Expect Periodic Disruptions at Ambler Campus Library Over the Next Two Weeks

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For a two-week period beginning Monday, August 16, 2010 the Ambler Campus Library is having new carpet installed. The Library will be closed for extended times during this two-week period. While disruptions to service are likely, Library staff are available to answer questions and resolve any difficulties caused by the carpeting work. The computer lab will be available for limited use, but printing may not always be available. Access to the books and other library materials will be addressed on a day-to-day basis. Every effort will be made to fill all requests. Materials from Paley and other libraries being sent to Ambler will be available to our patrons as usual. It is advised that you call ahead if you plan on coming to the library: 267-468-8643 or 267-468-8644 While this project was scheduled for when classes are out of session to minimize the disruption, the Libraries’ administration is aware that this will cause inconvenience for the Temple University community. For that we apologize. Your understanding and patience is greatly appreciated, and the staff of the Ambler Library looks forward to serving the community with a new look for the fall semester.

Announcing Changes at Science, Engineering & Architecture Library (SEAL)

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Effective immediately, the Science, Engineering & Architecture Library (SEAL) will be renamed the Science and Engineering Library (SEL). This change is precipitated by soon to begin physical renovations to SEAL. Approximately 40% of SEAL’s existing footprint will become a new bio-engineering program space for the School of Engineering. In order to manage the loss of space, all of the architecture material is being integrated into the Paley Library collection. In addition, selection of architecture materials and liaison services, going forward, are now the responsibility of Jill Luedke, Art & Architecture Librarian. SEL will continue to provide all existing services and resources to the students, faculty and staff of the School of Engineering and the College of Science and Technology. The collection in SEL will include science and engineering books published after 2007, key reference materials, course reserves and print current periodicals. Computers and study spaces will continue to be available. The Library Systems & Technology Office is in the process of updating all references to SEAL on our website and in the library catalog. Please contact Gretchen Sneff, Head of the Science and Engineering Library, at gsneff@temple.edu or 1-7828 with any questions or concerns.

Wiley Interscience becomes Wiley Online Library this weekend

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Wiley Interscience is migrating to a new platform this weekend and will be unavailable from 4am 8/7/10 until 12pm 8/8/10. The new platform will be called Wiley Online Library and will be available at http://libproxy.temple.edu/login?url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Further information is available here.

Discussion with Temple Classicists: Part 2

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This is the second part of my conversation with Classics professors Dan Tompkins, Robin Mitchell-Boyask, and Sydnor Roy, which took place on March 18, 2010. We talked about the impact of new theoretical approaches on classics research, the effect of the Internet on interdisciplinary research, and new channels for distributing PhD dissertations.

Dan Tompkins received his PhD from Yale University in 1968 with a dissertation entitled Stylistic Characterization in Thucydides. Robin Mitchell-Boyask graduated in 1988 from Brown University with a dissertation entitled Tragic Identity: Studies in Euripides and Shakespeare. Sydnor Roy is a 2010 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation is entitled Political Relativism: Implicit Political Theory in Herodotus’ Histories.

Listen to Part II of the Conversation

[ensemblevideo contentid=h7gwF6rYJ0-QyHdGRuaK4Q audio=true]

iTunes U link (for downloads)

Subscribe to this podcast series

 

(Listen to Part I of our conversation.)

—Fred Rowland

Trial: JSTOR Plant Science

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JSTOR is providing free access to their new Plant Science collection through the end of 2011. JSTOR’s description of the collection is below. “JSTOR Plant Science is an online environment that brings together content, tools, and people interested in plant science. It provides access to foundational content vital to plant science – plant type specimens, taxonomic structures, scientific literature, and related materials, making them widely accessible to the plant science community as well as to researchers in other fields and to the public. It also provides an easy to use interface with powerful functionality that supports research and teaching, including the ability to measure and record plant specimens, share observations and objects with colleagues and classmates, and investigate global plant biodiversity. JSTOR Plant Science strives to be a comprehensive online research tool for aggregating and exploring the world’s botanical resources, thereby dramatically improving access for students, scholars, and scientists around the globe. It is useful for those researching, teaching or studying botany, biology, ecology, environmental and conservation studies.”

New from Alexander Street Press

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Two unique new resources from Alexander Street Press have been added to the Libraries’ collections. Upon completion, Ethnographic Video Online will provide over 750 hours (~1,000 films) for the study of human culture and behavior. The collection covers every region of the world and features the work of many of the most influential documentary filmmakers of the 20th century, including interviews, previously unreleased raw footage, field notes, study guides, and more. See the publisher’s description for further information. Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. Beginning with the first underground comix from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists, this collection will contain more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform.

Using LexisNexis Congressional

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I was recently reading this article, Wealthy Reap Rewards While Those Who Work Lose, and came upon this paragraph: “‘The nation’s jobs crisis is so catastrophic that, unless Congress acts on the scale of the New Deal, millions of Americans will experience extremely long periods of unemployment for many years ahead,’ Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told a panel of the Committee on Ways and Means recently.” I wanted to read exactly what Lawrence Mishel said in his testimony before the Committee. This provided a perfect opportunity to use LexisNexis Congressional, which indexes (and often provides full-text to) committee transcripts and hearings. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Go into LexisNexis Congressional and click on the Advanced Search tab
  2. Make sure just the Hearings box is checked
  3. From the search dropdown box, select Witness
  4. In the search field type: Mishel, Lawrence
  5. Click Search And, Voila! You’ll get this citation: [Job Creation], CIS-NO: Not Yet Assigned, SOURCE: Committee on Appropriations. Senate, DOC-TYPE: Hearing , DATE: Jan. 21, 2010., CIS/Index

From there, it’s easy to find your way to the full-text. Watch this SCREENCAST to see how it’s done.

New Look for LexisNexis Academic

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LexisNexis Academic now has a re-designed interface. The changes are meant to help patrons uncover more of the great content that is sometimes hard to find within the database. You can access the new interface here. The old interface will continue to be available until the end of July, after which any links to it will re-direct to the updated version.

Researching Oil Spills

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Those interested in looking beyond today’s headlines and delving deeper into the hot topic of oil spills and restoration and recovery from spills, both in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, should check out a recently released bibliography prepared by staff at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Resources on Oil Spills, Response and Restoration: a Selected Bibliography is over 200 pages in length and includes hundreds of active links to online studies, maps, and websites, as well as citations to hundreds of printed studies.

Some of the print studies will be available at Temple (search Diamond the online catalog for these) while others can be requested through interlibrary loan (search Worldcat). This well produced bibliography is just one example of the incredible wealth of carefully vetted scientific, technical, and statistical information produced by the U.S. government which we receive as a federal depository library.

Jonathan LeBreton, Senior Associate university Librarian: jonathan@temple.edu