Introducing: TUlink

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Fred Rowland

Have you encountered frustration in fetching the full text of an article when using the library’s research databases? We have some good news for you. We are pleased to announce the arrival of TUlink, a new service of the Temple University Libraries.

With TUlink, the research process is greatly streamlined. TUlink acts as a bridge between a citation in a database and the full-text of the article in a different database–removing a number of formerly necessary steps.

When the citation you find in a database doesn’t have the full-text immediately attached to it, look for the TUlink icon:

Clicking on this icon will perform a search of our full-text resources and when possible give you an “Article” link directly to the full-text of the article. In other cases you will see a “Journal” link to the electronic copy of the journal in which your citation was published. TUlink can also get you to information on journals held in the library on paper.

If no full-text is available you will be offered an interlibrary loan link to request the article from another library.

TUlink is a work in progress. Currently enabled databases include all the EBSCO databases (Academic Search Premier, ERIC, MLA, PsycInfo, etc) and CSA databases (Criminal Justice Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, etc) and numerous others. Other databases will be enabled on an ongoing basis.

See more details on using TUlink.

—Derik A Badman, Digital Services Librarian

The Greatest Invention

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Gerald Doyle

Has any human achievement topped the invention of writing? Without it History, defined as “all that is remembered of the past as preserved in writing,” couldn’t exist. And neither could libraries. As Margaret Atwood states in the first episode of the Writing Code, a new 3-part series about the evolution of writing now airing on WHYY: “Writing is a code. It is the making of marks. You then have to understand that these marks can be retranslated into speech.” Uniquely among the many different systems of visual signification, writing captures spoken language. Writing appears to have evolved independently in as many as five locations around the world: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and Mesoamerica. Early writing served several functions. Among the Sumerians writing developed as an accurate method of keeping accounts; for the Maya its primary purpose was to aggrandize the institution of kingship. No matter what its purpose, writing transformed every society that it touched. The following books tell the story of how three of the world’s earliest writing systems — Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics, as well as Sumerian cuneiform — were deciphered by modern scholars.

Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe, c1992
The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer by Jean-Jacque Glassner, c2003
The Story of Writing by Andrew Robinson, c1995

The next time you find yourself struggling through 200 pages of assigned reading for an Anthro, History, Poly Sci, Psych, or other college course, remember those long-ago geniuses who invented writing, without whom none of it would be possible!

—David C. Murray

RefWorks with Attachments

Posted on September 12, 2007 by John Schoolar

RefWorks, the online citation manager, is a valuable and easy-to-use tool for all kinds of researchers from students to faculty. A brand new feature makes it even more useful.

Every RefWorks user now has 100MB of storage space to attach files to their citations. This means that not only can you store citations but also the full-text of articles, songs, images, or short videos. Files are limited to 5MB each, which should be sufficient for most uses.

With files stored in RefWorks you’ll never misplace that article you need for quoting in a paper or have to deal with a usb drive filled with unorganized files. RefWorks can keep them sorted in folders and searchable.

In case you missed it, we also added the RefShare module to RefWorks over the summer. For more information see this post on our blog. Also: see shared bibliographies from Temple on RefShare.

Questions? Contact Fred Rowland or Derik Badman.

–Derik A Badman

Current Periodicals Moved to Paley First Floor

Posted on September 10, 2007 by

Paley Library’s entire collection of 2,300 current print scholarly journals, newspapers, and popular magazines has moved from Paley’s ground floor to new shelving on the first floor.

Overall, the University Libraries subscribe to more than 20,000 journals and magazines with the latest in cutting edge research, scholarship and opinion. A large number of these subscriptions are now exclusively online with no print equivalent received.

However, there are many fine journals and magazines available only in print. Bringing these 2,300 periodicals to the well-lit and comfortable first floor of Paley Library will not only convenience readers, but will help to build awareness that print resources continue to be invaluable even in the age of online information.

An additional 200 current print journals in scientific fields, architecture and engineering are held in SEAL, the Science, Engineering & Architecture Library on main campus.

During Fall 2007 we will partially renovate and re-equip the ground floor space formerly occupied by the current periodicals collection to form a new Media Services Department offering audio and video collections as well as playback equipment configured for individual and group listening and viewing.

Look for progress reports on Media Services during the fall semester!

Jonathan LeBreton
Senior Associate University Librarian

Dr. Diane Turner is New Curator of Blockson Collection

Posted on September 10, 2007 by carol

Today Dr. Diane D. Turner joins the Temple University Libraries as curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection.

Please see an announcement from the university’s Office of Communications for more details about her appointment.

I welcome Dr. Turner to our staff, and I greatly look forward to working with her.

Larry P. Alford, Dean of University Libraries

New Library Database! Theatre in Video!

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Anne Harlow

Temple University Libraries is pleased to announce the addition of Theatre in Video to its online resources. Theatre in Video is an entirely different kind of database, offering streaming video of entire plays. Included in the repertoire are the BBC’s productions of the entire works of Shakespeare, as well as plays from antiquity to modernity, unlimited by geographic origin. In addition to plays,Theatre in Video contains documentaries about notable playwrights and directors such as August Wilson, Bertolt Brecht, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Tennessee Williams, and many more. Productions range in date from 1936 to 2005.

Theatre in Video is easy to access and to use. Viewers can do a general search for a particular play, performer, playwright, or director, or browse lists of productions, documentaries, people, genres, companies, theatres, and dates. Students and professors can make personal playlists of clips which can be shared.

Theatre in Video is an exciting new kind of database, opening a new dimension in online offerings from Temple University Libraries, useful for instruction in many disciplines, as well as for enjoyment.

If you have any questions concerning Theatre in Video, feel free to contact me, Anne Harlow, aharlow@temple.edu.

ceLIBration Welcomes New Students To Temple’s Libraries

Posted on September 4, 2007 by carol

If you think that libraries are no-fun zones, think again.

On the afternoon of Friday August 24 business was anything but usual at Paley Library. As part of the University’s Welcome Week event, the Temple University Libraries hosted ceLIBration. Offering food, music, and fun, ceLIBration was an opportunity to encourage new students and their parents to visit Paley Library, enjoy the facility, and meet staff members. Several hundred students and their families joined in the festivities.

One of the highlights of ceLIBration was a “Guitar Hero” video game competition. Seven students competed against each other for the title of Paley Guitar Hero Champion and a $100 gift certificate. The winner of the competition was Chris Sekula who amassed a huge score in dominating the competition. Later, a grand finale raffle offered more gift certificates for local restaurants and the Pearl movie theater.

Here are a few pictures of the event, starting with the Guitar Hero competitors:

Guitar Heroes in action.

Even some of the library staff got in on the action.

The DJ and guests at the entrance to Paley Library.

People and food in the reference stacks of Paley.
–Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian

Adam Shambaugh is new Business Librarian

Posted on September 4, 2007 by carol

I am pleased to welcome Adam Shambaugh, who joins Temple Libraries on September 4, 2007 as our new Business Librarian. Prior to coming to Temple, Adam served as the assistant department head of the Springs Business Library at the University of South Carolina. Before starting a career as a librarian, he served for several years as the assistant director of the university’s Center for Business Communication.

Adam holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of South Carolina as well as a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics from the same institution.

Larry P. Alford, Dean of the University Libraries

Library Hours for Labor Day Weekend

Posted on August 29, 2007 by pmyers

To accommodate the library and research needs of the Temple University Community the Paley Library building will be open throughout the Labor Day Holiday. The hours are: Saturday, September 1: 9 am to 5 pm Sunday, September 2: noon to 8 pm Monday, September 3: noon to 9 pm Regular hours for the Paley Library building resume on Tuesday September 4. For the Labor Day schedules of specific libraries and operating units, as well as regular operating hours for the fall semester, please consult our library hours page.

LGBT History

Posted on August 29, 2007 by Gerald Doyle

The Libraries have acquired on microfilm The Lesbian Herstory Archives, part 7 of the Gay Rights Movement. This collection consists of a full 150 reels of primary-source material along with a 73-page printed collection guide. Media types represented include “clippings, flyers, brochures, conference materials, reports, correspondence, and other printed ephemera”. The earliest documents date to the 1950s and the era of the Daughters of Bilitis organization. Additional information about the nature of the collection is available from the LHA website.

The Lesbian Herstory Archives complements existing primary-source printed and digital collections such as the Gerritsen Collection and Women and Social Movements. It also complements GenderWatch and the new-to-Temple LGBT Life, two databases that index journal articles and other secondary sources. LGBT Life in particular contains indexing and abstracts for more than 130 LGBT-specific core periodicals and over 290 LGBT-specific core books and reference works. It also includes comprehensive, full-text coverage of The Advocate (1996 to date) and other important LGBT publications.