We’re Back! Thanks for Your Patience and Support

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Steven Bell

Whew! After the catastrophic failure of our library web site on Sunday, Sept. 11, we had activated our alternative homepage, a slimmed down menu of all our resources. As we explained on our alternate page, after a scheduled power outage ended Sunday morning, our usual webservers and a key backup failed to reboot. Many members of the library technology staff, working with colleagues from computer services, worked many hours to build several servers from clean installs and then restore the library web site from a new physical location less subject to the periodic power outages which afflict Paley Library . Our goal is to make sure the site runs reliably and consistently so that the resources can be reached anytime, from anywhere, 24/7. Owing to equipment failure that was not possible and so we had to make do with a stripped down alternate page that menued our resources. We greatly appreciate how understanding the Temple Community was during this difficult situation. Thank you for being patient – and putting up with our alternate site – until we restored the regular site. As of Thursday September 22, the website is up and we are actively testing and repairing minor issues. For example the text-only version of the site is not working this morning. We have asked our automatic text rendering service to redirect their scripts to the new IP addess of the website and hope the text only version of the site will be restored on Friday. Thank you! Originally posted 9/21/11 by Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian Augmented 9/22/11 by Jonathan LeBreton, Associate University Librarian.

In Memoriam: William McLean

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Margery Sly

One of the richest resources in Temple Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center for the study of the history of Philadelphia and the region is the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin photographs and clippings. And one of the best friends and supporters of the archives and the Bulletin’s history was William McLean III, the last of his family to run the Bulletin. Starting in 1950, he worked in almost every department, serving as editor and publisher from 1975 to 1980. William McLean died on August 27, 2011, at age 83. Mr. McLean’s family took over ownership of the paper in 1895, and he ensured that its history and the history of Philadelphia it reported were preserved by beginning the donation of the photographs to Temple in February 1979. Most recently, Mr. McLean participated in an oral history interview Margaret Jerrido conducted with him on August 4. The recording and transcription of that interview will soon be available for research use. We are grateful for Mr. McLean’s lifelong commitment to documenting, studying, and learning from history.

Welcome Back Temple Students

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Steven Bell

The staff of Temple University Libraries are excited about the start of the fall 2011 semester. We want to welcome all of our returning students back to campus, and we welcome all of our new students as well. Temple University Libraries has some new and exciting things in store for the fall campus, plus lots of interesting events for you to attend. Be on the lookout for our “Guide for Library Users” that will appear as an insert in the Temple Student News a few weeks from now. It’s your one-stop guide to everything you need to make great use of the Libraries at Temple. Keep following our library blog throughout the semester. You can also follow us on Twitter at /templelibraries and on Facebook. What’s new? Give our new Summon search a try. It searches the majority of our electronic research systems simultaneously – and fast! Now you can do one search and find the books and articles you need with one system. You’ll find the Summon search box prominently displayed on the Libraries web homepage. It looks like this:

When you visit Paley Library, take a look at the new flex-study space on the first floor in the computer commons. If you need a spot for your group or team to meet for a project, this is a good place for it. If you haven’t been over to the Science & Engineering Library recently, stop in (2nd Fl. of the Engineering Building). We improved all the furniture over the summer, but the project isn’t finished yet. We’ll be adding more computers during the semester. The staff of the Libraries wishes all our students a successful semester. Don’t forget. We are here to help you succeed. If you need any kind of help with research, finding books or articles, getting data, learning how to become a better researcher – we are the people who can help.

New Flex-Study Space – Use for Group Work on 1st Floor

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Steven Bell

One challenge of using the Paley Library is finding a good group study space. There are study rooms on the upper levels and some movie viewing rooms on in the Media Services area, but nothing on the first floor. We have now added the Flex-Study Space, a new area in the Computer Commons on the first floor (west). Located in the corner opposite the News Media Lounge, the Flex-Study Space features folding screens that can be used to quickly create a room for group study. There are folding tables that can be individually or can be joined together into one large table that holds approximately ten people. There is also a computer monitor on the wall into which a student can connect his or her laptop. Please know that this is a study space so we ask that students refrain from using it for social activities such as parties, card games, etc. The Flex-Study space is open to all on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you have questions about the space or need assistance, just stop at the “Ask Here” desk in the Computer Commons. Demi Lune table under a wall mounted flat screen TV. Larger surface area table in study room.

New Content in Dance in Video and Opera in Video

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Anne Harlow

Book cover with photos of dancers in action.

Book cover depicting a collage of dancers in action.

from Marie Siegel at Alexander Street Press:

We have just added 90 hours of dance performances, documentaries, interviews, and technique videos to our Dance in Video collection. Dance in Video now contains 365 hours of streaming video. New material released includes: – The Finis Jhung ballet technique videos, documenting beginner, intermediate, and advanced techniques in warm-ups, pointe, turning, barre work, jumps, the art of teaching ballet, partnering techniques, control and strength exercises, and more. – George Balanchine Foundation Interpreters Archive and Archive of Lost Choreography videos: coachings with Maria Tallchief, Patricia Wilde, Marie-Jeanne, Allegra Kent, recreations with Alicia Markova, Frederic Franklin, and Maria Tallchief. – Live at Broadway Dance Center instructional material: intermediate and advanced instruction in Latin fusion, isolated flexibility, strength training, improvisation, floorwork, contemporary jazz, partnering, lifts, lyrical jazz, and more. – Dance Pulp interviews with dancers and choreographers, including: Safi Thomas on hip-hop dance, Ted Brandsen on managing the Dutch National Ballet, Tiler Peck on competitions, Trey McIntyre on inspiration, William Wingfield on approaching dance as an artist, and combining the concert and commercial career, Harumi Terayama on discovering contemporary dance, and more. – Documentaries on leading figures and ensembles in dance, including Ruth St. Denis, Movement (R)evolution Africa, Liz Lerman, Lin Hwai-Min, Mura Dehn, Guguletu Ballet, The American Ballet Company, Chuck Davis – Performances by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (Cage’s Cursive II), Ki Theatre, and more. You can see a complete list of the new material here: http://daiv.alexanderstreet.com/WhatsNew

New Content for Opera in Video! Alexander Street Press added 30 hours of performances and documentaries to Opera in Video. The new content includes:

Cardiff Singer of the World competition highlights from 1999 and 2001
Recital of arias by Karita Mattila and Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Welsh National Opera’s performance of Monteverdi’s Poppea
Recital by Angela Gheorghiu at the Royal Opera House
Lucia di Lammermoor (Vienna), featuring Katia Ricciarelli and Jose Carreras

You can see a complete list of the new material here: http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/WhatsNew

Opera in Video is now complete with 500 hours of streaming video.

Brian Boling Joins Temple as Media Services and Digital Production Librarian

Posted on August 9, 2011 by

I am delighted to welcome Brian Boling to Temple University Libraries. Brian joined us as the Media Services and Digital Production Librarian on Monday, August 1. He will manage Paley Library’s Media Services Unit, including the oversight and growth of a 12,000-item media collection, working with faculty, students and patrons to ensure the collection supports teaching and research at the university. Brian will also provide support for the media viewing area, micromaterials equipment, and the production and editing of digital media, Brian comes to us from the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, where he provided reference and managed the collection in their media services department. Prior to that, he worked at the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County, and The Great Escape Online.com, LLC Brian earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Information Science from the University of Tennessee. Please join me in welcoming Brian to Temple. Carol Lang Interim Dean of University Libraries

Fair Use – Separating the Myth From the Reality

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Steven Bell

In this useful advice column published at Inside Higher Ed, well-known copyright expert Patricia Aufderheide shares her seven Myths About Fair Use. This is helpful to all faculty who use copyrighted materials in their teaching, and have uncertainties about when fair use applies to their incorporation or distribution of copyrighted works. Temple University’s academic librarians can also help when there are questions or concerns about copyright and fair use. We both understand the copyright law, and have mechanisims to help faculty avoid violating copyright. We are here to help, so get it touch with us. Start by contacting your departmental library liaison.

Temple Japan library catalog added to Diamond

Posted on July 29, 2011 by

Over the weekend of July 30 -31, 2011, we will migrate the online catalog of holdings for the libraries of Temple University Japan (TUJ) into the main campus online catalog system, Diamond. From August 1 forward, when you search either the catalog (Diamond) or our Summon search engine, you may well begin to find some of the 50,000 library books and journals which are labeled as being in either the TUJ Tokyo campus library or that in Osaka. This change culminates several months of planning. It creates ongoing cost efficiencies for TUJ since TUJ will not need to operate a completely separate online catalog and circulation system. Perhaps most Importantly, TUJ faculty and students will now have a single lookup that lets them search simultaneously for print books (in Japan) and online ebooks (of which there are hundreds of thousands linked from the main campus catalog and Summon). For most main campus users of the online catalog or Summon, the change will not be noticeable. For library users at our TUJ campuses, their old library catalog will be discontinued in favor of Diamond. – Jonathan LeBreton Senior Associate University Librarian

Try Our New Search Engine, Summon

Posted on July 28, 2011 by

Easily discover the world of library content with Temple University Libraries’ new search engine, Summon. Summon simultaneously searches the Diamond catalog, the Libraries’ digital content and millions of public domain e-books offered online by the Hathi Trust.

Type a keyword in the Summon searchbox on our homepage. Once you get results, refine them through categories listed on the left-hand side of the screen. Eliminate superfluous results and select your content based on library location, publication date, topic, content type and other options. For example, if you only want print books available at our library locations, click “book” under “Content Type.” You can also select “e-book,” “journal article,” “dissertation,” or “book review” and combine categories for various results. If you already know exactly what you are looking for there are, of course, advanced search options. Summon can quickly tell you what content is available and in what format. The “full-text” icon specifies which material is available electronically through the Libraries. Summon entries even indicate which books are on loan and when they are due back!
We hope you find Summon as easy to use as we do. It’s a one-stop search for an amazing breadth of content accessible through Temple University Libraries. We are always open to suggestion, however; so let us know what we can do to improve Summon. Please note that the Summon searchbox replaces the Diamond searchbox on our homepage. You can still access the Diamond Catalog from the homepage, under “Books, Movies & More.”

Site See! Stravinsky the Global Dancer

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Anne Harlow

Stravinsky the global dancer via Bibliolore by RILM on 4/20/11 Stravinsky the global dancer: A chronology of choreography to the music of Igor Stravinsky is a free online database that aims to list all dances choreographed to Stravinsky’s works, with references to about 100 compositions, about 1250 dances, and about 700 choreographers. Compiled by Stephanie Jordan and Larraine Nicholas, it is searchable by title of composition, year of composition, year of choreography, name of choreographer, dance company, and country. Jordan’s “The demons in a database: Interrogating Stravinsky the global dancer” (Dance research XXII/1 [summer 2004] pp. 57–83) presents analyses of findings in the database regarding the distribution of new Stravinsky dance productions over the years, incidence of choreographing the narrative vs. the concert scores, distribution by choreographer, and distribution by country, along with case studies of the choreographic histories of Le sacre du printemps, Apollo, and Agon. Above, the composer in his Ballets Russes days with Serge Diaghilev and Serge Lifar, who originated the role of Apollo. Below, the Houston Ballet performs an excerpt from Balanchine’s choreography for that work.

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