Gian Carlo Menotti, 1911-2007.

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Gian Carlo Menotti, renowned and beloved opera composer, died Thursday, February 1st, 2007, at the age of 95. Although born in Italy, Menotti is considered an American composer and studied with Rosario Scalera at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia where he graduated with honors in 1933. Some of his most well-known works are The Medium, The Old Maid and the Thief, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Telephone, The Saint of Bleeker Street, and The Consul, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955. In 1958 Menotti founded the prestigious summer opera festival, Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds), in Spoleto, Italy, and opened its American counterpart in Charleston, South Carolina in 1977. (See theSpoleto Festival USA.) For more information see articles in the London Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Music by Gian Carlo Menotti can be heard via streaming audio from Classical Music Library, and Ruckus.com.

Click here for a listing of works by Menotti held by Temple University Libraries.

Books about Menotti and his music in Temple University’s Paley Library include:

Ardoin, John. The Stages of Menotti. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1985. Paley Stacks ML410.M52A85 1985

Grieb, Lyndal. The Operas of Gian Carlo Menotti, 1937-1972; a selective bibliography. Paley Stacks ML134.M533G7

Gruen, John. Menotti : a biography. New York : Macmillan, c1978. Paley Stacks ML410.M52G8

Hixon, Donald L. Gian Carlo Menotti : a bio-bibliography. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 2000. Paley Stacks ML134.M533 H59 2000

Tricoire, Robert. Gian Carlo Menotti, l’homme et son Oeuvre: Catalogue des oeuvres, discographie, illustrations. Paris, Seghers, 1966. Paley Stacks ML410.M52T7

Wlaschin, Ken. Gian Carlo Menotti on Screen : opera, dance, and choral works on film, television, and video. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Company, c1999. Paley Stacks ML410.M52 W6 1999

-Anne Harlow

Test & Education Reference Center

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The library now has access to Gale/Peterson’s Test & Education Reference Center. The resource includes information on colleges, universities, graduate and professional programs, distance learning, scholarships, and awards. This is an up-to-date electronic form of the information found in the many popular Peterson’s guides. Also included are test preparation guides and online practice tests for numerous standardized tests: GED; civil service and military entrance exams; licensing tests for law enforcement, real estate, the postal service, and many other fields; plus college and graduate school admissions exams. This includes the GRE, LSAT, MCAT, and PRAXIS exams. The Career Module of the resource center includes tools for help in finding careers, planning career paths, building resumes, and getting jobs. Feel free to send any comments or questions. —Derik A Badman

Refworks saves time

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You know how you can finish a term paper at about 8:00pm the night before it is due, only to spend three or four additional hours slogging through the citations and bibliography? By the time the 11:00 news is on you’re wailing and gnashing teeth. Refworks can help end that pain. Just download the citations from the library’s databases into Refworks and output them in MLA, APA, or Chicago style. Doing a dissertation any time soon? Refworks can save you loads of time by organizing your sources. The end will come sooner than you think. Need to send a recently finished article out to five different publishers with five different citation styles? If you’ve been using Refworks along with the Write-N-Cite plugin for Microsoft Word, this task can be performed in a jiffy. You’ll think it’s a miracle.

Refworks, the online database that allows you to download, store, organize, and output references, is getting easier and easier to use because so many scholarly databases are enabling direct exports into it. Just two vendors EBSCO and CSA have enabled this for all of the databases we purchase from them, which comes to about 75 including Academic Search Premier, ATLA, ERIC, Medline, MLA International Bibliography, Philosopher’s Index, Index Islamicus, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. Refworks is free to all Temple students, faculty, and staff. Just click on the link above and sign up for a personal account.

Below are five video clips that show how to export references from selected scholarly databases directly into Refworks. You will need Adobe Flash on your computer to watch them (my understanding is that most computers have this now). In each I start from a search results list, select a few records, and then export them into Refworks. 
Philosopher’s Index
Academic Search Premier
JSTOR
Project Muse
Blackwell Synergy

And here’s one last video clip on outputting your bibliography using Refworks.
Outputting Bibliography

Check out Refworks today! You’ll be glad that you did. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.


—Fred Rowland

News Broadcasts and News Transcripts

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The library has a subscription to Vanderbilt University’s Television News Archive. This is a searchable database of television news stories going back to 1968. For CNN, you can view the actual broadcasts going back to 1994 (you will need RealPlayer on your computer to do so). You can purchase videos of news broadcasts from the other networks through the Television News Archives.

Although the records in the Television News Archive do not include the actual transcripts, you can in many cases find the full-text transcripts in Lexis Nexis Academic (go to “Guided News Search”, under Step 1 select “News Transcripts”, under Step 2 select to search “All Transcripts” or ones from individual networks). Use the database to track important national and international events as portrayed in the news. Use it to learn how religious issues are framed and reported.

—Fred Rowland

SEAL Open House – Tuesday Jan 30th 12.30 pm – 3.30 pm

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SEAL Open House!
Science, Engineering & Architecture Library (SEAL)
Tuesday, January 30th, 12:30pm to 3:30pm

Please join us at our Open House in the Science, Engineering
and Architecture Library. Enter a drawing for gift
certificates and other goodies, enjoy some light
refreshments, take a tour of the library, learn about our
resources and services, and meet the staff. All faculty,
staff and students welcome!

Science, Engineering & Architecture
Library (SEAL)2nd floor, Engineering
and Architecture Building, room 201

For more information, 1-7828 or SEAL@temple.edu

Gretchen Sneff
Head, Science, Engineering and Architecture Library
1947 North 12th Street
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Voice: (215) 204-4724
FAX: (215) 204-7720
Email: gretchen.sneff@temple.edu

What’s In Your Search Box?

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Successful online information searches result from a combination of factors: matching the right online resource to the search topic; the searcher’s previous experience; knowledge of the subject; getting good advice from a librarian. Add to these the importance of choosing the appropriate search terms. The challenge, especially for students, is that it’s difficult to know the full range of terms used to describe any single topic. Choose the wrong term or exclude an important one from the search, and the results can be a vast misrepresentation of actual content on the topic.

In a recent column, web content consultant Gerry McGovern provided some interesting information from communications expert Frank Luntz. Luntz points out that as we modernize as a culture, some of our terms go out of fashion. Using the older terms can result in missing important, timelier information. For example, consider these words that have been replaced by newer ones:

WAS: Used car — IS NOW: Pre-owned vehicle
WAS: Secretary — IS NOW: Administrative assistant
WAS: Housewife — IS NOW: Stay-at-home-mom
WAS: Stewardess — IS NOW: Flight attendant
WAS: Waiter/Waitress — IS NOW: Server

McGovern adds some interesting data to make a point about how we choose our search terms. He writes:

According to Overture, in December 2006, 730,958 people searched for “used car,” while only 949 searched for “pre-owned vehicle.” Nearly 73,000 people searched for “housewife” (122,000 searched for “desperate housewife”), while only 43 searched for stay-at-home-mom. Over 30,000 searched for “gay marriage” while 19,000 searched for “same-sex marriage” (and what about “civil union”).

From the librarian’s perspective, this would reinforce that effective search results, whether you are using an Internet search engine or a library database requires broad conceptualizing about the variant terms that may be used to describe any single search subject. Using an outdated term or missing an obvious synonymous term can have a huge impact on the outcome of one’s search results. So how can we help students to think about this when they do their online searching? Faculty could do any or all of the following:

+ Demonstrate searches in class that illustrate creative thinking about developing search strategies.
+ Invite a librarian to your class to hold a mini-workshop on creating effective search strategies.
+ Integrate a search strategy development activity into an assignment so that students have an opportunity to share their search terms before they start researching an assignment.
+ Show students how to review their search results in a way that points out how alternate or synonymous terms can be found right in articles they are retrieving.

The Temple University Libraries’ librarians are full of great ideas about how students can be helped to become more effective researchers, and they are equally effective at helping both faculty and their students to develop the right techniques and tools to ensure that important learning outcomes are being achieved.

Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services

Faculty: Easily Address Information Literacy

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In an earlier post I discussed the importance of integrating information literacy into the curriculum. Such integration is already occurring at Temple, not only in the new General Education curriculum but also in the overlap with competencies mandated by various academic departments. Below are listed several competencies developed by the History Department, after which can be found the analogous information literacy outcome(s).

History Competency: Critically examines written materials and historical sources
Information Literacy Analog (outcome 13): Recognizes social and cultural context in which information was created

History Competency: Understands primary sources in their historical context
Information Literacy Analog (outcome 6): Differentiates between primary and secondary sources

History Competency: Formulates analytical questions about historical events
Information Literacy Analogs (outcomes 1, 8, and 14): Identifies key concepts and terms; Identifies keywords, synonyms, and related terms; and particularlyIncorporates information into knowledge base / Synthesizes main ideas to form new concepts and questions

History Competency: Develops speaking and presentation skills
Information Literacy Analog (outcome 19): Communicates product effectively (best medium and format for purpose, range of technology, communicates clearly in appropriate style)

History Competency: Gains ability to use library and other technologically appropriate sources for research
Information Literacy Analog (outcomes 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11): All five outcomes under Effective Information Access

If you are a Temple faculty member, please consider formally addressing one or two information literacy outcomes in at least one course this year. It’s quite simple really; chances are you are addressing several outcomes already! Thereference librarians are available to assist and support as desired.

–David C. Murray

Music Everywhere and Anywhere!

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Ruckus.com is offering its music downloads free (and legal) to students! Previously a subscription-only service, Ruckus changed its business model to advertising revenue. In addition to over 2.1 million tracks of music, Ruckus provides social software that enables students to create and share playlists, browse playlists of friends and classmates, read comments on message boards, and recommend music. In addition to popular music, Ruckus includes significant collections of jazz and classical music. An email address with “.edu” is necessary to access the free service. For more information see:

“Big Labels Offer Free Music to College Students” from the New York Times
“Ruckus Network Offers Free Campus Access to Downloads” from the Washington Post
“Ruckus Joins Internet2 to Distribute Files for Academic Use” from the Chronicle of Higher Education

In addition to Ruckus, the Temple University music-loving community has access to exciting free streaming audio services!

African American Song – Documents the history of African American Music, including blues, early jazz, gospel, ragtime, and more!

Classical Music Library – Look for your favorite composer here! Or, browse by playlists that include music for particular artistic movements, instruments, moods, and occasions, even a “Lover’s Guide!”

Smithsonian Global Sound – Travel the world with music! Every continent is represented as well as music from Oceania and the Caribbean. Escape the winter cold with a Calypso from Trinidad or a sizzling hot Tango!

Let music fill your mind and heart this winter, and always.

-Anne Harlow

Library Catalog Update on the Horizon

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An update as of January 24, 2007: As previously announced, the Temple University libraries plan to launch an updated, improved interface to Diamond, the Libraries’ online catalog, this year. Our original timetable called for the update to launch in January, prior to the Spring Semester. We have delayed that launch in order to take advantage of system enhancements (including improved sorting of search results) incorporated in a new release of the software that powers the online catalog. This new release is now promised to us in February, so our timetable has changed. Please watch for announcements in March of a public preview of the new catalog — allowing you to try the new interface with current data and suggest any final changes. We now anticipate the final launch to occur after the end of the semester in May. Byron C. Mayes Head, Library Systems and Technology

Tech Center Librarians – Version 2.0

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The Libraries have revamped the “Ask a Librarian” Tech Center program. Beginning this semester we’ve moved from the 2nd floor lobby to Room 205A, a breakout room, in the general lab area. Three librarians — Susan Golding, Derik Badman, and David Murray — will alternate workshops and drop-in consultations on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 1-2 p.m. all semester long.

Jan.18th- Feb 1st (T,W,Th) — Librarian available for drop in consultations

Feb. 6th, 7th, 8th — Better Grades in Less Time
You work too hard! Sharpen your research skills to cut down on time and get better results. Temple Libraries have the resources you need right at your fingertips. Join a Temple University Librarian for this session covering basic timesaving tips about using library resources.

Feb. 13th, 14th, 15th — Librarian available for drop in consultations

Feb. 20th, 21st, 22nd — 10 Ways to do Scholarly Research in Your Pajamas
Pizza delivery? Take out Chinese? Now you can get your research to go. Temple University Libraries offer thousands of online resources and services. Join the librarian to learn how to make the library come to you! Take out menu provided.

Feb. 27th,28th, Mar. 1st — Librarian available for drop in consultations

March 6th, 7th, 8th — (Spring Break)

March 13th, 14th, 15th — Getting Organized Online
Forgot about a paper that’s due? Forget to pay your phone bill or to call back that cute classmate? In this session a Temple University Librarian will demonstrate online applications that help you organize “to do” lists, events, and documents. Get text message or IM reminders! Access your calendar from any computer, anywhere!

March 20th, 21st, 22nd — Librarian available for drop in consultations

March 27th, 28th, 29th — Stuff You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Google
“Google gave me 8,956,441 hits. This stinks.” Decrease your frustration with Google by learning how to use it like any other library database. In other words, like a pro! In this session a Temple University Librarian will cover how to find books, journal articles, news, maps, and more through Google. Learn how to use Google’s advanced options to focus a search and get the most relevant results.

April 3rd, 4th, 5th — Librarian available for drop in consultations

April 10th, 11th, 12th — To Google or Not to Google
Google provides fast but often ineffective results. Will you really impress your professor by citing a Wikipedia article as a source for a research paper? In this session a Temple University Librarian will discuss the pros and cons of using Google for academic research. Discover how to just as quickly access more appropriate sources without over relying on Google. This session will cover a new open source Wiki alternative, as well as some of the more traditional reference tools that have been digitized for easy web access.

April 17th, 18th, 19th — Librarian available for drop in consultations

April 24th, 25th, 26th — Citations Without Tears
Save time on your papers, and throw out all those long citation guides. Learn to use Refworks, a web based application (free to Temple students!) that allows you to easily and quickly gather your citations and organize them for the creation of bibliographies and in-text citations in almost any format– APA, MLA, Chicago, and more.

May 1st, 2nd, 3rd — Librarian available for drop in consultations

May 8th, 9th, 10th — Librarian available for drop in consultations

Please join us all semester long in Room 205A in the Tech Center! And please do let us know what you think of our new services.

—David C. Murray