April is Jazz Appreciation month. Come see the excellent display highlighting just a few of the Library's jazz-related materials. We've got books, scores, CDs, and DVDs of jazz music, documentaries, and performances that you can check out from the Library.
http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/music
Nearly 100 musical scores from UIUC's Music Library were digitized recently at the Open Content Alliance/Internet Archive scanning center on campus. Represented in this new online collection are Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Jerome Kern, and Gilbert & Sullivan. The Music Library is one of the largest collections of its kind at a public university, and is currently ranked among the top ten music libraries in the United States. Its collections contain more than 765,000 volumes, including over 55,000 books, 520,000 scores, 19,000 microforms, 150,000 sound recordings, and over 20,000 items in other formats and media. (text borrowed from http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/digitizedbotw/2008/05/musical_scores_from_the_univer.html)
UIUC's academic year ended with graduation this weekend--congratulations to all of our graduates!
During the year we aim to post at least one item per day on this blog, but with summer upon us, we may be posting less often. We hope you'll check in when you get a chance, and we'll be back to our regular schedule come fall.
The scanner in the Music Library is currently out of order. We'll let you know when it's working again.
You might have noticed the new journals display area near the reading room on the first floor. We've selected several dozen of the top journal titles in music, dance, and theatre, and will display current issues face-out (recent issues are in the shelves beneath). Older issues and journal titles not in this display (we have hundreds) can be found in the journals area in the northwest corner of the first floor.
A new scanner is up and running in the Music and Performing Arts Library. Directions are on the machine cover; if you have any questions, just ask us!
Help the Music and Performing Arts Library redesign our website. For one hour of your time (during which you'll follow some simple tasks using our website) we will give you a $10 Espresso Royale gift card. Interested music, dance, and theatre students and faculty should contact Kirstin Dougan (dougan@illinois.edu) or 244-4072.
Did you hear the one about the musician, the dancer, and the actor? No? Me neither, I was just trying to think of a catchy way to let you know that the Music Library has recently been renamed the Music and Performing Arts Library. This change reflects that our holdings now include Theatre materials as well and Music and Dance. Our new website, which will more accurately reflect our new collections will be released later this summer.
As many of you know, we acquired many theatre-related materials from the English Library over the Spring and Summer. We've got
---> periodicals (1st floor, on the new periodicals shelves facing the reading room and in the periodicals stacks near the reading room).
---> new playscripts (1st floor, on the shelves facing the M3 reference scores)
---> older playscripts (1st floor, Dewey sequences 811 (for American drama) or 822 (for English drama)
---> books (1st floor; Dewey sequence 792 and 808-830 (roughly); LC sequence PC-PS)
U3 Flash Drives on Public PCs (from the Library IT Helpdesk's site:)
For security reasons the Library's public computers are set up to run only the software installed on them by Library IT personnel. This is causing a problem for some users who come to the Library with flash drives that utilize U3 encryption software. The specific U3 software required for these flash drives varies from brand to brand. There are many variations of U3 software and this makes it extremely difficult for Library IT to have all the possible variations pre-installed on the public PCs. Thus, some users are not able to use their flash drives on our public machines.
We recognize that Library users must be able to save their data to take with them when they leave the Library. Library IT is investigating options for dealing with the U3 situation. For the time being, these are some alternatives that one can use at our public terminals:
Email the file to themselves as an attachment via CITES Express Mail
Upload the file to their Netfiles
Save the file to a CD - public workstations have CD burners and Nero Express.
Remove the U3 system from jump drives by following the instruction on U3 FAQ page.
In the meanwhile, if your users report problems with their U3 flash drives, you may refer them to this page on the Funk ACES Library web site for advice.
For more information, please visit the U3 website.
Project Information Literacy, a national research study, is looking for humanities and social science majors (sophomores, juniors, and seniors), who are in their 20s and enrolled full-time at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to voluntarily participate in one of two discussion groups they will be holding on the UIUC campus on Thursday, November 6, 2008. The study is about how U.S. college students conduct research for course assignments and in their "everyday life."
Two 90-minute sessions will be held in the Undergraduate Library on campus (Room 295) at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. Each participant will be given a $15 iTunes card at the completion of the discussion group as a thank-you for their time.
Interested students can sign up at http://projectinfolit.org/4signup. Project Information Literacy is based in University of Washington's iSchool and led by Drs. Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg.
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.
{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/
Two new Library acquisitions that might interest many of you:
1. Chandos Records' Opera in English CDs
These CDs offer quality performances of standard and not-so-standard repertoire in English. To find them in our catalog, limit your search to "Music Recordings" and do a search for "opera in english." If you know the specific opera you want, you can do a boolean search for [opera name] and "opera in english".
Many of them have not been cataloged yet (they just arrived this week!), so use the request feature in the online catalog, or ask for help at the reference or circulation desks.
2. Two new masterclass series on DVD
--Jazz Master Class Series from NYU
These eight DVDs represent some of the best jazz teachers and performers.
To find them in our catalog, limit your search to Films/Videos and either search for the individual's name or to find all of them, do a boolean search for jazz and master and class.
Some of them have not been cataloged yet, so use the request feature in the online catalog, or ask for help at the reference or circulation desks.
--Masterclass Media Foundation
This excellent series of 21 DVDs present masterclasses by some of the best performers and teachers in the classical world. From Dame Evelyn Glennie to Maxim Vengerov, the series covers instrumentalists, singers, and conductors. Not to be missed!
To find them in our catalog, limit your search to Films/Videos and do a search for "masterclass media foundation" or the name of the individual presenter.
If there are other titles you'd like to see the Library purchase, please use the online form.
The Music and Performing Arts Library took delivery of a 17th century Spanish gradual this week. A description and pictures are available here.
The problems with Oxford have been fixed.
Oxford Music Online (the online home of the Grove Dictionary among other titles) is currently experiencing technical difficulties. The problem has been reported and we'll let you know when it's been fixed.
If you are a Mac OSX user and are having problems accessing the audio e-reserves, you may need to install RealOne, an earlier version of RealPlayer.
Celebrate Lincoln's 200th Birthday with the Music and Performing Arts Library. Come see our exhibit featuring music about him.
Other online resources for Lincoln music online:
Civil War Sheet Music from the UIUC Music and Performing Arts Library
We'll Sing to Abe Our Song! (LC American Memory Project)
Music of Lincoln's Time (scroll down)
Our little blog is now over 100 posts old. While I think this is a useful tool for you, dear reader, who may not have time to search for arts news on your own and also want to keep up with Library news and tools, I'm wondering whether folks have time to read blogs any more. Is there a more effective way to share information with you?
I've been thinking Twitter might be another way to share these stories and news items with you. Do you Twitter? Would you follow a Music and Performing Arts Library Twitter stream? Or would you rather continue with the blog? Drop me a line in the comments and let me know what you think.
Thanks! Kirstin Dougan, User Services Coordinator, MPAL
OK, while many of you seem shy about commenting on the blog, you have told me that you'd be interested in a Twitter stream from the Music and Performing Arts Library--so here it is: twitter.com/mpalillinois Click on "Follow" under the MPAL Illinois logo so you don't miss any of our Tweets.
COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS: THIS IS A SAMPLING SPORT
Film Screening with Co-Producer Kembrew McLeod (in Person)
Thursday April 30, 6 - 8 p.m., Main Library 66
This is a film about music sampling, art, and copyright law. It tells a story about how media industries regulated hip hop and how hip hop artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground resisted them.
Kembrew McLeod is a filmmaker and Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa
http://copyrightcriminals.com/
The Jazz Music Library is now available to UIUC community members on a trial basis. Try it out and let us know what you think.
You may know that we subscribe to the Classical Music Library streaming audio tool. Now when you search our online catalog, if a recording is available in CML, it will have it's own entry.
Here's a Boolean search for Reger and serenades, limited to "music recordings."
If you click on the title, you get more information about the recording.
You can then click on the link that says "Online Access" to go to the CML tool, where you can click on tracks to play them.
The Library now has a subscription to Alexander Street Press's Theater in Video
"Theatre in Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all. This release contains 242 titles, representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors. Included are landmark performances such as The Iceman Cometh, King Lear, Awake and Sing, Dom Juan, Bérénice, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Playboy of the Western World, Krapp's Last Tape and Othello, among many others. Notable actors include Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Dreyfuss, Walter Matthau, Meryl Streep, Eli Wallach, Zoe Caldwell, Sam Waterston and more. For the first time, students, instructors and researchers can bookmark specific scenes, monologues and staging."
Have you been using our great collection of sheet music on CDROM? Well, now it's available to the University of Illinois Community via Library Music Source.
CD Sheet Music
Includes masterworks for piano, organ, classical guitar, strings, winds, voice, chorus and study scores. It includes:
* 35,000 pages of piano music
* 30,000 pages of vocal music (arias and art songs)
* 17,000 pages of opera vocal scores
* 21,000 pages of choral vocal scores
* 15,000 pages of violin music
Orchestra Musicians' CD Rom Library
Including all the parts to over 600 orchestra masterworks, this is a 10-Volume set of original orchestra parts and scores for violin, viola, cello, bass, flute (piccolo), oboe, clarinets, bassoon, horn, trumpet, low brass, timpani/percussion and harp/keyboard/ miscellaneous. Note: Printing all the separate parts enables performance.
Well, you made it through the first week (and so did we!). If you are new to our library or just need a refresher, take a look at our welcome guide: http://uiuc.libguides.com/mpal
If you want to know what great new stuff we got over the summer, check out the New Titles List: http://www.library.illinois.edu/newtitles/
Need something and we don't have it? If you can't get it through iShare or ILL, and/or if you just really think we should have it here, suggest a purchase: http://www.library.illinois.edu/mux/services/recommend.html
If you are feeling overwhelmed and could use a little help, just ask us!
Glad you're back!
You may have seen the note on the MPAL web site, but in case not, we're making some changes. We hope to streamline the site and improve findability. If there is something you'd really like to see change, or something you don't want to see change, let us know. We'll post mock-ups of the proposed redesign ahead of time so you'll know what's coming.
It's been pretty quiet (dare I say dead?) here on the blog this semester. That's because we have been using Twitter more to send you short news bits. You can see the feed from our Twitter stream on the right side of the blog. We'll continue to use the blog when we have longer announcements or want to include pictures or screen shots to illustrate something.
As you may have noticed, we've been having some problems with audio e-reserves this semester. They're working just fine if you use one of our computers, and usually work if you are trying to access from home. However, you might encounter problems if you are trying to access either from a Mac or via campus wireless.
We are working to fix the problems and hope to have a more stable system in the near future. In the meantime, here are two things you can try:
1) If you're having problems from home or via the wireless: Trying installing the VPN client and using that to access the audio files.
2) If you're having problems from a Mac and/or the VPN isn't solving the problem, try installing RealAlternative instead of RealPlayer.
As always, if you're having problems with any ereserves materials (or any online library resources), please just let us know! It helps to know what kind of computer, what media player, whether you're using wireless, and which audio tracks didn't work.
We thank you for your patience and apologize for this inconvenience.
Now when you search our catalog for recordings, you will find records for recordings in our online audio streaming tools Classical Music Library and DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music). Just click on the "Related URL: Online access" link.
Also, when you search Grove Music Online (via Oxford Music Online) you can click on the "Related Content" tab to find links to CML and DRAM so you can search for related audio content.
