Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Voyager to be updated

We will be upgrading the operating system on the Voyager server starting on Monday, June 23th. We expect the upgrade to be completed by 5 P.M. on Wednesday, June 25. Except for brief interruptions, Voyager Catalog (OPAC) will be available for searching; emailing records from Voyager should also still work.

However, the following will not be working:
  • Place Requests function
  • Patron Self Renew in My Account
  • My Preferences view only (no changes can be made)
  • My Bookbag view only (no changes can be made)

Also note that the circulation status of a given item may not be accurate, as we will not be able to charge and discharge during the process. As we have done in the past, we will save up every item to discharge, and keep a running tally of items checked out, which we will input once Voyager becomes available again. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Bach Collection from the Archive of the Sing-Akademie, Berlin

In 2008 the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries provided funding for an important collection of primary source documents on microfiche: Die Bach-Sammlung aus dem Archiv der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. The call number for this new item in our collection is: Media 847. This collection reproduces some 26,000 pages of source documents, representing compositions by twelve members of the Bach family, with particular riches in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian. Read more about the collection at www.saur.de/index.cfm?lang=EN&ID=0000010842

Outstanding Service Award

On Thursday evening June 5, at the annual meeting and dinner of the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries, Robert Iannapollo, Sibley's Access Services Manager, was recognized as the 2008 recipient of the Outstanding Service Award for a Sibley Music Library staff member. Robert was recognized, among other qualities, for his superb supervisory skills in managing a large group of student staff members who provide front-line circulation service and keep our stacks in good order. Robert also supervises interlibrary loan borrowing, thus holding primary responsibility for putting materials into the hands of library users--regardless of whether those materials are locally owned or borrowed from another library. Congratulations and thanks to Robert for his outstanding work at Sibley Music Library.

Monday, June 2, 2008

New Look for New Grove

The look and feel of Grove Music Online changed in May. Oxford University Press is changing how users will access their various electronic resources, including New Grove, by implementing a new gateway they are calling Oxford Music Online.

This new product combines the content of New Grove (including New Grove Opera and New Grove Jazz), The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music (2nd edition). Searches can be directed at any of the sources, or across all three. According to a press release by Oxford, “Grove Music Online’s many improvements and enhancements will include a completely new and user-friendly interface, sophisticated advanced search capabilities, improved biographical searching, OpenURL compliance, an expanded cross-reference system, and more.” Oxford is also forming partnerships with third parties such as the Database of Recorded Music (DRAM), RILM, and eventually Naxos that will support linkages between the databases.

The other most significant development is that Oxford Music is OpenURL compliant. This means that you will be able to generate a Voyager search directly from a bibliography entry with a click of the mouse, allowing you to search the online catalog for that item. This functions much the same way the “Find Text” button works on some other databases, such as RILM.
Not only will the searching be different, but the way the results are displayed will also be different. Where multiple articles on the same topic exist, primacy will be given to the article from New Grove. Articles from “baby Groves” will be found under the main article, listed as “archived articles.” Oxford will also be developing a thesaurus and name authority list for variant spellings (e.g. Tchaikovsky vs. Chaikowskii). When searching biographies, it will be possible to limit by different criteria, such as occupation (e.g. “tenor,” or “singer” which will take into account all voice types). The new search interface supports the use of Boolean operators (including “near,” which Voyager does not use) and wildcards. A quick search box is available at the top of every page.

Oxford maintains that the site is equally accessible through a variety of browsers, including:
  • IE6+
  • Firefox 2+
  • Safari 2
  • Opera 9
  • Lynx

Search results can be both printed (no more frames!) or emailed. Abbreviations are spelled out as mouseovers or hyperlinks. Search terms are highlighted in the article. The navigation tabs are more useful now, including tabs for Article, Works, Multimedia, and Related Content (the latter referring to content within Oxford Music rather than external links, which are included as part of the bibliographies). The display of works lists has also been significantly improved.

As with any major change such as New Grove is undergoing, there are going to be things that you will like about it, and things that you do not. For better or worse, there is little that we can do in the way of customization, however, Oxford is encouraging feedback which can be found using the Contact Us link in the upper right corner