Library Staff Awards Presented

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Staff Recognition Awards were presented to three library staff members on June 1st during a special Temple Libraries luncheon hosted by Larry Alford, Vice Provost for Libraries.

Award recipients were Maryann Collins, Confidential Secretary, Law Library; Jeanette DiPietrantonio, Clerk, Ambler Library; and John Goodheart, Evening Supervisor, Health Sciences Center Libraries. During the luncheon, the following library staff members of Temple’s 20 Year Club were also recognized.

New inductees: Theresa Davis, Special Collections, Paley Library Penelope Myers, Access Services, Paley Library Joanne D. Rempfer, Ambler Library Reached 35 years of service: David Dillard, Reference & Instructional Services, Paley Library Reached 30 years of service: Jeanette A. Dipietrantoni, Ambler Library Stephen E. Pavlo, Law Library William H. Stout, Access Services/Interlibrary Loan, Paley Library.

Maryann-Law.jpg Maryann Collins, Law Library, receives her award from Larry Reilly, Head of Reference at the Law Library Jeanette-PaleyLibs.jpg Jeanette DiPietrantonio, Ambler Library, receives her award from Larry Alford, Vice Provost for Libraries John-HSC.jpg John Goodheart, Health Sciences Center Libraries, receives his award from Mark-Allen Taylor, Director of the Health Sciences Center Libraries

— Carol Lang

The Chron on Refworks

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The latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (Volume 52 Issue 40 Page A29) has an article titled “Toss Out the Index Cards” (free online) on bibliographic management software such as EndNote and RefWorks. The University has a license for RefWorks that allows free use by students, staff, and faculty. Follow the link and sign up to give the software a try. As an addition to the article I will note that many of the library’s article databases (including all EBSCO and OVID products) have the ability to automatically export citations into RefWorks with a simple click of the mouse (and a quick log-in to your account). If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. —Derik A Badman

Index Islamicus

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The library has recently added the online version of Index Islamicus to our databases. Index Islamicus Online is the premier database supporting the field of Islamic Studies. An international source for articles, books, and conference proceedings, Index Islamicus is a key resource for anyone studying Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim world. Along with Arabic countries, it includes coverage of Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and other areas of the world with Muslim populations, like the United States, France, and Great Britain. Subject matter goes back to the ancient and medieval world and will be a useful interdisciplinary resource for historians, art historians, philosophers, theologians, and classicists. Over 3000 journals in multiple languages are monitored for inclusion and records go all the way back to 1906. Index Islamicus offers a basic and an advanced search. One of its most useful features is the ability to select subject descriptors from a bibliographic record and perform a new search with just those selected descriptors. Full text linking and links into Temple’s library catalog Diamond are provided, but the database itself has no full text content and no abstracts. Records can be easily exported to the bibliographic utility Refworks.

L’Annee philologique arrives!!

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At long last, the library has access to L’Annee philologique, the most important database for the study of the ancient Greco-Roman world. L’Annee reflects the international and multidisciplinary nature of classical studies, indexing books, articles, and conference papers from around the world in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages. (You will often find that the abstract to an article is written in a different language than the article itself.) Whether you’re searching for information on the Presocratics, the Homeric Hymns, the archaeological remains of Pompeii, or ancient science and technology, you will find highly relevant and dependable sources here.

L’Annee philologique online is based on the print index of the same name that has been a standard for years among classics scholars. Current online coverage is from print volume 30 (1959) to volume 74 (2003). You can search by Modern Author, Ancient Author, Full Text, Subjects and disciplines, Date, and other criteria. In the case of “Full Text”, this does not mean that you can search the entire contents of articles–this is NOT a full text database. Rather, it means that you can search the entire contents of the article records. This is unusual terminology for users in the United States and reflects L’annee’s European origin.

There are some other important features that might be surprising to non-classicist American users. For the Ancient Author search, you need to input the latinized version of a name, so for instance “liuius”, not “livy”. To search for “livy”, do the Full Text search. Complex searches are also handled differently. You have to build up your search step by step. To combine a Modern Author search with, say, a Subject search, you have to first do the author search, then the subject search, and finally combine the two searches using the boolean operator AND. Once you’ve done all the simple searches describing your topic (and you can have many), the combining and recombining of search sets–using AND, OR, and NOT–is made easy and efficient.

Unfortunately, the Help pages to this database are sparse. Below I’ve listed a bunch of academic library tutorials that I found useful:

–Fred Rowland

Biblical and Other Ancient Manuscripts Online

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I was recently trying to track down online images of ancient Christian and Jewish manuscripts. I found quite a few imaging projects that are making ancient Mediterranean manuscripts more and more available to the scholar and layperson. The briefly annotated list below highlights some of the more interesting sites I ran across. (By the way, if anyone knows of any other good sites with images of ancient manuscripts, please let me know. Thanks.)

  • APIS: Advanced Papyrological Information System–“APIS is a collections-based repository hosting information about and images of papyrological materials (e.g. papyri, ostraca, wood tablets, etc) located in collections around the world.” Browse and search the database. Note:Search system gives you the option to “Show records w/images first”. The five collections immediately below are included in APIS.
  • Center for the Tebtunis Papyri–UC Berkley collection from the town of Tebtunis Egypt. “…largest collection of papyrus texts in the Americas.” For images click on “The Collection” and “On-Line Exhibits” on the left-hand side of the page.
    Image Content: from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD; administrative, legal, business, and religious documents; literary fragments (Homer, Xenophon, Pinder, Euripides)
  • Duke Papyrus Archive–Very easy site to navigate. Search or browse by topic or language. Catalog records included with each image.
    Image Content: “1400 papyri from ancient Egypt.” Includes Old Testament (used by christians), New Testament, and other early Christian manuscripts
  • Princeton University Library Papyrus Homepage–Scroll down the page and click on “Digital Images of Selected Princeton Papyri”.
    Image Content: administrative, religious, literary manuscripts in Greek (including New Testament), Latin, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic
  • University of Michigan Papyrus Collection–Well-designed site with lots of information on ancient writing. To see images click on “Exhibits” or “APIS” in menu bar at top..
    Image Content: Greek (including New Testament) and Latin papyri
  • Yale Papyrus Collection–Search Yale’s Papyrus Collection Database to view images.
    Image Content: many genres, many languages, many locations, many time periods
  • Biblical Manuscripts Project–Purpose is to make “high quality images and transcriptions of important Bible manuscripts and early printed editions freely available through the Internet.” Scroll down the page for descriptions and links to these excellent images.
    Image Content: New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures
  • Catalogue of New Testament Papyri and Codices 2nd–10th Centuries–no images on this site but lots of links and a nice overview of major collections of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
    Image Content:very sharp images of New Testament manuscripts.
  • Herculaneum Papyri–Search this database of papyri found at Herculaneum, Italy.
    Image Content: Greek literary and philosophical documents
  • University of Manchester Image Collections–Amazing images, select “Rylands Genizah” for Hebrew documents or “Rylands Papyri” for Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, Greek fragments (including classical authors and New Testament). You must turn off your popup blocker.
  • New Testament Gateway On-Line Images–Very nice list of links to images on other web sites. Try the “Codex W: Images of Mark” link for very readable images of a New Testament manuscript.
  • Online Database of New Testament Manuscripts–Search this database for location and description of New Testament manuscripts held in museums and libraries around the world. This database does NOT contain any images.
  • Oxyrhynchus Papyri–Search or browse this database of papyri found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
    Image Content: from 1st century BC to 6th century AD, Greek papyri,wide range of genres including classical authors and New Testament
  • West Semitic Research Project–Project at USC. Click on the “Educational Site” link to go to images.
    Image Content: ancient religious documents including pages from Leningrad Codex and Dead Sea Scrolls

    • —Fred Rowland

    History News Archive

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    Here are the “old” History News entries, originally posted to the Subject Guide. I wanted to remove them from the subject guide while retaining the ability to track history-related library news over the past two years.

    New History Blog Category: History News, a new Library Blog category, will serve as a forum for news, events, and discussion of interest to Temple’s History Department. Find announcements about new library databases, trials, search tips, etc. An RSS feed is available. History News replaces this section of the subject guide.
    Posted 11/16/05

    Trial Databases Page    : The Libraries recently created a trial page for electronic databases. Please see the Library Blog entry on this topic for more information.
    Posted 11/4/2005

    Find Temple History Theses: Use Diamond to find dissertations and theses written by Temple’s history graduate students. For a complete, chronological list of the nearly 300 titles indexed since 1973 (newest to oldest), click here. To search within this list, perform a keyword search in Diamond as follows:

    s:History — Temple University Theses. AND [keyword of choice]

    Sample searches:

    s:History — Temple University Theses. AND military

    s:History — Temple University Theses. AND war

    s:History — Temple University Theses. AND women

    s:History — Temple University Theses. AND mexico

    Note that in a Diamond keyword search, “s:” tells the computer to return only those records that match a specific subject heading, in this case “History — Temple University Theses”. See also Digital Dissertations, below.
    Posted 9/1/2005

    New Database: History Reference Center: Ebsco’s History Reference Center“features cover-to-cover full-text for more than 750 historical encyclopedias and non-fiction books. . . . nearly 60 leading history periodicals. . . . 58,000 historical documents; 43,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 12,000 historical photos and maps; and 87 hours of historical film and video”.
    Posted 8/18/2005

    New History Databases: PA Gazette & African-American Newspapers    : Published in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1800 is often called the New York Times of the 19th Century. African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century includes full-text access to publications such as Freedom’s Journal, the North Star, Provincial Freeman and the Frederick Douglass Papers.
    Posted 6/20/2005

    New History Database: Early American Imprints: Series I: Evans (1639-1800)and Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819). Based upon the pioneering work of Evans, Shaw, and Shoemaker, Early American Imprints online is the most comprehensive collection of full-text books and broadsides published in the colonies and early United States between 1639 and 1819.
    Posted 6/16/2005

    Librarian Office Hours in History Department: Catch the history librarian every Monday and Thursday between 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. in Room 937, Gladfelter Hall. Students and faculty can take this opportunity to ask questions about history research, collection development, or any other library-related topic. If for no other reason, please drop by to say hello to your history librarian!
    Posted 6/7/2005

    Research Guides: Over the course of the next several months look for a number of new history research guides on this site. The first will be guides to Force & Diplomacy and Modern Europe. For those interested in researching the pre-Columbian Americas, please consult Ancient Mesoamerica: A Librarian’s Research Guide.
    Posted 1/17/2005

    The Encyclopedia of World War II (2004, online version)
    An exciting new reference work from ABC-CLIO. Also available in print at Paley Library.
    Posted 1/12/2005

    New Database Trial: Oxford Scholarship Online
    “Oxford Scholarship Online is a groundbreaking online resource, combining OUP’s core scholarly books in four disciplines and powerful research tools into one cross-indexed, fully searchable database. With over 700 classic and newly published titles now available, OSO will be updated quarterly with an additional 200 titles added each year.” Researchers can access Bible-Carrying Christians (2002), the latest book published by the History Department’s own David Harrington Watt.

    Trial scheduled to end on 11/13/2004.
    Posted 11/15/2004

    New Database Trial: History Compass
    Offers full-text access to original survey articles published within nine online journals. History Compass also allows the history researcher to access a range of useful reference resources. It allows those involved in the “teaching and research of History to do the following: 1) Teach in a new or unfamiliar area; 2) Keep up with developments in a field and areas related to it; and 3) Ensure that students are exposed only to quality-controlled online content”.

    Trial ends on 7/15/2004. Please provide feedback.
    Posted 6/21/2004

    Evaluating Scholarly Credentials in History
    A resource for historians at Temple, this guide details specific tools for determining the quality of a scholar’s academic output. Learn the impact of a journal article or book, or perform a citation analysis on the work of a particular author (who is citing whom, when, and where). Designed primarily for those seeking tenure.
    Posted 6/7/2004

    Looking for convenient access to history reference material? netLibrary’sReference Center offers full-text access to over 40 reference books in American and world history. Representative titles include A Dictionary of American History, Facts About the Presidents, Encyclopedia of North American Indians, A Concise History of the Middle East, Events That Changed Great Britain Since 1689, The History of India, World Leaders of the 20th Century, and Who’s Who In Ancient Egypt.
    Posted 5/12/2004

    The War on the Walls is a new online exhibition of historic images taken from the George F. Tyler WWI Poster Collection. Developed by Temple University Libraries, this worthy exhibition features accompanying descriptions and quotations from primary source material, related links to photograph and document images, and powerful zooming capabilities not usually seen in other online exhibits. Jay Lockenour, Associate Professor of History at Temple, wrote one of the essays featured in The War on the Walls. Please remember to sign the guest book.
    Posted 5/7/2004

    New History Database Trial: Oral History Online
    Bring oral history into your classroom! Alexander Street Press’s Oral History Online is the only commercial database of its kind. If you are a member of the history faculty or a history student please provide me with feedback.

    Trial ends in May.
    Posted 4/30/04

    If you haven’t already, take a look at the recently licensed ACLS History E-Book Project. This database contains 1,000 important history books. It will grow in size and become more valuable over time. If appropriate, consider assigning your students readings from this outstanding resource.
    Posted 4/30/04

    –David C. Murray

    New Market Research Reports Database

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    I am delighted to be able to announce that the Library has added a market research reports database to our subscriptions. The database is MarketResearch.com Academic. The database is of particular importance for teaching and research in the Fox School of Business, and for advertising students in the School of Communications and Theater. However, it will also support entrepreneurial research in all consumer market categories. Access is unlimited, on campus and remotely, with IP recognition; full downloading of the reports is permitted. The database includes thousands of market research reports, across all consumer industries. Both browse and search access are available. Historical reports are retained, so they remain available for classes that need non-current market research for case studies. The database is availble from the Library Home Page, under “Find Articles via Databases”, in the alphabetical menu and under the Business databases subject menu. Click on this link for an alphabetical list of all databases. A description of the contents can be found here. While the Library has the market research reports from Datamonitor available in several databases, they are quite abbreviated. This is the first significant package of comprehensive market research that we have been able to acquire. Please let me know if you have any questions about the database. —Barbara Wright

    Sources for the Study of Early America

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    Over the past semester alone, the Libraries have acquired more than eighty databases. That’s an awful lot of new information to keep up with, even for the librarians! The rapid pace of change means that it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint the most appropriate database for a specific research need. One way to keep pace is to consult a discipline-specific subject guide. Another, of course, is to frequently read this blog! And so, in the spirit of “keeping up,” I offer the following list of…

    Full-Text, Primary Source Databases Relevant to the Study of Early America

    Books

    Early American Imprints, Series 1: Evans (1639-1800)
    Early American Imprints, Series 2: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)
    Making of America Books (University of Michigan)
    Pennsylvania County Histories to 1900

    Google Books
    Many important, pre-1900 monographs are available.

    American Memory
    Several distinct monograph collections from the Library of Congress: California, First-Person Narratives 1849-1900; The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925; Dance Manuals 1490-1900; Nineteenth-Century Books 1850-1877 (see Making of America, above);Puerto Rico Books & Pamphlets 1831-1929; Sunday School Books 1815-1865;Traveling in America 1750-1920; Upper Midwest Books 1820-1910; and Woman Suffrage Books & Pamphlets 1848-1921.

    Newspapers

    African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
    Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690-1876)
    HarpWeek (1857-1877)
    New York Times (1851-present)
    Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800)
    Wall Street Journal (1889-present)

    Journals / Magazines

    American Periodical Series Online (1740-1900)
    Making of America Journals (University of Michigan)

    Ephemera

    American Civil War Letters & Diaries
    Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970
    Early Encounters in North America
    Gerritsen Collection: Women’s History Online, 1543-1945
    LexisNexis Congressional with the U.S. Serials Set
    Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina)
    Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000

    —David C. Murray

    AnthroSource

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    AnthroSource joins the list of more than 300 databases which Temple University Libraries provides to Temple faculty, students, and staff for research. Developed by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), it is “the premier online resource serving the research, teaching, and professional needs of anthropologists”. AnthroSource provides online access, with full-text, keyword, phrase, and Boolean searching, to the current issues of 15 of AAA’s peer-reviewed publications through the end of 2006; these include American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly. AnthroSource also serves as an electronic archive, with more than 100 years of anthropological material online, for all of AAA’s 31 journals, newsletters and bulletins. Click here to view holdings information. AnthroSource uses CrossRef to dynamically link article PDF files to other publications within and without AnthroSource. All databases are linked from the Temple University Libraries website. Please contact me if you have any questions. If you would like to have AnthroSource and other social science databases demonstrated to a class, please call me at 215-204-4581 or email me to set a date for a Library User Education class. —Gregory McKinney Subject Specialist for Anthropology Temple University Libraries Temple University

    Thanks to all our student assistants

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    As another academic year ends it’s time to appreciate and praise the work of the hundreds of student assistants who work for us in all of our libraries and make it possible to do everything we need to do to serve our Temple community. There are students working in our libraries every hour we’re open. In the case of many of the branch libraries student assistants keep the libraries open on evenings and weekends. In Paley Library students work in every department. They performs tasks as varied as answering phones during staff lunch hours; delivering important documents to the Provost’s Office; delivering mail; helping ship items going to the bindery; staffing the help desk and installing software and hardware in the Systems and Technology department; working in the current periodicals,government documents, and micromaterials unit, including staffing the ground floor desk, processing government documents, and refiling micromaterials. With our special collections, including rare books and Urban Archives, students help with many projects to make these collections accessible to our users. In the Access Services areas of Paley – circulation/reserve, interlibrary loans, and the stacks – student assistants make it possible for us to offer such critical services as e-reserves, and PALCI E-ZBorrow, activities where we rely heavily on students to do processing and scanning. In the stacks, students shelve thousands of books a week and are involved in year-round shifting projects. In interlibrary loans, students are processing and filling requests and wrapping hundreds of books a day to be shipped to libraries all over the country. Thank you to all our student assistants. We couldn’t do it without you. –Penelope Myers