New Books Have Moved to a New Location

Posted on July 1, 2008 by pmyers

For the duration of the first floor renovations this summer we have moved the new books to the area in front of the circulation/reserve desk in Tuttleman. You may check out as many new books as you want. We change the displays every Monday and we send all the new books from the previous week to be shelved in the Paley stacks. They will stay in this new location until the renovations are finished. Their new home will be where the current reference desk is.

Database Access Problems

Posted on June 24, 2008 by John Schoolar

Please see this post for information about ongoing database access problems.

Open Access Journals

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Gerald Doyle

Beginning in the 1980s but accelerating over the last decade, libraries have been unable to keep pace with the skyrocketing costs of scholarly journals. For both private and publicly-supported research universities the publication “circle” looks something like this: 1) scholar obtains money to conduct research, perhaps through government grants or internal, tuition-supported funding; 2) scholar conducts and then publishes research in peer-reviewed journal; 3) university library “buys back” scholarly research from for-profit or societal journal publishers. The problem? Academic libraries, whose budgets sometimes do not even take inflation into account from year to year, can no longer afford to buy journal titles, especially in the sciences. Did you know, for example, that the annual $19,396 paid by Brown University Library for the journal Nuclear Physics A & B, matches the price of a “new midsize car” (Brown University’s George Street Journal).

Libraries and others who care about open access to scholarly information are fighting back. “SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system… It’s pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communications models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries” (About SPARC). The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is another such initiative. DOAJ defines open access journals as ones that “use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access” (About DOAJ). Explore DOAJ’s list of 110 scholarly, open access journals in history.

Who benefits from these initiatives? In my view scholars, libraries, small and even large publishers benefit when research is made readily available to industry and the public at large. Think about it this way: It is reasonable to expect that the public will be more willing to support research that is readily available, and that the impact of this research will be greater and longer lasting.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the open access community is scholars’ fear that publishing in open access journals will not advance careers or lead to tenure. After all, academic journals were created in the first place, in part, to promote the careers of authors. Scholars are also often concerned with a journal’s impact factor. Despite these concerns, however, new information technologies and initiatives such as SPARC and DOAJ are here to stay. Consider the benefits of open access today!

Jakobsen Lecture Available on iTunes U

Posted on June 4, 2008 by

Distinguished professor of women’s studies, Janet Jakobsen of Barnard College, lectured at Paley on April 7. Dr. Jakobsen is the Director of the Center for Research on Women at Barnard. Her research interests include: feminist and queer ethics; religion, gender, and sexuality in American public life; social movements and feminist alliance politics; and global issues of economics. Jakobsen’s research truly crosses disciplinary boundaries, and her engagement with a number of issues crosses the traditional lines established between the academy and activism. This lecture was part of a series presented by the Libraries and the General Education Program, which aims to bring interdisciplinary scholars in a variety of fields to Temple. The departments of Religion and Jewish Studies also played a significant role in sponsoring Dr. Jakobsen’s visit. Dr. Jakobsen’s lecture at Paley Library can be downloaded from iTunes U. When you see the Temple University page, click Paley Library at the bottom, then Janet Jakobsen, then click “Get” and wait for the download to complete. After the lecture, Dr. Jakobsen was interviewed by Professor of History, David Watt, and Professor of Religion, Women’s Studies, and Jewish Studies, Laura Levitt.

See the News with PressDisplay

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Kristina Devoe

TU Libraries is pleased to announce the addition of Library PressDisplay to its suite of online resources!

Visually stunning, PressDisplay provides online access to today’s leading newspapers and magazines from around the world, presented in their traditional format and layout. With more than 650 print publications from 76 countries and in 38 languages, PressDisplay is an indispensable news source for anyone who wants not only multiple perspectives on the news, but also to see the original print layout/format, including color images, editorial content, classifieds, and advertisements.

Readers can browse or search for the last 60 days worth of newspapers by country, language, or title and also perform keyword searches for individual articles. Once inside a newspaper, readers can turn the pages as if holding the actual paper, zooming into individual images and articles.

Articles may be printed, saved, or emailed for later use. Some articles also have accompanying audio files which can be played in Windows Media Player. And, articles from many foreign language publications can be instantly translated into one of several major languages.

While ideal for scholars associated with international studies, media studies, and foreign language studies, PressDisplay promises to hold appeal for all interested in current events.

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

Kristina De Voe Reference Librarian – English and Communications

Email: devoek@temple.edu

Blog: http://blog.library.temple.edu/devoek

Library of Latin Texts online

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Fred Rowland

The Temple University Libraries is pleased to announce online access to the Library of Latin Texts (Follow link, scroll down to Library of Latin Texts and click “Go”), an online collection of primary sources in Latin from the periods of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the late antique, medieval, and early modern worlds. You’ll find works by Julius Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus, Horace, Virgil, Augustine, Tertullian, Boethius, and Bede, as well as lesser known authors like Hermes Trismegistus, Minucius Felix, and Widricus Cellensis. Thousands of texts are available.

You can search by author, title, period, and century. Find a word or word form of interest and you can search the database for it by the same categories, a very powerful way to track changes in style and usage over many genres and centuries. This is not an easy database to use, however, as the searcher must know the Latin author names and titles in order to search. Various browselists make access somewhat easier, but this is certainly not database for the faint of heart. (The classics resources available in Oxford Reference Online might provide some linguistic and historical aid [Latin dictionary, Oxford Classical Dictionary, and more] in finding relevant terms).

Temple users now have access to online primary sources in both Latin (Library of Latin Texts) and Greek (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae).

If you have any questions about this resource, please let me know. Fred Rowland

New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics now online!

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Fred Rowland

The Temple University Libraries is pleased to announce that the The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics is now available online. This second edition is updated from the 1987 edition and “contains over 1,850 articles by more than 1,500 of the world’s leading economists” (go here for a more complete publishing history). In addition to the great content, the online interface is superb, providing a table of contents on the left side of each entry linking to the abstract, keywords, article sections, See Also references, and a bibliography. Below the table of contents are links to related articles. Using TULink, you can go straight from items in the bibliography to available online full-text content or to the library catalog. You can browse entries alphabetically, by topic (classification scheme from Journal of Economic Literature), or search (simple or advanced). To learn more about this great resource, take the Tour.

Other Economics Reference Sources:
Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
Dictionary of Economics
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences

—Fred Rowland

Continue reading →

New: Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts

Posted on May 20, 2008 by John Schoolar

The library is pleased to announce our purchased access to “Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Client Narratives, and Reference Works” from Alexander Street Press. This electronic resources “contains real transcripts of therapy and counseling sessions and first-person narratives illuminating the experience of mental illness and its treatment, as well as reference works to contextualize the primary material… [and] currently includes approximately 34,600 pages of material, including more than 9,000 pages of session transcripts, more than 11,000 pages of client narratives, and more than 13,000 pages of secondary reference material.” New material is added on a biweekly basis to this growing collection. This resource is a valuable source of information for students, allowing them to see transcripts of real therapy and counseling sessions using a variety of techniques and practices. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Derik A. Badman Reference Librarian for Education and Social Administration dbadman@temple.edu

2008 Library Prize Winners Interviewed

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Fred Rowland

The 2008 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research winners and their faculty sponsors kindly agreed to be interviewed on their award winning research papers by librarian Fred Rowland. Each of the three students are as articulate and intelligent as the papers they’ve written. Listen to them talk about their research in their own words.

Peter Leibensperger (interviewed with faculty sponsor Edward Latham)
“Musical Ambiguity as Poetic Reflection: Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, No. 1, ‘Nunn will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n!'” (Music Studies)
[ensemblevideo contentid=jGGyjQC8AUqT_Top-AHzFQ audio=true] (MP3, 13 minutes)
- iTunes U link (for downloads)
Natalia Smirnov (interviewed with faculty sponsor Paul Swann)
“Before and After Photography: The Makeover Method to Discipline and Punish” (Film and Media Arts)
[ensemblevideo contentid=GRV7xQNjuE27TxTTK8mPog audio=true] (MP3, 14 minutes)
- iTunes U link (for downloads)
Maureen Whitsett (interviewed with faculty sponsor Elizabeth Varon)
“Fenianism In Irish Catholic Philadelphia: The American Catholic Church’s Battle for Acceptance” (History)
[ensemblevideo contentid=bbZIDZMb8EG4WRu6x7vN7w audio=true](MP3, 13 minutes)
- iTunes U link (for downloads)

And, returning faculty and students, start thinking about the 2009 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research!

Temple University Libraries Announce Library Prize Winners

Posted on May 1, 2008 by

Temple University Libraries have announced the winners of the fourth annual Library Prize for Undergraduate Research.

As this prestigious award entered its fourth year, 63 outstanding applications were received. Applications represented disciplines, schools and colleges across Temple’s campus.

Congratulations to our winners:

Peter Leibensperger – Musical Ambiguity as Poetic Reflection: Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, No. 1, “Nunn will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n!” – (Music Studies 4782) Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Edward Latham, Dr. Cynthia Folio

Natalia Smirnov – Before and After Photography: The Makeover Method of Discipline and Punish – (Film and Media Arts 4671) Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Paul Swann

Maureen Whitsett – Fenianism In Irish Catholic Philadelphia: The American Catholic Church’s Battle for Acceptance – (History 4997) Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Petra Goedde, Dr. Elizabeth Varon

And our honorable mentions:

Robyn Baylor – “We the Kinda Cats Like to Turn Hegel Upside Down Just to See the Pennies Fall Out”: Yugen, The Floating Bear, and the Avant-Garde Poetry Community of the Lower East Side, 1958-1963 – (American Studies 4097) Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Lisa Rhodes

Brian Chambers – Consolidating Dictatorship: The Pinochet Regime in Retrospect – (History H4997) Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Petra Goedde, Dr. Elizabeth Varon, Dr. Art Schmidt

Cynthia Gingrich – The Schola Cantorum and Le Chat Noir Juxtaposed in Paris, 1880-1914 – (Music Studies 4782) Faculty Sponsor: Dr. David Cannata

Sarah Van Anden – The Collection of Charles I: A Symbol of Royal Power from Formation to Rejection – (History 4997) Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Petra Goedde, Dr. Travis Glasson

For interviews with the 2008 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research winners, and full text of their papers please visit the Library Prize site.

Winner Peter Leibensperger at the podium

Back, left to right: Professor Edward Latham, 2008 Winner Peter Leibensperger, Professor Travis Glasson, Professor Elizabeth Varon, Professor Petra Goedde, Professor Art Schmidt, 2008 Honorable Mention recipient Brian Chambers, 2008 Honorable Mention recipient Cynthia Gingrich

Front, left to right: Library Prize sponsor and SBM ‘49 alumnus Jack Livingstone, Professor Lisa Rhodes, Honorable Mention recipient Robyn Baylor, 2008 Winner Natalia Smirnov, Professor Paul Swann, 2008 Honorable Mention recipient Sarah Van Anden, 2008 Winner Maureen Whitsett, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Peter Jones, Dean of University Libraries Larry P. Alford, and Professor David Cannata

Deputy Provost and Dean of University College Richard M. Englert, Professor Elizabeth Varon, Professor Petra Goedde, 2008 Library Prize winner Maureen Whitsett, and Dean of University Libraries Larry P. Alford

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