News

 Image Credit: from the 2008 Proposed Master Plan for Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Preserve in Augustine, Belize by LARP students Daniel Shaw and Peter W. Stephens

 June 22, 2009

The UMass Amherst Libraries are discontinuing the use of plastic "rainy day" book bags.  The Libraries now offer recyclable, compostable bags to users to protect their books from bad weather. 

June 12, 2009

 The UMass Amherst Libraries were recently recognized at the Massachusetts Library Association 19th Biennial Public Relations Awards in Springfield, Massachusetts for two outstanding publications.  The UMass Amherst Libraries received First Place in the category of Bookmarks and Second Place in the category of Annual Reports.

June 5, 2009

The Springfield Republican reports that a pair of peregrines is raising four chicks on top of the library; three females and a male. The young hatched about a month ago, and they are expected to take their first flights in six or seven weeks.

June Workshops for Faculty and Instructors

 The UMass Amherst Library will offer two workshops in June for faculty and instructors: "Finding Library Resources," on Wednesday, June 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and "Putting Reading Lists Online in RefShare" on Thursday, June 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 

June 2, 2009

 For the first time, broadband and digital technology will bring students and teachers across the country and the world access to the thoughts and writings of W.E.B. Du Bois.

April 28, 2009

 In continuing coverage on digitizing Du Bois Papers, Gazette reporter Kristin Palpini reports "UMass plans to employ the equivalent of three full-time employees, mostly graduate and undergraduate students, to scan every piece of the university's Du Bois collection and catalog the items. Every scanned item will contain a description of what that item is and its relationship to a larger historical context."

April 22, 2009 • The Daily Hampshire Gazette

 UMass Amherst Librarians Paulina Borrego, Maxine Schmidt, and Carol Will have been selected as up and coming library leaders to participate in the Library Leadership Massachusetts Institute, July 27-30, 2009, at Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts. The three are among 40 applicants selected from a highly-qualified pool of candidates from across the state.

April 14, 2009

In an interview with the Daily Collegian, Head of Special Collections Rob Cox explains how the Du Bois Papers will be digitized and made accessible to the public.

April 9, 2009 • The Daily Collegian

April 4, 2009 • The Springfield Republican

April 4, 2009 • The Boston Globe

April 3, 2009 • Channel 22 News

The Associated Press interviews Rob Cox, Head of Special Collections and University Archives, on the $200,000 Verizon grant to help digitize the Du Bois Papers. "What we're looking to do is spark conversation about difficult issues in race, inequality, class and all these things are things that concerned Du Bois."

April 3, 2009 • The Associated Press

The Libraries will digitize an estimated 100,000 items from its Du Bois collection, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation. The project will provide online access for the first time to original diaries, letters, photographs and other material related to one of the most influential African Americans in United States history.

April 3, 2009

 On Saturday, April 4, at 6:30 p.m., the Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries will host the seventh annual "Dinner with Friends" in the Learning Commons at the Du Bois Library. The event features talks by three notable speakers: author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, novelist and short story writer Valerie Martin MFA '74, and poet and NPR commentator Lloyd Schwartz, as well as a champagne and hors d'oeuvre reception with the Jay Messer Trio, and a gourmet dinner.

March 5, 2009

 Daily Collegian reports on wireless access throughout Du Bois Library and quotes Director of Libraries Jay Schafer.

February 27, 2009 • The Daily Collegian

The 15th annual Du Bois lecture with Howard Dodson is featured in the Daily Collegian.

February 26, 2009 • The Daily Collegian

 The UMass Amherst Libraries has expanded its rich collection of electronic books with the addition of two new databases, Springer E-Books and ebrary Academic Complete. Springer E-books includes over 13,000 full text books, major works, monographs, and journal articles from the science publisher Springer, from 2005 to 2008. Ebrary Academic Complete consists of 42,000 scholarly and popular books in full text, from 1990 to the present, covering a wide assortment of subjects from agriculture to technology, and including fine arts, music, literature, and more.

February 26, 2009

On Thursday, February 26, the Libraries will officially announce that the UMass Amherst Faculty Senate has approved the creation of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, which will promote scholarship and public engagement with the wide range of issues in social and racial justice central to the thought of W.E.B. Du Bois. A scholar and activist, Du Bois was instrumental in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

February 25, 2009

"Every day, thousands of students, faculty and staff walk by the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Though it is the largest structure at the University of Massachusetts, as well as the largest academic library in the country, the real meaning behind the library typically goes unnoticed; W.E.B. Du Bois himself."

February 22, 2009 • The Daily Collegian

February 18, 2009 • The Springfield Republican

Wireless Network Now Available Throughout Du Bois Library

Thanks to expanded wireless coverage, students, faculty, and staff with OIT Accounts can now access the network on every floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. To access the campus wireless network, users must choose ‘UMASS' from the list of available networks, open a browser, and then log in with their NetID (OIT Account user name) and password.

February 17, 2009

Renovations are underway in the Du Bois Library to replace the building's HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) system and expand the Learning Commons on the Lower Level.  The project will take approximately two years and will add 5,000 square feet to the Learning Commons.

February 17, 2009

Director of Libraries Jay Schafer quoted in Springfield Republican article on Faculty Senate approval of the creation of W.E.B. Du Bois center.

February 14, 2009 • Springfield Republican

Libraries Hosts 15TH Annual Du Bois Lecture by Howard Dodson

The UMass Amherst Libraries hosts the 15^th Annual Du Bois Lecture, by Howard Dodson, Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 6:30 p.m., in the Special Collections Reading Room, Floor 25, Du Bois Library, UMass Amherst.  Howard Dodson is the Chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.  The event is free and open to the public.

February 13, 2009

The UMass Amherst Libraries will host "New WORLD Theater's 30^th Anniversary: A Retrospective Exhibit" through April 30, 2009, in the Learning Commons, on the Lower Level of Du Bois Library, UMass Amherst.  The exhibit commemorates 30 years of New WORLD Theater's unique contributions to the campus and the surrounding Pioneer Valley as an innovative cultural institution dedicated to presenting and producing theatrical works by artists of color.  An opening reception will be held on February 12, 2009, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., featuring a talk, "Reflections of New WORLD in an Obama Nation" by founding artistic director Roberta Uno.  The reception is open to the public and refreshments will be served.

February 3, 2009

UMass Amherst librarians will offer several workshops in the use of RefWorks this spring. RefWorks is a web-based citation management program used to organize and generate bibliographies, manage citations, and retrieve references. The workshops are open to all, pre-registration is required as space is limited.

January 23, 2009

The Libraries will host an exhibit of nature photographs by John Green, through May 3, at the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library. An opening reception, including slideshow, will be held on Friday January 30, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The reception is open to the public and refreshments will be served.

January 13, 2009

The Office of Faculty Development will hold monthly mini-writing retreats for all faculty on the following Fridays-Feb. 27, March 27, and April 24, at the Faculty Writing Place, Room 1602, Du Bois Library.

December 29, 2008