Tag Archives: Noteworthy

Temple University Libraries Fall Public Programming Schedule Expanded

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Temple University Libraries Fall Public Programming Schedule Expanded The Libraries have added three new programs to the fall 2010 schedule:

November 1, 7PM Philadelphia Sound and Vision Ibrahim Theater @ International House, 3701 Chestnut Street Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives presents a look at hidden stories of music and sound in Philadelphia. It features some of the more distinct characters, traditions and venues in the city’s recent history. The screening will feature: free-jazz performer Sun Ra and his Arkestra, David Bowie visiting Veterans Stadium, synthesizer expert Gerson Rosenbloom, Philadelphia International soul legends McFadden & Whitehead, punk/…new wave stalwart Ken Kweeder at the Hot Club, the organist at the Spectrum sports and entertainment venue, jazz-vibraphonist Khan Jamal, Mummers new years string bands, the original Electric Factory concert venue and more! The program consists of unique footage from the Urban Archives’ collections including unaired news footage, television broadcasts, news magazines and documentaries from local networks WPVI 6 and KYW 3. This highlights recent preservation and digitization work done on our film and video holdings. Open to the general public and FREE!

November 2, 5:30 PM Nancy Heinzen on Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 South 18th Street Take a look inside Philadelphia history with Nancy Heinzen, author of The Perfect Square: A History of Rittenhouse Square. (Temple University Press, 2009). Author Nancy Heinzen will discuss the growth and development of Rittenhouse Square, illustrating that not only is this urban space unique, but so too is the combination of human events and relationships that have created and sustained it. This program is presented by Temple University Libraries, the Temple University Press and the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Come early to explore PAAs newest exhibition, The Sitting Room: Four Studies, in the first and second floor galleries.

December 1, 3:30 PM In Conversation with Andrew Lam East Eats West: The unexpected Consequences of Asian Immigration to America Paley Library Lecture Hall, 1210 Polett Walk, Ground Floor From cuisine and martial arts to sex and self-esteem, East Eats West shines new light on the bridges and crossroads where two hemispheres meld into one worldwide “immigrant nation.” In this new nation, with its amalgamation of divergent ideas, tastes, and styles, today’s bold fusion becomes tomorrow’s classic. But while the space between East and West continues to shrink in this age of globalization, some cultural gaps remain. Andrew Lam, the award-winning author of Perfume Dreams, continues to explore the Vietnamese diaspora, this time concentrating not only on how the East and West have changed but how they are changing each other. And he’ll talk about what it is like to thrive in the West with one foot still in the East.” Andrew is a writer and an editor with the Pacific News Service, a short story writer, and, has been, for 8 years, a commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He co-founded New America Media, an association of over 2000 ethnic media organizations in America. His essays have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, The LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal, and the Chicago Tribune. His short stories are also anthologized widely and taught in many Universities and colleges. This program is part of the Language and Linguistics Speaker Series organized by the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Program. Support also provided by CIBER in the Fox School of Business and Management, GenEd, Vietnamese Studies, Department of English and the Faculty Senate Lectures and Forums Committee.

Survey Will Gather Information About Electronic Resource Use

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In an effort to gather information about the usage of the Temple University Libraries’ electronic resources, an occasional web-based survey will be launched on Tuesday, August 31. The survey form will appear when connecting to any electronic resource. That includes the library catalog, the journal databases, music libraries, electronic books, etc. The online web survey must be completed in order to gain access to the desired electronic resource. This four question survey, while creating a momentary disruption, will only be conducted for two consecutive hours per month through the next academic year. The survey is anonymous and will coincide with short on-site surveys of a similar nature being offered at Paley Library.

The University administration has requested that we conduct this survey in order to gain more information about how the institutional investment in electronic information resources contributes to our scholars’ and researchers’ capacity to perform research that leads to new discoveries. While this survey will create some minimal disruption in the short run, the data gathered will be of great benefit to our instituition in the long run. Therefore we will greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation if and when you are asked to complete the survey form.

Should you have further questions, an FAQ is appended to the online survey instrument or you can contact the Controller’s Office which is sponsoring the survey.

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.

Interviews: Library Prize Winners 2010

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Interviews with the winners of the 2010 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research are now available.

bermudez.jpgDonald Bermudez speaking at the Library Prize Awards Ceremony, May 5, 2010

Donald Bermudez – author of Keystone of the Keystone: The Falls of the Delaware and Bucks County 1609-1692 (History 4997) – and faculty sponsor Rita Krueger are interviewed by Adam Shambaugh

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iTunes U link (for downloads)

 

hussey.jpgBrian Hussey speaking at the Library Prize Awards Ceremony, May 5, 2010

Brian Hussey – author of Setting the Agenda: The Effects of Administration Debates and the President’s Personal Imperatives on Forming Foreign Policy During the Reagan Administration (History 4997) – and faculty sponsor Rita Krueger are interviewed by Fred Rowland

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iTunes U link (for downloads)

 

young.jpgCharise Young speaking at the Library Prize Awards Ceremony, May 5, 2010

Charise Young – author of African American Women’s Basketball in the 1920s and 1930s: Active Participants in the “New Negro” Movement (History 4296) – and faculty sponsor Bettye Collier-Thomas are interviewed by Fred Rowland

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iTunes U link (for downloads)

For more information on this year’s winners and honorable mentions, go to the Winners page.

Refworks 2.0 beta available

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When you log into Refworks, you now have the option to try out the Refworks 2.0 beta version. Just click on the link in the upper right corner for “Refworks 2.0.” When using Refworks 2.0, you will have access to all the citations in your Refworks database. From Refworks 2.0, you can switch back to the traditional interface by clicking “Refworks Classic” in the upper right corner. Make sure you save any new work before switching between the two interfaces.

Refworks 2.0 preview RW2.jpg —Fred Rowland

Talking About Starbucks

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Bryant Simon

Bryant Simon

Temple history professor Bryant Simon is the author of Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks, published by University of California Press in 2009. It describes how the Starbucks phenomenon reflects many of the social and cultural trends in American society and business. On March 24, 2010, he stopped by Paley Library to talk to me about his new book. He discussed the history of the company, the research methods he employed, the coffeehouse tradition, the shrinking of public spaces in America, and how we might renew our civic culture.

Listen to the audio of the interview

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 iTUnes U link (for downloads)

Subscribe to this podcast series

 

—Fred Rowland

Exhibition Cell Phone Tour Launches

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We’ve created a cellphone tour to guide you through the current exhibition at Paley Library: The Radical, The Alternative, The Political—Posters from the Contemporary Culture Collection. The exhibition presents a rare glimpse into the political, the graphic, the radical—with broadsides, posters and other print-based materials from the Contemporary Culture Collection. The exhibition, which is culled from this outstanding collection of materials from radical, alternative, and independent presses, explores the theme of accessibility and dissemination of print materials. The Contemporary Culture Collection is one of the region’s most extensive collections of publications by alternative, independent, and small literary publishers; social reform and liberation movement organizations; and political organizations of the far left and right. The collection contains 5,000 journal, newsletter and newspaper titles, books, pamphlets, microfilm, audiotapes, posters, broadsides, artist books and prints. To participate in the tour, drop by Paley Library, proceed to the exhibit cases on the first floor and dial in at 215-525-1543, then hit prompt 50# to begin.

Update on Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA): Now Available for Free

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A recent press release by the Getty announced that the art database, Bibliography of the History (BHA) will now be available free of charge via the J. Paul Getty website. You can read the entire release here. Please note that the content available is only the archive of BHA. The database is currently not being updated. There is a sigh of relief in the art research community over this news. Despite the lack of updated content, BHA remains one of the most useful resources for art historical research.

Bibliography of the History of Art Ceases Publication

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The Temple University Libraries were notified today that the Getty Research Institute has discontinued publication of the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), a critical database in the field of art history. Furthermore, we regret to report that the Getty will switch off all access to the BHA at the end of March 2010. Proquest, the distributor through which Temple has had access to the BHA, confirmed in writing to us that the Getty had been looking for a buyer for the database but that as of last week, no other publisher was willing to buy and continue the database. So Getty is pulling the plug. ProQuest maintains that no extension of access for any customers will be possible after March 31.

Alternatives:

  • The Bibliography of the History of Art is a superior database and its coverage has not been duplicated in any single database available to us, but the Temple University Libraries can offer you some alternative databases that provide some overlap of BHA content.
  • ARTbibliographies Modern: Covers around 150 of the journals on BHA’s list, with unsurpassed strengths in areas such as modernism, contemporary global art and photography
  • British Humanities Index: Covers around 80 BHA journals, covering subjects such as fine art, antiques, museums, classical studies, European studies and interdisciplinary studies
  • Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI): Covers 40 BHA journals, with overlapping subject strengths in costume and dress, decorative arts and interiors

Again, all access to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) will cease on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. Please continue to use this resource until then.

— by Jill E. Luedke, Reference & Instruction Librarian / Art Subject Specialist

Discussing American Jewish History Research

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iTunes U link (for downloads)

Subscribe to this podcast series

On September 9, in a ceremony at Sullivan Hall, over one hundred interested faculty, students, staff, friends, and members of the public celebrated the arrival of the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center (PJAC) to Temple’s Main Campus. This 5 million piece collection is perhaps the best local Jewish archive anywhere in the country and finds an excellent home in the Temple University Libraries’ Urban Archives, a research center specializing in twentieth century Philadelphia. Another new arrival to Temple’s Main Campus, from its former Temple University Center City home, is the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. Both of these organizations will invigorate Jewish studies research at Temple University. On November 6, Sarah Sherman, Archivist for the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, and Lila Berman, head of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, sat down with librarian Fred Rowland to discuss the recent arrival of these two organizations. They discuss the long arc of Philadelphia Jewish history, the history of their respective organizations, and their roles in promoting research at Temple University. Interview (mp3; 28:24 minutes; 26 MB)