'Chasing Light': Music Made For 50 States
By Jeff Lunden
NPR's All Things Considered, November 3, 2008

"It isn't every day that a small community orchestra gets to play a new work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer [Joseph Schwantner]. But that's what's happening now — and over the course of the next year and a half — in all 50 states. First up was the Reno Chamber Orchestra."

We hope you haven't missed the news that the Music and Performing Arts Library will now be opening at 8:30am Monday-Friday. Closing times and weekend times remain the same.

How dangerous is drum making?
BBC News Magazine
Monday, 3 November 2008

"A second drum maker in two years has died after apparently inhaling anthrax spores from animal skins. What are the risks of this seemingly safe job?"

{From the folks at Alexander Street Press}
The new release of Classical Music Library includes new features and updates in addition to a new interface. Users can now browse all classical works by album and find associated recordings using the new Album Browse feature.

There is also updated playlist functionality, which makes it easier to create rich playlists. Individual items in a playlist can now be annotated, and links to any item, whether available in our collection or elsewhere on the Web, can easily be added. Enhance your playlist of audio tracks with reference passages, scores, external Web links, and text from a variety of sources. And sharing playlists has never been easier. Gone are the days of requesting Course Folder privileges for music professors. Now users can decide whether or not to share a personal playlist with other users at their institution, or with anyone who subscribes to Classical Music Library.

Based on user feedback, we've also improved our Advanced Search. It is now possible to limit search results to recordings where the complete work is available. And as always, we are continually working to license more content for Classical Music Library.

All other functionality and content has been migrated from the old interface, including all user accounts, playlists, and course folders. Please note that your course folders will now appear as playlists shared within your institution, and you have the option of sharing them with all Classical Music Library subscribers.

Drowning in Data? RefWorks can Help

These are the last two workshops of the semester! Sign up early, space is limited.

Learn how to use RefWorks, a citation management software program subscribed to by the University of Illinois Library that is free to faculty, staff, and students of the University of Illinois. This workshop will cover the basics: how to access RefWorks, search catalogs, import references from library databases, retrieve and manage citations, create bibliographies according to various citation styles (e.g., MLA or APA), and use Write N Cite to add parenthetical references to your work. For more information about RefWorks see: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/refworks/. Both workshops will be held in the Undergraduate Library, Room 291.

Tuesday, November 11th 10-11am

Friday, November 14th 1-2pm

Registration: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/calendar/public/

Re-creating great performances
Speaker bio and more links

"Imagine hearing great, departed pianists play again today, just as they would in person. John Q. Walker demonstrates how recordings can be analyzed for precise keystrokes and pedal motions, then played back on computer-controlled grand pianos"

Panel Issues Guide to Using Copyrighted Material in the Classroom
Chronicle of Higher Education
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
11/11/2008

"When professors want to incorporate clips from television shows or other popular-culture works into their lectures and are unsure about what they can legally use, some are basing their decisions on "urban folklore about copyright," says Peter A. Jaszi, a law professor at American University.

A new guide by the university's Center for Social Media offers free legal advice to clarify such issues—and its authors say that the "fair use" provisions of copyright law are more permissive than many professors may think."

A Nonverbal Language for Imagining and Learning: Dance Education in K–12 Curriculum
Judith Lynne Hanna
Educational Researcher, November 2008

"Dismissive views of dance and few resources for developing and scientifically evaluating dance programs generally have kept dance education out of, or marginalized in, the K-12 curriculum. Yet dance has long had a significant role in the education, religion, ethnic identity, gender marking, and social and political organization of many cultures."

3 Academics and a Student Chorus Are Among Recipients of National Medals
Chronicle of Higher Education
By REEVES WIEDEMAN
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

"...the Fisk Jubilee Singers were among four organizations honored [with National Medals of Arts]. The group, a student chorus at Fisk University, received an arts medal for preserving African-American spirituals.

The Presser Foundation, which provides grants to undergraduate and graduate students of music, also received an arts medal. The other organizations honored were the José Limón Dance Foundation and Ford’s Theatre Society.

The individual winners of the arts medals were the actress Olivia de Havilland; the jazz pianist Hank Jones; Stan Lee, a comic-book writer and former president of Marvel Comics; Jesús Moroles, a sculptor known for monumental works in granite; and the brothers Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, a songwriting team."