PubMed users will notice some major changes this week. As of May 18, the biomedical literature database is now defaulting to the new, redesigned interface. As always, the best way to see Brown University’s full text options is with the Library’s custom link.
New interface changes include:
Ability to cite references quickly in your preferred citation style format (AMA, APA, NLM, or MLA)
Option to share references via social media or a permalink
Responsive design for use on any device — mobile, desktop, or tablet — with the same features and functionality. On your mobile device, bookmark (or add to your home screen) this URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?myncbishare=brownu
Citations are initially sorted by the Best Match algorithm, but display preferences such as sort order and items per page can be adjusted using the “Display options” button.
Most features remain – including clinical queries, the advanced search, MeSH database, search details (on the Advanced page now), and your MyNCBI account. Additionally, you’ll be able to export citations to citation management tools (e.g., EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley) through the “Cite” feature or by sending a batch of citations to your Citation Manager.
Each year, in partnership with the Office of the Dean of the College, the Brown University Library recognizes one or two undergraduate students for outstanding research projects that make creative and extensive use of the Library’s collections, including, but not limited to, print resources, databases, primary resources, and materials in all media. The project may take the form of a traditional paper, a database, a website, or other digital project. The prize winners receive $750 each, funded through an endowment established by Douglas Squires ’73.
2020 Prize Recipients
Abby Wells ’21
Abby Wells ’21
Abby Wells’ paper, “दे वि!मा#हा#त्म्य, Δούργα Μεταφρασθεῖσα ἐκ τοῦ Βραχμάνικου, and Devimahatmyam, Markandeyi Purani Sectio Edidit Latinam Interpretationem: A Comparative Analysis of Greek and Latin Translations of the Devīmāhātmya,” compares translations of the Devīmāhātmya, a Hindu religious text, to offer a unique analysis of grammar, content, and interpretation across three languages, including Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit.
Wells made creative and extensive use of the Library’s collection by locating the Greek and Latin translations of the Devīmāhātmya in the John Hay Library and Google Books, respectively. The award committee was especially impressed by the project’s use of materials made available through the John Hay Library, Google Books, and the Hathi Trust. This project truly spans the full use of library holdings and digital collections available within and beyond Brown University.
Sicheng Luo ’20
Sicheng Luo ’20
Sicheng Luo was selected for her fascinating project, “The Symbol of the Pineapple Used for Clocks,” which explores the symbolism of pineapples in art and artifacts based on a mutual misunderstanding between China and the West. The project leaned heavily on a variety of Library resources and in-depth research consultations with Brown librarians.
Luo’s project, which was initially inspired by a popular television show in China called “National Treasures,” offers the reader an intensive explanation of the history of the pineapple symbol found on a clock made in the Qing Dynasty in China, which is currently on reserve in the Imperial Museum in Beijing.
Luo credits the availability of artist books, scanners, and in-person research consultations at the Library as the foundation of this incredible art history project.
There are several Graduate School 2020 Summer Proctorships available at the Library!
The application can be found in UFunds. Once on the UFunds page, click on Graduate School COVID-19 Fund, then select “Graduate School 2020 Summer Proctorship Positions.”
Descriptions of the opportunities are available on the Graduate School website. The application deadline is May 13.
Recipients of Summer Proctorship positions will participate in project-based, internship-style experiences. The goal is to offer graduate students whose research and study have been impacted by COVID-19 new professional and career development opportunities to enhance their experience and skills.
Eligibility: These proctorships are intended for PhD students whose total summer support would otherwise fall below the equivalent of three months of the standard academic-year stipend amount ($8,758.68). The time commitment expected is approximately 100 hours over Summer 2020.
Dear Department Chairs, Directors of Graduate Studies, and Graduate Students,
Joseph S. Meisel, Joukowsky Family University Librarian
At the Brown University Library, we are well aware that the COVID-19 public health crisis is having an impact on graduate students’ ability to study for qualifying exams and carry out thesis and dissertation research. At Brown, as is the case at universities across the country, we know that suspending all onsite activity at the Library is contributing to these challenges.
I am writing to let you know about the work we have been doing to strengthen how the Library supports graduate students under these circumstances, and to ensure that you are aware of the resources that are available to help you move forward with your scholarship.
Individual Research Help
You can connect directly with a Library expert in your area who can support your research, answer questions, provide you with digital content, and offer reliable scholarly guidance during this time of stress and uncertainty.
Increased Digital Access
Significantly expanded access to digital content is being made available during the COVID-19 pandemic. More digital scholarly content continues to be made freely accessible, and we are regularly updating our list as this happens.
The Library offers several ways to access digital content:
Through our existing systems
Search Josiah, the online catalog, for books, articles, and other materials that Brown owns or subscribes to in electronic formats.
Request items through Interlibrary Loan. Requests are continuing to be filled for articles available electronically.
Many items from our physical collection are now available electronically via HathiTrust. We have added a link to the HathiTrust version to the records in Josiah. You will need to login with your Brown University web credentials to access the content.
Library experts can help you locate materials available at Brown and elsewhere.
If you are looking for a book that exists in electronic format to which Brown does not currently have access, we will purchase that item if it is possible to do so.
Special collections librarians will seek to identify primary source material in digital format through other libraries and archives that can contribute to students’ research. They can also offer individualized consultations regarding research methods and organizing your digital research files. Special collections is working on other creative solutions to provide digital access to its collections and to connect students with digital content at other institutions. The more we know about student research needs, the better we can deploy to find solutions.
Access to Physical Materials
We recognize that electronically available materials, however abundant, cannot address all scholarly needs and that digital content can also pose accessibility challenges. At this time, most university libraries have discontinued physical circulation and loans. For the health and safety of our staff, we are unable to provide physical access to Library materials until the University authorizes onsite activities to resume.
As the University announced recently, President Paxson has charged a Healthy Fall 2020 Task Force with charting a path to the safe reopening of the campus. As the principles, process, and timeline for reopening emerge, the Library will be able to provide more information on how and when we can resume physical access to general and special collections materials. Like you, we are looking forward to that day.
***
As researchers and scholarly experts ourselves, and as dedicated partners for you and your academic programs, we keenly appreciate the challenges you are facing in moving forward with your graduate studies. The Brown University Library is committed to doing whatever is possible under the circumstances to help you. To that end, we will continue to explore new ways to provide more of the content you need. In the meantime, keep telling us what you need and we’ll do our very best!
With best wishes for your safety and wellbeing,
Joe
Joseph S. Meisel Joukowsky Family University Librarian
Graduating students are urged to return physical materials to the Rockefeller Library, through the book return drop located to the left of the front doors. Other students may also drop off materials at the Rock, or you can keep the items in your possession until you are able to return to campus. This includes items obtained through Borrow Direct, easyBorrow, and ILLiad. Fines and late fees will be waived.
Expanded Access to Digital Content
As a response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of the Library’s content providers have expanded Brown’s access to digital content in order to support online research, learning, and teaching. In addition to the 2 million+ digital books and journals available through the Library’s subscriptions, we are excited to share many addition additional resources from our partners.
Requests for Library Support & Digital Material
You can request access to digital material! Contact us at the following email addresses to request items, ask research questions, and connect with a Library expert:
hay@brown.edu for questions relating to special collections
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests for resources available electronically are being fulfilled!
Requests for Physical Library Materials
During the critical period of transition from site-based to online instruction, the Library was rotating a small number of staff onsite to scan physical material. However, now that we have made the transition, and in response to Governor Raimondo’s March 29th executive order, scanning of physical items is no longer possible until further notice. This includes scanning requests for Online Course Reserves Access (OCRA).
Faculty and Research Support
We are providing online services, including research consultations and instruction. Subject librarians can be reached by email and on chat, which will be staffed Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Checking-out of physical materials from Brown University Library, interlibrary loan (ILL), and BorrowDirect have been suspended until further notice (with the exception of requests for digital material). We will reassess all Library services on an ongoing basis and will post updates here.
Scanning of physical material is no longer available. All digital material scanned or uploaded prior to April 3 will remain available. Students can continue to access course reserves through Canvas.
Leaf, Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal, and Indian Miniature Paintings
Dis/Assemble
Dis/Assemble is a collaborative effort by graduate students from across ten different humanities disciplines to construct narratives around a continuously moving archive: the Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal, and Indian Paintings and Calligraphies at Brown University. This collection evokes questions of assemblage and disassemblage, from sifting the extraordinary from the ordinary to practices of collecting and taxonomizing. Visitors are invited to participate in the creative act of engaging with fragments and fragmentation as they behold, imagine, and truly see the objects on view.
Opening Reception & Curator’s Introduction
Monday, March 9, 2020 4:30 p.m. John Hay Library
Discussion
“Making Meaning from the Minassian Collection” Monday, March 9, 2020 5:30 p.m. Lownes Room, John Hay Library
Guests
Dr. Navina Haidar, Nasser Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah Curator in Charge of the Department of Islamic Art
Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, Associate Curator of the Department of Islamic Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dates: March 9, 2019 – May 25, 2020 Time: John Hay Library Hours Location: Exhibition Gallery, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect Street, Providence
The Brown University Library is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Carney Institute for Brain Science on two prizes for student work that exemplifies research rigor, transparency, replication, and reproducibility.
Library Innovation Prize
Drawing on the rising importance of rigor and reproducibility of research, the Brown University Library will award up to $750 for the creation of a publication, capstone paper, digital project, and/or thesis/dissertation that incorporates innovation in rigor and transparency in any field of research.
Carney Institute for Brain Science Undergraduate Student Prize
The Carney Institute for Brain Science is offering a parallel but independent undergraduate prize for a capstone paper or thesis within the general area of brain science that incorporates innovation in reproducibility.
Timeline & Registration
Friday, March 13 at 2 p.m.: Informational meeting the Digital Studio Seminar Room (160) at the Rockefeller Library. (Attendance is not required but is strongly encouraged.)
Wednesday,April 1, 2020: Deadline for registration for both prizes
Saturday,May 2, 2020: Submissions from registered participants are due by 5 p.m.
Week of May 18, 2020: Winners will be notified by email
Judges
Dr. Jason Ritt, Scientific Director of the Carney Institute
Lydia Curliss, Physical Sciences and Native American and Indigenous Studies Librarian
Dr. Oludurotimi Adetunji, Associate Dean of the College for Undergraduate Research and Inclusive Science
Innovation in Reproducibility
An example of innovation in reproducibility is linking data, analysis code, and figures/visualizations within a single document file that can be opened, read, and executed by the panel of judges using commonly available, preferably open source applications (e.g., Jupyter notebooks in a generic web browser).
Rigor & Transparency
Projects with enhanced rigor and transparency could include:
Curating and publicly sharing a data set
Pre-registration and sharing of a protocol
Sharing and containerization (e.g., Docker or Singularity) of analysis code and other computing environment related technologies
Incorporating an “Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) Data Supplement” for transparency in qualitative data analysis
Qualitative Data Repository (2019). Instructions for preparing and depositing an “Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) Data Supplement” accompanying a digital manuscript. Qualitative Data Repository. https://qdr.syr.edu/ati/ati-instructions
Rules
Library prize contestants must be currently enrolled Brown undergraduate or graduate students. The Carney prize is restricted to Brown undergraduates.
Projects may be created by individuals or teams. The projects should be new or created in the past calendar year (2019).
There are no limits on coding languages or tools to create the reproducible paper.
The research must be the contestants’ original work. You may submit original work that you complete for a capstone paper for a course or an honors thesis or thesis at Brown.
Winning projects remain the intellectual property of the contestant(s), but the winning contestant(s) will grant a nonexclusive perpetual license to Brown University for its internal, non-commercial use.
A panel of judges selected from faculty and Library staff will determine the winners.
For questions on reproducible documents and their implementation, registered participants may contact Dr. Jason Ritt, Scientific Director of Quantitative Neuroscience in Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science at jason_ritt@brown.edu. Dr. Ritt will provide general advising up to schedule availability. Advice will be provided as is, with no implication for contest judging or award outcomes.
In January 2019, the Library launched the Healthy Library Collections Ecosystem Initiative for the Rockefeller Library and the Annex. The goal is to improve and develop workflows, processes, and solutions that will ensure healthy and equitable movement of library materials throughout their lifecycle. Findability and browsability will be enhanced, shelf space will be optimized, books and other materials will be suitably placed, and library usage data will be expanded and refined–all resulting in a healthy library environment for patrons, Library staff, and collections materials.
The Shift
A direct response to feedback received through graduate student survey data, the two-year Initiative will conclude in January 2021, when a large shift of materials at the Rockefeller and the Annex will take place. In addition to populating empty shelf space and creating room on overcrowded shelves, the shift will take usage data into account to make sure that items frequently circulated or used onsite will be available in the stacks at the Rock, and that less-used items and digital material available online will be moved to the Annex. We will not be getting rid of books.
System of Healthy Collections Flow
Once the improved processes are in place and the shift occurs, the Library will have identified and established a system of healthy collections flow that will allow for new items to move into the Rock.
Benefits
Already, book locator technology has been repaired and improved!
All new books can be shelved within a few days of receipt
Books and other materials will live in a healthy shelf habitat
Locations in the catalog will align with locations in the Rock
All items in a call letter will be located together, so browsing the stacks will be easy, enjoyable, and fruitful
Scans from all journals at the Annex can be requested and received in a timely manner
Process
A cross departmental committee of Library staff is overseeing and conducting the steps of this process, which is akin to having construction zones on campus. Your experience at the Library from now until January 2021 will not change, aside from incremental improvements like small shifts to create more space for overcrowded books. We will continue to provide the same high level of services, facilities, and physical and digital resources throughout the entire process.
Input
In addition to using feedback the Library has already gathered from patrons, we are conducting focus this semester, including faculty and students.
If you would like to participate in the focus groups or have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please contact us at libraryecosystem@brown.edu.
Committee
Nora Dimmock, Deputy University Librarian, Chair
Pat Putney, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources
Sarah Evelyn, Director of Academic Engagement for the Humanities and Social Sciences
William S. Monroe, Senior Scholarly Resources Librarian, Humanities
Emily Ferrier, Librarian for Social Science and Entrepreneurship
Bart Hollingsworth, Head of Circulation and Resource Sharing
Kimberly Silva, Rockefeller Circulation Manager
Michelle Venditelli, Head of Preservation, Conservation, and the Library Annex
Paul Magliocco, Head of Annex and Stacks Maintenance Preservation Service
Dan O’Mahony, Director of Library Planning and Assessment
Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
“Are We Not Doing Phrasing Anymore?: Towards a Cultural Informatics
Recent headlines reveal the profound suspicion with which statistical methods have been received within the humanities. The pervasive belief is that a chasm lies between statistics and the humanities that not only cannot be bridged but should not be attempted, at the risk of losing the human. And yet slowly and steadily, a growing number of practitioners have not only developed research programs but also pedagogical methods that open up new analytical perspectives as well as new avenues for students to explore their relationship between the subject matter and their own understanding.
This talk offers a small survey of various practices to be found in the digital humanities alongside a few experiments by the author in allowing students to experience how statistical methods in fact demystify the meaning-making process in language and empower students not only to ground their insights in things they can see and count, but also in understanding texts as nothing more than certain sequences of words, opening a path to making them better writers as well.
Working from a broad survey to narrow applications, the talk suggests that concerns about a loss of humanity in the humanities is actually a concern for loss of certain kinds of authority, but that new kinds of authority are possible within which researchers and teachers will find a firm ground from which to offer interpretations and evaluations of the kinds of complex artifacts that have long been the purview of the domain.
John Laudun, PhD
John Laudun received his MA in literary studies from Syracuse University in 1989 and his PhD in folklore studies from the Folklore Institute at Indiana University in 1999. He was a Jacob K. Javits Fellow while at Syracuse and Indiana (1987 – 1992), and a MacArthur Scholar at the Indiana Center for Global Change and World Peace (1993 – 1994). He has written grants that have been funded by the Grammy Foundation and the Louisiana Board of Regents, been a fellow with the EVIA Digital Archive, and a scholar in residence with UCLA’s Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. His book, The Amazing Crawfish Boat, is a longitudinal ethnographic study of creativity and tradition within a material folk culture domain.
Laudun’s current work is in the realm of culture analytics. He is engaged in several collaborations with physicists and other scientists seeking to understand how texts can be modeled computationally in order to better describe functions and features.
On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, Brown University staff gathered for the annual Brown Employee Appreciation and Recognition (BEAR) Day, at which staff are recognized for milestone years of continuous service. With so many employees with impressive longevity, the Library is always well represented at BEAR Day.
Here are the Library staff members who were recognized this year:
