New Featured Resource: I.F. Stone

Our new featured resource deals with the 20th anniversary of the death of the well-known investigative journalist, I.F. Stone. Our featured resource provides a link to a recent interview with his biographer, along with other links into a website dedicated both to him and to his journalistic work. There are audio files, movies, pictures, even entire books of his writings that you can download. In fact, it also includes every issue of his magazine, I.F. Stone's Weekly, which ran from 1953 to 1971.

It's worth taking a look, especially in these days when so many people are talking about the end of journalism as we know it. Here's only one article, End Times by Michael Hirschorn (The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2009). Do we no longer need journalists such as I.F. Stone? He certainly was not popular with some people, such as when he wrote against Joseph McCarthy. J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI had him followed for years, and Stone single-handedly forced the U.S. government to back down on some issues.

Do we need people like him? You decide.

Keep Current with Academic Blogs!

A blog is like an online diary. Lots of scholars and societies keep blogs since this is becoming an important tool for scholarly communication. One person has described the academic blogosphere as an invisible college. See Brad Delong's The Invisible College (The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 28, 2006).

Lots of people have their favorite blogs and regularly keep up with them. One way to find these academic blogs is to go to The Academic Blog Portal, but this can take time to click on each of these. The AUR Library has made a new attempt. Using the wonders of RSS feeds, Google Blog Search and php, we have made an Academic Blog page that allows you to just click and find the latest entries in different subject areas. The selection of the blogs has been based primarily on The Academic Blog Portal, and their arrangement is followed.

In several places, there were so many blogs entered, that we had to create separate links, so for example, look at how the tab "Economics" works:

There are so many that we needed to break them up, so you'll need to click on each part. The blogs under the "General" tab are taken from the list at Arts and Letters Daily (from The Chronicle of Higher Education). Some areas are busy, others are slow.

You can access it through the main catalog page using the drop-down menu.

If there are any blogs you would like added, or a new section added, just let us know.

New Subject Browse Implemented

Some library research has shown that many users would like to get an overall idea of the materials available from a library's catalog. Normally, libraries just allow you to search their catalogs, but it becomes difficult to get a general overview when you are only searching.

AUR Library has tried another method. We have extracted all of the main subjects from the catalog, gotten rid of the duplicates and placed them into a page you can scroll through. This may give you some ideas for searches that you hadn't thought of before. Give it a try and let us know what you think. This is not a "live" page, i.e. if we have resources with new subjects, it won't be there untili it is rebuilt, but it can still give you a good idea of what we have.

Also, don't forget the call number browsing that we have implemented: by Dewey Decimal number and by LC Number. There are also the pages that compare the LC and Dewey numbers so that you can browse everything. Everything is explained in the page you see when you select Browse ==> Catalog on the main page.

Let us know if this helps. We can improve on it.

New MLA Citation Decision

The Modern Languages Association (MLA) provides some of the most important guidelines for citing sources. According to Print Goes Out of Style from the Scholarly Kitchen blog (hosted by the Society for Scholarly Publishing), the latest, 7th edition of the MLA handbook for writers of research papers, states:

"the Modern Language Association no longer recognizes print as the default medium, and suggests that the medium of publication should be included in each works cited entry"

also:

"the MLA has ceased to recommend inclusion of URLs in citing Web-based works – unless the instructor requires it or a reader would likely be unable to locate the source otherwise.

Inclusion of URLs has proved to have limited value… for they often change, can be specific to a subscriber or a session of use, and can be so long and complex that typing them into a browser is cumbersome and prone to transcription errors. Readers are now more likely to find resources on the Web by searching for titles and authors’ names than by typing URLs..."

This represents quite a change, and the blog entry talks about the importance of Google on this, where, if a site changes, Google will provide the new URL because it is constantly being updated.

Personally, I don't think this is a very good idea, especially for sites that disappear completely. There is the Internet Archive (which archives the web!) and in their page the Wayback Machine, you can look for specific pages, so long as you know the URL.
See Disappearing Websites in the AUR Library Information Wiki for guidelines on how to use the Wayback Machine.

So, my recommendation is to continue to put in the URLs for items on the web. It can't hurt, takes only a split-second with copy & paste, and it really might come in handy!

New Look for the Catalog

We have been wanting to change the main page of the catalog for some time but we waited until the end of the Spring 2009 semester. Several found our main page to be too busy, and to be honest, we did too. 

The links are still there as always, but we have placed them into a drop-down menu which should make for easier navigation, and people should have a better idea of what is available.

Now, even though there is still the same information available to you, it may all be easier to find. Explore what is there. There's a lot designed to help you succeed.

Adding the VIAF

The Virtual International Authority File, or VIAF is slowly being built and is becoming very useful. The VIAF is a specialized tool being created by librarians around the world to share their controlled vocabulary. To find out about controlled vocabulary and its importance to research, see the Two-Minute Tutorial on controlled vocabulary.

The main advantage of the VIAF for students at AUR is that it can help you search Italian catalogs because Italians often use different forms of names than Americans. As only one example, if you are interested in the previous president of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin, in the U.S., you must use:
Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich, 1931-2007
but in Italy, you must use:
Elʹcin, Boris Nikolaevič, 1931-2007

This means that you won't find anything in Italian catalogs if you search under the form of name used in the U.S., while the Italians won't find anything in American catalogs. How can you possibly know this?

The VIAF attempts to fix this, and at least you can find the correct forms of names to search Italian catalogs. Of course, this also can be used by Italians to search U.S. catalogs. There are other forms included as well.

We have added the VIAF to our Extend Search. To find out how to use the VIAF to help in your research, take the Two-Minute Tutorials on Finding & Using Synonyms and Related Tools and the other on Searching and Accessing Materials in Roman Libraries.

They will definitely be worth your while. This is another important step to making the World Wide Web much more useful to scholarship and society.

Italian Newspapers Online

ITALIAN
LANGUAGE
NEWSPAPERS

The AUR Library has made a page that brings together the major Italian-language newspapers so that it is easy to keep up with the news. See the page.

An additional feature we have provided is the possibility of an immediate translation into English of each newspaper, using GoogleTranslate. Naturally, automatic translation is far from perfect, but this can still be useful to help you get the basic information out of a webpage quickly.

Also, when you are looking at the translated page, you can run your cursor over the text and see the original in a pop-up box. If the translation isn't correct, you can fix it, and help improve the machine.

If you look at the GoogleTranslate page, you will see a list of all of the languages they translate out of and into. There is also a button you can place on your toolbar, so that you can translate any page quickly and easily.

You can get to this page through the main page of the AUR Library Catalog looking under the QuickLinks and clicking on Italian Newspapers, or through the Wiki, from our page of Newspaper Feeds.

Spooky Radio Plays

Orson Welles performs a scene from
The Count of Monte Cristo

Before the days of television, people would sit together and listen to the radio, where all sorts of comedies, tragedies, music, and other entertainment took place.

One of the most famous of these radio groups was the Mercury Theatre on the Air, founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. They had some other great actors with them, performing radio plays as The Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula, A Christmas Carol, and their most famous, War of the Worlds.

Well, someone has been kind enough to place all of these radio plays on the web, and we can all enjoy them for free, especially now that the AUR Library has cataloged them.

So, if you have a free evening, turn off the lights at home and listen to Dracula. You might find out they did a pretty good job!

Latest Updates in the Library

There have been several changes in the library since the last entry.

First, there are now lots of 2-Minute Tutorials being created to help you succeed in your studies. We are definitely keeping these two minutes or less because we figure that everybody has 2 minutes to devote to learning something new. There are currently two ways to get into these tutorials. First, there is a complete list of them, but secondly, in every page of the catalog, there are some that are relevant. You can always click on "Show Tutorials for this Page" and the relevant tutorials will appear. You can also hide them by clicking in the same spot "Hide Tutorials for this Page."

Try them. They are basic, but will probably answer many of your question, plus there are plenty of links into additional information in the AUR Library Information Wiki or other pages on the web if you want something more. If you would want some made specially, let us know.

Another update is the creation of the New Books Section, which is in the downstairs lounge. All new books will be shelved there temporarily before they go to their permanent place in the stacks.

You may be interested in our latest Featured Resource, displayed on the main page of the catalog. This one goes to an online exhibition by the Library of Congress in celebration of Women's History Month.

Welcome to the AUR Library! And the Latest Updates

To all new and returning students and instructors, welcome to the AUR Library. There are several updates to discuss.

Firstly, and very nice indeed, is the new method of access to the CSI databases. It is now based on IP address and, when you are on campus, you can simply click into the database you want and no sign in is necessary. Again, you can access the databases through the AUR catalog and look for the logo:

Underneath, you can click on Databases or Electronic Journals List. For more information on the electronic resources, you can always click on How does this work?

Off-campus access has still not be determined by CSI. We will announce the method as soon as we receive it.

Secondly, the Extend Search function of the AUR catalog has been improved. The Extend Search function has been developed by the AUR Library to make searching in other selected databases easier (for more information see Extending the Search in the AUR Library Information Wiki). Now, all you have to do is select the text that you want and the following will appear:

Click on this and your search will be made in a variety of databases, organized by:

• Other Roman Libraries
• World Library Catalogs
• AUR Digital Materials
• Electronic Book Projects
• Articles and Open Archives
• Synonyms/Other Tools
• General Search Engines
  

Click on any of these groups and the databases will appear below. For example, if you click on Other Roman Libraries, you will see the following databases:
SBN | URBS | Centro | Public Libraries | Senato | URBE

Click on any of these databases, and the database will appear below where the search has already been don. From here, you can browse and revise the search if you need to. Again, for full instructions, see Extending the Search.

You can also search directly in the Extend Search by clicking on Search Other Collections from any page in the catalog.

We are still revising some of the help screens. Also, this is complicated searching and may take some time, so you may have to wait a bit for the searches to complete.

Keeping Current in Your Field

ARL (the Association of Research Libraries) recently came out with a report entitled Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication. Among other findings, there is a list of the most popular websites for scholars to stay current in their fields. In the Humanities, one of the most important of these sites is called Humanities and Social Sciences Online or H-Net.


H-Net is "an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web." It carries peer-reviewed essays, reviews, and announcements for upcoming events. The site is divided into many individual lists and, as with all such lists, some are more active than others.

Another section is H-Net Reviews. This section provides book reviews--including in-depth ones--of books found of interest to those in the list. There is also the possibility of others' comments to the book review, as well as to any post on the list.

One example of a book in the AUR collection is The Italian legacy in Washington, D.C. : architecture, design, art and culture / edited by Luca Molinari and Andrea Canepari -- Milano : Skira, 2007. with this online review.

Finally, if there is a list you would like but it is not there, you can start one yourself! The ARL report gives many other new and interesting ways that scholars can communicate. One of these is what they term the "academic hub" which is a portal for a scholarly society or professional membership organization. these attempt to be a "one-stop shop" for the most important information. One example is Poynter Online, created by the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists and teachers of journalists.

AUR Library in Facebook

The AUR Library in Evans Hall has created a Facebook page where you can keep up with the latest news, share information and so on. For example, this blog automatically feeds into the Facebook page.

We want to keep this current and you can help us. Please tell us any ideas you may have or would like to share.

New Extend Search Option

The Extend Search function in the AUR Library Catalog has added an option: Scirus. The Scirus database has hundreds of millions of pages of "scientific" information on the web, but "scientific" should not be read too literally here. There are lots of resources on literature, art, archaeology, classics, and so on.

One part of Scirus is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), which provides access to many dissertations and theses from around the world. Searching is still a little strange, but there are some excellent and important sources in this database, the vast majority for free.

Give it a try!

Google Books and Publishers

Beginning in 2004, Google began scanning the books in several libraries including Stanford and the University of Michigan. Later, many other libraries joined the project. Currently, Google says that they have 7 million books searchable through the project. Many of these books can be viewed for free, and many others can be downloaded as well.

For more information on Google Books and how the AUR Library
and its catalog make these materials available to users,
see the AUR Library Information Wiki.

The problem with all this has been that the publishers believe Google has been violating their copyright and has taken Google to court. In a nutshell, anything published before 1923 is in the public domain and can be copied; orphan works are materials that were copyrighted and the copyright holder cannot be contacted, or perhaps it is unclear if a copyright was renewed; and today, copyright is based on the death date of the author and not on the date of publication. In other words, copyright is highly complicated.

Recently, the Google Books case was settled with an agreement that could have wide consequences. Essentially, the publishers have agreed to let Google display 20% of every book that is in copyright, and Google will begin to let people buy access rights to individual books they want, and libraries will be able to pay money to get full access to the books. (Printing and downloading are different issues)

So, it could all be a new world for making vast amounts of information available to the public , while making Google a lot of money and it will become the largest online book retailer in the world. (See Paul Courant's article (librarian at the University of Michigan): The Google Settlement - From the Universal Library to the Universal Bookstore for a good discussion). Lots of librarians are against the settlement; others are for it. For the other side, you can read Harvard's librarian Robert Darnton's reply in Harvard's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

Anyway, the settlement still has to be approved by a court and then work can begin. Finally, what does this have to do with the AUR Library?

Unfortunately, very little because this settlement will work only from U.S. computers since the agreement deals with U.S. law, but as in so many things, there will be consequences for the rest of the world. The discussion is far from over, so let's wait and see.

See also: the summary of the agreement.

Copyright & Fair Use Guidelines

A new and important online publication has just been released: The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. This document contains guidelines about fair use, and it is written not from the normal viewpoint of a publisher or lawyer, but from the viewpoint of an educator. The legal advisory board is very impressive, and was coordinated by the Media Education Lab, at Temple University, and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and the Center for Social Media, both at American University. It is also not aimed only at media literacy, but is a general discussion of the concept of fair use, which has always been one of the more nebulous areas of intellectual property law.

It is written in a highly readable, and more importantly: a practical style, plus, there are three versions of the guidelines: as a pdf download, as a webpage, and even as a streaming video. The AUR Library has cataloged this important publication, and it can be accessed through the AUR Library Catalog.

AUR Library Virtual Exhibition - Illustration

The AUR Library has created a second virtual exhibition of scholarly resources on the web. This exhibition has the topic of Illustration on the Web, and its purpose is to attempt to show just a few of the works on illustration, and examples of illustration, that are available on the web.

The areas are divided into: Books, Bindings, Children's Books, Humor, Landscape & Architecture, Advertising, Medicine, Natural History, Politics, and Activism. Some highlights of the materials available are the haunting graphic novel God's Man by Lind Ward (1929), Thomas Nast's political cartoons, Description de l'Egypte from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, to posters of the Spanish Civil War, plus many more.

Don't forget our previous exhibition dedicated to Rome and Italy.

Both exhibitions are available through the AUR Library Catalog by clicking in the Quick Links area.

New Trial Databases

Please try our new Trial Databases that we have temporary access to through our arrangement with our consortiium AMICAL. Currently these work only on campus, but they are available for all students, staff, and faculty. These can be accessed from any page of the library catalog.

"ARTstor is a digital library of nearly one million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes."
ARTstor is available to AUR users until the end of 2009.

eHRAF (Human Relations Area Files) is housed at Yale is provided in two parts: World Cultures and Archaeology. These are available until Dec. 31, 2008.

"eHRAF World Cultures is a cross-cultural database that contains information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The annually-growing eHRAF database is unique in that the information is organized into cultures and ethnic groups and the full-text sources are subject-indexed at the paragraph level."
"eHRAF Archaeology is a cross-cultural database containing information on the world's prehistory. This annually-growing eHRAF database is organized by archaeological traditions. The full-text sources are subject-indexed at the paragraph level. eHRAF Archaeology is a unique resource designed to facilitate comparative archaeological studies.?

Search Encyclopedias by Keyword

The AUR Catalog has just instituted a new capability in the Extend Search function. When you select Gale Virtual Reference Library or Oxford Reference Online, you can search multiple reference works by keyword.

This ability should make it much easier to find the information within these reference books. Please note that records for all of these digital book are in the AUR Catalog.

• Please note that you must be logged-in to the CSI materials for this to work, and the computer will ask for your CSI barcode.

You can access this by clicking on Search Other Collections from any page, or more specifically, by using the Extend this Search when looking at a specific record. You can always click on any of the links for additional information.

ITunes U

One of the most interesting developments in academia is the creation of ITunes U. (Connect to it most easily through the AUR Library Catalog, which takes you to a page with various options) ITunes U has a fabulous number of public lectures, entire courses, and other information created by colleges, universities, and other educational institutions from around the world. Several U.S. universities have been on ITunes U for some time, such as UC Berkeley, but Yale has also gotten involved recently, and now, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England are adding many of their own courses. See the article in the Guardian for more information. Apple also has a nice video discussing ITunes U.

All of these can be downloaded to your portable device and listened or watched when you want. Finally, they are all free. They are on all topics, from the highly technical to basic overviews of subjects.

Also included are many videos from institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and even some television stations, such as WGBH.

September 2008 issue of the AUR Library Newsletter

Please read our AUR Library Newsletter, which discusses some of the developments in the library. There is also a featured database section, along with helpful hints about pages in the Library Information Wiki and the catalog.

See the latest issue (no. 3, Sept. 2008), and links to earlier issues, at the AUR Library Newsletter webpage.