Tag Archives: Top News

2006 is Bertolt Brecht Year!

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Bertolt Brecht Manuscripts Discovered in Switzerland

Previously unknown manuscripts of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), influential 20th century poet and playwright, have been recently discovered in Switzerland and delivered to the Brecht Archive at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. The playwright with arguably the most influence in shaping modern theater in the twentieth century, Brecht is a controversial social critic while at the same time his works entertain. The year 2006 is “Brecht year”, with many venues commemorating 50 years since his death. An article about the discovery of the manuscripts is available from Deutsche Welle , as well as other articles on his life and works.

Some resources at Temple University Libraries on Bertolt Brecht include:


Works by Bertolt Brecht at Temple University Libraries
Works about Bertolt Brecht

Books at Temple University Paley Library 
Both analyses and biographies.

*From “Contemporary Authors”
Nice works list, brief biography.

*From Grove Music Online
Brief biography emphasizing works put to music.
Criticism and Analysis

*International Index to the Performing Arts
A variety of sources including scholarly and popular press. Articles are full-text and full-image.

*JSTOR
Full-text articles from the Performing Arts, Language and Linguistics, and Music Collections.

*Literature Online (LION) – Bertolt Brecht, short biographies, links to articles with analysis, some full-text works.

*MLA International Bibliography – full-text articles on criticism and analysis. For more articles on Brecht, search the database MLA lists over 3,000 citations about Brecht.

*RILM – Criticism and Analysis about Brecht-Weill works in a database that is international in scope.
Internet Resources

International Brecht Society

Bertolt Brecht and the Epic Theater

“Bertolt Brecht: The Man Who Never Was” provides insight into the complexity of Brecht as a writer and a person.
* To access resources preceded by an asterisk off-campus, enter your AccessNet username and password.

-Anne Harlow


Interesting stuff about books

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Here are some interesting books/articles/databases/web sites on the history and evolution of the book, in no particular order. Thanks to librarian Anne Harlow for pointing me to Book 2.0, the source for the first four entries below.

GAM3R 7H3ORY, by McKenzie Wark

Books In Time, Carla Hesse

On the Future of Academic Publishing, Peer Review, and Tenure Requirements

Institute for the Future of the Book

Book 2.0 (Temple user name and password for the Chronicle is in Journal Finder)

The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Elizabeth Eisenstein

The Nature of the Book, Adrian Johns

Book History Online (BHO)

Self, Culture, and Self-Culture in Modern America: The Early History of the Book-of-the-Month Club, Joan Shelley Rubin

John Playford and the Stationers’ Company, Nicholas Temperley

Learned Publishing (Temple does not subscribe to this journal, but much of the content is free.)

The European physics publications scene: avant-garde and traditionalism, Claus Montonen

Alternative Futures for Library History, Jonathan Rose

The Great Library of Alexandria Burnt: Towards the History of a Symbol, Jon Thiem
—Fred Rowland

Your Library in Your Hand

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Diamond, the online catalog of the Temple University Libraries, is now available through your mobile phone, PDA, or other small screen device (SSD). Say, “goodbye,” to those scraps of paper and stop hunting for pens that write (or a free computer). Now you’ve got your library in the palm of your hand! Just enter http://diamond.temple.edu/ into the web browser on your phone or wireless PDA, and click the “Text-only / AirPAC” link to check it out. Once connected you can search the library catalog from almost anywhere. Find a reference book without leaving your stuff. Renew that novel you’re reading while you’re in the coffee shop. Save your laptop for the hard stuff because seeing what we’ve got has never been easier at your library! — Byron C. Mayes, Head of Library Systems & Technology

Historical Statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition

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Temple University Libraries has acquired Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present, Millennial Edition (c2006). This resource is available not only online but as a 5-volume print work located in Paley Library’s 1st floor reference stacks. The Millennial edition is a greatly updated and expanded version of the previous 2-volume 1970 edition, which has been available both online and in print for many years.

The online Millennial edition represents a major step forward in the researcher’s ability to gather and compare historical U.S. statistics. “It has now been expanded to include over 37,000 data series, which is three times more than the previous edition. This edition includes dozens of new topics including slavery, American Indians, and poverty” (HSUS Introduction, Cambridge Online). Topics are “placed in historical context by a recognized expert in the field. The fully searchable and downloadable electronic edition . . . permits users to graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting their own particular areas of interest” (ibid.). Additional features include:

* Save your search criteria
* Search within a chapter or volume
* Bookmark tables or essays
* Searchable term and contributor indexes
* View tables in PDF or HTML format
* Tables online include full documentation, sources, and footnotes
* Select certain years or series of years to view, download, print, or graph
* Download unrounded table data, for more detailed statistical analyses.
* Enhanced table display features: jump to a certain table column (series), skip over blank data cells, highlight table rows and columns for readability
* Toggle table sorting by ascending or descending year
* Create and download colorful charts, graphs, and plots
* Email a table or essay to a colleague

–David C. Murray

Changes for the Science, Engineering & Architecture Libraries

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*** As of July 21, the closing dates have been revised. See new dates on the schedule below. ***

As previously announced, the Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematical Sciences libraries will close later this month. This article describes the redeployment of books and journals, the relocation of library staff, and the collection and services to be offered in a newly created Science, Engineering and Architecture Library.

New locations for science materials
Most older and lesser used materials will be moved into the new Library Depository, a closed-stack shelving and retrieval facility which opened in late June. Materials going to the Depository include books more than 13 years old that have not circulated in the past ten years and bound journals that are available in full-text electronically, such as titles available via Science Direct, American Chemical Society, Nature Online, and the American Physical Society. In addition, all journal volumes published before 1985 will be sent to the Depository.

Some materials will be moved to Paley Library including bound journal volumes published after 1984 and books published before 1997 that have been borrowed in the past ten years. All material currently housed in the Mathematical Sciences library will be moved to Paley Library.

The newest materials from the science libraries will be consolidated in the location previously occupied by the Engineering & Architecture Library, which will be reconstituted as a Science, Engineering and Architecture Library.

The Science, Engineering and Architecture Library (SEAL)
The new Science Engineering & Architecture Library will include current issues of print journals, a collection of reference materials and the most recent ten years of monographs in architecture, biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, physics and general science. Architecture bound journals will be held in SEAL. Services will include reference, course reserves, and library instructional services. We will also offer a slate of new online services such as Instant Messaging reference, new book lists, a SEAL blog site featuring new tools, resources, library events and news. Twenty-two computer workstations will be available and SEAL will offer expanded service hours seven days a week.

SEAL.jpg

The Move

The transfer of materials to the Depository is already well underway in the Paley Library. Movers will start to work in the branch libraries in the later part of July. The Libraries will close the day before the movers arrive.

Scheduled dates of library closings, as of July 21st:

Physics Library, Tuesday, July 25 at 5pm
Chemistry Library, Friday, July 28 at 5pm
Biology Library, Friday, July 28 at 5pm (Previously August 1st)
Mathematical Sciences Library, Monday, July 31 at 4.30 pm (Previously August 3rd)
The Library catalog is updated daily as the move progresses to clearly indicate the new location of materials. Items relocated to the Depository may be requested using a form linked to each record in the catalog. Books will be delivered to Paley or SEAL within 24 hours and needed journal articles will be delivered via email. For more information about the new Library Depository, see the Temple Times article of April 27, 2006, the Library Blog article of June 21, 2006, and the Depository FAQ.

Staff
The library closures and other changes also mean changes for several of our staff. Joyce Dennis, Bibliographic Assistant (BA) in the Mathematical Sciences Library, has elected to take a position in the Collection Development Department in Paley Library. Joyce has a long history of library service at Temple, and already experienced an earlier transition when the library at TU-Center City was closed. Katerina Montaniel, currently in the Chemistry Library, will move to Access Services, as the BA with primary responsibility for the provision of services in the Library Depository.

Staff who will be located in SEAL include Gretchen Sneff, Head, SEAL Library, and librarian for engineering and architecture; Laura Lane, Science Librarian for physics, mathematics, geology and general science; Kathy Szigeti, Science Librarian for biology, chemistry, and computer science. Cathy Zabroski, Bibliographic Assistant currently in the Engineering & Architecture Library, will head circulation and supervise student workers in SEAL, and Marianne Sanville, BA currently in the Biology Library, will relocate to SEAL and oversee course reserves, collections and document delivery.

We hope that SEAL will become a popular gathering space for students in science, engineering and architecture. Having concentrated staff, services, and the most current books and journals across the sciences and engineering, SEAL will provide students and researchers the most current discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary information needed for study and research.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Gretchen Sneff, 215-204-4724, gsneff@temple.edu
Head, Engineering & Science Libraries


Brill Journals

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The library now has electronic access to most of the journals from Brill, including those from its imprints Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. The Brill list is particularly strong on religion, history, and area studies, while VSP publishes science, technology, and medicine journals and Martinus Nijhoff handles international law and human rights. Access is provided not from the Brill web site itself, but through the journal aggregator IngentaConnect (which is not very user-friendly, unfortunately). You will find links to all of these journals in Journal Finder. Once in IngentaConnect, full-text is available when you see an orange “S” icon next to the journal or article. Coverage goes back in some cases as far as 1995 and extends to the current issue. However there are journals that only offer the most recent few years. In most cases, we already have some electronic coverage of these journals through Academic Search Premier, ATLA, JSTOR, or other databases, but usually not the most recent year. Now you can get all the most recent issues hot off the press! —Fred Rowland

Diamond Dollars available for photocopying and printing starting August 1

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Starting August 1 you can use Diamond Dollars to pay for photocopying and printing in the Temple Libraries. You can also pay cash for photocopying. The Office of Business Services has arranged with Xerox Corporation to provide paid copier service throughout Temple University beginning August 1. The current IKON cards will be accepted until July 31. On August 1st, photocopy machines machines will accept either Diamond Dollars or cash, or both. Plans to transfer balances that remain on IKON cards will be announced soon. — Penelope Myers

London Times Digital Archive (1785-1985)

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The Times Digital Archive, another major newspaper acquisition by Temple Libraries, is a searchable, full-text and full-image archive of every page of the (London) Times from 1785 to 1985. This database has obvious appeal to anyone studying the history of Britain and her Empire. The database complements Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), an important new resource recently discussed in the Library Blog. —David C. Murray

E-Resources for June

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Another round of new e-resources:

—Biography Resource Center: Integrates hundreds of thousands of biographies drawn from over 135 well-known Thomson Gale print sources including Contemporary Authors and over 300 full-text periodicals. Biographies of all kinds of people from history and government to the arts and sciences.

—Knovel Library: Knovel Library provides Temple with online access to over 450 titles included in the following subject collections:

-Aerospace & Radar Technology
-Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
-Civil Engineering & Construction Materials
-Electrical & Power Engineering
-Environmental Engineering
-General Engineering
-Mechanics & Mechanical Engineering
-Metals & Metallurgy
-Oil & Gas
-Semiconductors & Electronics

—(London) Times Digital Archive (1785-1985): Searchable, full-text and full-image archive of every page of the (London) Times from 1785 to 1985.

—(London) Times Literary Supplement Centennary Archive (1902-1990): “This database offers a complete facsimile edition of the Times Literary Supplement, from 1902 through 1990, contains new information on anonymous contributors that allows students and scholars to explore in greater depth the literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th century.

More than 250,000 reviews, letters, poems and articles in more than 5,000 issues of the Times Literary Supplement, searchable by author and/or contributor, are available here in the context in which they were originally published. Users can access any page via the online version of the published index when executing a title, author or subject search.”

—International Financial Statistics of the International Monetary Fund: Provides approximately 32,000 financial time series covering most countries in the world. The data available for each country includes data on exchange rates, international liquidity, interest rates, prices, production, national accounts and population. In many cases the data extend back to 1948.

–Derik A Badman

Paley Library To Move Materials to the Depository

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On Thursday June 22nd we will start to move designated materials from Paley Library to the Library Depository in the Kardon Building. The move of approximately 400,000 volumes from Paley Library will take 3 weeks. This move has to be done first to make room for materials moving from the libraries on main campus that are scheduled to be closed over the summer, including Zahn (already closed), Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, as well as to create more study space in Paley. Materials being moved from Paley will show their new location in Diamond and the location will link to the form requesting materials from the Depository. For more information on this important project see the Library Depository FAQ.

compactshelving_sm.jpg Jonathan LeBreton, checking progress on the installation of compact shelving in early June.

— Penelope Myers