June 2007 Archives

What more do you need to know about Wikipedia? It’s the sometimes controversial online encyclopedia of the people, and its content dwarfs that of conventional encyclopedias. What we also know is that college students all too often rely on Wikipedia entries without fully evaluating the accuracy of the content. Then perhaps there is something new to learn – how to leverage Wikipedia as an instructional technology to better equip students to read and gather information with a critical eye.

To help educators and librarians to better understand the issues related to the use of Wikipedia by students, EDUCAUSE has focused the latest addition to the "Seven Things You Should Know" series on Wikipedia (pdf). The series introduces web and learning technologies and identifies how they might be best used for better pedagogy. The new Wikipedia document identifies how it can be used in this way:

In higher education, wikis have been put to use in courses ranging from humanities to science to business. With Wikipedia, students can take part in a collaborative process of creating and revising content in a global context, moving the opportunities for learning beyond the walls of the classroom or the university. An important part of academic training is seeing how knowledge is created and understanding that it is dynamic, evolving over time based on the contributions of many individuals.

Rather than banning the use of Wikipedia, faculty and librarians are working together to develop creative assignments and research exercises that engage students in the information creation process by having them create or edit Wikipedia pages. Through these learning experiences students come to understand that anyone can add to or edit Wikipedia and what the consequences are for those who base important decisions on this information. Faculty who would like to further explore how Wikipedia can be used to help students become more effective researchers should contact their Temple University Libraries subject specialist to begin the discussion.

-Steven Bell

The Journal Finder enhancements announced earlier this month are now in place. We hope you'll agree that the new Journal Finder, powered by Serials Solutions, combines a cleaner, more responsive user interface with enhanced search and navigation capabilities.

Serials Solutions is the name of both a company and the e-journals management system used to power the new Journal Finder. Put another way, Journal Finder is simply Temple's branded name for the back-end Serials Solutions management system. For all the geeky technical details read Serials Solutions AMS page. Temple librarians work diligently with Serials Solutions to ensure that Journal Finder provides the most accurate, up-to-date record of the Libraries' serials holdings.

There are two ways to track down journals in the new Journal Finder: Search and Browse. Each of these functions is contained inside its own light blue box on the Journal Finder home page. The Search function allows you to search for a complete or partial title (the default) or for a word or words in any part of the title ("Title contains all words"). You can also search for a title by its ISSN or International Standard Serial Number. The greatly enhanced Browse function, located in the lower of the two light blue boxes, allows you to retrieve an alphabetical list of titles by subject. This can be helpful if you're trying to get an idea of the journals Temple subscribes to in a particular academic discipline, for example archaeology or film studies.

--David C. Murray

The Library is pleased to announce the addition of Standard Rate & Data Service (SRDS) to its suite of electronic databases.

Considered the Bible of directories when it comes to finding publications by category, SRDS is the largest and most comprehensive database of media and marketing information.

Cataloging media properties and marketing lists, SRDS provides media rates and data for more than 100,000 U.S. and international media properties, including both traditional and alternative marketing media. Advertising rates, contact personnel information, as well as circulation figures for Radio, TV and Cable, Business Publications, Consumer Magazines, and Newspapers are included. Demographic information is also provided.

In terms of functionality, SRDS allows users to search, create contact reports, and obtain additional information with direct links to media kits.

SRDS is updated frequently. In fact, each listing is verified up to 20 times per year, and more than 21,000 listing updates are made every month.

--Kristina De Voe

The library's access to Social Work Abstracts has changed over to a new interface through EBSCO. What does this mean for the user?

1) The interface is easier to use and familiar to most users already through Academic Search Premier or the numerous other databases we access through EBSCO.

2) With the EBSCO interface comes links to hundreds of full-text journals directly from citations in the database.

3) Users can set up search alerts for new issues of journals or ongoing searches. This means that you can get automatic announcements (email or rss) when a new issue of a journal is available in the database or when articles are specific topics (or by specific authors) are added to the database. (See EBSCO's support page on setting up search alerts.)

Questions? Comments? Feel free to contact me.

Derik A Badman

The Libraries have acquired four new full-text journal databases, all of which contain significant history content.

Blackwell Synergy - Provides access to 20 history journals including Diplomatic History, Gender & History, Journal of Religious Studies, and The Journal of the Historical Society.

Cambridge Journals Online - Provides access to 26 history journals including Central European History, The Historical Journal, The Journal of African History, and Urban History.

Sage Journals Online - Although known primarily for its science publications, Sage Journals provides access to eight important history journals: European History Quarterly, German History, Indian Economic & Social History Review, Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Urban History, The Medieval History Journal, Studies in History, and War in History.

History Compass - This "database" is in fact a peer-reviewed journal written by historians with undergraduates in mind. In this regard it is unlike the other databases discussed here, all of which cover multiple journals. What makes History Compass truly unique is the inclusion of little extras such as RSS feeds, lists of most read and cited articles, podcasts, and teaching and learning guides. Cambrdige Journals also has RSS feeds.

--David C. Murray

The Libraries have set up a trial to a new Adam Matthew digital resource titled Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice, 1490-2007. Clicking on the title link will provide access to the full database for four weeks, or until about July 13, 2007. The database is not yet feature complete; content will be released in three major phases in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Those who tried out earlier Adam Matthew database trials -- Empire Online, Defining Gender, etc. -- will be familiar with the attractive interface and unique blend of primary and secondary-source material.

Note that the "download entire document in PDF" feature won't work during the four-week trial. However, it will be possible to view, print and save individual images from the collections. During the trial period access will be from on-campus only. Please email me with your comments about this or any other history resource.

--David C. Murray

I've always thought the idea of pilgrimage fascinating, as have many many others, since pilgrimage happens in a lot of religions and cultures. There's even a two volume encyclopedia called Pilgrimage: from the Ganges to Graceland and many books. If you do a search in GVRL, you can find articles on pilgrimage in Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism, spanning most of the globe, even in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. And it's been going on for a long time, back to the ancient world. In literature, think of Canterbury Tales and Pilgrim's Progress. Contemporary pilgrimage destinations that have ancient origins include Jerusalem, Mecca, Mount Shan (China), and the Ganges.

What I always associate with pilgrimage, sort of a romantic notion perhaps, is a spiritual / psychological transformation that takes place when you leave everything behind. It's easier to change when your personal geography is changing every day. The physical and psychological sort of merge. It has quite an allure. Of course there's always that reaching your destination and getting back part that can be problematic. (But I'm probably confusing a pilgrimage with an escape.) Here's a nice overview article from the Encyclopedia of Religion on pilgrimage. Here's an article on Sacred Places from the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Catholic Church defines pilgrimage as "generally a journey to a holy place undertaken from motives of devotion in order to obtain supernatural help or as an act of penance or thanksgiving." I'll bet that definition works for many religious traditions. But I don't think pilgrimage needs to be thought of as strictly a religious phenomenon. Think of Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus was set upon by fate and the gods on his homeward journey to Ithaca. Or think of Aeneas, fleeing from the carnage of Odysseus and the Greeks to found the city of Rome. Why did the ancients find journeys so fascinating? Or think of the pilgrims of England journeying from the "civilized" to the raw, innocent, and "primitive". Richard Slotkin has written some interesting stuff about this. Or think of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, or Sheen in Apocalypse Now (or Brando, who could forget that?), or 2001: A Space Odyssey with Hal, Dave, and Frank.

Finally, I recently heard about two fascinating books by Jonathan Shay, a psychiatrist who has worked with a lot of Vietnam veterans. The first is called Achilles in Vietnam, the second Odysseus in America. He uses the Iliad and the Odyssey to explain the journey of the soldier, first in the horror of combat and then on the long road home. It's not easy.

---Fred Rowland

There’s been lots of talk in the news the last few days on the Six Day War in 1967. Below are some sources you might use to find information. Just for the fun of it. Here are some quick overviews: Arab-Israel War (1967) ; Six Day War.

Databases--Articles

Historical Abstracts

Index Islamicus

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Academic Search Premier

AUL Index to Military Periodicals

Military and Government Collection

RAMBI: The Index On Articles in Jewish Studies look for articles on history and politics

JSTOR

Mixed Sources--Journals, books, policy briefs, case studies

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) great source if you haven’t looked at this before!

Primary Sources

New York Times Full Text (1851-2003)

Wall Street Journal Full Text (1889-1989)

(London) Times Full Text (1785-1985)

Digital National Security Archive

Oral History Online not a lot on Six Day War but some interviews with participants (a few with Abba Eban)


Encyclopedias

Encyclopaedia of Islam Online I’d use this mainly to find biographies and bibliographies

Encyclopedia Judaica mainly to find biographies of participants and bibliographies


Books

Diamond (Temple's Library Catalog)

WorldCat

---Fred Rowland

Journal Finder will be getting a new look and improved subject-browsing capabilities during the last week of June.

If you'd like to try out the new version in advance, a fully-functional preview is now available.

I'm a night owl. OK, insomniac actually. For the sleep-challenged among us there's little to watch on the tube after midnight. Yes, TiVos and DVRs have helped, and IPTV is just around the corner. But back in the early 90s, when I was a grad student at the University of New Mexico, those technologies were still a long way off.

One show that took my mind off the fact that I couldn't sleep was The Western Tradition, a 52-part lecture series covering the entire sweep of Western history from 3000 BCE to the current age and beyond. The series was produced by WGBH in Boston (c1989), and is now available for free on the Annenberg Media web site. The appeal here lies primarily in the person of recently deceased UCLA history professor Eugen Weber. The British-educated Weber delivers up engaging lectures in an over-the-top, highly mesmerizing, English accent. My local Albququerque public TV station would insidiously run these lectures back-to-back, thus contributing to my insomnia. After listening to lecture 9 on The Rise of Rome who could possibly resist lecture 10, The Roman Empire?

--David C. Murray