Category Archives: Library News

Podcasting and Libraries

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Podcasting is a variation on RSS (Real Simple Syndication) wherein the RSS feeds contain automatically downloadable sound files. What are the chances it will take off in the library world? In a word: Good. Before next summer, dozens of libraries, large and small, academic and public, will likely offer their own podcasts.

Although the technology (and term) is only a few months old, podcasting is beginning to create a buzz in the online world. Unlike the content offered through commercial subscription services such as Audible, podcasting allows any organization to seamlessly “push” audio content to anyone interested in listening, including library patrons. Podcasting has been described as Tivo for web-based radio. Plug an iPod or other MP3 player into a computer running free software available from iPodder or iPodderX. If you’re online and have subscribed to a podcast feed (just like an RSS feed) through one of those applications, audio content will be downloaded to your MP3 player automatically. Unplug the iPod from the computer and have a listen. Imagine listening to the latest NPR programming or independent radio on your commute to work, or better yet the latest digest from the Libraries’ blog. The potential uses are endless.

For a directory on podcasts, see iPodder.org or Podcast Alley.

–David Murray

Online Tools for Managing Your Research Papers

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Temple University offers a number of different tools for the successful online management of research papers. These tools originate in different departments around campus but taken together help cut down on preparation time and improve your final product.

First, there’s My Backpack, accessible through the toolbar of TUportal after logging in. My Backpack allows you to store your paper in one central place so that you can access it from any computer on or off campus. Each time you want to work on your paper, you download it to your computer from My Backpack. When you’re finished working on it, simply upload it until you decide to work on it again. Since TUportal is regularly backed up, you don’t have to worry about forgetting to have a backup copy.

For managing your bibliography and in-text citations, there’s RefWorks to which the university has a site license. Simply go on to RefWorks and set up an account. RefWorks allows you to enter references manually or download them from databases. RefWorks produces bibliographies in any number of styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago Style, and Turabian. If you are writing a group paper, RefWorks can be shared so that you can build and use a bibliography collaboratively. For more information about RefWorks, see the Refworks Tutorial page.

For help on the mechanics of writing, The Writing Center offers “Handouts, Tipsheets, and Writing Guides”. These online guides cover a wide range of topics, including the writing process, argumentation, revising, proofreading, grammar, punctuation, plagiarism, and citing sources.

Finally, the library has access to over two dozen EBSCOhost databases, including Academic Search Premier, ATLA, Business Source Premier, ERIC, Humanities Abstracts, MLA International Bibliography, and PsychInfo. If you set up a personal account with EBSCOhost (it’s free), you can save and store article records to My Folder. This allows you to search and store records until you are ready to print, delete, email, or download them. This functionality works across EBSCOhost databases so that you can save records from, for instance, Academic Search Premier, ERIC, and PsychInfo, and store them all in one place, My Folder.

For more information on any one of these important tools, please contact Derik Badman, David Murray, or Fred Rowland.

Amazing New Biographical Resource

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Have you ever been confused by titles of nobility in British history? Who was The Earl of Gloucester, or The Duke of Lancaster, or Lord Buckingham? What were their real names and what role did they play in the rough and tumble events of British history? Just how many Earls of Gloucester were there anyway and which centuries did they live in?

You can discover this and much, much more in print or online in the recently available 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The 60 print volumes are available in the Paley Reference Stacks (1st Floor: DA28 .O95 2004). The online version is available from the library’s alphabetical list of databases for a one year trial period. More commonly known as the Dictionary of National Biography, or DNB, this amazing resource contains over 50,000 biographies and 10,000 images of important British men and women from the 4th century C.E. through 2001, living persons excluded. The online version includes additional functionality for researchers, like the ability to search the references and images of each entry, or the ability to search by gender, profession, and religion. Looking for the Hogarth portrait of 18th century patron of the arts Mary Edwards? Wondering if there is any information on 19th century Quaker women scientists? Trying to identify a few good sources for the study of botany in Elizabethan England? The answers to these questions and more are only a few clicks away.

Remember, the online version of this amazing resource is available for a one year trial period, so if you like what you find, please be sure to tell your local Temple librarian. Faculty and student input is taken very seriously.

Cultural hegemony and American Television

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Marnie Carroll’s “American Television in Europe: Problematizing the Notion of Pop Cultural Hegemony” (Bad Subjects 57, Oct 2001) highlights the difficulty of transnational acceptance of icons and particularly those of American Television. Carroll questions the “cultural critics’ assumption that exported American culture is unquestioningly assimilated by non-American cultures around the world.” Carroll takes on the commonly held idea of how influential American television is to other parts of the world. Composition 50 classes have recently been focusing on analytical studies on various aspects of American culture, particularly mass media, and Carroll’s article presents one part of this changing social landscape: American television and its international influences. Her article provides an excellent example for students of the kind of analytical thinking and argument they should show in their papers.