News & Updates
School of Visual Arts partnership brings art to Mugar Library with painting exhibition and printmaking workshops
The BU Libraries are pleased to collaborate with the BU School of Visual Arts Painting program to integrate art into library spaces with a new exhibition of student work and workshop series inviting all students to make art and learn about the process of creation.
Now on display on the first floor of Mugar Library, the exhibition, Painting Two at Boston University – Painting, Perception and Contemporary Figuration, presents examples of final paintings by BFA and BA Visual Art students in the Fall 2025 Painting II classes taught by Jill Grimes and Wilhelm Neusser, lecturers in BU School of Visual Arts.
In Painting II, an intermediate oil painting course, students exercise the decision-making skills necessary to make paintings with both formal and conceptual integrity. Throughout the semester, students engaged with increasingly complex painting problems, culminating in open-ended prompts for final paintings that sum up the experience of the semester. Each student made an important multiple-session figure painting in class with variable approaches to the psychology and narrative elements of figure painting. The works on display include students’ independent final painting projects, many involving concepts around self-portraiture, expression, and identity; and sustained still life paintings created mid semester. Together, the pieces highlight the range of technical skill and self-exploration that students developed throughout the semester.
Showcasing these works brings the range of advanced artistic practice and exploration of the program to the center of campus, increasing visibility of and engagement with BU’s arts programs. To deepen BU students’ knowledge of and experience with the arts, the BU Libraries is also hosting a series of printmaking workshops that will provide hands-on art education to everyone in the BU community.
Led by students who have completed the Painting II course, the “Make Your Mark: Stamp Carving Workshops” will teach BU community members how to carve stamps out of linoleum blocks and use them to make prints. Participants will also learn from the painting students about the processes and principles that went into creating artworks on display in the library.
The workshops, on the first floor of Mugar Library, in the student art exhibition area, will be held on:
Sunday, March 22, 2:30-4:30 pm
All are welcome to drop into a workshop at any time.
Quick Guide to Business Research
Ready to start your research journey? Here are some resources to save you time and streamline your process:
Research Guides
Explore our expert-curated Research Guides for insights on key topics. Pardee Library offers Business Research Guides, Course Guides, and Research Tutorials, with recent additions on Global Business Intelligence and Generative AI Tools for Students.
Databases
Find the resources you need quickly by browsing our Business Databases A-Z page.
Journals and Newspapers
Stay informed with access to a wide range of journals and newspapers through BU Libraries Search, ensuring you have reliable sources at your fingertips. New York Times was recently added to our collection, offering digital access to NYTimes.com, including articles, multimedia content, and archives.
Need Help?
Our reference staff is here to assist you! Contact us at pardstf@bu.edu for personalized research support.
Unlock Industry Insights with Our Research Guide
Ready to dive into industry research? Whether you’re working on a class project, analyzing market trends, or exploring new sectors, our Industry Information Sources guide provides access to the best tools and data available. With essential databases like IBISWorld, Mintel, and more, you can find reliable, up-to-date information quickly and easily.
Designed to streamline your research, our guide directs you to trusted sources that save you time and effort. If you need help or have any questions, our friendly team is here for you. Contact us at pardstf@bu.edu for assistance, we’re happy to help!
BU Libraries Celebrate Love Data Week
The BU Libraries are celebrating Love Data Week (February 9-13) by sharing data resources and offerings and uplifting the data sets the BU community loves.
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)’s Love Data Week celebrates data in all forms, and the power of data to tell stories and shape our understanding of the world around us. As a member of the Consortium, Boston University provides access to more than 400,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. This is the largest social science archive and contains data sets ranging from education, health, aging, criminal justice, substance use, and other fields related to society and lived experiences.
With ICPSR, you can search keywords, thematic collections, or for specific datasets for variables for your research. Visit the Libraries Databases A to Z list to access all the specialized databases available to you at BU. Or, connect directly by visiting: library.bu.edu/icpsr. To learn more about data access and data sets with ICPSR, email your ICPSR Library Representative, Lucy (LFlamm@bu.edu). Instructors can also check out tips and tricks for teaching with data, including ready-to-use assignments matched with datasets.
ICPSR also features a No Stupid Questions video series dedicated to building vocabulary around data.
BU’s Center for Innovation in Social Sciences has also compiled information on the ‘favorite data sets’ of BU social scientists. Read about their favorite data sets to see just a sampling of the information available to you.
BU Libraries Launch Series of Common Read Events
The BU Libraries are hosting several Orbital-themed events this spring semester to help build community and connection through the BU Common Read. The BU Common Read is a University-wide initiative that invites all students, faculty, and staff to read and discuss the same book and to meaningfully engage with one another. Orbital by Samantha Harvey, this year’s Common Read, is a Booker Prize-winning novel, following six astronauts on the International Space Station as they orbit Earth 16 times in one day.
To foster opportunities to be creative, learn and connect through Orbital, BU Libraries are offering a range of events, including reading discussion groups, themed creative writing workshops and “crafternoons.” These activities are student-led, giving BU students a casual and welcoming environment to share their thoughts and ideas about the book, and express themselves creatively. The schedule is as follows:
Reading Discussion Groups (Receive a BU Libraries tote with Orbital-themed swag at the discussion group events)
Estin Room (Mugar 302)
- February 10, 7-8 pm
- February 18, 7-8 pm
- March 19, 7-8 pm
- March 25, 7-8 pm
Orbital-inspired Writer’s Nights (Receive a BU Libraries tote with Orbital-themed swag at the Writer’s Nights events)
Mugar Room 503
- February 19, 7-8 pm
- March 5, 7-8 pm
Common Read Crafternoons
BU Commons @ Mugar
- February 19, 1-3 pm
- March 19, 1-3 pm
To ensure all students can participate in the new tradition of the Common Read, BU students can pick up a free copy of Orbital at the service desk of all BU Libraries locations.
Beyond these events, the BU Libraries invite the community to explore Orbiting the Archives: Space, Science, and Imagination in Boston University’s Archival Collections, a new exhibit on the first floor of Mugar Memorial Library. Featuring items from our Special Collections and University Archives, the exhibition encourages community members to consider life beyond the terrestrial through the lens of reporters, artists, researchers, actors, directors, writers, and thinkers.
BU Libraries to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with community tours of King Reading Room
The Boston University Libraries join the Howard Thurman Center, the City of Boston, BU African American & Black Diaspora Studies, and BU Government & Community Affairs in inviting all to the 2026 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration. The annual celebration features thoughtful and inspirational speakers and provides community members and opportunity to tour the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room in Mugar Memorial Library.
Register for the event | Register for a tour
This year’s event, held on Monday, January 19, at 12 pm in the Metcalf Ballroom of the George Sherman Union, will feature Dr. Eve L. Ewing as the keynote speaker. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. An associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago, she is the award-winning author of five books. Her most recent book is Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, an instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller. This year’s event theme is Justice Indivisible: Fighting Racism, Greed, and War.
Following the speaking program, archivists from the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at the BU Libraries will provide tours of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room. The BU Libraries proudly holds an archival collection of Dr. King’s manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, printed material, financial and legal papers, photographs, and other items dating from 1947 to 1964. Through drafts of sermons, speeches, and books; telegrams, programs, leaflets, manuscripts; and personal correspondence, the Reading Room exhibition provides an intimate view of Dr. King’s time at the University, and his leadership of the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement.
Tours will begin 2 pm and run approximately every 20 minutes through 3:30 pm. Meet at the library entrance on the first floor of the George Sherman Union to join a tour.
Visitors are welcome to visit Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room at another time during the library’s open hours by making an appointment through this form.
More information about Dr. King’s Papers is available in the finding aid to the collection:
Research appointments to view the archives can be requested by writing to archives@bu.edu
Discover Global News Through PressReader
Your BU login unlocks PressReader – a premier collection of over 8,000 newspapers and magazines from 150 countries in 60+ languages. Every publication appears in full color with its original print layout, giving you an authentic reading experience from anywhere.
What You’ll Find
Stay current with essential business and news sources including the Boston Globe, Fast Company, Inc., and Newsweek. Unwind with entertainment and culture coverage from Rolling Stone, Variety and more.
Need to reference an older story? Access at least 90 days of back issues for every publication, perfect for research or tracking developing stories.
Start Reading Today
Access PressReader anytime through BU Libraries. Questions? Contact us at pardstf@bu.edu.
Power Your Projects with Data from Pardee Library
Get ready to level up your research game! Pardee Library gives you access to a world of data – financial, economic, government, and marketing – so you can turn insights into impact.
Whether you’re tracking economic trends, researching markets, or exploring policy data, our databases and datasets give you the edge you need for your coursework and research.
Start Exploring:
Want even more? Browse all available options on our Business Databases: A-Z page.
Need Help Finding the Right Data?
Our team is here to help you locate and access the best sources for your topic – just email pardstf@bu.edu.
Open Access Week: Explore OpenBU
The BU Libraries are celebrating International Open Access Week (October 20-26) by highlighting library services that support the global reach of scholarship produced at BU and the variety of works available in BU’s digital institutional repository.
To support the university’s commitment to “disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible” as outlined in its open access policy, the BU Libraries manages a digital institutional repository OpenBU (open.bu.edu), available to all members of the university community. As BU’s digital institutional repository, OpenBU houses thousands of articles, chapters, theses and dissertations, presentations, datasets, media, and more—all authored or co-authored by BU faculty, students, and staff. This repository enables BU researchers to share, disseminate, and preserve their scholarship, and makes their research more accessible.
Learn how to contribute your own work to OpenBU and share it with the world.
OpenBU currently holds 49,485 items, and since its launch, there have been 6,654,437 downloads and 8,047,005 visits. Its collections cover a wide array of topics, and materials from numerous BU colleges, schools, and departments can be found in the repository. The scope of the repository’s materials is captured in OpenBU’s most-viewed items of the past year:
- Abraham Lincoln and Christianity.
- The concept of the soul in Plato and in early Judeo-Christian thought
- The supernatural in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Spinoza’s concept of God’s infinity.
- The effects of quicklime on the decomposition process in a tropical climate
- Evaluating the vitamin D content in sardines and mackerel
- Robert Frost: His treatment of nature and humanity
- Sexual Violence in Muslim Communities: Towards Awareness and Accountability
- Macroscopic observations of the effects of corrosive substances on bone and soft tissue when subjected to heating
- Tying the knot: a Feminist/Womanist guide to Muslim marriage in America
This list offers a small snapshot of the wealth of materials researchers can share and discover through OpenBU. This repository is a key program in the BU Libraries’ broad support of research, teaching, and learning at Boston University and it is part of BU Libraries’ deep commitment to facilitating greater access to research and knowledge.
Explore the benefits of this open access initiative by browsing OpenBU’s collections and contributing your own work. If you have questions about contributing to or exploring OpenBU, email open-help@bu.edu.
Top Business Publications You Can Access for Free
Ready to boost your grades and gain a better understanding of what’s happening in business? Stop fighting paywalls and sketchy sources. BU Libraries gives you free online access to the same trusted publications CEOs and investors read every day.
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Type the publication name in BU Libraries Search to access it instantly.
The Essential 5:
- The Wall Street Journal: The gold standard for finance and economics. If you only read one business source, make it this.
- Harvard Business Review: Practical management insights that professors love to cite, and you will too.
- The Economist: See how politics, tech, and economics connect globally. Great for case studies and interviews.
- Bloomberg Businessweek: Spot trends before they hit mainstream news. Perfect for class discussions.
- Financial Times: Deep international business coverage. Essential for anyone thinking globally.
Bonus Reads:
- The New York Times – Business Section: Accessible, award-winning coverage of the companies, policies, and people shaping today’s economy.
- MIT Sloan Management Review: Research-driven insights on leadership, innovation, and organizational change from top scholars and practitioners.
Why It Matters:
These publications help you:
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These benefits come with your tuition, so be sure to use them! Visit BU Libraries Search or email pardstf@bu.edu for help getting started. Your GPA will thank you.