Resources

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

Research Tips

Tips and tricks for searching the library catalog

 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 dialatin-accentscritic 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

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)

 

Library Services, Resources

Resources for the Art and Performing Arts Departments

I would like to introduce myself as the liaison for the Art and Performing Arts Departments. As a liaison and resource for the departments, I facilitate access to the growing list of library resources, and communicate the various library services for faculty and students and much more.

I work in the University Archives and Special Collections within the Healey Library and have a background in fine arts and specialize in painting. From this perspective, I’d like to share some of the resources the library has that faculty and students in Art, Music and Performing Arts can use for their classes and art making.

There are a lot of resources available to faculty and students and can be overwhelming and often hidden in plain sight. To help navigate this landscape, the library has available a list of research guides by subject. Several research guides exist for Art, Music, and Theatre Arts. Each contains links to images, faculty publications, videos and film, music, primary sources, books, articles and content for student assignments or faculty preparation for class assignments. Clicking on “Help” in the left column provides a list of options such as citation assistance, email, chat or call a librarian for further assistance.

The Art Research Guide contain links for images, such as ARTstor, Art Full Text and Oxford Art Online to name a few, faculty publications, and videos and film through VAST: Academic Video Online.

More videos are available by clicking “Find Videos”. I particularly like Kanopy Streaming Video and Films on Demand for its large selection of films in a variety of subjects.

The Music Research Guide found under Arts & Music also offers the same access to films alongside several great databases such as Naxos Music Library and RILM Abstracts of Music Literature

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967 to Present only)
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967 to Present only)

which includes a wide range of resources from articles to concert review and recording notes.

 

 

 

 

The Theatre Arts Research Guide found under the Arts & Music guide, provides links to Theatre Video which offers access to performances and films.

The Cambridge Companions Online provides a rich resource of literature, essays, and the classics.

These guides can help you get started. If you need research assistance schedule an appointment with a Reference Librarian. If you are faculty and interested in resources and databases that aren’t available, contact liaison Meghan.bailey@umb.edu, there is a chance these resources are available elsewhere or the library may consider a trial. If you would like to schedule a librarian to conduct an instruction session for your class contact us. Visit our web page for more detailed information about our instruction services.

Research Tips

Research Tip: Getting Unstuck – Research Guides

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.

Research guides by type2
Please contact library.reference@umb.edu to suggest a Course Guide or a Research Guide!

Updates from UMass Boston's Healey Library