Tag Archives: Top News

To Google or Not to Google

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Temple Libraries is proud to present “To Google or Not to Google”, an informative session that discusses the pros and cons of using the world’s largest search engine.

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.

Location: TECH Center 205-A

Time: 1-2 PM

Dates: 10/1, 10/7

For more information and to register…

Integrating the Library Into Blackboard

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Temple University Libraries’ subject specialists create guides to library resources for general subjects as well as for specific courses and assignments. Faculty should contact Subject Specialists to get more information on these. Here are the Subject Guides that are currently available.

Blackboard is a great place to make these guides available to students. View the Screencast below to see how easy it is to embed a library guide into your Blackboard course.

For more information, see Integrating the Library Into Blackboard.

Stuff You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Google

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Temple University Libraries is proud to off an informative session titled “Stuff You didn’t Know You Could Do With Google”.

How do you use Google? If you’re not going beyond the introductory Search Page, then you’re not experiencing the full potential of Google. Google is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe wanna-a-be; learn how to use it to search Temple’s databases, to search for government information from any locality in the world, to find PowerPoint presentations on any topic, to find full-text books, and much more.

Location: TECH Center 205-A

Time: 1-2 PM

Dates: 9/24, 9/30, 10/29, 11/4

For more information and to register…

Online Image Collections

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This hands-one workshop will introduce you to online image collection databases. These databases provide high-resolution images and content that would not otherwise be freely searchable via search engines such as Google.

You will learn how to find images related to art, design, architecture, archaeology, culture and politics, as well as historic images of Philadelphia. Focus will be on ARTstor and AP Images (Associated Press Images). All are welcome.

Location: TECH Center 205-A

Time: 1-2 PM

Dates: 9/23 , 10/21

For more information and to register…

New easier way to request materials

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Temple Libraries is pleased to announce a new service that greatly simplifies requests for library materials from other campus libraries and the Library Depository. When you search the Diamond catalog and you find a book or an article in a bound volume that is at the Ambler Library and you’re at Main Campus, for example, all you have to do is click on the request button at the top of the catalog record, login using your access net account, indicate where you want to pick the material up, and hit the submit button. It’s that easy. We’ve eliminated those cumbersome forms. Also, for articles in bound volumes, you will receive those electronically through your Temple email account. No need to come to the library to pick those up.

This service is available for all material that is currently requestable – that is bound journals from the Depository, journal articles in bound volumes, and circulating books. Books that don’t circulate such as reference books or books that are checked out or missing, may not be requested. This service covers material in the following libraries: Paley and Media Services; SEAL; Ambler; Harrisburg; and Health Sciences Libraries. If you want to request material from Paley, Media Services or SEAL your pickup location must be Ambler, Harrisburg, or the Health Sciences Libraries.

The screenshot below illustrates how Diamond now looks for books and journals that can be requested:

request_screenshot.jpg If you have any questions or concerns please call 215 204-0744 or email us at libcirc@temple.edu

RSS Feeds in Journal Finder

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If you search for journals in our Journal Finder, you can now access RSS feeds to get notifications of new issues’ table of contents. What is RSS? We’ve created a subject guide on that very subject called “Current Awareness with RSS Feeds”. It includes information about what RSS feeds are and how you can use them for different purposes. If have you used RSS feeds before, Journal Finder can help you find RSS feeds for the tables of contents of hundreds of academic journals from a wide range of publishers such as: Sage, Wiley, Blackwells, Elsevier, Oxford, Nature, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and many more. When you search in Journal Finder, if a journal in your results has an associated RSS feed, you will see the standard RSS icon, which looks like this:

jf_rss-1.png Clicking on the RSS icon will take you to the url for the RSS feed. Next to the RSS icons are small information icons which will take you to the aforementioned subject guide on RSS. If you have any questions feel free to ask your subject librarian.

–Derik A Badman Digital Services Librarian

New Students Gather for ceLIBration 2009

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On the afternoon of Friday, August 28th it was not business as usual at Paley Library. As it has for the past two Welcome Week Fridays, the Library was the scene of a party for our new students. With a DJ spinning the tunes, the students gathered for food, games, raffles, and other entertainment. ceLIBration is designed as a fun, non-library way to learn about the library. Several hundred students, some with their parents, visited Paley Library, and many explored all that the Library has to offer.

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This year students were invited to participate in several arcade game tournaments that featured popular games such as air hockey, foosball, basketball toss and skeeball. The Library also offered a variety of board games for students who wanted to have fun with their friends. Jimmy Johns generously brought over lots of samples of their sandwiches. So while it was uncharacteristically noisy in the Library, it was for a good cause – and a good time was had by all.

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Federal Online Documents Access Disrupted

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For many years we have listed tens of thousands of United States government documents in our online catalog of holdings together with URLs to their online equivalents hosted by agencies of the federal government. These URLs have been provided to libraries nationwide by the GPO (Government Printing Office).

On August 24th the GPO server providing these URLs suffered a catastrophic failure. GPO attempts to restore service have thus far been ineffective. As of Tuesday 9/1 only 6,000 out of 116,000 URLs had been restored. On Wednesday 9/2 the GPO server went completely offline.

This is a nationwide problem. Users of the Temple University online catalog who seek to access online U.S. government publications they find through the catalog should look at the full catalog record and use the second alternate URL if one is provided in the catalog record. The purl.access.gpo.gov link will not work until further notice. We will continue to monitor the situation and will announce restoration of PURL services by GPO.

Welcome Back! Preview Our New Homepage

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The staff of the Temple University Libraries welcomes all of our new students and faculty and all those returning to campus. We look forward to being your partner in helping everyone to achieve academic success this fall. Over the summer we have worked to improve the Libraries. You will find new computers in many areas of the Libraries. All of the computers at the Science, Architecture and Engineering Library are new. We have also replaced many of our laptops, added additional laptops and even a few netbook computers – all availble for loan at our Circulation/Reserve Desk. One of our big summer projects was to develop a prototype for a new Libraries homepage. We hope you will look at our preview and provide us with your feedback. We will introduce the new homepage at a later date. Best wishes for a great fall semester and academic year.

Jill Luedke is new Reference Librarian and Subject Specialist in Art

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I am delighted to welcome Jill Luedke to Temple University Libraries. Jill joined us as the Reference Librarian and Subject Specialist in Art on Monday, August 10. Jill will work with faculty and students in art, art history and art education at the Tyler School of Art, providing them with instructional services and research assistance. Jill will also help develop and manage print and electronic collections in art-related subject areas, and will develop guides and resources for finding and navigating the rich resources now offered at Temple.

Jill comes to us from the Adam & Sophie Gimbel Design Library at the New School in New York, New York, where she served as a Reference and Instruction Librarian. Prior to that, she worked as the Visual Resources Assistant, and then the Electronic Reserves Manager, also at the New School.

Jill earned a B.A. in Art and Art History, with a specialization in German, from Fort Hays State University, in Hays, Kansas. She received a dual MS in Library & Information Science and the History of Art & Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She is active in the Art Libraries Society of New York, and recently published an article, “ It All Started with a Button…”, in the Urban Library Journal. Please join me again in welcoming Jill Luedke to Temple University Libraries.

With warm wishes,

Larry P. Alford