Category Archives: Research Tips

Related to any of the processes of information seeking, gathering, and managing. How a tool or resource can be used as part of process, how resources are related, the logic or sequence of research process related to library resources.

Research Tips, Resources, What's Cool

Want to Make Finding Full Text Articles Easier? Download the Lean Library Browser Extension

November 3, 2021 Louisa Choy 2 Comments

Lean Library is a browser extension that provides quick and simple access to Library-subscribed full-text content – whenever, wherever you need it. When you’re on a website that contains library-subscribed content, the browser extension will notify you with a pop-up alert in the bookmarks bar that library access exists. The pop-up will provide you with the Get Access button to prompt you to authenticate with your UMass Boston login. If we do not have full-text access, then the extension will provide a link to InterLibrary Loan.

You don’t have to interrupt your workflow to find Healey Library; Healey Library will find you! Download the extension, select University of Massachusetts Boston, and start browsing for articles!

Here are some other ways Lean Library can help:

Find alternative access to articles and ebooks. If there is no access to the article or book through the current site, Lean Library helps find alternative access in another Healey Library-licensed resource or through open access channels. For books, Lean Library will take the ISBN on a page and match it up to our library holdings. This also works with Amazon, Google, and Outlook (web)!

Improved Google Scholar experience
You will notice our Find It@UMBrella links appearing beside some full text. Run a search – engineering education for women- in Google Scholar to test it out. Without Lean Library, you will have to go through Google’s multi-step Library Links set-up.

Highlight & Search in UMBrella
With Lean Library, you can highlight any text on a webpage and search it in UMBrella. Do this by using the context menu of your browser, i.e. by right-clicking on a webpage. Select the Search UMBrella @ Healey Library option from the menu.

For even more information about Lean Library, including FAQs, please visit our Lean Library Guide.

Announcements, In the News, Library Services, Research Tips

New library guide: Meeting the Challenges of Community-Based and Human Subjects Research in the Remote Mode

December 21, 2020 Joanne Riley Leave a comment

In early October 2020, UMass Boston faculty and graduate students were invited to join the Remote Research Sub-Committee of the campus Research Committee for a deep dive into the practical and professional, personal and existential aspects of trying to do community-based and other human subjects research in the remote mode. This “Remote Research Symposium” generated helpful conversations, networking, suggestions and resource recommendations, all of which inspired the creation of this guide.

With the guidance of the sub-committee and based on resources curated by Associate Professor Rosalyn Negrón, Healey librarians Teresa Maceira, Lauren Movlai and Lucas Hall organized an extensive reference guide around the topics of the three breakout sessions at the October symposium, which were:

The new guide’s menu offers a link to each section; we hope you find the included resources to be useful as you navigate the challenges of managing community-based and human subjects research in the remote mode.

Research Tips

Tips and tricks for searching the library catalog

December 8, 2015 Lisa Romano Leave a comment

Want to learn some new ways to search the library catalog and get better results? This blog post provides some tips and tricks to help you.

Wildcards

You can use wildcards characters to replace one or more characters when searching the library catalog. Please note that these characters are not valid as wildcards when they are the first character in your search term.

For a single character wildcard search, use the ? (question mark) symbol. For example, type authori?e to find both the American (authorize) and British (authorize) spellings.

For a multiple character wildcard search, use the * (asterisk) symbol. For example, type cell* for cellular, cells, etc.

Using the * (asterisk) symbol as the first character in your search term indicates that the search term is important. For example, baseball *Boston.

To locate a search term that is essential, type a + (plus sign) in front of the word. For example, +lung +cancer.

Tip: It is best to use a wildcard search term with other search terms so you do not get too many search results.

Diacritics

A diacritic is a symbol that is attached to a letter and is used to indicate an alternative pronunciation for the letter. Some examples of diacritics are accents (continuación), cedillas (François), and umlauts (Brontë).

If your search term has a diacritic, you can either include or not include the diacritic in your search term.

Tip: If you do not get the proper search results using a diacritic, type the search term without the diacritics.

Character sets

Our library catalog like many computer systems looks for characters in ASCII format. If you copy and paste a search term from a document or Web page, the search term may contain non-ASCII characters and then the term may not appear in your search results.

Example: ASCII and Non-ASCII apostrophe characters

Non-ASCII : George Washington’s

ASCII: George Washington’s

For characters such as diacritics, commas, apostrophes, and quotes, try deleting these types of characters and retype them directly in the search box.

Library Services, Research Tips, Resources

Using Archival Collections in Your Research

December 4, 2015 Joanne Riley Leave a comment

UASC Stacks — UMass Boston’s archival storage space. The University holds more than 200 archival collections across a variety of research areas.

Developing a successful research strategy involves identifying and locating relevant resources including both secondary and primary source materials. It may turn out that UMass Boston’s Archives hold archival collections that are of direct use to you in your research. UMass Boston’s collections encompass a variety of subject disciplines. We preserve archival materials related to the University’s history as well as records and documents that reflect the university’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social action, alternative movements, community organizations and local history related to our neighboring communities including the Boston Harbor Islands. A couple of examples:

ForestersRecords — A single MCOF Record. Source: University Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston.

UMass Boston holds than 28,000 mortuary records from the Mass. Catholic Association of Foresters, a fraternal organization begun in Boston in 1879 by Irish immigrants. These records include extensive data about the health, social networks, occupations and immigration patterns of thousands of people over many decades. We also hold the records of the international organization “Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research”, the papers of Judge David Mazzone, who presided over the cleanup of Boston Harbor, the chambers papers of W. Arthur Garrity, who presided over the desegregation of Boston Public Schools, records of the League of American Wheelmen and many, many more organizations and individuals.

1968 photo of Columbia Point — Columbia Point before the construction of the UMass Boston campus; photo taken in 1968. The building in the center is the Calf Pasture Pumping Station. Source: University Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston.

Bicycling postcard, “You Can Count On US, Solider ! We’ll Keep ‘Em Rolling!”, circa 1920-1950. Source: Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston.

Of course, no single archival institution can hold everything. Around the world, different institutions have committed to taking responsibility for storing and preserving different chunks of the historic record, usually based on that institution’s own mission and goals. There are many other archival institutions in the area and around the world, and Healey Library’s Archives staff can help you to find out what they hold and how to access them. There are also several fine, online directories of archival holdings – “ArchiveGrid” from OCLC is a good one. Another is WorldCat, where you may limit search results to “Archival Material” using the faceting options in the left-hand column.

BPD Duty Card, 1919 — Duty roster card for a patrolman involved in the 1919 Police Strike in Boston. Source: Boston Police Department Archives; digital copies of the full set held at University Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston.

So if your research can make use of archival materials in any format, please do contact us. The staff here in the University Archives and Special Collections is enthusiastically committed to assisting you in reaching your academic and research goals. The best way to take advantage of the Archives department’s services is simply to email library.archives@umb.edu and tell us what you need or are hoping to accomplish. And you are welcome to stop by any weekday between 10 am and 4 pm to say hello and see our Reading Room and speak to an archivist. The University Archives and Special Collections are located on the 5th Floor of the Healey Library.

Related Resources:

Descriptions of UMass Boston’s Archival Collections

UMass Boston’s Repository for Digital Collections

Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research (SAA handout)

Research Tips

Research Tip: Getting Unstuck – Research Guides

November 18, 2015 Cecilia Sirigos Leave a comment

A frequent occurrence in the early stages of the research process is not knowing where to begin. Healey Library has broken down the 283 databases to which we have subscriptions into subject-specific Research Guides to facilitate an easier introduction to database searching. Instead of having to browse the database list trial-and-error style, the Research Guides organize this material into a one-stop shop for subject-specific resources and recommended databases for each particular field.

The guides have been redesigned to be usable on mobile devices as well as ADA-Compliant. By default, the Research Guides display 29 major disciplines and their sub-categories. Another option for browsing the Research Guides is by selecting “All Guides” up at the top navigation bar. This will display sub-categories as well as class-specific Research Guides requested or created by professors. The “By Type” option divides the guides in to four categories: Course Guides, General Purpose, Subject Guides, and Help.

Please contact library.reference@umb.edu to suggest a Course Guide or a Research Guide!

Healey Library News