Library Ghosts in the Midwest
Britannica Blog
George Eberhart – October 28th, 2008
“This is the second segment of a fairly comprehensive and updated list of libraries with ghosts, or at least ones that patrons, staff, or local folklorists have associated with paranormal happenings. Yesterday’s post included libraries in the Northeastern United States; today’s includes a handful of Heartland haunts from Ohio to Oklahoma.”
Project Information Literacy, a national research study, is looking for humanities and social science majors (sophomores, juniors, and seniors), who are in their 20s and enrolled full-time at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to voluntarily participate in one of two discussion groups they will be holding on the UIUC campus on Thursday, November 6, 2008. The study is about how U.S. college students conduct research for course assignments and in their “everyday life.”
Two 90-minute sessions will be held in the Undergraduate Library on campus (Room 295) at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. Each participant will be given a $15 iTunes card at the completion of the discussion group as a thank-you for their time.
Interested students can sign up at http://projectinfolit.org/4signup. Project Information Literacy is based in University of Washington’s iSchool and led by Drs. Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg.
A Ferment of World Jazz Yields a Trove of Tapes
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: October 21, 2008
NY Times
The Creative Music Studio here remains underdocumented and little understood. But a definitive history of jazz in the 1970s — a book yet to be written — ought to give it central importance.
During the dawning years of jazz education the studio, run out of various repurposed settings — a barn, a Lutheran youth camp, a motel — was the unmusic school, roughly analogous to Black Mountain College, the progressive school in North Carolina that brought together avant-garde writers, dancers and painters in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.
A thought-provoking article about the language of music from the perspective of different musical camps, from the blog of Minnesota Orchestra violist Sam Bergman.
“In yesterday’s post, I talked a bit about conductors and arrangers who “speak the language” of orchestra musicians, and how important that can be to the success of a non-classical orchestra performance. And that got me thinking back to an uncomfortable experience I had several years ago, during one of the early years of our Composers’ Institute.”
From Paris, an ad hoc, urban ballet
by Simon Marks
International Herald Tribune
October 14, 2008
“The idea was to travel across the urban landscape as gracefully, intelligently and dynamically as possible. The practitioners – “traceurs,” from the French verb “tracer,” meaning to trail – were supposed to adapt to their environment in order to manipulate it in creative ways. Sixteen years on, they can be seen pulling off anything from gutsy leaps from roof tops to sublime balancing acts on metal railings.”
[From DRAM’s offices]
Dear DRAM Members,
The summer months proved to be a productive time here at DRAM. We were able to introduce some wonderful new content from several labels and lay the foundation for the addition of more new content and functionality in the months to come. Read on for more details.
New Content
In recent weeks, we’ve added several hundred new albums to DRAM from many of our participating labels. Moreover, having greatly reduced a substantial backlog of material and streamlined production processes, the stage is set for more frequent additions of new recordings to DRAM’s collection going forward.
Albany Records – 393 New Albums
New World Records – 95 New Albums
Cedille Records – 71 New Albums
Mutable Records – 12 New Albums
Pogus – 19 New Albums
Open Space – 8 New Albums
Mode Records – 7 New Albums
Call for Submissions – Share Your Knowledge and Favorite Recordings
As DRAM’s collection continues to grow, so do our efforts to offer users entry points into DRAM and opportunities to engage and contribute. As you may have noticed, one way we’re seeking to do this is with the play-lists and accompanying essays in the “Featured Content” section of DRAM’s homepage each month.
If you, a library colleague, faculty member, or dedicated student at your institution is interested in contributing a play-list to our Featured Content section, please write to me at tsinclair@dramonline.org with your idea for a submission.
Selected play-lists must meet with editorial approval, and should contain approximately 10 selections and a 1000 – 2500 word essay explicating the reason for each selection and how it contributes to the list’s unifying theme. Topics might include, but are not limited to, a particular composer, time-period, instrument, or compositional element. Creativity in selecting topics is encouraged, and play lists may be posted more frequently than the current once a month schedule as the number of viable contributions permits.
DRAM Radio – Partnership with Art of the States
DRAM Radio has made substantial progress towards its debut, and we’re aiming to launch our first radio programs in mid-November. So far, more than three quarters of the remaining original 100 New World LPs have been re-mastered and digitized for the first time, enabling the inclusion of these classic recordings in DRAM’s Radio programming.
Even more exciting, we’re very pleased to officially announce a partnership between DRAM and Art of the States towards the joint production of original broadcast programming featuring the composers, performers and music in DRAM.
Art of the States, like DRAM, is a non-profit organization committed to sharing new and important American music with the world. For over 15 years Art of the States has been expanding the audience for US-based composers through its international distribution network, with its programming carried by 75 terrestrial radio broadcasters in 50 countries. The Art of the States website, launched in 2002, attracts a geographically diverse and highly devoted listenership with broadcast content which, as a visit will show, offers a terrific compliment to DRAM’s. Our hopes for this partnership are high, and we look forward to presenting our debut productions in November.
Sphinx looks to change makeup of U.S. orchestras
By John von Rhein | Chicago Tribune critic
October 3, 2008
For decades, professionals in classical music have furrowed their brows over the lack of minority representation in the player rosters of U.S. symphony orchestras. Although minorities have made tremendous strides in many other fields, African-Americans and Latinos make up only 1.7 to 1.8 percent of professional American orchestras, according to the most recent survey by the League of American Orchestras.
A Clothing Shop Moves Up, and a Dance Company Must Move Out
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: October 7, 2008
After 20 years, the Paul Taylor Dance Company is being evicted from its home in SoHo to make way for a new Banana Republic.
U3 Flash Drives on Public PCs (from the Library IT Helpdesk’s site:)
For security reasons the Library’s public computers are set up to run only the software installed on them by Library IT personnel. This is causing a problem for some users who come to the Library with flash drives that utilize U3 encryption software. The specific U3 software required for these flash drives varies from brand to brand. There are many variations of U3 software and this makes it extremely difficult for Library IT to have all the possible variations pre-installed on the public PCs. Thus, some users are not able to use their flash drives on our public machines.
We recognize that Library users must be able to save their data to take with them when they leave the Library. Library IT is investigating options for dealing with the U3 situation. For the time being, these are some alternatives that one can use at our public terminals:
Email the file to themselves as an attachment via CITES Express Mail
Upload the file to their Netfiles
Save the file to a CD – public workstations have CD burners and Nero Express.
Remove the U3 system from jump drives by following the instruction on U3 FAQ page.
In the meanwhile, if your users report problems with their U3 flash drives, you may refer them to this page on the Funk ACES Library web site for advice.
For more information, please visit the U3 website.
Philip Glass: Complex Minimalist
NPR Morning Edition October 3, 2008
“The music of Phillip Glass elicits an array of opinions. Some love it; some don’t. Some just don’t get it. When he sat down to talk with Morning Edition host Renee Montagne about a new 10-CD retrospective of his work, he said that last reaction was true of some of his early music.”