About the New Website

As you have probably noticed, there have been many changes on our website. While we are hoping to eventually change the look of the site to match up more closely with the University’s new website design (which should be up soon), there are several exciting new changes that we are sure you will like. Here are just a few of them:

1. That five-tabbed search box in the center of our homepage is a very valuable tool for searching a variety of our resources in order to find library materials, research assistance, articles, databases, and course reserves. Many of your searching needs will be met with this one box, so plan on becoming very familiar with it.
   
   
2. We changed the navigation to focus on tasks rather than resources. This means, for example, that you don’t need to know about eJournals AtoZ in order to find full-text articles online. You just need to click on the Find Articles, Journals, etc. link and the next page will point you in the right direction (you can also use the Articles & Journals tab in the abovementioned search box).
   
   
3. Once you figure out which resources you need, you can access the most commonly used ones in our Top Tools section, found in the left-side navigation bar. You’ll also find a lot of the important performing arts resources (Naxos Music Library, Oxford Music Online, etc.) underneath the large search box.
   

It may seem like an odd time to roll out a new website and I know it is very sudden, but for reasons out of our control we had to go live a little sooner than expected. So expect to see some more improvements in the next few months as we consult with you, our users, to see how we can make it even better. We’ll try to keep everybody informed on what is happening and I encourage you to let us know what you think of the changes!

Online Librarian Chat: That New Box on the Homepage

As you may have noticed, there is a new box on the Allen Library homepage. Look to the right of this text to see a picture of it (this one is just an image, so you have to go to the Allen homepage to actually use it). For those of you who were familiar with the box that used to be on our homepage, it still serves the same purpose. It allows you to chat with a library staff member online. You simply type a message in the bottom section of the box, press Enter on your keyboard, and wait for a reply. We didn't just change the look of the box, however; there are several new features that make this a huge improvement.

1) Multiple library staff members can receive your message at the same time, so it's much more likely that your question will be answered promptly.

2) Whoever answers your question can "transfer" the chat to another staff member if they decide that someone else is better suited to answer the question. This improves the chances of you receiving the best possible answer.

3) We can email the transcript of the chat to another staff member, so even if the best person to answer the question is not currently available, we can still send your question to them.

4) You can pop the chat out of your current browser window by clicking on the green arrow: This will allow you to continue navigating our website as we answer your question without worrying about losing the chat box.

You'll probably see this chat box appearing in other places on our website, and each one will be designed to send questions to those staff members who are best equipped to answer questions about the topic at hand. We expect this tool to be very valuable. I encourage you to try it out, even if it is to just say hi. Please let us know what you think about it!

New Releases

Greetings from the backroom, once again. As you probably know, the backroom is where new items come to get all the trappings of the Allen Library and be released. But since you aren't waiting on the shelving carts for Jen or me to bring these new items out for your perusal, I thought you might like to know what some of them are.


I.X.1905 "Sonata" / Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) M23 J33 S1

This is a beautiful Bärenreiter Urtext edition published in 2005. It features a lengthy introduction to the piece with bibliography. The Sonata itself is a devastating work, based on the unjust murder of a university student in Brno. If you haven't heard it yet, listen to Ivan Moravec's interpretation available on Naxos.


On An Overgrown Path / Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) M25 J33 O5

This is also a Bärenreiter Urtext edition with a rich and dark purple cover. The lengthy preface contains much valuable information, and again there is suggested reading. On An Overgrown Path is in two series, with an additional set entitled "Paralipomena." The first series is a collection of short pieces with descriptive titles (e.g. Words fail!, Unutterable anguish, The barn owl has not flown away!), but the remaining compositions only have tempo indications as identifiers. Janáček's piano music is extraordinary. Piquant, nervous, innocent, delicate, quiet. Do check it out.


Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora vol. 4 M21 A378 V4
Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora vol. 5 M21 A378 V5
Senku / William Chapman Nyaho MD21 C436 S4
Asa / William Chapman Nyaho MD21 C436 A8

William H. Chapman Nyaho, from Ghana, is an active international performer, scholar, teacher, and clinician. He compiled and edited these two volumes of piano music, both of which are classified as "Advanced." Much of the music features large spans for the hands and innovative rhythmic figures. The composers come from a wide variety of places: Nigeria, Jamaica, England, Egypt, and the U.S., among others. You may listen to many of the compositions on the two CDs as well. As Maya Angelou wrote in a review of Senku, "This CD will provide moments of discovery so delicious, that the listeners will be made to laugh out loud and to compliment not just Dr. Chapman Nyaho, but themselves at their good fortune in finding these composers and this pianist."


Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 18 / Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) M1011 R11 C2
Romanian Folk Dances / Béla Bartók (1881-1945) M25 B29 R6

These two are replacement copies. Fortunately we had the funds available to buy new copies of these well worn compositions. The Rachmaninov is a Schirmer edition (apologies, but actually it doesn't have any unwanted editorializations!), and the Bartók is a Masters Music Publications edition.

If you aren't a pianist, don't worry. New items for all instruments are coming in all the time. Jen will let you know about some more of them soon...

D-S-C-H: A Wikipedia Story

Back in March 2009, I wrote about a post called Why I Love Wikipedia. In this post, I discussed how Wikipedia can be used as a research aid without breaking the cardinal rule of not directly citing Wikipedia. A great example of this came up recently. One of our patrons was wondering how he could find the correct terminology for a compositional technique. While he was partially wondering how one would do this in general (when you know what you're looking for but don't know what it's called), he was also wondering specifically about the technique of turning names (often the composer's own) into musical motifs. Two well known examples of this are B-A-C-H (B♭, A, C, B♮) and D-S-C-H (D, E♭, C, B♮ [for Shostakovich]). One solution might be to look in articles and books that discuss the work and see if they mention what this technique is called. Another solution, however, is to try out this newfangled Internet thing. So here's what I did:

1) First, I searched in Google for D-S-C-H.

2) The first results was the Wikipedia entry for the musical motif DSCH, so I clicked on that.

3) The second sentence of that Wikipedia entry refers to this theme as a "musical cryptogram." That sounded reasonable, so I clicked on that.

4) The entry for "musical cryptogram" seemed to describe what I was looking for, but I wanted a more authoritative source. A quick scroll to the bottom revealed a reference (all good Wikipedia articles list references!) for "Cryptography, Musical" in New Grove, 2nd ed.

5) Since we have access to New Grove through Oxford Music Online, I took a look at the "Cryptography, Musical" there and sure enough, that's exactly the term I was looking for. Also, the New Grove article had much more information than the Wikipedia article!

So, with very little effort, I was able to use Google and Wikipedia as research tools while still ending up with a highly authoritative source to answer the question. Consider this encouragement to do the same when you're doing your own research!

Allen Library Bids Adieu to 2009

Now that the rest of the staff have had an opportunity to be heard on the blog (don't worry, you'll be hearing from them again), it's back to me for the last word of the year. Years from now, when I look back at 2009, I'll remember it as a year of excitement and hope...

[Cue hilarious/sentimental slide show, sappy music, and Wonder Years style voice over]

But seriously, a lot happened this year. In case you missed anything along the way, I just wanted to go through some of the things that 2009 brought with it for the Allen Library. These aren't really in any particular order, I just enjoy counting down (I also enjoy exclamation points, as you'll soon find out).

10. All of our public computers were updated to include Office 2007/2008. No more worrying about what to do with .docx files!

9. The University Libraries introduced a new format for our online subject guides, which are easier to read and offer more functionality. There are a lot of great Allen-related guides, so I hope everyone is taking advantage of them!

8. We held two very successful book/music sales, one in the Spring and one in the Fall. We're already starting to collect materials for next year!

7. The large seminar room was made more functional with the addition of a computer podium and a document camera. We're hoping to see some improvements to the small seminar room over winter break, so make sure to take a look when you're back in the Spring.

6. We received a very generous donation of books and score from Martha Hinrichsen that included (among many other things) a lot of 20th century works we didn't already have and a bunch of facsimiles of original manuscripts (Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mozart's Don Giovanni, etc.). It will take awhile for all of this to be added to our collection, but we're very excited to have these new materials.

5. After years of only allowing books and scores out for three weeks at a time, we extended our general loan policy to four weeks. With the one renewal that is allowed, you can now keep books and scores out for eight weeks!

4. We started experimenting with more ways to keep in touch with you, our patrons, this year. The new Facebook page started in March and this blog started in February. We also introduced live reference chat (via Meebo) this year.

3. Koha. Our new library catalog. Love it or hate it, it has changed how we do a lot of things in the library. There are a lot of improvements on the horizon for this catalog, so stay tuned for more!

2. We brought on three new full-time staff members this year. Jenny started as Public Services Coordinator in January, Tracey started as Head in August, and Andrew received a promotion to full-time Cataloging Coordinator in November.

1. We got a new stapler!!! Okay, maybe this shouldn't be in the number one position, but have you tried it out yet? After years of rotating between staplers that each worked about 10% of the time, we finally have one that works every time, and with very little effort! Everyone who has used it has been very excited.

So that's a little bit of what happened in 2009 at the Allen Library. We have a lot of plans for 2010, so make sure you keep following the blog to stay up-to-date on everything that's going on. Enjoy the rest of the year, and we'll see you in 2010!

Help, I'm Lost!!!!

How many times has this happened to you? You're diligently searching the library's catalogue trying to find that score you need for your lesson tomorrow, and you see the words, 'Item Lost.' What does this mean? Well, most simply: The item you want is not here. This does not necessarily mean that it is gone for good, or actually, physically lost (it probably isn't hiding under a chair or behind a shelf in the library). More likely than not, what you are looking for is just really, really overdue. That being said, if it's something your scholastic and musical future depends upon, come talk to us, and we can place a hold and recall on the item in question. Now, this isn't guaranteed to get the item back, but it has been known to work in the past.

Now, you might ask, what, exactly causes an item to become lost, and what do I do if I have something that has come to be considered lost?

First part first: Our system (the notorious Koha from blogs past) automatically marks items as 'Lost' when they are 45 days overdue. The patron in question may have actually lost or destroyed an item, or they may have forgotten to renew it. Whatever the reason, the item has now entered the wonderful world of 'Lost' which is full of all kinds of exciting and fun things (fines) for the patron to whom it is checked out.

As for the second question, if you find that you (gasp!) have an item that has ventured into 'Lost' territory, fear not, my dear! You will be fed to Sparkles The Troll and his pet unicorn, Fred, who are chained with dental floss outside the back doors of the library. Oh, and don't grovel, you will only make things worse for yourself. Sorry, nice knowing you.

Okay, perhaps not. The reality is far less interesting or grisly. Basically, you get.......Brand......New.......FEES!!! A Lost Item Replacement Fee and a Lost Item Processing Fee, to be exact. The replacement fee varies depending upon what the item in question is. Two of our more popular item types for example are books, which will cost you $38 (default, if we have the purchase price, you will be charged accordingly), and scores, which will run you $25 (also default). The processing fee is a fixed $15. And yes, if you would like to continue to check things out of the library, and/or receive your diploma, you will have to pay these fines.

Before you begin to wonder how many meals you will need to skip in order to pay off the library and prevent us from sending Sparkles and Fred after you, there is hope. Your best course of action would be to return the item that is now oh so overdue. At this point *BOTH* the replacement and processing fees will be forgiven, and you will be assessed a long overdue fee, which is much nicer on the wallet than its two older brothers.

Now, if, perchance, you HAVE actually lost something, you can either pay both the replacement and processing fees, or you can come talk to us about purchasing a replacement copy yourself (which gets the item back on the shelf in a more expeditious manner, and can often be less expensive).

Another instance an item can be marked as 'Lost' is when it is not overdue, but it has been damaged beyond repair by something other than normal wear......say your dog gives it a good chewing, drops it in a mud puddle, then buries it in the back yard (No! Bad Fluffy! No Biscuit!). You would then be responsible for the item's replacement (see previous paragraph).

I hope this helps you better understand the ins and outs of lost, and we will keep Sparkles and Fred securely tethered out back. For now. :)

"Cataloging Review - Ask at Circulation Desk"

Many of you have probably encountered an item in our catalog with a status of "Cataloging Review - Ask at Circulation Desk" before. What does it mean exactly? The short answer is that the particular item is unavailable at the moment and you cannot have it right now. But the long answer opens the door to the mysterious backroom and its happenings...

When a book (or a CD, DVD, LP, or any other library acquisition) arrives (as a gift or as an order that the library placed), it must go through a series of 5 steps before it will be available for you, voracious patron, to check out. First, we must obtain for it a good and suitable record that catalogers have created and edited so that it is eminently findable by patrons. (In rare cases no such record exists, so we must create one). Second, the item must be assigned a call number. Third, it must be given a barcode and an item record in the catalog. It is at this point that it will become visible to you with the "Cataloging Review - Ask at Circulation Desk" status. Fourth, the item must be processed. Adorned with stamps and numbers and tape and a few other accoutrements, it is almost ready for the public. Fifth, it must be reviewed and released. The review process is in place to make sure that it has been processed correctly and that all the information associated with the item is correct and adheres to strict cataloging guidelines.

The whole process then is rather lengthy, but... if you find something with this status and would really like the item sooner rather than later, feel free to request and fill out an "Expedite Item Form," available at the Circulation Desk. It will be passed on to the backroom, and we will bump up that item in line to get it out to you sooner. It includes a "Date Needed" section, and depending on the complexity of the item, we can have it for you between 1 and 5 days. (Most often, it tends to take only a day!)