This session will focus on the use of RSS feeds for pedagogical purposes. RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication.” RSS is a protocol that lets users subscribe to online content using an RSS “reader” or “aggregator”. Rather than checking 20 or 50 or 100 blogs every day, subscribing to RSS feeds using an aggregator allows you to receive regular updates from your favorite information sources on the web. Aggregating and culling information from the web in this manner is pedagogically relevant for a wide range of courses and disciplines. RSS provides an efficient way for students to keep in touch with faculty, stay informed about coursework and other academic activities, and follow developments in their fields of study.

Robin Ladouceur will introduce RSS feeds and give an overview of RSS feed readers and aggregators. Barbara Stuart will present her use of RSS Feeds in her English 114 course this fall on the Election.

When?
Tuesday from 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Where?
Bass Library room L01 (lower level of the Bass Library)

Who?
Barbara Stuart, English Lecturer
Robin Ladouceur, Instructional Design Specialist, Instructional Technology Group

The University Library has launched a blog to document the actions and activities of the Library Green Team, a group of staff from across the Library system working to make Yale University Library a greener and more sustainable workplace. Visit the blog to find out what we're doing to reduce energy consumption, increase recycling, and promote environmentally sustainable work practices to support of Yale's wider goal of reducing its carbon footprint.

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library also has a blog, 'The Greening of the Beinecke', that describes their green goals and actions.

Charles Cronin
Information Society Project, Yale Law School

Monday, November 17, 3:00 p.m. [Not 4:00 p.m. as earlier advertised]
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

Copyright protects expressive works of intellectual endeavor: literature, music, films, perfume... Perfume?? "Yes," said the Netherlands Supreme Court in a recent decision; "Yes" and "No" have said various French courts grappling with the same question over the past twenty-five years. This presentation considers whether copyright should be extended to such products of human ingenuity, and the role of human perception in determinations of copyright eligibility. We will experiment with a number of fragrances, and all who attend should leave in an "odour of sanctity" (or at least that of Chanel).

This is the first lecture in a new series devoted to copyright and intellectual property being sponsored by the University Library and the Information Society Project. Future speakers include:

James Neal
Vice President for Information Services & University Librarian, Columbia University
December 2, 3:00 p.m.

Sheree Carter-Galvan
Copyright Counsel, Yale University
February 2, 2009, 3:00 p.m.

Kenny Crews
Director of the Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University
March 5, 2009, 3:00 p.m.

All lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall, 128 Wall Street. For more information, contact Geoffrey Little.

New features and a bold new design are now available for Yale University Library's Visual Resources Collection (VRC). The VRC contains over 250,000 images of art, architecture, and art objects used by students and faculty in teaching and learning.

The new design, released now in its initial beta phase, is called Metagallery and allows users to login and create groups, browse groups created by others, and even add their own items to groups. Metagallery is available to anyone on the Yale campus at http://images.library.yale.edu/metagallery.

Continue reading "New Look for the Visual Resources Collection" »

The Library has trial subscriptions to two new databases: The Historical [Manchester] Guardian and Observer and Documents on British Policy Overseas .

The Historical [Manchester] Guardian and Observer covers the period 1791 -2003; it is part of the suite of ProQuest "Historical Newspapers Complete" which you can get to from the Databases web page or with this link Historical Newspapers Complete: http://proquest.umi.com/login.

Use the drop-down menu to select the Historical Guardian and Observer, or "select multiple databases" to search this newspaper along with others.

Documents on British Policy Overseas provides users with access to a wide range of primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), shedding light on throughout the twentieth century. Selected and edited by the official historians of the FCO, Documents on British Policy Overseas includes many documents specifically de-classified for inclusion in the series.

Documents on British Policy Overseas contains three distinct collections, which together form a continuous exploration of British foreign policy and diplomatic history:

-British Documents on the Origins of the War 1898-1914
-Documents on British Foreign Policy 1918-1939
-Documents on British Policy Overseas

For more information see: http://dbpo.chadwyck.com/info/about.do. To use the database go to: http://dbpo.chadwyck.com/.

Comments about these databases can be directed to Susanne Roberts. A reminder that off-campus readers will need to log-in to Library resources via VPN or the Proxy Server. Click here for more information.

Frank Prochaska
Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar
Department of History, Yale University

Tuesday, November 11, 4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public | Reception to follow

Having witnessed a watershed moment in America's history, join us on November 11 for a look back at the early history of the presidency. Frank Prochaska, author of The Eagle and the Crown: Americans and the British Monarchy (Yale University Press, 2008) will discuss his new book and will argue that America’s Founding Fathers created what Teddy Roosevelt later called an “elective king” in the office of the president, conferring quasi-regal status on the occupant of the Oval Office and his successors.

Frank Prochaska has taught, researched, and published British history for more than thirty years. He received his PhD from Northwestern University in 1972 and has taught in various American and British Universities, including Northwestern; the University of Wisconsin, Madison; St. Hugh's College, Oxford; University College London; Royal Holloway College, London University; and Yale in London. He has been a Research Fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and a Visiting Fellow at All Soul's College, Oxford. He is currently an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research in London, an Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway College, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

The Library and Oxford University Press sponsored a panel lecture on October 1, 2008 to celebrate the 80th birthday of the OED, the comprehensive dictionary of the English language. The speakers were Fred Shapiro, Simon Winchester, Jesse Sheidlower, and Ammon Shea, and each brought unique and engaging insights to this discussion of the history, function, and future of the dictionary.

The OED was formally launched June 6, 1928, and it took 70 years to compile the initial 10 volumes, which contained almost 415,000 words. Former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called the creation of the OED “the greatest enterprise of its kind in history.” Today, the OED fills 20 volumes and weighs 137 pounds. It has also been available on the Internet since 2000 as the OED Online.

You can listen to and download the netcast for free via Yale iTunes U web site.

In this new Netcast from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Caryl Phillips, Professor of English at Yale University and the author of eight novels, two anthologies, and three works of non-fiction, describes his process of writing the introduction to the Vintage Books, British edition of Richard Wright’s landmark text, Native Son. The Richard Wright Papers are held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

You can listen to and download the podcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and through Yale's iTunesU web site.

Graduate students in the social sciences are invited to attend focus groups to discuss future plans for the Social Science Library and StatLab in light of Yale's plans to build two new residential colleges in the Prospect-Sachem triangle. For more information and to register, click here.

Ben Kiernan
A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History & Director, Genocide Studies Program
Yale University

Wednesday, October 29, 4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Reception to follow | Free and open to the public

For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge and his writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia, but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide.

Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations and twentieth-century case studies including the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin’s mass murders, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides. He identifies connections, patterns, and features that in nearly every case gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism.