Tag Archives: Noteworthy

Religion Professor Laura Levitt Interviewed

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On February 4, 2008 Associate Professor of Religion Laura Levitt stopped by Paley Library to talk about her new book American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust, published by New York University Press. Below is a link to the MP3 file of the interview. Her book deals with the normal everyday losses that American Jews experience and tries to situate these in the larger context of American Jewish community life and the “grand narrative” of the Holocaust which tends to overshadow so much. During the course of American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust Levitt analyzes and meditates on selected poems, photographs, and films, as well as tells personal family stories. The interview gives a nice sense of Levitt’s new work and her interests. It runs about twenty-one minutes. Have a listen. Laura Levitt on American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust (MP3)(February 4, 2008)

Religion Professor Laura Levitt Interviewed

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On February 4, 2008 Associate Professor of Religion Laura Levitt stopped by Paley Library to talk about her new book American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust, published by New York University Press. Below is a link to the MP3 file of the interview. Her book deals with the normal everyday losses that American Jews experience and tries to situate these in the larger context of American Jewish community life and the “grand narrative” of the Holocaust which tends to overshadow so much. During the course of American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust Levitt analyzes and meditates on selected poems, photographs, and films, as well as tells personal family stories. The interview gives a nice sense of Levitt’s new work and her interests. It runs about twenty-one minutes. Have a listen.

 (February 4, 2008)

iTunes U link (for downloads)

Subscribe to this podcast series

The Temple University Libraries would like to thank Professor Levitt for taking the time to speak with us. We hope to make this the first of many faculty interviews on topics of interest to the Temple University community.

—Fred Rowland

“Wittenberg” at the Arden Theatre

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Just heard some very good things about the play Wittenberg at the Arden Theatre playing through March 16. It features Dr. Faustus, Martin Luther, and Hamlet in October 1517, sort of a romp through the Protestant Reformation, evidently. “Finally – a decent Protestant Reformation comedy! [David] Davalos’ wordplay, plus his riffs on religion vs. philosophy, made me hanker for a script. The dialogue sometimes flies by, given director J. R. Sullivan’s effective lickety-split pacing in several scenes, and it’s obvious that Wittenberg would be as much fun to read as this production is to see.” –Philadelphia Inquirer [Read review] ————————————————————————————————————– Subject Guides Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion ————————————————————————————————————–

RefWorks Fundamentals Webinars

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RefWorks, which is provided free through the library, is a tool to manage citations (import, export, search, create formatted bibliographies). Information on free webinars about using RefWorks follows:

RefWorks will be hosting a series of training webinars in the coming weeks. The sessions are designed to cover the “fundamental” features of the service and are open to any RefWorks user at no cost.

Enrollment is limited to 50 people per session and registration is required.

During the 75 minute session(s), we will cover the following:

– Creating an account and logging in
– Navigating RefWorks
– Getting references into RefWorks:
– from a direct export partner
– from a text file
– from an online catalog or database search in RefWorks
– adding references manually
– Organizing references
– Using quick search to search your RefWorks database
– Creating a bibliography from a folder of references
– Using Write-N-Cite to format your paper

The first three schedule webinars will be held:

Wednesday, 28 March 2007 at 11 AM EDT – attendees click here to register
Tuesday, 3 April 2007 at 2 PM EDT – attendees click here to register
Wednesday, 11 April 2007 at 3:30 PM EDT – attendees click here to register

Biblical and Other Ancient Manuscripts Online

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I was recently trying to track down online images of ancient Christian and Jewish manuscripts. I found quite a few imaging projects that are making ancient Mediterranean manuscripts more and more available to the scholar and layperson. The briefly annotated list below highlights some of the more interesting sites I ran across. (By the way, if anyone knows of any other good sites with images of ancient manuscripts, please let me know. Thanks.)

  • APIS: Advanced Papyrological Information System–“APIS is a collections-based repository hosting information about and images of papyrological materials (e.g. papyri, ostraca, wood tablets, etc) located in collections around the world.” Browse and search the database. Note:Search system gives you the option to “Show records w/images first”. The five collections immediately below are included in APIS.
  • Center for the Tebtunis Papyri–UC Berkley collection from the town of Tebtunis Egypt. “…largest collection of papyrus texts in the Americas.” For images click on “The Collection” and “On-Line Exhibits” on the left-hand side of the page.
    Image Content: from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD; administrative, legal, business, and religious documents; literary fragments (Homer, Xenophon, Pinder, Euripides)
  • Duke Papyrus Archive–Very easy site to navigate. Search or browse by topic or language. Catalog records included with each image.
    Image Content: “1400 papyri from ancient Egypt.” Includes Old Testament (used by christians), New Testament, and other early Christian manuscripts
  • Princeton University Library Papyrus Homepage–Scroll down the page and click on “Digital Images of Selected Princeton Papyri”.
    Image Content: administrative, religious, literary manuscripts in Greek (including New Testament), Latin, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic
  • University of Michigan Papyrus Collection–Well-designed site with lots of information on ancient writing. To see images click on “Exhibits” or “APIS” in menu bar at top..
    Image Content: Greek (including New Testament) and Latin papyri
  • Yale Papyrus Collection–Search Yale’s Papyrus Collection Database to view images.
    Image Content: many genres, many languages, many locations, many time periods
  • Biblical Manuscripts Project–Purpose is to make “high quality images and transcriptions of important Bible manuscripts and early printed editions freely available through the Internet.” Scroll down the page for descriptions and links to these excellent images.
    Image Content: New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures
  • Catalogue of New Testament Papyri and Codices 2nd–10th Centuries–no images on this site but lots of links and a nice overview of major collections of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
    Image Content:very sharp images of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Herculaneum Papyri–Search this database of papyri found at Herculaneum, Italy.
    Image Content: Greek literary and philosophical documents
  • University of Manchester Image Collections–Amazing images, select “Rylands Genizah” for Hebrew documents or “Rylands Papyri” for Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, Greek fragments (including classical authors and New Testament). You must turn off your popup blocker.
  • New Testament Gateway On-Line Images–Very nice list of links to images on other web sites. Try the “Codex W: Images of Mark” link for very readable images of a New Testament manuscript.
  • Online Database of New Testament Manuscripts–Search this database for location and description of New Testament manuscripts held in museums and libraries around the world. This database does NOT contain any images.
  • Oxyrhynchus Papyri–Search or browse this database of papyri found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
    Image Content: from 1st century BC to 6th century AD, Greek papyri,wide range of genres including classical authors and New Testament
  • West Semitic Research Project–Project at USC. Click on the “Educational Site” link to go to images.
    Image Content: ancient religious documents including pages from Leningrad Codex and Dead Sea Scrolls

    • —Fred Rowland

    Biblical and Other Ancient Manuscripts Online

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    I was recently trying to track down online images of ancient Christian and Jewish manuscripts. I found quite a few imaging projects that are making ancient Mediterranean manuscripts more and more available to the scholar and layperson. The briefly annotated list below highlights some of the more interesting sites I ran across. (By the way, if anyone knows of any other good sites with images of ancient manuscripts, please let me know. Thanks.)

    • APIS: Advanced Papyrological Information System–”APIS is a collections-based repository hosting information about and images of papyrological materials (e.g. papyri, ostraca, wood tablets, etc) located in collections around the world.” Browse and search the database. Note:Search system gives you the option to “Show records w/images first”. The five collections immediately below are included in APIS.
    • Center for the Tebtunis Papyri–UC Berkley collection from the town of Tebtunis Egypt. “…largest collection of papyrus texts in the Americas.” For images click on “The Collection” and “On-Line Exhibits” on the left-hand side of the page.
      Image Content: from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD; administrative, legal, business, and religious documents; literary fragments (Homer, Xenophon, Pinder, Euripides)
    • Duke Papyrus Archive–Very easy site to navigate. Search or browse by topic or language. Catalog records included with each image.
      Image Content: “1400 papyri from ancient Egypt.” Includes Old Testament (used by christians), New Testament, and other early Christian manuscripts
    • Princeton University Library Papyrus Homepage–Scroll down the page and click on “Digital Images of Selected Princeton Papyri”.
      Image Content: administrative, religious, literary manuscripts in Greek (including New Testament), Latin, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic
    • University of Michigan Papyrus Collection–Well-designed site with lots of information on ancient writing. To see images click on “Exhibits” or “APIS” in menu bar at top..
      Image Content: Greek (including New Testament) and Latin papyri
    • Yale Papyrus Collection–Search Yale’s Papyrus Collection Database to view images.
      Image Content: many genres, many languages, many locations, many time periods
  • Biblical Manuscripts Project–Purpose is to make “high quality images and transcriptions of important Bible manuscripts and early printed editions freely available through the Internet.” Scroll down the page for descriptions and links to these excellent images.
    Image Content: New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures
  • Catalogue of New Testament Papyri and Codices 2nd–10th Centuries–no images on this site but lots of links and a nice overview of major collections of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
    Image Content:very sharp images of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Herculaneum Papyri–Search this database of papyri found at Herculaneum, Italy.
    Image Content: Greek literary and philosophical documents
  • University of Manchester Image Collections–Amazing images, select “Rylands Genizah” for Hebrew documents or “Rylands Papyri” for Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, Greek fragments (including classical authors and New Testament). You must turn off your popup blocker.
  • New Testament Gateway On-Line Images–Very nice list of links to images on other web sites. Try the “Codex W: Images of Mark” link for very readable images of a New Testament manuscript.
  • Online Database of New Testament Manuscripts–Search this database for location and description of New Testament manuscripts held in museums and libraries around the world. This database does NOT contain any images.
  • Oxyrhynchus Papyri–Search or browse this database of papyri found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
    Image Content: from 1st century BC to 6th century AD, Greek papyri,wide range of genres including classical authors and New Testament
  • West Semitic Research Project–Project at USC. Click on the “Educational Site” link to go to images.
    Image Content: ancient religious documents including pages from Leningrad Codex and Dead Sea Scrolls

    • –Fred Rowland

    Access World News

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    With the recent addition of Access World News, The Temple Universtiy Libraries now have three databases that provide international news coverage: Access World News, LexisNexis, and World News Connection. Two of these, LexisNexis and Access World News, also provide national coverage. Access World News‘ hierarchical structure makes it easy to drill down to the desired search domain. Using the map of the world you can choose to search regions or individual countries. There are over 600 US newspapers and over 700 international newspapers to choose from. The advanced search makes it easy to identify articles in many different sections of a newspaper and many different date ranges. On the left side of the homepage there are links to a number of major papers, like The Chicago Tribune, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Times (of London), and The Washington Post. The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News are also available from this database. Check the library’s News Sources subject list for a complete listing of our newspaper databases. To check for individual newspapers, you can also search Journal Finder.

    Citation Searching Article

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    An interesting article in the online D-Lib Magazine (11.9 (2005)), “An Examination of Citation Counts in a New Scholarly Communication Environment” by Kathleen Bauer and Nisa Bakkalbasi of Yale, this preliminary study examines citation searching in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. I quote from their conclusion:

    Based on our preliminary examination and discovery of higher citation counts, we recommend that researchers should consult Google Scholar in addition to Web of Science or Scopus, especially for a relatively recent article, author or subject area. A search of Google Scholar will likely reveal both traditional journal articles, some of which will also be covered in Web of Science and Scopus, and additional unique material, but the scholarly value of some of the unique material remains an open question. Consulting Google Scholar may prove most useful for disciplines such as physics, where nontraditional forms of publishing are widely accepted. However, it is important for all researchers to note that until Google Scholar gives a full account of what material it is indexing and how often that index is updated, it cannot be considered a true scholarly resource in the sense that Web of Science and Scopus are. An understanding of the material being covered is central to the validity of any search of scholarly material.

    In light of the frequent requests for citation counts on publications (particularly on faculty’s own publications), it may behoove one to search Google Scholar as a supplement to Web of Science. -Derik A Badman

    Five Updated Subject Guides

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    I’ve just updated five of my subject guides, which provide a quick overview of available resources in the disciplines I’m responsible for. Take a look. Classics: The Basics Islamic Studies: The Basics Jewish Studies: The Basics Philosophy: The Basics Religion: The Basics. Here is the complete list of our subject guides. I added information on how to use WorldCat for interlibrary loans, both regular books as well as theses and dissertations. I also added the online encyclopedias we recently purchased (see Exciting New Online Encyclopedias!). –Fred Rowland