June 2008 Archives

Please see this post for information about ongoing database access problems.

Beginning in the 1980s but accelerating over the last decade, libraries have been unable to keep pace with the skyrocketing costs of scholarly journals. For both private and publicly-supported research universities the publication "circle" looks something like this: 1) scholar obtains money to conduct research, perhaps through government grants or internal, tuition-supported funding; 2) scholar conducts and then publishes research in peer-reviewed journal; 3) university library "buys back" scholarly research from for-profit or societal journal publishers. The problem? Academic libraries, whose budgets sometimes do not even take inflation into account from year to year, can no longer afford to buy journal titles, especially in the sciences. Did you know, for example, that the annual $19,396 paid by Brown University Library for the journal Nuclear Physics A & B, matches the price of a "new midsize car" (Brown University's George Street Journal).

Libraries and others who care about open access to scholarly information are fighting back. "SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system... It's pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communications models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries" (About SPARC). The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is another such initiative. DOAJ defines open access journals as ones that "use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access" (About DOAJ). Explore DOAJ's list of 110 scholarly, open access journals in history. 

Who benefits from these initiatives? In my view scholars, libraries, small and even large publishers benefit when research is made readily available to industry and the public at large. Think about it this way: It is reasonable to expect that the public will be more willing to support research that is readily available, and that the impact of this research will be greater and longer lasting.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the open access community is scholars' fear that publishing in open access journals will not advance careers or lead to tenure. After all, academic journals were created in the first place, in part, to promote the careers of authors. Scholars are also often concerned with a journal's impact factor. Despite these concerns, however, new information technologies and initiatives such as SPARC and DOAJ are here to stay. Consider the benefits of open access today!

Distinguished professor of women's studies, Janet Jakobsen of Barnard College, lectured at Paley on April 7.

Dr. Jakobsen is the Director of the Center for Research on Women at Barnard. Her research interests include: feminist and queer ethics; religion, gender, and sexuality in American public life; social movements and feminist alliance politics; and global issues of economics.

Jakobsen's research truly crosses disciplinary boundaries, and her engagement with a number of issues crosses the traditional lines established between the academy and activism.

This lecture was part of a series presented by the Libraries and the General Education Program, which aims to bring interdisciplinary scholars in a variety of fields to Temple. The departments of Religion and Jewish Studies also played a significant role in sponsoring Dr. Jakobsen's visit.

Dr. Jakobsen's lecture at Paley Library can be downloaded from iTunes U.
When you see the Temple University page, click Paley Library at the bottom, then Janet Jakobsen, then click "Get" and wait for the download to complete.

After the lecture, Dr. Jakobsen was interviewed by Professor of History, David Watt, and Professor of Religion, Women's Studies, and Jewish Studies, Laura Levitt.

TU Libraries is pleased to announce the addition of Library PressDisplay to its suite of online resources!

Visually stunning, PressDisplay provides online access to today's leading newspapers and magazines from around the world, presented in their traditional format and layout. With more than 650 print publications from 76 countries and in 38 languages, PressDisplay is an indispensable news source for anyone who wants not only multiple perspectives on the news, but also to see the original print layout/format, including color images, editorial content, classifieds, and advertisements.

Readers can browse or search for the last 60 days worth of newspapers by country, language, or title and also perform keyword searches for individual articles. Once inside a newspaper, readers can turn the pages as if holding the actual paper, zooming into individual images and articles.

Articles may be printed, saved, or emailed for later use. Some articles also have accompanying audio files which can be played in Windows Media Player. And, articles from many foreign language publications can be instantly translated into one of several major languages.

While ideal for scholars associated with international studies, media studies, and foreign language studies, PressDisplay promises to hold appeal for all interested in current events.

Please feel free to contact me directly for further information about the resource.

Kristina De Voe
Reference Librarian - English and Communications
Email: devoek@temple.edu
Blog: http://blog.library.temple.edu/devoek

The Temple University Libraries is pleased to announce online access to the Library of Latin Texts (Follow link, scroll down to Library of Latin Texts and click "Go"), an online collection of primary sources in Latin from the periods of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the late antique, medieval, and early modern worlds. You'll find works by Julius Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus, Horace, Virgil, Augustine, Tertullian, Boethius, and Bede, as well as lesser known authors like Hermes Trismegistus, Minucius Felix, and Widricus Cellensis.  Thousands of texts are available.  

You can search by author, title, period, and century. Find a word or word form of interest and you can search the database for it by the same categories, a very powerful way to track changes in style and usage over many genres and centuries.  This is not an easy database to use, however, as the searcher must know the Latin author names and titles in order to search.  Various browselists make access somewhat easier, but this is certainly not database for the faint of heart.  (The classics resources available in Oxford Reference Online might provide some linguistic and historical aid [Latin dictionary, Oxford Classical Dictionary, and more] in finding relevant terms).

Temple users now have access to online primary sources in both Latin (Library of Latin Texts) and Greek (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae).

If you have any questions about this resource, please let me know.  Fred Rowland