Reference
Staff
The Boston Athenæum Contact Informaton
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10 1/2 Beacon Street |
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-3777 |
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Special Collections
Make an appointment for the Vershbow Special Collections Reading Room
HOURS OF THE VERSHBOW SPECIAL COLLECTIONS READING ROOM (Manuscripts, Maps, Prints & Photographs, and Rare Books). The Reading Room is open 10am to 4pm, Tuesday through Friday. Materials cannot be retrieved after 3:00 p.m. Special Collections materials cannot be retrieved on Saturdays or Monday nights.
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Location
Guides to the
Cutter and Library of Congress Collections
Guide to Cutter Books
Guide
to Library of Congress Books
Rare, Special Collections,
and Off-site Storage
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) can be searched by Athenæum members from home. Call the Reference Department for the password and use this web address: www.oed.com
Athenæum members can search Infotrac and Newsbank from home. Call the Reference
Department for the password and click on the link below.
Massachusetts
Library and Information Network (MLIN) Database Link
JSTOR
The Athenæum participates in JSTOR, the electronic archive of "over one thousand leading academic journals across the
humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and
other materials valuable for academic work." Conceived as a project at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, JSTOR was originally seen as a solution to the problem academic libraries faced in finding shelf space for long runs, or back files, of serial publications. It has since become a unique and complete digitized collection of core scholarly journals in many disciplines. (JSTOR is not, however, a “current issues” database; there is typically a one to five year gap between the most recently published journal issue and the content available on JSTOR).
Researchers are able to access JSTOR at the public terminals in the library, and through the wireless Internet connection available to patrons using laptop computers throughout the building, except for in the Newspaper reading room.
Using JSTOR:
Use this link to get to JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/
Or, search Athena using jstor as a title search . Click on "JSTOR search or browse" link. This will bring you to the JSTOR database. JSTOR will have directions on how to search the database.
Printing from JSTOR: Journal articles are often many pages in length and take a while to print out becuase they are PDF files. It is recommended that you take notes by hand from the articles you have called up, or download the article onto your own flash / thumb drive or email the article to yourself.
Interlibrary
Loan
The Athenæum encourages members to make use of the interlibrary loan system to obtain printed material or microfilm not held by the library or readily available locally, although we must pass any cost on to members. Requests for loans may be made by email, in the Reference Department or by calling 617.227.0270 ext. 280.
Book
Mailing Services
Mailing services are provided to members, and book requests may be made either
by phone or by email. Summer
reading lists are welcome. Circulation regulations are the same as for books checked
out at the front desk; however, oversized books and volumes in fragile condition
are seldom mailed. Materials from special collections do not circulate and are
never mailed. Detailed information about the charges for this service is available
through the Circulation department.
Refererce Tools and Databases In the Library
The
Athenæum has several paper files and online databases related to the collection.
Available for use in the Reference Department are a number of unpublished research
tools, including Ogden Codman's extensive compilation of Boston, New York, and
Newport, Rhode Island, family genealogies, and an index of obituaries in the Boston
Evening Transcript, 1830-1874, prepared by Dorothy Wirth.
Databases Online Include: The Boston African Americana Collection, a collection of digitized materials relating to African Americans falls broadly within the categories of slavery, the abolition movement, free blacks, the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, rural life, urban life, social life, advertising, and depictions of men, women, and children, and consists of broadsides, caricatures, illustrations, manuscripts, pamphlets, political cartoons, portraits, and views. The database contains images and transcriptions of over five hundred items spanning the years 1770 to 1950, with the bulk of the collection falling around 1865.
Database of Boston African Americans,
1820-1863, is a unique directory of names, addresses, and occupations for
over 5,000 adult citizens of Boston, with information gathered from the city directories,
census records, and tax assessors' books.
The On-line
Boston Athenæum Theater Database is a guide to the theater programs
and playbill collection at the Boston Athenæum. More than 90% of the material
represented in the database consists of playbills or portions of playbills from
about 45 Boston theaters, many of which no longer exist. The bulk of the playbill
collection dates from circa 1860 to 1900, an especially vibrant period in the
city's theater history when Boston was a theatrical beacon drawing to its stages
some of the world's finest actors.
Suggested Reading Lists
*Staff Recommendations
*Nonfiction Recommendations
*Notable Fiction from the New York Times & Washington Post
Issues Book Suggestions:
*Books on Global Warming
*Books on the Iraq War
Literary Prizes:
*The Man Booker Prize Winners, 2004-2006
*Pulitzer Prize
Click
here for information on "Narrative of the life of James Allen, alias George Walton, alias Jonas Pierce, alias James H. York, alias Burley Grove, the highwayman. Being his death-bed confession, to the warden of the Massachusetts state prison." The Athenæum's book that is bound in human skin, as highlighted
on "Chronicle."
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