In May 2012, Ralph Lieberman began photographing Harvard’s architecture ― from bicycle racks to library stacks ― for a project commissioned by Harvard College Library’s Fine Arts Library (FAL) and the Graduate School of Design’s Frances Loeb Library. “These photographs may be useful to multiple disciplines at Harvard, from Design and Fine Arts to the Humanities, as everyone has their…

Residents of low-income housing appear to get a boost in health from living in “green” buildings that are built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient features, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. The researchers, led by Meryl Colton of HSPH’s Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), surveyed the health of people…

The Department of Biostatistics will host Pipelines into Biostatistics, its first Annual Symposium dedicated to increasing the presence of underrepresented groups in biostatistics and quantitative public health through formal training, collaborative research, and mentoring. The Symposium is a new component to the Department’s Summer Program in Quantitative Sciences, which, since 1994, has hosted underrepresented undergraduates…

This fall the Harvard Library will deploy the Copyright First Responders (CFRs) — a pilot program being developed as a resource for anyone at Harvard struggling with copyright issues. The program was founded by Kyle K. Courtney, the copyright advisor at the Office for Scholarly Communication.  He observed an increase in his caseload and had rising concerns about…

At the Countway Library community garden, many hands make light work — and tasty results. Recently, volunteers gathered on a bright afternoon to beautify the garden and tend to the plants. After a long and chilly spring, the garden is now flourishing. The cold and damp did not prevent a spring harvest; the team picked…

Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka S+R’s program director for libraries, users and scholarly practices, joined a Harvard Library Strategic Conversation to discuss how libraries can gather and apply user information to make data-driven strategy and planning decisions. Ithaka S+R has surveyed thousands of faculty members and hundreds of library deans, and over 30 academic libraries across the US have…

The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study announced that historian Susan Ware, A.M. ’73, Ph.D. ’78 will become a senior adviser to the library. Ware, a Schlesinger Library Council member, will serve during the academic year while the Radcliffe Institute conducts a search for a new director…

The National Digital Stewardship Residency Boston (NDSR-Boston) program, which focuses on developing professionals in digital stewardship through post-graduate residencies, announced their first cohort of residents. Each resident will take on a project at their host institution beginning in September 2014. The residents all have interesting and unique backgrounds with one common thread – a strong…

Jumping jacks, sit-ups, relay races? Not at the recent Social Sciences Librarians Bootcamp, hosted by the Knowledge & Library Services (KLS) at Harvard Business School (HBS). Instead, attendees focused on timely topics in scholarly research, sans exercise. Discussions focused on issues such as food policy and shrinking federal grants, and librarians from 30 institutions across the country…

Harvard Direct, a new service that delivers Harvard-owned materials to one of 15 libraries selected by the patron, transitioned on June 5 from from a successful beta test to an established Library service. The service, which is available to all Harvard faculty, staff and degree-seeking students, will be rolled out at additional libraries in the coming months,…

Beginning in July, Harvard Library will upload onto its digital storage system 10 million pages of Tibetan literature that survived China’s convulsive Cultural Revolution, the movement between 1966 and 1976 that led to the destruction of countless Chinese and Tibetan literary texts. The project is the result of a partnership between Harvard Library and the…

Vice President for the Harvard Library and Roy E. Larsen Librarian of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Sarah Thomas announced that Tom Hyry will lead Houghton Library as Florence Fearrington Librarian starting this September. Hyry currently serves as director of special collections at UCLA. “Tom Hyry brings outstanding leadership qualities to Houghton, and he…

This summer the inaugural Pforzheimer Fellows are delving into projects across Harvard’s libraries, bringing a fresh perspective and learning about career opportunities. The fellowships are named in recognition of Carl H. Pforzheimer III’s generous gift to the library. James McSpadden, a history PhD candidate, is working with the uncatalogued papers of Henrich Brüning, chancellor of Germany, held…

The Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) team at Harvard Business School (HBS) turned their skills from the stacks to the pantry when they volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank last month, sorting over 7,500 pounds of food. For the fifth year in a row, KLS staff members took a day off from the library to volunteer…

In an effort to keep the polio virus from spreading between countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended that all residents and long-term visitors in Pakistan, Cameroon, and Syria be immunized and obtain a certificate of verification before traveling. According to the WHO, these countries pose the greatest risk of exporting polio. The certificates will do little to stop the…

Howard K. Koh, assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be rejoining the faculty at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) this fall in a new position as a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Health Policy and Management. In his new role,…

Eighteen Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty members—more faculty than at any other school of public health—have been included on a new list of the most highly cited researchers in the sciences and the social sciences, compiled by Thomson Reuters. Approximately 3,000 researchers worldwide earned this distinction. Faculty members with primary appointments at HSPH on the list…

Make a difference as an Arnold Arboretum School Program Guide. Training for the fall season of school programs at the Arboretum begins Aug. 28. We are looking for outgoing and mature adults who can commit to one year of volunteering. You do not need to know about plants, but experience working with children is preferred.…

The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced today that Tufts University president emeritus Lawrence S. Bacow M.P.P. 1976, Ph.D. 1978, has joined the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) community as its inaugural Leader-in-Residence. Bacow’s two-year appointment begins this summer. Bacow is known as a prominent expert on environmental policy and environmental dispute…

The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), recently announced Maggie Williams as its new director. The Institute of Politics (IOP) decided to sit down with Williams and learn more about her, what she had planned for the future of the IOP, and what she felt needed to be done to inspire the next generation of…

The deep pink of watermelon, the sharp crunch of carrots, the cool scent of fresh mint—these are some of the things that Lilian Cheung is hoping people will focus on while eating at the Harvard School of Public Health’s new “Mindful Eating Corner” in Kresge Cafeteria. Cheung, lecturer and director of health promotion and communication in the Department…

Shifting the open enrollment period for health insurance signups could boost enrollments and may help people make better health plan choices, according to a new study. The next open enrollment period for the health insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is set for November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015. But in a study…

Boston has installed more than 50 miles of bike lanes since 2007, and the number of pedal-powered commuters in the city, while only 2.1%, is more than three times the national average. To help urban planners continue to improve bike friendliness, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) set out to determine the types of…

The Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning is sponsoring a pilot program called the Faculty Academy to enable full-time Harvard faculty to get hands-on assistance with some of the techniques and concepts used in online learning experiences (such as those created through HarvardX) and in blended or flipped classrooms. Topics covered include…

More than 2,000 color images of Harvard’s architecture are now available to Harvard affiliates free and online through a library partnership with photographer Ralph Lieberman. Lieberman began photographing Harvard’s architecture in May 2012 for a project commissioned by Harvard College Library’s Fine Arts Library (FAL) and the Graduate School of Design’s Frances Loeb Library. The…

Aquaculture has become a booming industry in Chile, with salmon and other fish farmed in floating enclosures along the South Pacific coast. But as farmers densely pack these pens to meet demand, diseases can easily pass between fish — for example, an outbreak of infectious salmon anemia that emerged in 2007 caused the deaths of more than a…

In wind farms across North America and Europe, sleek turbines equipped with state-of-the-art technology convert wind energy into electric power. But tucked inside the blades of these feats of modern engineering is a decidedly low-tech core material: balsa wood. Like other manufactured products that use sandwich panel construction to achieve a combination of light weight…

Graduate students Aleem Ahmed and Caroline Mauldin are benefitting two countries with a single grain. Ahmed and Mauldin launched Love Grain last year to produce gluten-free cereals, pastas, and pancake and waffle mixes all made with teff — a high-protein, high-fiber grain that’s a staple in the Ethiopian diet. “I am impressed with Love Grain’s…

This year, June 29 marks the beginning of Ramadan, a 30-day period during which time devout Muslims around the world pray, reflect, and fast from sunrise to sunset. It is a time when religious tradition trumps business considerations. Shopkeepers reduce their hours and workers spend less time on the job and more time in the…

A well-timed and executed intervention with an under-performing math student can produce very substantive and positive results.  That is the finding in a new study co-authored by Harvard Kennedy School assistant professor Joshua Goodman.  “Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment: Long-Run Impacts of Double-Dose Algebra” is published as part of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper series. The…