Top News: October 2008 Archives

On October 6, 2008, The Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University held its Second Annual Symposium on Race and Judaism in the Paley Library Lecture Hall. The program was entitled Exploring Race in Contemporary Judaism: A Symposium on Jewish Diversity [click here for PDF of flyer].

Before the symposium began, Professor Lewis Gordon, director of The Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought, sat down with three of the presenters, Edith Bruder, Avishai Mekonen, and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen to discuss their work. Edith Bruder has written a book entitled The Black Jews of Africa: History, Religion, Identity and her symposium presentation was entitled "African Judaism: Ancient Myths and Modern Phenomena". Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen screened and discussed their work-in-progress documentary, 400 Miles to Freedom, a "film [which] explores racial and ethnic diversity in Judaism through the story of Avishai Mekonen, whose disappearance in Sudan as a boy launches a quest that leads him to other African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and in the U.S." John L. Jackson, who also presented at the symposium ("The Bodied Politic: Ethnobiology, Anti-Religiosity and the Reckoning of Black Hebrewism") was not present for this recording (but we hope to record an interview with him at a later date).

Download the audio here (mp3, 22 MB).

The staff of the Paley Library are pleased with the positive response of the Temple student body to the renovation of our first floor computing area. In fact, the area has become popular quickly and at peak hours it can be a challenge to find a computer. See the photo below which shows the computer area on a recent afternoon at 3:00 pm

While there are almost double the number of computers in the first floor west computing area compared to prior semesters it still does not always meet the demand. Students should keep in mind that there are still an additional 25 computers by the front window on the east side of the first floor. During the summer we also added 20 computers on the second floor (10 on each side of the building) and 6 on the third floor (all on the west side). See the photo below of some computers on the third floor.

So if you can't find a computer on the first floor computing area, keep in mind we have more computers at other locations in the Paley Library. Do note that all of the library's computers print to the printers located in the first floor computing area.

ILLIAD is our new service for requesting materials not available or not owned at any of our Temple University Libraries. To use ILLIAD you need to register as a first time user, and once you have done that all you need to do to use ILLIAD is to login with your Temple access net account and password. Then you can request articles, book chapters, books not available at Temple or through E-ZBorrow, dissertations, conference proceedings, and anything else you need. Using ILLIAD you can check on the status of your requests, request renewals, and access articles you requested. It also keeps a history of your requests.

A video is available to help you if you are using ILLIAD for the first time.

Library patrons at the Paley, Law, Ambler, Tyler, SEAL, and Harrisburg Libraries need to use this login.

For Kresge and South Libraries use this login.

For the Podiatry library use this login.
If you have any questions about this service please feel free to contact Penelope Myers at pmyers@temple.edu or 215 204-0749, or Justin Hill at jhill@temple.edu or 215 204-0752.