Top News: May 2007 Archives

The Online Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) contains almost the whole corpus of Greek literature in full-text from the age of Homer through the fall of Byzantium in 1453 AD to the Ottoman Turks. This scholarly tool has very quickly become essential for studying Greek history, literature, and philosophy. Since its origins classical studies has been strongly influenced by language and linguistics. TLG allows researchers to examine Greek at both a broad and a fine-grained level. Scholars can effortlessly search across the database to look for word frequencies and unusual words, concepts and phrases, or they can examine just a single text. You can limit your search to specific centuries, use abbreviated subject and geographic categories, or search a selected group of texts. Using one of the many kinds of Greek fonts, you can not only retrieve texts but also input searches in Greek font. It's very cool.

Imagine the riches this collection contains: the Presocratics with their focus on the natural world, the Platonic dialogues with their emphasis on ethics and morality, and Aristotle's wide-ranging and multidimensional gaze. The Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. The writers of the Hellenistic period when Greek learning spread to most of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, plus the Acts of the Apostles and the letters. Ancient Hebrew wisdom transmitted through the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures. And don't forget the apocrypha, like the Gospel of Thomas, Epistle of Barnabas, and the Apocalypse of Daniel. Or the Greek Fathers, or the commentators on Aristotle like Alexander of Aphrodisias.

This is a great scholarly collection and the Temple University Libraries is happy to bring it to faculty, students, and staff.

---Fred Rowland

On April 27th, 2007, the awards for the 2006-2007 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research were presented to the winners and honourable mentions. In the weeks following, Fred Rowland, one of Temple's reference librarians, spoke with the three winners and their faculty sponsors about the prize winning research. These discussions were recorded and are now presented as three audio files (10-12 minute long mp3 files, 2.5-3MB each):

Joseph Basile on his "Ending the 'Inhuman Traffic': The Role of Humanitarianism in the British Abolition Movement."
With Dr. Travis Glasson.
(Download the mp3)

Clay Boggs on his "The Jews and the Pharisees in Early Quaker Polemic."
With Professor David Watt.
(Download the mp3)

Matthew M. Rodrigue on his "Rethinking Academia: A Gramscian Analysis of Samuel Huntington."
With Professor Kathy Le Mons Walker.
(Download the mp3)

Whether you are a faculty member or student, keep the library prize in mind for next year!

(You can subscribe to our podcast feed for future audio content from the Temple University Libraries.)

The Tuttleman Computer Lab is currently closed for major renovations. It will re-open Monday June 4.

---- Penelope Myers

Summer school starts on Monday May 21st. Please note the hours for Paley Library during the summer.

Summer School One runs from May 21st to July 2nd
Summer School Two runs from July 9th to August 18th.

During these two sessions these are the hours for Paley and the Tuttleman Computer Lab:

Paley Library

Monday - Thursday 8 am - 10 pm
Friday 8 am - 5 pm
Saturday 9 am - 5 pm
Sunday Noon - 5 pm

Tuttleman Computer Lab

NOTE: The Tuttleman Computer Lab is currently closed for major renovations. It will re-open Monday June 4.

Monday - Thursday 8 am - 9 pm
Friday 8 am - 5 pm
Saturday, Sunday Closed

Please note the exceptions to this schedule:

Memorial Day weekend we are closed Sunday and Monday May 27th and 28th.

Monday July 2nd 8 am - 8 pm
Tuesday July 3rd 8 am - 5 pm
Wednesday July 4th Closed
Thursday July 5th 8 am - 5 pm
Friday July 6th 8 am - 5 pm
Saturday, Sunday July 7-8 Closed

All Temple University Libraries' hours are available on our web site
http://library.temple.edu/about/hours/index.jsp?bhcp=1

----- Penelope Myers

The Library has added the SAGE Journals Online to its subscriptions.

The SAGE Full-Text Collections are award-winning, discipline-specific research databases of the most popular peer- reviewed journals in Communication Studies, Criminology, Education, Health Sciences, Management & Organization Studies, Materials Science, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Urban Studies & Planning published by SAGE Publications and participating societies.

This database includes more than 246 journals, 240,000 articles, book reviews, and editorials, with all the original graphics, tables, and page numbers. The Collections provide researchers and students with a research environment that is easy to use and complete with the most up-to-date content and backfiles back to volume 1, issue 1.

---Al Vara

The library has added two new business resources to our database collection: Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage and Global Insight.

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage is a major addition to the databases that support company-and-industry research. This database is especially important as Standard & Poor's is already phasing out their print publications. In the future, almost all of their titles will be in digital formats only.

This database is useful for more than purely business research. The inclusion of the Mutual Fund Reports in the package allows for extensive research of and comparisons among mutual funds. The Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Executives and Directors facilitates extensive research for job hunters, with information on public and private companies. A separate glossary is included and an excellent "Learning Center" that covers the basics of investing, has a retirement tutorial, and covers current tax issues.

Almost all of Standard & Poor's (traditionally) print publications are included in the database. One of the most important components is the Industry Surveys, and the Global Industry Surveys – which we have not had before. Additional products that we have not had before include the mutual fund profiles and several news letters.

NetAdvantage recently added Compustat Excel Analytics and Compustat International Fundamental Reports with five (5) years of extensive data and charts that can be downloaded directly into Excel.

The following products are in NetAdvantage:
Bond Reports Company Profiles; Corporation Records Fund Reports (more than 14,000 mutual funds are included); Industry Surveys (back to 1998) with Trends and Projections (back to April 1999); Global Industry Surveys (back to 2004); The Outlook (back to 1996); Register – Executives and Directors; Register – Private Companies; Register – Public Companies; Security Dealers of North America; Stock Reports

The Global Insight database was formed by the merger of DRI (Data Resources, Inc.) and WEFA (Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates), combining two well-respected financial and economic information services. It has recently integrated into its package the World Markets Research Centre (WMRC), enabling it to combine same-day analysis and risk assessment of more than 200 countries and industry and market analysis into a single database.

Global insight provides "comprehensive economic and financial coverage of countries, regions, industries, and markets" in a single platform. Historical country-specific data dates back to 1970 and forecasts predict 25 years into the future. Please use Internet Explorer as your browser to access the Excel spreadsheet downloads in the database.

For countries it provides "economic analysis, data and forecasts; political analysis; regulatory analysis; tax laws and impacts; operational conditions; security risk analysis". This is the first database that we have been able to acquire that provides country risk analysis and forecasting.

Its collections of economic and financial data, updated daily, include "global economic data; global financial data; U.S. economic data and press releases; energy data; industry and sector data; forecast and analysis".

Global industries covered are: Automotive Industry; Energy Industry; Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Industries; and Telecommunications.

Fields of study supported by the Global Insight database include all departments within the Fox School of Business, Advertising, Political Science, International Health, Geography, and Law.

--Barbara Wright