Library Closed Monday, May 28th

The Library will be closed this weekend and through Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. We'll reopen on Tuesday, May 29^th at 8:00 AM.

New Content Added to Classical Music Library

Alexander Street Press has announced the addition of 2,000 recordings to the Classical Music Library. From a recent press release:

This release of content contains 2,000 new tracks from the CBC label (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Haenssler, and Mode Records. We’ve added many new contemporary works to our growing database of classical tracks. Highlights from these recordings include chamber music by Anton Webern, works for tape by Iannis Xenakis, chamber music by Hilda Paredes and Morton Feldman, percussion works by John Luther Adams, works for strings by Lou Harrison, and piano works by John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, and George Crumb.

Other additions include vocal and choral works, such as Schubert’s oratorio Lazarus (D. 689), Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour un temps de pènitence, and Brahms lieder sung by Ingeborg Danz.

The Classical Music Library now contains over 50,000 recordings with more additions in the works. CML is one of over 100 databases available to UM students, faculty, and staff.

Natalie Alvarez Gets Caught Reading

Carmichael Library recently caught up with Senior Art major Natalie Alvarez just hours before her BFA opening in Bloch Hall Gallery. She's pictured here in front of a couple of her pieces. Natalie was taking a break from her final projects and enjoying Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom, by Nato Thompson.

We hope you've enjoyed seeing members of the UM community get caught reading; we've sure had fun putting these profiles together! In addition to Alan May's work on this effort, we want to acknowledge our own Joel Bullock. He's our artist-in-residence who has taken the photos and created the graphics that have accompanied the profiles.

Stay tuned this fall to see more UM faces get caught reading!

Online Archive of Charles Darwin's Letters

Whether they’re studying his groundbreaking research, his correspondence with pigeon breeders, or even his personal-hygiene habits, scholars interested in Charles Darwin will find plenty of grist in a new online archive.

The Darwin Correspondence Project, run by archivists at the University of Cambridge, makes almost 5,000 of Darwin’s personal letters available online. And the site provides summaries of an additional 9,000 missives — including some that Darwin wrote when he was just 12 years old.

Cambridge actually started the correspondence project in 1974, and the university has already published 15 books’ worth of the scientist’s letters, according to BBC News.

But now that the database is going digital, archivists say they will put heretofore unpublished letters up on the Web site four years before they include the material in books." —Brock Read

Birmingham/UAB Fringe Festival of New Theatre, May 25-27

If you're looking for something to do next weekend, consider the first-ever Birmingham/UAB Fringe Festival of New Theatre. The festival will feature new and experimental works by students from area universities.

Among the works presented will be "Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters" by Gertrude Stein, which will be directed and performed by students from the University of Montevallo.

The festival will take place from 7-11 p.m. nightly May 25-27 on the UAB campus. For more information including a complete schedule of events check out the Theatre UAB home page.

Catalog, Databases Unavailable Tuesday AM, May 15

We've got a planned outage to report but this one will only effect you early birds. :)

Most of the university's servers will be taken down tomorrow morning starting around 6:00 AM. While the UM website and campus e-mail will remain available, this down time is expected to include the library's servers for the catalog, the eRes system, and remote authentication into the databases. Computer Services expects that this outage will last an hour or two. At this point we can expect library services to be restored by opening time tomorrow at 8:00 AM.

We'll post here again tomorrow should this timetable change.

Harbert Writing Center May Term Hours

The Harbert Writing Center has released their May term schedule. The Center will be open from May 14-25, from 10:00-2:00 each day.

The HWC provides free consultation services to writers at all stages of the writing process. The Center has current documentation guides, thesauri, dictionaries, grammar and usage handbooks, computers for drafting and revision of course papers, and a very talented and enthusiastic staff.

May term students with writing assignments should take advantage of this fine resource! No appointment is required to receive writing assistance. You'll find the Center in room 311 of Comer Hall.

For more information, check out the HWC web page.

Classical Music Library Problems Resolved

Alexander Street Press has informed us that the Classical Music Library is up and running again. Please let us know if you see any problems.

Problems with Classical Music Library Database

We've just received word from Alexander Street Press that they are experiencing some problems with a server. As a result we may have minimal or no access to Classical Music Library until the problem is corrected. We'll post a follow-up here when we get more information from the vendor.

UM Online Brainstorming Link

President Williams recently announced that online brainstorming is now open to all members of the UM community.

For those who haven't yet taken part, participants should assume that money is no object when answering the questions at the above link. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and any member of the general public who has an interest in the future of the University of Montevallo are encouraged to participate in the process.

In addition to the three on-campus sessions already conducted, Dr. Williams will take brainstorming on the road this summer, with sessions in different cities across the state. Be sure to check UM's website for more details.