Brandeis Library News

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Brandeis Library!

• Join us for Open Mic Night, on Wednesday, April 9, at 7pm, in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall. All in the Brandeis community are encouraged to attend--to read a poem or just listen! Light refreshments will be provided.
• Visit our book display on Farber 1, around the corner from Starbucks, to pick up a book of poems. Also, check out the April e-book collection in DeisGallery.
• Check out our online poetry collections! Library databases aren’t just for secondary sources and academic articles. Some of our databases have primary sources and literature, too! Explore Proquest One Literature’s poetry and other literature collections to browse famous works during poetry month!

From working with students throughout the year, Brandeis librarians know that many students work on great research papers and projects! We are excited to offer Library Research Excellence Prizes for the ninth year. These prizes recognize students who apply sophisticated information literacy skills to the selection, evaluation, and synthesis of sources for a research project. We encourage undergraduate and graduate students to apply, and we encourage faculty to promote the prizes to their students! 

For the 2025 prizes, we will accept work that was produced between May 14, 2024, and May 13, 2025. The application deadline is May 13, 2025. 

For more information, including submission forms, please visit the Library Research Excellence Prizes webpage.

Brandeis Library is pleased to announce the completion of three new digital collections available in DeisGallery: 

The Brandeis National Committee materials collection contains materials related to the Brandeis National Committee (formerly known as the Brandeis University National Women's Committee), include such materials as conference programs, membership brochures, and other ephemera dating from the 1960s through the 1990s. This collection provides insight into the founding days of Brandeis and the role the Brandeis National Committee had in fundraising for the university and the library.  

The Theresienstadt concentration camp documents collection contains nearly 400 bulletins issued by the Jewish self-government under German command at Theresienstadt. These include Tagesbefehl (Orders of the Day), Mitteilungen der Judischen Selbstverwaltung (“Announcements from the Jewish self-administration”), and 20 Rundschreiben (usually written for officials or elders but not the general prisoner population). Bulletins contain announcements, commands, rules, and regulations issued by SS leadership, as well as punishments for rule violations. Some bulletins contain lists of arrival and departure of internees. Others list deceased individuals by name and birth year. There are also a few unnumbered announcements relating to food, barracks, transport, or deaths. They date from January 5, 1942, to September 14, 1944. The collection was donated to Brandeis University in 1973 by Emma Goldscheider Fuchs, a Holocaust survivor who was held at the camp along with her first husband and two children. Fuchs’s husband, Alfred Goldscheider, managed to collect and hide the documents while working in a minor administrative post within the Jewish Self-Administration of the camp. These documents are likely to interest students of the history of the Holocaust, of the history and culture of German and Czech Jewry, and those who wish to better understand the lived experience of the Nazi genocide of European Jews.

Over 200 newly cataloged and digitized items from the Louis Dembitz Brandeis collection are now available as well. The Louis Dembitz Brandeis collection consists of approximately 150 linear feet of correspondence, documents, photographs, personal effects, and more. In addition to providing a rich resource for those interested in both the personal and public lives of Louis D. Brandeis, this collection offers a wealth of material on American legal history in general, the Progressive and Zionist movements, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The majority of the digital materials available here — primarily Louis Brandeis’s letters to his wife, Alice Goldmark — were added to the Louis Dembitz Brandeis collection by the three great-granddaughters of Louis Brandeis: Susan Popkin Cahn, Anne Brandeis Popkin, and Louisa Brandeis Popkin. Digitization was funded by the Brandeis National Committee's "Legacy of Louis" campaign.

Please contact archives@brandeis.edu to learn more about these and other collections and to view physical items from these collections. Archives and Special Collections is open for research appointments, both virtually and in-person. 

Pictured: Undated brochure and reservation card from a performance of Eriv Bruhn's "Swan Lake" featuring Rudolph Nureyev, sponsored by the Brandeis University National Women's Committee Atlanta Chapter. 

In honor of Love Data Week (February 10-14, 2025), the Library is highlighting our data services and resources.  We support Brandeis students, faculty, and other researchers with a range of resources for working with data to make your research and teaching successful.  We offer help with:

• Data management and sharing
• Using GIS and geospatial data
• Finding and accessing data
• Using tools and software for working with data
• Visualizing data

Check out our:

• Upcoming workshops. Topics include R, Python, Git and GitHub, and Atlas.ti.
• Consultation services
• Support for Research Data Management
• Library databases that support research with data and statistics

The Library has also recently added access to the All of Us Research Hub! The All of Us Research Hub, a program led by the National Institutes of Health, is one of the largest longitudinal cohort studies that stores health data from diverse participants across the United States. It allows researchers to access data and tools to conduct health research. Some of their datasets include Electronic Health Records, Biosamples, Bioassays, Mobile Health Data, Physical Measurements, and Surveys. Brandeis University has signed a Data Use and Registration Agreement with this program, allowing our researchers to register and access the All of Us Workbench.
 

As we approach finals period, the Library is here to support you!

De-Stress Events & Activities

Stop by the library to de-stress and unwind. Events and activities begin December 8th and include:

• Therapy Dogs: 
  Thursday, December 12, 1-2pm
  Monday, December 16, 12-1:30pm
  Tuesday, December 17, 1-2pm
  Wednesday, December 18, 1-2pm
• Bracelet Making:
  Wednesday, December 11, noon -3pm
  Saturday, December 14, noon-3pm
• Collaborative Art
• Origami and more!

Extended hours, December 11 - 20

• Monday 7:30am - 2am
• Tuesday 7:30am - 2am
• Wednesday 7:30am - 2am
• Thursday 7:30am - 2am
• Friday 7:30am - 12:00am
• Saturday 9:00am - 12:00am
• Sunday 9:00am - 2am
• View more hours

Fibre Fridays, 3-5pm on Fridays

If you’re working on a sewing/fibres/textiles project and want some advice, this new service is for you! Take advantage of working in a collaborative space with an in-room expert who is ready to answer questions. No appointments are necessary. Drop by to ask questions, receive advice and feedback, or just work on your own!

Check the library calendar for upcoming dates.

The Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of two collections related to WWII and Nazi Germany:

The Doris Edwards collection was recently processed by Caroline Littlewood and is now open to researchers. This collection of personal and family records of Doris Edwards (née Dorle Amalie Sara Lissa, b. 1929) was organized to document her family's life in Germany, their escape from Nazi Germany and eventual reunion in the United States, and their postwar life in the United States, including Doris' genealogy research and trip to Germany in the early 2000s.

The finding aid for the Jewish Resistance collection was recently updated to include an inventory and more detailed collection description. The collection consists of pamphlets, publications, journals, periodicals, and artifacts, all related to activism and resistance surrounding WWII.

Please contact Chloe Gerson, Reference and Instruction Archivist, to learn more about these and other collections. 
 

In celebration of I Am Global Week, November 16, 2024 - November 23, 2024, Brandeis Library is highlighting our resources with content from all over the world.

The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections  houses Brandeis University's unique and rare primary sources, including materials from countries around the world, such as:

• Yakov Borisovich Kantorovich papers:  The collection comprises the personal diaries and correspondence of Yakov Borisovich Kantorovich written during the siege of Leningrad (1941-1943). All documents are in Russian.
• Rare Non-western book collection: The collection consists of rare books from all over the world, including two illustrated Qurʼan from the 19th century, and a piece of papyrus from 120 AD.
• French Revolution pamphlets: This collection contains 94 publications, mostly of the French Revolutionary period. Among the numerous prominent authors included in this collection are Thomas Paine, Jacques Necker, Mirabeau, and Louis XVI.
• Spanish Civil War Periodical Collection: The Spanish Civil War periodical collection contains newsletters, newspapers, bulletins, and magazines documenting the Spanish Civil War. Over 300 titles are represented.  Publications originate in Spain, various European and American nations including the United States, and they detail the politics, economics, and military and social effects and policies of the Spanish Civil War on Spain and the international community.  Materials are in Spanish, English, French, German, Yiddish, Catalan, Galician, Basque, Czech, Russian and Dutch. Some titles contain more than one language.  For more information, please see our Collection Essay.

The Library’s Databases A-Z list includes databases with news and scholarly content from all over the world. Recently added resources include:

• Soviet-Era Ukrainian Newspapers A collection of five newspapers, including national newspapers from three cities, covering the early Soviet era of Ukraine’s history. Includes newspapers in both Ukrainian and Russian.
• Local and Independent Ukrainian Newspapers Includes local newspapers from over 340 cities and towns—including publications from each of Ukraine’s 27 regions. This collection traces the history of Ukraine during its early period of independence (1990s and early 2000s), and the events leading up to the Orange Revolution (2004–2005). 
• Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa - The liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime was one of the major political developments of the 20th century, with far-reaching consequences for people throughout Africa and around the globe. This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.
• People's Daily - Renmin Ribao (1946-Present) - This database provides searchable, downloadable access to the entire run of the official Chinese-language newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 1946 to present.
• World Heritage Sites: Africa - Links visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites. Includes materials relevant to African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, Diaspora studies, folklore and literature, geography, and history, as well as geomatics, advanced visual and spatial technologies, historic preservation, and urban planning. The collection is also a tool for experts and professionals engaged in the conservation and management of cultural heritage sites.

The Library Recreational Reading Collection, located on Goldfarb Level 1 across from the Information & Borrowing Desk, houses popular books and picture books in languages most commonly spoken by our students. You can browse this Recreational Reading Collection online and help us grow the collection by emailing suggested titles to libacq@brandeis.edu.

Archivist Caroline Littlewood recently processed additions to the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence records in Brandeis Archives and Special Collections. The Lemberg Center studied race-related civil disorder and social unrest in the late 1960s. Their records include original research material and collected resources documenting racial attitudes, inequalities, and violence in American cities. The updated Lemberg Center finding aid is available online, as is an essay about the collection.

Please contact Chloe Gerson, Reference and Instruction Archivist, to learn more about these and other collections. The Archives and Special Collections Reading Room is located on Level 2 of the library and is open Monday-Wednesday from 10am- 4pm, with the exception of staff holidays.

The MakerLab team will hold Open MakerLab Hours on Mondays 2:30-4:30pm, Wednesdays 1-3pm, and Thursdays 2:30-4:30pm during the Fall 2024 semester. During these hours there will be someone in the MakerLab to help you with your project ideas! Stop by the MakerLab on the Farber Mezzanine Level, and look for someone in a green apron to assist. 

Feel free to come by at other times; there is often, but not always, someone in the Lab. 

Check out the MakerLab calendar, and view a list of our upcoming workshops. 

Questions? Email us at MakerLab@brandeis.edu.