Category Archives: Resources

About a library database, index, monograph, title

Citation Management Platforms

As of May 26, 2017, Healey Library will no longer be providing access to RefWorks. For over a decade, RefWorks has been licensed by Healey Library as our primary citation management platform, but the time has come to replace it with more sophisticated, cost-free citation management tools such as Zotero and Mendeley.

Please do not worry if you are currently using RefWorks for an assignment or research project that will be completed before the end of the academic year. We will continue to support and provide access to RefWorks for the remainder of the academic year, so students, faculty, staff, and alumni are certainly welcome to continue to use it up until we discontinue our subscription on May 26, 2017. If you no longer use RefWorks, your account will be deleted, and no further action is needed.

The Library encourages you, however, to consider your options for adopting a new citation management platform. The Library is offering assistance during this transition as follows:

  • Librarians already have workshops available in selecting a citation manager as well as training in both Zotero and Mendeley. These workshops are available to all faculty, staff, and students and will be offered throughout the Spring semester as well.
  • Librarians have prepared online documentation to assist all community members in the transition from RefWorks.  You will find in this link clear instructions on how to export your reference library from RefWorks into another citation manager.  You will also find a comparison of different citation management programs to help you choose a new citation management platform to use.

Please contact Mary Moser, Deputy Manager for Outreach, Marketing, Fundraising, and Grants at mary.moser@umb.edu or 617.287.3207 with any questions, concerns, or feedback. Thank you for your patience and your continued support of Healey Library!

 

BrowZine

BrowZine is a web and mobile interface for scholarly journals available through the Healey Library. It consolidates thousands of journals from hundreds of publishers and delivers them to your mobile device or desktop. Rather than search databases for specific journal issues, BrowZine creates an experience similar to browsing a newsstand and reading a print journal.

BrowZine All Devices

The landing page provides the option to browse journals by subject or search by title. Each subject is organized into many subtopics. Users can browse large subject areas, like Education or drill down to specific subjects such as Emergency Nursing. Journals are listed alphabetically by default but they can also be sorted by journal rank, allowing you to explore the top journals your field. Ranking is determined by Scimago Journal Rank, which uses data from Scopus®. All the subjects and sorting options produce a permanent link in the address bar that can be bookmarked and shared.

The journal pages default to the most current issue and contain the table of contents. Journals can be added to your Bookshelf, which allows you to save and organize your favorite journals. On mobile devices, the articles are displayed seamlessly without the usual clutter. They can also be saved in your account. The web version links out to full text articles in databases and publisher websites. The ability to create reading lists for the web version is coming soon.

 

Curious about using Apps for teaching and research?

UMass Boston Librarians and Educational Technologists are offering hands-on workshops!  iPad Workshop Promotional Handout Spring 2016

Add mobile apps to your research tool kit. Attend 1…or all 5 iPad workshops and get hands-on experience with educational apps through engaging exercises aimed at exploring the potential of research apps.

Join Librarian Teresa Maceira and Adaptive Technology Specialist Matt McCubbin in this series of sessions covering a variety of apps for searching our databases, access e-journals and e-books, discover and organize online content, create quick and easy presentations, and learn about accessibility features on Apple devices.

Feel free to share this announcement with colleagues and students –the workshops are open to everyone!

DATES AND APPS:

  • Tuesday, February 16,  1:00-2:00pm
    Featured Apps: Browzine, Financial Times, RefME, Bluefire Reader
  • Tuesday, March 1, 10:00-11:00am
    Featured Apps:  PubMed, Gale Databases, EBSCOhost Databases, Census.gov
  • Wednesday, March 23, 3:00-4:00pm
    Featured Apps: Evernote, Dropbox, Pocket, and Flipboard
  • Thursday, April 7, 11:00am-12:00pm
    Featured Speaker: Matt McCubbin, Adaptive Technology Specialist
    Featured Apps: Voice Dream Reader and Apple iOS Assistive Technology Features
  • Monday, April 25, 12:00-1:00pm
    Featured Apps: Prezi, Educreations, Haiku Deck, Google Slides

LOCATION:

All workshops will be held in the Center for Library Instruction, Healey-04-015

TO REGISTER:

To register: IT Training Portal

SPONSORED BY:

University Libraries

Information Technology Learning Commons

World Bank eLibrary’s new platform and features

The World Bank eLibrary is an online, fully searchable portal of over 5,000 World Bank documents. The collection consists of over 2,000 World Bank publications and over 3,200 Policy Research Working Papers.
World Bank eLibrary has introduced a new easy to navigate platform that includes multiple ways to search for information by Regions, Topic pages, Collections and Data.

  • The Regions tab allows for browsing the content by region, country or economies.
  • The Topics tab covers topics such as agriculture, gender and water resources. The pages include links to data, World Bank website, blog, e-books and relevant chapters.
  • The Collections tab includes: e-books, journals, working papers, technical and discussion papers.

The new features include increased options in accessing e-books and an easy search for data sets. Data can be searched by region, economies and indicators.

The new platform includes over 2,900 e-book titles, with new titles being added as they become available. A new feature for users includes the ability to access the e-book without having to download the title. This new feature includes the ability to enlarge tables and figures for easier viewing, and to scroll through all figures and tables within the chapter.
Additionally, now users of the platform can search Data Sets from the World Bank Open Data: World Development Indicators Catalog without having to leave eLibrary. The data sets are available for download as CSV files. Approximately 50 of the most popular indicators for each country and region from World Development Indicators have also been added.

 
World Bank eLibrary Highlights and Features:

Also available through Healey Library are World Bank’s open access data and economic indicators:

  • World Bank Open Data: World Development Indicators: The Data Catalog provides download access to over 2,000 indicators from World Bank data sources.
  • World Bank: Global Economic Monitor: The Global Economic Monitor (GEM) is produced by the World Bank’s Prospects Group (DECPG) of the Development Economics Vice-Presidency. GEM provides daily updates of global economic developments, with coverage of high income- as well as developing countries.

Additional information:

eLibrary Help

World Bank eLibrary user guide

Tools for Users

Using Archival Collections in Your Research

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)