Joshua RobertsLeave a comment

Alexander Street Press Downtime

All Alexander Street Press online collections will be down for maintenance on Saturday, April 24, from 8am to 4pm.  The affected collections are:

African American Music Reference
African American Song
American Film Scripts Online
American History in Video
American Song
Asian American Drama
Black Drama
Classical Music Library
Classical Music Reference Library
Classical Scores Library
Contemporary World Music
Dance in Video
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
Jazz Music Library
Latino Literature
Music Online
North American Theater Online PLUS
North American Women’s Drama
Opera in Video
Romantic Era Redefined
Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
Theater in Video

Shannon RobinsonLeave a comment

Digital Library of the Week: Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project

Original Edison tinfoil phonograph. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site.)
Original Edison tinfoil phonograph. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site.

Cylinder recordings are sound recordings that were first produced on tinfoil in 1877. These were the earliest medium with which sound was recorded and then replayed. With fifty years of technological development in cylinder recordings, the most famous use of these cylinders is Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph.

The University of California at Santa Barbara has a terrific special collection on the history and sound of cylinder recordings called the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.

We have a direct link to it in our catalog as well as books on the history of sound recordings and the history of the phonograph. So go ahead, listen to some American history and enjoy!

Shannon RobinsonLeave a comment

Staff Picks

When you are next in the Greenfield Library, look around the circulation desk and laptop bar for University Libraries’ staff recommendations. We are all art lovers so we enjoy sharing our favorite books and DVDs from the collection.

Mike Sgier

Many of you have already browsed our current Staff Picks and commented on the great cartoon portraits of the staff member. They are done by our very own Greenfield evening circulation assistant, Mike Sgier, who is a comics artist and illustrator.

Right now there are four recommendations displayed in the library. Mike suggests one of our recent DVD acquisitions, the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums.

New recommendations will be on display continually so keep stopping by the Greenfield Library!