Access World News

Posted on November 15, 2005 by Fred Rowland

With the recent addition of Access World News, The Temple Universtiy Libraries now have three databases that provide international news coverage: Access World News, LexisNexis, and World News Connection. Two of these, LexisNexis and Access World News, also provide national coverage. Access World News‘ hierarchical structure makes it easy to drill down to the desired search domain. Using the map of the world you can choose to search regions or individual countries. There are over 600 US newspapers and over 700 international newspapers to choose from. The advanced search makes it easy to identify articles in many different sections of a newspaper and many different date ranges. On the left side of the homepage there are links to a number of major papers, like The Chicago Tribune, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Times (of London), and The Washington Post. The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News are also available from this database. Check the library’s News Sources subject list for a complete listing of our newspaper databases. To check for individual newspapers, you can also search Journal Finder.

New Book Lists

Posted on November 11, 2005 by Fred Rowland

Curious about what is new in the library? The library spends large amounts of money to purchase new materials both physical and electronic. While we will keep you posted with this blog on new electronic resources as they become available, we are now experimenting with a way to keep you informed about new books coming into the libraries. Our trial collection of new book lists, includes a list of all new books for the previous month as well as smaller lists for books in specific subject areas like Music, Film and Media Arts, and Religion, as well as new books at the Ambler Library. And don’t forget, if you want to keep up on specific topics, you can also set up new book emails. –Derik A Badman

Curious Looks at Artists’ Books

Posted on November 10, 2005 by Margery Sly

What would a book designed and made by an artist look like? Can glass, soap, plexiglass and other non-paper materials form a book? Why would one need a can-opener when opening a book? These and other questions may be answered by Paley Library’s exhibition of artists’ books from its Special Collections Department and the Tyler School of Art Library: “Curious Looks at Artists’ Books.”

Exhibition location: Main Lobby, Paley Library

Exhibition dates: November 11-December 31, 2005

Library Prize Info Session Nov. 16

Posted on November 4, 2005 by Gerald Doyle

Update: Two information sessions will be held in Paley Library room 130 (mezzanine level) for students and faculty interested in the Library Prize. Members of the Library Prize committee will be available to answer questions:

November 8, 12:00pm – 1:00pm

November 16, 12:30pm – 1:30pm

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The Library is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Library Prize for Undergraduate Research. The Prize encourages the use of Library resources, to enhance the development of library research techniques, and to honor the best research projects produced each year by Temple University undergraduate students.

Up to three projects are selected each year to win $1000. Winning entries exhibit: originality, depth, breadth, or sophistication in the use of library collections; exceptional ability to select, evaluate, synthesize, and utilize library resources in the creation of a project in any media; and evidence of personal growth through the acquisition of newfound knowledge.

The Prize is jointly sponsored by the Library and the Office of the Provost.

For deadlines, selection criteria, application requirements, and past winners (including the winning papers), see the Prize website.

Questions? Please contact the Library Prize committee at libprize@temple.edu.

2006 Philadelphia Neighborhoods Calendar

Posted on October 28, 2005 by Margery Sly

A view looking down the Ben Franklin parkway. The Urban Archives of Temple University Libraries has released a 2006 Calendar titled “Philadelphia Neighborhoods,” featuring photographs from the George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection. The Evening Bulletin was a long running newspaper in Philadelphia which closed its doors in 1982. The Urban Archives holds a large collection of clippings and photographs from the newspaper. The calendar features thirteen large and several small black and white photographs of Philadelphia along with text discussing the history of twelve neighborhoods. You can purchase a calendar for $7.00 in the Urban Archives (on the ground floor of Paley Library) or for $7.00 + $2.00 shipping and handling via mail order (PA residents add sales tax). Send checks made out to “Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives” along with your name and address to: Urban Archives Temple University Libraries 1210 West Berks Street Philadelphia, PA 19122

E-ZBorrow Milestone at Temple Libraries

Posted on October 25, 2005 by

Today Temple Libraries filled the 400,000th request placed in the E-ZBorrow program administered through the PALCI consortium. The book was requested by a patron at Penn State and the book is: A war of nerves : soldiers and psychiatrists in the twentieth century by Ben Shephard, Harvard University Press, 2001. Temple started participating in E-ZBorrow in the fall of 2000, and since then we have borrowed 17,833 books and lent 30,979 books through this program. If you are currently studying or working at Temple you may request any book through E-ZBorrow that is not available at Temple . You can request books that are available for loan at one of the 49 other participating libraries including Penn, Pitt, Penn State, Rutgers, Lehigh, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore. — Penelope Myers

Trial Databases Page

Posted on September 23, 2005 by Fred Rowland

In order to encourage input from students, faculty, and staff, the library has just opened up a Trials page. This page will provide links and instructions for accessing databases that librarians are evaluating for possible purchase. Feedback from the Temple community is strongly encouraged. There is such a proliferation of databases and other electronic resources these days that it is important for us to get as many views and opinions as possible when considering purchases. The link to the Database Trials page can be found on the top of any of the database lists.

Once on the Database Trials page, make sure to check whether a special user name and passord is necessary, which you’ll find right under the link to the trial.

So go to the Database Trials page and take a look at the new electronic resources we’re considering. If you have strong feelings about any of these resources, click on the feedback link at the top of the page and tell us what you think.

–Fred Rowland

Turn the Page

Posted on September 23, 2005 by Gerald Doyle

The British Library’s Turning the Pages online collection of 14 rare books has recently added Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. The collection is accessible to any internet user with a broadband connection and the Macromedia Shockwave browser plug-in. The 3D-like experience of actually “turning the pages,” zooming in on a specific area of the page, and listening to the accompanying audio commentary by British actress Miriam Margolyes is not to be missed. According to a BBC News report, “In the original Alice manuscript, Carroll included the first sketch of Alice Liddell who provided the inspiration for Alice in his books. It was drawn in pencil from a photo of Alice aged seven but he was not satisfied with the sketch so replaced it with a photo of Alice instead. In 1977, the pencil drawing was rediscovered hidden under the photo. The 90-page virtual manuscript contains all 37 original illustrations.” Other titles in the collection include the Diamond Sutra, at 868 C.E. the earliest, dated, printed book in the world, Jane Austen’s The History of England, and the Sforza Hours, a Renaissance masterpiece. Every one of the 14 works is a priceless window into another world and time. –David C. Murray

Latest exhibition: Placing Dance in New Communities

Posted on September 22, 2005 by

Placing Dance in New Communities: Preserving the Talley Beatty/Philadanco Legacy A special dance performance in Paley Library at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28th, will highlight the opening of the latest exhibition mounted by the University Libraries’ Special Collections Department. The performance and opening will be followed by a small reception. The performance is of the solo, “Mourners Bench” from the 1947 masterwork, “Southern Lanscape,” choreographed by Talley Beatty. The exhibition and performance will be in the Lobby of the Samuel Paley Library with the reception in the Library’s Lecture Hall, Ground Floor. The afternoon program is one day of a week-long schedule of events which is the culmination of the project “Placing Dance in New Communities” produced by Temple Libraries’ Philadelphia Dance Collection, Bryn Mawr College, and Philadanco, with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Dance Advance (Pew Charitable Trusts). For more information about the Philadelphia Dance Collection and this grant-funded project, see the September 22nd issue of Temple Times. The exhibition, performance and reception are free and open to the public. For information, call 215-204-8230.

— Tom Whitehead

Citation Searching Article

Posted on September 22, 2005 by Fred Rowland

An interesting article in the online D-Lib Magazine (11.9 (2005)), “An Examination of Citation Counts in a New Scholarly Communication Environment” by Kathleen Bauer and Nisa Bakkalbasi of Yale, this preliminary study examines citation searching in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. I quote from their conclusion:

Based on our preliminary examination and discovery of higher citation counts, we recommend that researchers should consult Google Scholar in addition to Web of Science or Scopus, especially for a relatively recent article, author or subject area. A search of Google Scholar will likely reveal both traditional journal articles, some of which will also be covered in Web of Science and Scopus, and additional unique material, but the scholarly value of some of the unique material remains an open question. Consulting Google Scholar may prove most useful for disciplines such as physics, where nontraditional forms of publishing are widely accepted. However, it is important for all researchers to note that until Google Scholar gives a full account of what material it is indexing and how often that index is updated, it cannot be considered a true scholarly resource in the sense that Web of Science and Scopus are. An understanding of the material being covered is central to the validity of any search of scholarly material.

In light of the frequent requests for citation counts on publications (particularly on faculty’s own publications), it may behoove one to search Google Scholar as a supplement to Web of Science. -Derik A Badman

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