Steven Bell Appointed Associate University Librarian

Posted on November 30, 2006 by

We are delighted to announce that Steven J. Bell has accepted the position of Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services, concluding a national search we began last spring. He will join the library on Friday, December 22, 2006.

Steven currently is the director of the Gutman Library at Philadelphia University as well as a noted author, speaker, and leader in the library profession. He has written more than thirty articles and was profiled in the Library Journal Movers and Shakers of Librarianship series in 2002. Among his responsibilities, Steven will oversee reference and instructional services, access services, the suburban libraries, the Science, Engineering and Architecture Library, and a media services department. He also will participate in the conception, design, and implementation of improved library services. In partnership with faculty, the head of Paley Library reference, and other librarians, he will develop instructional programs to ensure that students graduate with the information skills needed for success in today’s world.

Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Temple, so it is a pleasure to welcome him back home. He also holds a Masters in Library Science from Drexel University and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

— Larry P. Alford, Vice Provost for Libraries and Unversity Librarian

Temple Times article, December 7, 2006

48 Online Reference Works

Posted on November 30, 2006 by John Schoolar

The library has just added 48 new titles to our collection of online reference works through Gale Virtual Reference Library. These full-text works are fully searchable and browsable. Each individual work is internally cross-indexed.

The titles cover a wide-range of topics from the arts to history, education, and science, and they are a valuable source for topic overviews and information when starting the research process.

The new titles are:

African American Almanac, 9th ed.
African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience
American History Through Literature 1870-1920
CDs, Super Glue, and Salsa: How Everyday Products Are Made
Dictionary of American History
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed.
Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy
Encyclopedia of American Industries, 4th ed.
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice
Encyclopedia of Education
Encyclopedia of European Social History
Encyclopedia of India
Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture
Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
Encyclopedia of Population
Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America
Encyclopedia of Russian History
Encyclopedia of the American Constitution
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression
Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
Encyclopedia of World Cultures
Encyclopedia of World Cultures Supplement
Europe, 1450 to 1789: An Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, 2nd ed.
Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens’ Rights and Responsibilities
Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia
History of the American Cinema, Volume 1
History of the American Cinema, Volume 2
History of the American Cinema, Volume 3
History of the American Cinema, Volume 4
History of the American Cinema, Volume 5
History of the American Cinema, Volume 6
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy
Major 21st-Century Writers
Major Acts of Congress
Nutrition and Well-Being A to Z
Reference Guide to Short Fiction, 2nd ed.
Reference Guide to World Literature
Science and Its Times
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia
Water: Science and Issues
West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd ed.
World Education Encyclopedia
World Press Encyclopedia
Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations

—Derik A Badman

iPOLL: Polling Database

Posted on November 28, 2006 by John Schoolar

TU Libraries is pleased to announce the addition of iPOLL Databank from The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research to its collection of databases.

A fabulous resource for the public opinion/public policy scholar, iPOLL is a dynamic, full-text database of 500,000 questions from national public opinion surveys from as far back as 1935, covering a wide array of social and political topics as well as economic issues, including the environment, presidential elections, Social Security, and immigration.

Survey sources include major U.S. survey research organizations: the Gallup Organization, The Roper Organization, Louis Harris and Associates, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and more.

Keyword, subject, organization, and date indexes are provided, allowing users to sift through questions easily. Each item includes the complete question text and the percentage of the public giving the response, in addition to study level information, such as the name of the organization(s) who conducted the poll, the dates when the poll was conducted, the polling method used, and a description of the polling sample.

Because the database focuses solely on surveys that have U.S. national adult samples – and not state or foreign samples – iPOLL complements well with the Libraries’ subscription to Polling the Nations, an online database of national, international, state, local and special survey information.

Access to iPOLL requires free registration.

Please feel free to contact me for further information about the resource.

–Kristina De Voe

New History Database Trials

Posted on November 27, 2006 by Gerald Doyle

The Libraries are currently running trials to four history-related databases: British Periodicals; C19: The Nineteenth Century Index; House of Commons Parliamentary Papers; and Periodical Archives Online. I have received lots of positive feedback from faculty on the latter two databases, both of which appear prominently on the history resources “wish list” for 2006-2007. Periodical Archives Online is the full-text, online version of the old Periodicals Contents Index. It would be very helpful to receive feedback on C19: The Nineteenth Century. Can this database take the place of the currently-subscribed-to 19th Century Masterfile? For good or ill, The Masterfile has a relatively simple search interface. Please send your feedback on the usefulness of any of these resources to me at dcm@temple.edu. —David C. Murray

Religion in the news

Posted on November 16, 2006 by Fred Rowland

Over the past year many of the popular weekly news magazines, like Newsweek, Time, and US News and World Report, have featured cover stories on religious themes, most involving religion in the public sphere. Below are links to a number of these cover stories, accessed through the database Academic Search Premier.

WHERE WE STAND ON FAITH. (Cover story)
Newsweek

Religious Protection. (Cover story)
New Republic

In Search of The Spiritual. (Cover story)
Newsweek

A New Welcoming Spirit in the Mosque. (Cover story)
Newsweek

DOES GOD WANT YOU TO BE RICH? (Cover story)
Time

God vs. Science. (Cover Story)
Time

A Passionate Voice And a Moral Vision. (Cover story)
Newsweek

A New Social Gospel. (Cover story)
Newsweek

The Case Against Faith. (Cover story)
Newsweek

A Shepherd Protects His Own Backyard. (Cover story)
Newsweek

Debating ‘Da Vinci’ (Cover story)
U.S.News & World Report

The Kingdom of Christ. (Cover story)
U.S.News & World Report

THE WAYS OF OPUS DEI. (Cover story)
Time

—Fred Rowland

Guest Speaker on the Middle East

Posted on November 16, 2006 by Fred Rowland

Hassan El Menyawi will speak on Monday, November 27, at 2pm in the Women’s Studies Lounge on the 8th Floor of Anderson. Menyawi is currently Assistant Professor at the United Nations University for Peace, teaching courses on international law and human rights. Toward Global Democracy is an article by Manyawi published in the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. —Fred Rowland

Learn About the Center for Research Libraries

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Gerald Doyle

Temple Libraries recently joined the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an important consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research institutions based in Chicago. Affiliates of CRL member institutions can borrow expensive, rare, and/or otherwise hard-to-find research material, in some cases for up to two calendar years. Imagine access to that formerly unobtainable resource without having to travel halfway across the country! Please join me in the History Department’s “fish bowl” — Gladfelter 913 — for one of two informal sessions designed to introduce faculty and graduate students to CRL. We will discuss the benefits of CRL membership, and will proceed through a search / request from start to finish. The sessions will be held from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. on November 9 and 10. If you cannot attend either session but would like an introduction to CRL, please contact me. —David C. Murray

Wendy Doniger to speak at UPenn

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Fred Rowland

Professor Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago will give presentations at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday (11/8, 5:15, Logan 17) and Thursday (11/9, 3:00pm, Penn Humanities Forum, 3619 Locust Walk). “Mythology of Gender in Kama-Sutra” (Wednesday) // “Bisexuality in Classical India: A Workshop” (Thursday) These events are co-sponsored by Fund to Encourage Women (FEW) of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women, Department of South Asia Studies, Department of Religious Studies, and Women’s Studies and the Alice Paul Center. Here’s a description of Doniger from the University of Chicago Divinity School web site. Here are some works by Doniger (books) (articles1) (articles2).

Darwin Exhibit at the Franklin Institute

Posted on November 2, 2006 by Fred Rowland

There’s a Darwin Exhibit running at the Franklin Institute from October 6 to December 31 that I will try to get to. Darwin is arguably the most influential thinker of the past two centuries and his theories continue to be a rich source of inspiration and controversy. I’m not sure the exhibit will be as “astonishing” as the Franklin Institute self-reports but certainly worth seeing. Museums have become a bit like theme parks so get ready for plenty of rides, games, and make-believe as you enter Chuckie D’s world. Getting back to the real world, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities is hosting The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, described as the “largest collection of Darwin’s writings ever published”. Thanks to science librarian Kathy Szigeti for pointing this site out for me. Check it out, it looks very impressive.

You might also take a look at some of the books the library has from Richard Dawkins and the late Stephen Jay Gould, two scientists who have done much to make Darwin accessbile to popular audiences. William A. Dembski has written a lot in support of Intelligent Design. Here’s a review in the Skeptic magazine of five different books (including one edited by Dembski) that challenge evolutionary theory. As the name suggests, the Skeptic is all about debunking, in this case Creationism/Intelligent Design. Here John C. Polkinghorne, physicist and theologian, critiques “Darwinian thinking” run amok. Mary Midgley is a philosopher who has written some interesting stuff on the religion in science.

Finally, we are often romantically inclined to see Big Ideas as the result of some lone genius working his magic, the paradigmatic cases in science being Newton and Einstein. It’s important to remember in this case that Darwin was not the only one who was thinking about the principles and lines of evidence that would lead to the theory of evolution. Alfred Russell Wallace came up with the mechanism of natural selection about the same time that Darwin did, which just goes to show that Big Ideas are often “in the air”.

Also, take a look at my Science and Religion subject guide for more resources on the intersection of science and religion.