Saturday, May 28, 2011

ALA Annual 2011 - Call for discussion topics

ACRL Philosophical, Religious & Theological Studies Discussion Group
ALA Annual 2011 / New Orleans, LA
Sunday, June 26, 2011 / 4:00-5:30 PM
New Orleans Marriott, Balconies I-K

CALL FOR DISCUSSION TOPICS

The PRT Discussion Group is seeking suggestions for discussion topics at our meeting for ALA Annual in New Orleans. Topics can be on any aspect of library support for philosophy, religion, theology and related fields.

Please send suggestions by June 11 to either of:

Colin McCaffrey: colin.mccaffrey@yale.edu
Joshua Barton: bartonjp@msu.edu

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Position available: Theology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy Librarian at San Diego

The University of San Diego is looking for a Theology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy Librarian. Review of applications begin April 11th.  Details

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

PRT Agenda for Midwinter 2011 in San Diego


ACRL Philosophical Religious Theological (PRT) Discussion Group
2011 Midwinter Meeting, San Diego, CA
Sunday, January 9, 4:00 to 5:30 pm
Hilton Bayfront, Aqua 308

Co-convenors:

Joshua Barton
Michigan State University

Colin McCaffrey
Washington University-St. Louis

Join us at the PRT Discussion Group for discussion of “big deals” or “bulk purchases” of eBooks from publishers and aggregators (ebrary, NetLibrary, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, etc.) and the impact they have on philosophy and religious studies. We will consider some of the following questions:
  • What is the impact of “big deals” on the acquisition of print materials in philosophy, religion, and theology?
  • Do these large-scale purchases replace or supplement traditional print selection or approval plans?
  • Does the ready, but inconsistent, availability of monographic material online have an impact on print usage?
  •  Can we help answer any of these questions with usage and circulation statistics?
We will reserve time for open discussion and to share ideas for ALA Annual 2011.

Anyone interested in these issues or in library and information service to philosophical, religious and theological studies is invited to join the discussion.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Philosophy Best Sellers

Best Sellers in Philosophy from October 2009 to date from Library Journal, based on data from academic-library book vendor YBP.
"Continental" and historical titles are heavily represented.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

ALA 2010 Annual Meeting Report

ALA Annual 2010 Joint Meeting of the Philosophical Religious and Theological (PRT) and Classical Medieval Renaissance Discussion Group (Washington, D.C. Saturday, June 26th, 2010)

New Developments in Online Publication

Convened by Colin McCaffrey, Washington University in St. Louis, and Joshua Barton, Michigan State University.

1. George Leaman, Director of the Philosophy Documentation Center (PDC), debuted a beta version of PDC’s forthcoming product, Philosophy Research Index. PDC is actively seeking feedback on their new resource. Those interested can see further information, including how to set up a free trial, here:
http://secure.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/journal?openform&journal=pdc_pri

Leaman demonstrated many features from a live instance of the index. He emphasized that they are striving for "complete" coverage of a portion of philosophical literature, rather than selective coverage. A goal of the product is to include bibliographic information for philosophy literature in many Western languages. To this end, the index includes a translation feature, to roughly translate information such as article titles into English. Other features include faceted browsing, links to share items via social networking sites, and a timeline visualization of search results.

When asked about how PDC’s product would compete with Philosopher’s Index, the established philosophy index used in North America today, Leaman pointed to his product’s scope. He indicated that materials would be indexed more thoroughly, not selectively, and that non-English materials would have a greater representation. His hope is that North American and European bodies of philosophical literature will find a greater shared readership through the use of PDC's forthcoming index.

2. Damon Zucca, Executive Editor, Reference Division, at Oxford University Press, discussed two products: Oxford Biblical Studies Online (OBSO) and Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO). OBSO brings together Oxford’s reference works on the Bible into one integrated resource. Presenting from screen captures, Zucca demonstrated OBSO as an immersive biblical studies tool, appearing to have relatively seamless navigation between the various resources within. More information is available on the OBSO site: http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/ The full list of OBSO contents is here: http://www.oup.com/obso/whats_inside/

The other product, Oxford Bibliographies Online, consists of a series of discipline-based bibliography modules that can be searched and accessed together or separately, such as Classics, Philosophy and Renaissance & Reformation. OBO modules bring together citations to the essential literature through the guidance of an expert in the field. Each entry (e.g. Feminist Philosophy in the Philosophy module) has its own scholarly expert guiding the user through citations to essential and helpful works, from general to specific. Citations included are not limited to Oxford publications. More information is available at the OBO site: http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/

3. "Moving to Online Publications: Practices, Policies, and Goals of the Center for Hellenic Studies." Noel Spencer and Jeremy Linn presented an overview of the Center of Hellenic Studies's online publication program.

CHS is a research institute located in Washington, D.C. affiliated with Harvard University. It was established in 1962 as "an educational center in the field of Hellenic Studies designed to re-discover the humanism of the Hellenic Greeks." Responding to trends affecting libraries and publishing, CHS is taking advantage of digital technologies to expand its publishing program online. This includes publishing monographs and journals (Classics@) as well as innovative projects in the "digital humanities," such as the Homer Multitext. CHS has also established a IT/Humanities Non-Residential Fellowship for scholars working on technological projects.

CHS takes advantage of open-source software and open standards for publishing online, utilizing TEI-XML for its documents and developing an interactive structure for using texts online. It has moved authors into the production processes, having them submit marked-up text. Texts are released with a creative-commons license. Navigating copyright issues, especially regarding images, in a way that maximizes the reach of publications while ensuring proper attribution remains a challenge.

Presentation Slides (on Slideshare)
Note: The background images for these slides where compiled from the Venetus A manuscript of Homer (Marcianus Graecus Z 454=822, currently in the Marciana Library, Venice).