What’s new in the Library for Fall 2016?
The graphic novel Le piano oriental by Zeina Abirached will be on display in the Doe Library exhibition Beyond Tintin and Superman: The Diversity of Global Comics opening September 19.
Welcome back everyone! Here’s a brief sum-up of new services and library resources with a focus on the Romance languages and southern European studies in particular.
New Blog – Over the summer the Library migrated all of its blogs to WordPress. From this point forward, please look here for all Romance Language Collections news. If you choose not to subscribe to the blog, don’t worry. I usually forward the most important posts to your respective department listservs.
Electronic Resources
OpenEdition Books – With a combination of generous discretionary and endowment funds, the Library was able to acquire the complete ebook catalogue of this open access book initiative based at Université d’Aix-Marseille. We now have enhanced and permanent access to more than 2700 open access books (most in French but also in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) that can be read in four different formats (epub, pdf, html, or reader) from prestigious academic presses like CNRS Éditions, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, and l’École française de Rome. We have also have become partners in an acquisitions policy that both supports sustainable development of OA and that respects the needs of teaching, research and learning communities.
OpenEdition Journals – Also known as Revues.org, the Library has purchased permanent access to the 140 journals available through OpenEdition’s freemium model, eliminating moving walls and gaining similar formats enhancements as the ebooks. Representative titles include Arzanà: Cahiers de littérature médiévale italienne, Cahiers d’études romanes, Flaubert: Revue critique et génétique, and L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques.
Ebooks on Casalini’s Torrossa platform – Besides the Italian ebooks the Library receives through its subscription to Editoria Italiana Online, we added 200 additional titles last spring. Casalini Libri also unveiled a new reader in July which greatly improves the readability (especially on smartphones and tablets) of the near 2500 titles in Berkeley’s collection of Italian ebooks.
Kanopy and the Media Resources Center – New films and documentaries in the Romance Languages from not only Europe but also Africa and Latin America are regularly added to this online streaming service. Beginning this semester, check-out periods for DVDs and VHS tapes from the MRC will be extended to 7 days for faculty, lecturers and graduate student instructors!
New Journals
Despite the ubiquity of new technologies and modes of dissemination such as OA, many European journals are still only available in print. Here are a few noteworthy journals that the Library has subscribed (or re-subscribed) to this past year:
- Décapage (Paris)
- Gibralter (Toulouse)
- Matières à penser : se repérer – analyser – se projeter – anticiper (Lyon)
- Nuova rivista letteraria: semestrale di letteratura sociale (Rome)
- Revista de Libros. Segunda Época (Madrid)
- Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (St. Paul, MN: Berlin)
If there is a new journal of interest that the Library currently does not have access, please let me know!
New and Improved Services
- An online library guide to the UC Open Access Policy is regularly updated to assist you in getting your publications into eScholarship.
- The Library has also hired a Scholarly Communication Officer, Rachael Samberg, who is available for consultations to help you: make your research and scholarship discoverable; discuss and evaluate publishing options; track and promote your publications; retain or negotiate your intellectual property rights; and discuss use of licensed materials or IP in your work, or the use of your work by others.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL) check-outs can now be viewed in OskiCat and ILL materials can be returned to any library location on campus. You can also receive extended loan periods on most items.
- For those who use bCourses for their instruction, the Library has created three new handy guides:
- Add Course Readings to bCourses
- Add Library Guides to bCourses
- Course Instructor Guide to Copyright & bCourses
Library Exhibitions
This fall, three exciting exhibitions will be installed on campus that draw from and showcase unique library materials in the Romance languages:
- Beyond Tintin and Superman: The Diversity of Global Comics – Doe Library’s Brown Gallery (September 19, 2016 – March 31, 2017)
- Guerra Civil @ 80: Commemorating the Spanish Civil War – Bancroft Library Corridor (September 1, 2016 – July 1, 2017)
- Incite the Spirit: Poster Art from the Spanish Civil War – Townsend Center for the Humanities (September 6 – December 16, 2016)
Last but not least, don’t forget that I am always available along with others in the Library Instruction Services Division to provide research workshops tailored to your courses. Also remember that you can make requests for library purchases by either emailing me or filling out the online request form. New acquisitions in French, Italian and Iberian Studies can be viewed in OskiCat or through the library research guides.
Claude Potts
Librarian for Romance Language Collections
cpotts@berkeley.edu
