010 Library Assessment Career Achievement Award from the Association of Research Libraries.  Fretwell was instrumental in creating the definitions for standardized use of statistical data for research libraries.  He helped make it possible for research libraries to contribute and use high quality comparable data for effective library management.  Press Release

November 1, 2010

The Libraries have initiated a project to replace all five elevators in the Du Bois Library.  One elevator at a time will be taken out of service and each elevator replacement will take approximately 12 to 16 weeks.  The project is expected to be completed in 2012.  More information

October 21, 2010

The Libraries are pleased to offer a new discovery tool, UMass Amherst WorldCat, for finding books, journals, articles, media, maps and more in libraries and collections locally and around the world.  Available as the default search box on the Libraries home page, UMass Amherst WorldCat gives searchers a simple gateway to find and retrieve a broad range of materials.  More information

October 21, 2010

Students studying in the Du Bois Library between midnight and 4 a.m. were interviewed in a feature story, "3 a.m. is for books. Spending all night at the UMass library," on the front page of the Living Section in The Hampshire Gazette.  Full story

October 13, 2010 • The Hampshire Gazette 

The Libraries host an exhibit, “From Gay Liberation to UPride and Queerfest: Four Decades of LGBT Activism and Visibility at UMass Amherst,” on the Lower Level of Du Bois Library through 1/14/11.  The exhibit includes two events on October 20 in the same location: a panel discussion on LGBT history from 3-5 pm, and an opening reception from 5-6 pm.  More information

October 15, 2010 

The University of Massachusetts ranks 159th among the top 200 users of arXiv.  Pronounced “archive,” arXiv is a highly automated electronic archive and distribution server that provides open access to over 630,000 electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, and quantitative finance and statistics.  More information

October 13, 2010

Open Access Week, a global event in its fourth year, will be held from Oct. 18 to Oct. 22 this year. As part of 2010 Open Access Week, UMass Amherst Libraries will host a series of events relevant to open access journals, open conference proceedings, open educational resources, open data, and copyright and author rights. Full schedule at http://scholarworks.umass.edu/oa/2010/.  More information

October 8, 2010

The Libraries will host “Exploring Open Access Journals: Celebrating the Launch of Landscapes of Violence” on Oct 21, 2010, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in the Teaching Commons, Floor 26, Du Bois Library. The event will provide an overview of the field of open access journals and ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst, and celebrate the launch of the new interdisciplinary open access journal Landscapes of Violence.  More information

October 4, 2010

Looking for streaming video or audio materials to integrate into instructional sessions or student projects?   The Libraries provide access to fourteen streaming audio and video databases containing thousands of documentaries, staged productions, film, and video segments, classical music, jazz, blues, and much more.   More information

October 5, 2010

September 27, 2010

The Libraries host an exhibit, “Uncertain Futures: Americans and Science Fiction in the Early Cold War Era,” through October  31, on Floor 25, Du Bois Library.  The exhibit can be viewed Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm and includes science fiction magazines from 1945-1965, as well as documents and photos of prominent cold war-era science fiction authors, editors, and fans.  More information

September 23, 2010

On Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, Steven Lerner will give a talk, “Sacrifice Zones: the Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure," from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in the Conference Room at Gordon Hall, 418 North Pleasant Street, Amherst.  On Thursday, October 28, 2010, at 6:00 p.m., Amy Bass will give a talk, “Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The 1968 Olympics and the Creation of the Black Athlete,” in Room 803, Campus Center, UMass Amherst.  More information

September 22, 2010

The Libraries will host "Ethics Day: Engaging Librarians in the Responsible Conduct of Research," a professional development program for New England area science librarians, on Friday, October 8, from 9am to 5 pm., on Floor 26, Du Bois Library.  More information

September 13, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries have implemented several changes over the summer to improve service to users and optimize space.  These include a redesigned website, enhanced searching ability, a combined Circulation/Reserves Desk, a Teaching Commons, and more.  News Release

September 7, 2010

An exhibit of photographs by Les Campbell are on display in the Science and Engineering Library in Lederle Lowrise through January 6, 2011.  An opening reception will be held on September 23, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.   More information

September 1, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries will host a panel discussion on Open Educational Resources, “How Can a Textbook Be Free? Keeping Higher Education Affordable with Open Resources,” on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., in Room 163C of the Campus Center, at UMass Amherst. The panel will include Stephen Carson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Eric Frank ’92 and Michael Boezi from Flat World Knowledge.   More information

August 25, 2010

On Wednesday, September 1, 2010, the UMass Amherst Libraries host “Promoting Academic Honesty and Preventing Plagiarism with Turnitin” from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in Room 2601, Du Bois Library. The session provides an overview of the software Turnitin and shows instructors how to utilize it as a tool for evaluating written work.  More information    Register by going to OIT calendar

August 25, 2010

On Sunday, October 3, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., the Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries will host the 12th Annual Fall Reception in the Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union. The keynote speakers, authors Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd, will give a talk "To Eat: Murder and Vegetables in a Bucolic Setting." The program starts at 2:30 p.m.; the event is free and open to the public.  Full story

August 10, 2010     invitation

Students, artists, and community members are helping to repaint a mural depicting the life of W.E.B. Du Bois, the Library's namesake, in Great Barrington.  Du Bois was born there and went on to become one of the leading black thinkers of the 20th century.  

When artist Brett Parson and Jake Reiny arrived at the Taconic parking lot on Sunday at 10 a.m. to being repainting the W.E.B. Du Bois mural, there were already about a dozen people waiting for them, raring to go. More than 40 community members showed up on Sunday to help Parson and Reiny redo the mural.

July 26, 2010 •  Berkshire Eagle

UMass Amherst Librarian Dave Mac Court is featured in an article by a teacher on how he helped his students use librarians in their coursework.  "Today's librarians bear about as much resemblance to the tight-bunned owlish matrons of 1950s films as laptops do to manual typewriters..."  Full story

July 21, 2010 • Inside Higher Ed

The new Circulation/Reserves Desk on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library provides service all hours the building is open. This single desk combines the services of the Circulation Desk (checkout, return, billing, and pickup for Five College and Interlibrary Loan books) with those of the Reserves Desk (circulation and return of print reserve materials, laptop computers, and digital cameras).           More information

July 15, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries present an exhibit, "10 Years of Massachusetts Book Awards," on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library, through September 30, 2010. A reception will be held on September 16, 2010, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The exhibit features the prizewinners in several categories across the decade of the Award's existence to date.  More information

 June 29, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries provide RefWorks at no charge to UMass Amherst alumni. RefWorks is a web-based citation management program used to organize citations, retrieve references, and generate bibliographies.  More information

 June 23, 2010

Officials from the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife conducted the annual banding of peregrine falcon chicks in the nesting box atop the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on May 28. Richard P. Nathhorst, facilities and campus planning, says more than 20 chicks have been fitted with the identification bands in recent years. Birds from this site have been seen up and down the East Coast and in Colombia, according to state officials.

 June 1, 2010 • The Springfield Republican  full story and falcon video

May 10, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries announces the opening of the Teaching Commons on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 and will host an Open House for faculty on that day from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Teaching Commons on Floor 26, in the Du Bois Library. The program includes welcoming remarks at 2:30 p.m., followed by discussion and tours of the facility. Refreshments will be served. 

May 7, 2010      press release    invitation

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries have been awarded a grant of $314,787 from the National Endowment for the Humanities' We the People program to complete digitization of the papers of African-American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois.

 May 4, 2010    press release

The Department of Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Emily Silverman Book Collecting Award and the second annual Friends of the Library Undergraduate Research Award. 

April 21, 2010     press release

 The UMass Amherst Libraries now provide access to the following databases, which can be found at http://www.library.umass.edu/. These resources are available to users anywhere with an OIT account and to all walk-in users.

April 16, 2010    New databases

UMass Amherst Senior Jake Walker has created the New England Chowder Compendium, an online collection of chowder recipes, pictures, and ads from the 1870s to the 1970s.  Working in Special Collections, he created the site from the Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookery Collection in the library.  In using the compendium one can find how chowder has been transformed from its layered preparation centuries ago to its current conception.  New England Chowder Compendium   Read review in Eat Me Daily

April 15, 2010

 Alumna Betty Londergran has written a piece in her blog about her love of UMass, particularly the Du Bois Library.

 April 14, 2010      Blog

 On Saturday, April 10, 2010, at 6:30 p.m., the Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries will host the eighth annual "Dinner with Friends" in the Learning Commons at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on the UMass Amherst campus. The event features talks by three notable speakers: authors Bernard A. Drew and Jacqueline Sheehan, and illustrator and 2009 Caldecott medalist Beth Krommes MAT '80, as well as a champagne and hors d'oeuvre reception with the UMass Jazz Quartet, and a gourmet dinner. Press release.

 March 23, 2010

Academic research libraries across the U.S. are experiencing budget challenges due to the economic downturn and the cumulative effect of an annual inflation rate of 5 - 8 % on the cost of books, journals, electronic resources and other materials used by students and faculty. At UMass Amherst since FY 08, the campus has struggled to maintain level-funding of the library materials acquisitions budget... Full text and additional information

March 11, 2010

The W.E.B. Du Bois Center hosts its inaugural symposium on Thursday, March 25, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union, UMass Amherst.  Lonnie G. Bunch, III, Ph.D., will speak on "The Challenge of Building a National Museum."  Dr. Bunch is the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.  The event is free and open to the public.

The UMass Amherst Libraries will make improvements to the W.E.B. Du Bois Library during the week of March 13 to March 19, spring break.  The Du Bois Library will be closed Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14 to install a new fire protection system and for water service work.  The library will re-open on Monday, March 15, at 8:00 a.m.   press release

March 5, 2010

The UMass Amherst Libraries present an exhibit, "Digitizing Du Bois: One Year Later," through May 21, 2010, in Special Collections and University Archives, Floor 25, Du Bois library.  The exhibit features noteworthy items discovered during the process of digitizing the Du Bois Papers. The items include photos, letters, posters, and other papers relating to W.E.B. Du Bois's life and the history of the 20th century.   press release

February 22, 2010

Rob Cox, head of special collections and university archives, is interviewed by UMass Magazine on the digitization of the Du Bois Collection, "...students and teachers at all levels will soon be able to access Du Bois' experiences, thoughts, and writings as a basis to conduct research in American history and social studies."  Read story

February 16, 2010 • UMass Magazine

I can’t tell you how much this means to students, having this resource,” said Ngozi Mbawuike, president of the Student Government Association. “No matter what your needs are, there is a place for everyone here.”  Provost James V. Staros said that the Learning Commons, with its high-tech work stations and group learning environments, has “transformed the library, the campus and student life.”

February 11, 2010 • In the Loop   full story

Continuing coverage of the Learning Commons expansion by The Boston Globe. The expansion includes a 20 percent increase in overall space to 30,000 square feet, a 60 percent boost in seating to 450 and eight new group study rooms.

 Febuary 9, 2010 • The Boston Globe  full story

"As part of an ongoing, five-year, $8.5-million renovation project, the University of Massachusetts celebrated a 20 percent expansion of the Learning Commons in the campus' main library yesterday.  The 6,000 square-foot addition, which opened at the beginning of the semester, boosts available seating by 60 percent - from 250 to 450 - in the W.E.B. DuBois Library's Learning Commons..."  watch video    read full story

February 9, 2010 • The Daily Collegian

Director of Libraries Jay Schafer and Chancellor Robert Holub comment in Springfield Republican article on Learning Commons expansion celebration. "While it's not the only such space on college and university campuses," Holub said, "it is one of the most innovative and most emulated."          Read article

February 9, 2010 • The Springfield Republican

The University of Massachusetts Amherst held an event celebrating the expansion of the Learning Commons at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, where students have access to research tools and assistance, academic advising, tutoring and writing assistance - all in a comfortable, high-tech environment that fosters small group interaction.  video  press release   invitation

 February 9, 2010                                      

The UMass Amherst Libraries hosts the 16^th Annual Du Bois Lecture, by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7:00 p.m., Cape Cod Room, Student Union, UMass Amherst.  Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Ph.D.  is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.  The event is free and open to the public.

February 1, 2010    video       invitation       press release

 In response to the earthquakes in Haiti, the UMass Amherst Libraries has compiled a list of resources for the campus community and the public. This list is available at http://guides.library.umass.edu/haiti The web page includes links to local/international news coverage of this tragedy and organizations that are providing assistance, as well as library resources for background information. Press release.

January 19, 2010

 The UMass Amherst Libraries is hosting an exhibit "Writing the Landscape: Books from the Library of American Landscape History." The exhibit features several books developed by the Library of American Landscape History (LALH) and photographs by noted landscape photographer Carol Betsch. The exhibition is on view from February 1 - May 20, 2010. A reception will be held on February 4, 2010, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. The exhibit and reception will be in the Learning Commons on the Lower Level of Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst. Press release.

January 12, 2010