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Database Highlights & Trials, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, Music, News & Events

Database Trial: Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall

During the month of March, the University of St. Thomas Libraries is conducting a trial for the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall.  This is a platform that offers concerts for each season. Around 40 concerts are broadcasted live and they can also be viewed at a later date in the concert archive. The archive already contains hundreds of recordings with all the great artists of classical music. There are also fascinating documentaries and bonus films. Access numerous interviews, and Educational Programs.

You need to create an account in order to have access to the trial. Go to this link to create your account.
https://login.ezproxy.stthomas.edu/login?URL=https://www.digitalconcerthall.com

Please send comments to Cindy Badilla-Melendez, Head of the Music & Media Collections.

 

February 28, 2020 by
Database Highlights & Trials, Science

A New PubMed is Here!

The new year includes a new PubMed. Don’t worry, it will continue to be the go-to biomedical database with over 30 million citations and growing daily. But gone is the clunky, 1990s-esque database look; in its place the National Library of Medicine promises a modern interface with intuitive search features and responsive design to improve the mobile experience.

Here’s a quick overview of some key features that you rely on for searching, as well as for saving and sharing your results:

  1. The default sort order of results is now Best Match. Best Match uses an algorithm based on several relevance factors. You can choose to toggle results to a Most Recent sort.
  2. Use the Results by Year graph to see trends in literature over time or to refine your search results by publication year.
  3. Use the filters along the left to meet your research needs.
  4. Save your search results to a file, email your results, or send your results to a clipboard. Please note: if you previously had an NCBI account, it will continue to work in the new PubMed (so if you previously saved searches and/or results–they will still be there!).

While Legacy PubMed is still currently available, it will eventually be retired (though no official end date has been announced). The St. Thomas Libraries encourage you to familiarize yourself with the new interface. For the best search experience, please remember to always access PubMed from the St. Thomas Libraries page.

In the meantime, if you have questions or need help with the new PubMed, please contact reference librarian Karen Brunner (brun4952@stthomas.edu).

January 7, 2020 by
News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Subjects/Topics

2019 Annual World Café posters in the library

photo of library stairwell with poster reading "Did you acknowledge your privilege today?"

the poster reads, “Did you acknowledge your privilege today?”

If you come into O’Shaughnessy-Frey library this week and head up the stairwell, you’ll see some new posters posing questions and potential answers around institutional and structural racism.  Those posters came out of the 2019 Annual World Café, a faculty-led event at which St. Thomas students from multiple disciplines came together for discussion in October.

The World Café model has been used at St. Thomas since 2012 to facilitate conversations around critical issues.  Each year, this interdisciplinary event involves large groups of students participating in faculty-facilitated dialogue as a way of gaining perspective from people with different viewpoints.  This year’s event covered issues related to structural, cultural, and institutional racism.  Students emerged from the discussion with questions and/or action steps regarding racial justice in our community.

The questions and action steps are posted in the main staircase of the library.  They are provocative and thought-provoking and intended to spark conversations. If you wish, please continue this conversation by sharing your thoughts on the rotunda whiteboard.

You can read more about the World Café dialogue model and last year’s program at St. Thomas in the article “The World Café: Promoting Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Global Health Issues” published in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Diversity & Democracy by Dr. Roxanne Prichard, Dr. Starr Sage, and Dr. Amy Finnegan.

Below is a selection of photos of the posters as well as a photos of the responses left on the whiteboard.   We will add more photos of responses as the conversation continues.

 

 

December 3, 2019 by
Libraries, Media/Music Collections, Music

Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Composer, Athlete, Activist, and Soldier 

Lost to history for nearly 200 years, Afro-French composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a profoundly talented composer, violinist, and fencer. He was born in Guadeloupe in 1745 to a plantation owner and his slave, Nanon. Chevalier was sent to France for his education and by 17 had become such an expert swordsman he bested one of the greatest fencing masters in France. His musical talents were also superior. While he did face discrimination, he was also highly celebrated and widely loved and even performed his own works for Marie-Antoinette.

He heavily influenced Mozart who at one point even directly copied some of Saint-Georges’ complex motifs. During the French Revolution, he became a colonel of a cavalry brigade of men of color, which included the author Alexandre Dumas’ father. After the war and his imprisonment for his aristocratic ties, he was released and returned to his music. For a full account of his extraordinary life story please check out the documentary Le Mozart Noir: Reviving a Legend (ML410 .S145 M6 2003 DVD), which is also available for steaming on Avon, and its soundtrack (M1000 .S25 M6 2003 CD)! Approximately one third of his compositions still exists today. We encourage you to listen to his string quartets (M452 .S25 Q37 2003 CD ), and violin concertos ( M1012 .S145 2001 CD, M1012 .S145 2004 CD, M1012 .V565 1997 CD) which we have in our collection. Please visit us on the first floor of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library to the right of the Main Circulation desk.

By Sarah Pavey

November 12, 2019 by
Libraries, Media/Music Collections, Science

Investment in the Cultivated Future  (on Video)

Take a journey to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway with two fascinating documentaries. The “Doomsday Vault” as it’s often known, is a seed bank which houses over 900,000 seeds. It serves as backup storage to as much of the world’s cultivation as possible to prevent humanity from losing plant life in the event of environmental catastrophe. Get an in-depth look at the controversy of seed ownership versus the investment in the greater good from the illuminating documentary Seed Battles. Cary Fowler, American agriculturalist and former executive director of the Crop Trust, hosts.

For extra insight on the reasons behind the creation of the vault, watch the 60 Minutes special on The Doomsday Vault. Journalist Scott Pelley travels to the seed bank with Cary Fowler and discusses the world-wide attempts to reserve plant diversity.

If you’re looking for more about efforts to preserve and control the future of seeds and farming, check out these physical titles in the Music and Media Collections.

Seeds of Time is a feature length documentary following Cary Fowler and his continuing struggles to preserve genetic diversity. Here, he travels beyond Svalbard to save the world’s most vulnerable seed vaults.  SB123.3 .S44 2014 DVD

GMO OMG takes a provocative approach to the ethics of genetically modified food and the agricultural giant Monsanto. Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert questions what GMO food is and who will control food production in the future. TP248.65.F66 G6 2014 DVD

In her documentary The Future of Food Deborah Koons Garcia investigates patented seeds, GMOs, and sustainable agricultural options. Our 2-disc set features additional interviews, farmer portraits, and a guide to seed saving. TP248.65.F66 F8 2004 DVD

Please stop by and check out these fascinating titles! Find us in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library to the far right of main circulation desk.

By Sarah Pavey

October 15, 2019 by
Libraries, Media/Music Collections, New Materials, Science

Animal Welfare on Video

The Cove is an eye-opening 2009 documentary that follows Ric O’Barry and other activists on their mission to stop the brutal capture and killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan and throughout the cetacean hunting business. A remarkable crew of filmmakers and free-divers travel to Taiji to capture footage of the annual slaughter, to the dissatisfaction of both local and global fishing authorities. This controversial film won many awards including an Oscar and a Sundance Film Festival award for its efforts in the fight to save dolphins the world over.
SH387 .C6 2009 DVD

The 2013 Canadian documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine follows photojournalist and animal activist Jo-Anne McArthur as she navigates through the ethical dilemmas of the fur trade, animal testing, and the cattle industry. Using photography, McArthur focuses on the animals’ experience to draw attention to her cause. View this title on the streaming site Docuseek!

2008 PBS documentary Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History examines the cruel history of experimentation and exploitation of our closest animal relative. From circuses and the space race to HIV/Aids testing, chimpanzees have been captured by humans since the mid-1800s. Writer and director Allison Argo narrates this award-winning feature documentary about the future of these intelligent creatures and their lives in sanctuaries in the US and Canada.
QL737.P96 C4 2007 DVD

For nearly 60 years orcas have been captured and trained by humans. But only since the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010 has the practice of keeping orcas in captivity been viewed with a more critical eye. The gripping 2013 documentary Blackfish tackled the issue head on. Despite the surrounding controversy, the film was nominated and won several awards for best documentary. Orca entertainment shows are scheduled to end at SeaWorld’s parks in Florida and Texas sometime in 2019.
SF408.6.K54 B5 2013 DVD

In the moving documentary Love and Bananas actress and director Ashley Bell goes on a 500 mile rescue mission across Thailand to give Noi Nah, a blind 70-year old elephant, her freedom. Critically endangered Asian elephants like Noi Na are often used for logging and kept in trekking camps where tourists can ride them. Because they are not domesticated animals like dogs, their spirits are broken as calves in a torturous device known as the “crush box.” Dedicated and passionate conservationist Sangdeaun Lek Chailert, a “Hero of Asia”, leads the harrowing 48-hour journey to her elephant sanctuary.
DS 563.5 .L68 2018 DVD

By Sarah Pavey 

September 11, 2019 by
illustration of red and orange flowers with the text "they tried to bury us they didnt know we were seeds - Mexican proverb"
Latin America, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Latinx Unidos display

This summer, we were fortunate to have two students working with us through the REAL program.  As part of their work at the library, Jackie Ponce Chacon and Mirta Loja Guaman designed the Latinx Unidos book display that is in the lobby of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey library.  We asked Jackie and Mirta for an introduction to their display.

Two women stand in front of their book display titled "Latinx Unidos"

Jackie and Mirta in front of their book display

Hello, our names are Jackie and Mirta,
illustration of flowers in red and orange with the text "They tried to bury us they didn't know we were seeds"
We are excited that we got to work on this project because it’s significant to us and a way to represent our community. The Latinx community has been through many ups and downs these past few years, and we wanted to bring attention to the different problems that Latinos face while trying to “assimilate” in the United States. The books we chose for our display were inspired by the quote “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” by Dinos Christianopoulos. These books were written by Latinxs authors to help readers understand how their experiences either affected or influenced their lives. We hope you enjoy our selection of books, and at least check them out! 🙂

Book List:

Image credit: “They tried to bury us” image by Misha Zadeh, from amplifier.org in the Hear Our Voice exhibition.

September 3, 2019 by
Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, English, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

American Plays

The Music and Media Collections at O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library has so many viewing categories to choose from! Be sure to visit us on the first floor and check out the many performances of classic American plays.

A Raisin in the Sun (1961) is the definitive adaptation of playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s powerful work, featuring the incomparable Sidney Poitier. A stellar cast (including Claudia McNeil) brings this drama to life in which an American family struggles against racism to achieve the American dream. This play is essential viewing.
PS 3515 .A515 R3 1999 DVD

Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night (1962) follows the story of an American family torn apart by addiction and illness. It was the first film in history in which all four leading actors won Best Acting awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Katharine Hepburn, Sir Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Jr., and Dean Stockwell star.
PS 3529 .N5 L6 2004 DVD

Dustin Hoffman leads the cast of the 1985 adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. The drama centers on a Willy Loman, a traveling salesman battling demons of the past. Our DVD copy contains a feature-length documentary that takes a close look at the collaboration between Hoffman, director Volker Schlöndorff, and Arthur Miller himself.
PS 3525 .I5156 D4 2002 DVD

 

Sarah Pavey

July 16, 2019 by
Art, Business & Economics

Entrepreneurship in the key of Jazz – noonartsound in the library

April 2, 2019   Noon to 1 pm    O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Room 108     

All are welcome – refreshments will be provided

“Improvisation, creativity, agility, and the ability to create and innovate under conditions of turbulence and uncertainty are central not only to the jazz process, but also the entrepreneurial process.  Join us as we explore these and other surprising similarities between jazz and entrepreneurship, as well as the lessons that both of these fascinating, complex, and collaborative activities have to offer one another.”    – Dr. Steve Cole

Alec Johnson, Entrepreneurship

 

Alec Johnson:   Alec Johnson, whose primary teaching interest is Innovation has taught for 18 years at the University of St. Thomas in Entrepreneurship. He is a Julie Hays Teacher of the Year (Opus Business School), and owns several businesses including his freelance photography business (www.acjfineartphoto.com).

 

 

Dr. Steve Cole
Head of Music Industry Studies and Recording Arts

 

Steve Cole:   Dr. Steve Cole is Head of Music Industry Studies and Recording Arts at the University of St. Thomas.  As a jazz musician (saxophonist) Dr. Cole has eight major label solo releases, and has published over 150 original works.  His research in organization development & change explores how music based interventions can build individual and organizational capacity for creativity, agility, and  dynamic capability.

 

 

 

 

 

March 18, 2019 by
Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, Music, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Arthur Rubinstein

In need of an invigorating musical performance this summer? Visit The Music and Media Collections on the first floor of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library and pick up one of our Deutsche Grammophon video recordings. At the age of 88, world-renowned Polish American classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein performs classical piano compositions by Edvard Grieg, Frederic Chopin, and Camile Saint-Saens. Andre Previn conducts this beautifully powerful performance.

Rubenstein: Piano Concertos: M1010 .R897 P53 2006 DVD

Additional classical concerts can be found streaming on the classical music collection Medici.tv. In addition to opera, Medici has many instrumental performances like the excellent chamber music group The Psophos Quartet. This French-based group performs string compositions by Edvard Grieg and Claude Debussy with great energy and poise.

By Sarah Pavey

March 12, 2019 by