MIT Libraries News

Welcome back! While you were on winter break, the Libraries were working on some improvements we think you’ll like (possibly even love).

• Extended borrowing periods Yes, you can keep books out longer! You asked, and we doubled the amount of time you can borrow library materials. 60 days for most MIT items, with up to 5 renewals.

• Ask Us! Chat–live help service Get your library questions answered in real time on your computer or tablet with our new online chat service.

• Statistical software help Get help with R, Stata, SAS, and more. Use our new guide, or schedule a free in-person consultation with an expert from the Harvard-MIT Data Center.

If you like these services, let us know! Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook.

The Composer Forum series presents Either/Or:

Contemporary music ensemble Either/Or will perform in the Lewis Music Library:

Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception to follow
Free and open to the public

The performance will feature selections of music by Alvin Lucier to be performed in concert at the MIT Chapel on 2/15/14. Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

This week was an all-things-MIT-Music for the conservation lab. We de-installed the “Noteworthy Connections” exhibition in the Maihaugen Gallery  featuring the music treasures from the Lewis Music Library and the Institute Archives and Special Collections.

MIT’s Chorallaries, an a cappella music group, provides cheerful music to listen to while we make protective enclosures for some of the illuminated music manuscripts folios that will be used for teaching next semester. We are curious to discover more “whistle-while-you-work” music created by MIT faculty, staff, and students.

Piano obtained through the Class of 1982 Music Library Fund

Library music! Open mic in the Lewis Music Library, a chance to try out the new piano. Come jam, perform, or just listen. Everyone welcome. Bring your own music or use the library’s (we’ve got lots!).

Two dates: Friday, January 10, and Friday, January 24, 2014
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: noon- 1 pm

Refreshments provided

Join the MIT Libraries for a series of classes on topics that range from letterlocking to the music of the Arab Spring. Some classes require registration.

Creative Bookbinding 2014
Tue Jan 7, 10:00am-12:30pm, 14-0513
Wed Jan 8, 10:00am-12:30pm, 14-0513
Contact: Kate Beattie, knb@mit.edu

Rare Book Speed Dating
Fri Jan 10, 10:30am-11:00am, 14N-118
Fri Jan 10, 11:15am-11:45am, 14N-118
Contact: Audrey Pearson, pearsona@mit.edu

Library Music! Open Mic in the Lewis Music Library
Fri Jan 10, 12:00pm-1:00pm, 14E-109
Fri Jan 24, 12:00pm-1:00pm, 14E-109
Contact: Peter Munstedt, pmunsted@mit.edu

Using Images in Your Work: A Look at Fair Use, Open Licensing, Copyright, and Identifying and Citing Images
Fri Jan 10, 1:00pm-2:15pm, 14N-132
Contact: Ellen Duranceau, efinnie@mit.edu

A Conversation with Ta’Nehisi Coates about Reading, Writing, and Libraries
Mon Jan 13, 11:00am-12pm, 14E-304
Contact: Patsy Baudoin, patsy@mit.edu

Leave It to the Beavers: A Snapshot of Life at MIT in the 1950s
Fri Jan 24, 2:00pm-3:30pm, 14N-118
Contact: Camille Torres Hoven, cttorres@mit.edu

Historic Letterlocking: The Art and Security of Letterwriting
Tue Jan 28, 10:00am-3:00pm, 14-0513
Wed, Jan 29, 10:00am-3:00pm, 14-0513
Contact: Jana Dambrogio, jld@mit.edu

Rap, Rai, Rock, and Revolution: The Role of Music in the “Arab Spring”
Tue Jan 28, 3:00pm-5:00pm, 3-133
Contact: Michael Toler, mtoler@mit.edu

For a complete list of IAP classes offered by the Libraries, please see our Calendar of Events.

Peter Child

Peter Child,  Professor in Music and Theater Arts, in a talk about his recent music with live performances by Vineet Gopal (’13), flute; Miriam Nussbaum (G), flute; Elaine Kwon (Lecturer, Music and Theater Arts), piano, and Peter Child, piano.

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

There have been spooky happenings in the Maihaugen Gallery this Halloween. A medieval chant book, originally from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, has inexplicably transformed into a Harry Potter-inspired Monster Book of Monsters! Come see the enormous leather-and-wood-bound book complete with scary demon face, vicious teeth, and dismembered body parts. Rumor has it that the book will disappear soon after midnight on Halloween, so see it today!

While you’re in the gallery, check out the exhibit Noteworthy Connections: Music in the MIT Libraries on display until December 12, 2013.

Please note: No library users were harmed in the creation of the Monster Book, and all fun was had under the care and supervision of the Libraries’ expert Preservation team.

Noteworthy Connections: Music in the MIT Libraries will be on display until December 31, 2013 in the Libraries’ Maihaugen Gallery.

Maihaugen Gallery

The exhibit delves into the holdings of the Lewis Music Library and the Institute Archives and Special Collections, to reveal MIT’s diverse musical interests, the accomplishments of its talented students and faculty, and the rich history the Institute’s musical groups and clubs.

Some of the unique items on display include original manuscripts and rare books, autographed letters and scores, a handmade oscillator, and an original leaf from the Glaser Codex of medieval chants.

Visit the gallery:
Monday-Thursday
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Building 14N-130

Do you have videos of family events, audio recordings of music recitals, or other personal audiovisual treasures?

Save your recordings and share your audiovisual history with your family and community by transferring recordings from obsolete formats such as cassette tape and VHS onto digital media. You can use equipment in the Lewis Music Library, as described in a recent IS&T News article, or contact vendors such as MIT Audio Visual Services.

“Saving our Heritage for the Next Generation” is the slogan of UNESCO’s 2013 World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, observed on Sunday, October 27.

Composer forum series: Martin Marks

Martin Marks

Notes from a Sub-Composer: The Craft of Preparing and Playing Scores for Silent Films.
Martin Marks, MIT Senior Lecturer in Music and Theater Arts

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

Composer forum series: Justin Casinghino

Justin Casinghino

Stories in Wind: Justin Casinghino will talk about his compositions for wind quintet, including One Hen, which was recently featured on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 Tanglewood Family Concert.

Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

IS&T just posted a news story about the Lewis Music Library: Past Forward: Digitize Your LPs and Cassettes.

Show your MIT ID card at the desk to get the logon and password.
The Lewis Music Library is located in Bldg. 14E-109 and library hours are on the web.

Photo: L. Barry Hetherington

Welcome back! The MIT Libraries have been working hard during your summer vacation.  Here are some of the new things you can look forward to this fall:

New Resources

• New search tool  Finding library resources just got easier with BartonPlus. It brings together many library collections in one search interface–searching most MIT-licensed e-resources like e-books and full-text articles, as well as collections in the classic Barton catalog like books, theses, music, DVDs, and more. 

• More options for borrowing  Borrow Direct, a partnership that allows library materials to be shared between member institutions, has expanded to include the University of Chicago. MIT users can search over 50 million volumes owned by Borrow Direct libraries through MIT’s WorldCat.

• New guide to APIs for scholarly resources  Many scholarly publishers, databases, and products offer APIs to allow users with programming skills to more powerfully extract data to serve a variety of research purposes. With an API, users might create programmatic searches of a citation database, extract statistical data, or dynamically query and post blog content. Learn more in the APIs for Scholarly Resources guide.

• Music Oral History Project  For over 100 years music has been a vibrant part of MIT’s culture. A new website features in-depth interviews with faculty, staff, and former students about their musical experiences at the Institute, as well as their professional careers in music or other fields.

• New e-resources  Find a number of new online resources including: the National Geographic Archive, Smithsonian Global Sound, several new titles in the Gale Virtual Reference Library, the Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, and Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences in the Wiley Online Library, and more.

Improved study spaces

• Upgrades to Hayden Library  The window bays in Hayden have gotten a facelift! The windows have been cleaned, frames painted, and new shades have replaced the curtains. Also check out the  new artwork by Dennis Oppenheim that adorns the first floor wall. Additionally, a number of tables and study carrels in Hayden were refinished this summer. Coming up – we hope to reupholster some of the comfy seating on the 1st floor.

• Finding locations, hours, and study spaces  New and improved webpages make it easier to locate current and future library hours with a date-picker option. Also find and reserve study spaces online and learn about what each location has to offer.
  

Upcoming events

• Music & Theater Arts Composer Forums  During the fall term the Lewis Music Library will host MTA Composer Forums. Stop by the library at 5pm on Oct. 9, Oct. 23, Nov. 6, Nov. 20 to hear from featured musicians.

•  Fall workshops Throughout the month of October the Libraries will offer a series of workshops on subject-specific resources. See the event calendar for details.
  

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news!

A new library resource, the Music at MIT Oral History Collection, brings the history of music at MIT to life through in-depth video and audio interviews with MIT music faculty, staff, and former students. It shares the stories of performers, conductors, composers, music theorists, historians, acousticians, librarians, scientists and engineers, revealing their contributions to the musical life of the Institute and the world at large, as well as the effect music at MIT had in their own lives and careers.

• Choose interviews by MIT affiliation (MIT faculty, staff, student, etc.) and by topic (composers, jazz, world music, etc.).
• Select interviews to watch video, or listen to audio.
• Search within transcripts by keyword, download PDF transcripts, and view biographical background information on each interviewee.

The resource is a culmination of over a decade’s worth of documentation by Forrest Larson, a staff member at MIT’s Lewis Music Library. The project was generously funded by MIT alumnus Lionel Kinney (’53). Learn more about the project.

The Libraries is pleased to announce new offerings in streaming media that support our MIT communities.

Art and Architecture in Video
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/artv
This streaming video database offers more than 400 documentaries and interviews illustrating the history, theory, and practice of art, design, and architecture. This database includes real-time transcript highlighting, the ability to make clips, and offers links for embedding in course management systems.

OnArchitecture
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/onarch
This streaming video package contains more than 150 interviews with architects, project walk-throughs, and other original video about architectural design. Watch an interview with Ai Weiwei: http://www.onarchitecture.com/interviews/ai-weiwei-0. This resource offers closed captioning.

OntheBoards.tv
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/ontheboards
Sponsored by On the Boards in Seattle, the videos in this collection cover contemporary theatre, dance, and performance art. All are recordings of performances at either On the Boards or other arts organizations around the country.

Smithsonian Global Sound
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/globalsound
This streaming audio collection of world music provides access to over 42,000 tracks from the Smithsonian Archives and world music archives in Asia and Africa. Coverage includes over 169 countries worldwide, 1,000 genres, 1,400 cultural groups, and 450 different languages.

For more information or to learn more about how these resources may enhance research or teaching, please contact an MIT Libraries subject specialist.

Music Librarian Peter Munstedt will give a gallery talk, “Musical Treasures in the MIT Libraries” on Wednesday, May 1 from noon-12:45 pm. The Maihaugen exhibit Noteworthy Connections: Music in the MIT Libraries will be on view until July 2013.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Noon-12:45 pm
Maihaugen Gallery, Bldg. 14N-130
Free and open to the public.

Interested in jazz at MIT? Photographs, recordings, scores, video clips, and other materials from the Lewis Music Library and the Institute Archives and Special Collections will be featured in a special one-day exhibit on Thursday afternoon, 4/25/2013. There will be many items from the Herb Pomeroy Collection in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of jazz becoming a part of the MIT curriculum under the leadership of Herb Pomeroy.

Date: Thursday, April 25, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Free and open to the public.

The 11th annual Prokopoff violin music concert will be held on Tuesday, April 30th, from noon-1 pm in the Lewis Music Library. MIT students will perform selections by Bach, Saint-Saens, Wieniawski, Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, and Mendelssohn.  This annual event honors the collection of over 2,000 violin music scores collected by Stephen Prokopoff and donated to the library in 2001 by Lois Craig, former Associate Dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Come enjoy some wonderful music in an attractive setting!

Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: noon-1 pm

The concert is free and open to the public.

Composer forum series: Forrest Larson, composer, violist and electronic musician.

MIT Lewis Music Library staff member Forrest Larson will discuss his compositions that use “found sounds” from both natural as well as urban landscapes in compositions with acoustic instruments. MIT student Emily Su will perform The Crows Return for flute and recorded sound.  Forrest will also discuss Seabird Fantasy, commissioned by the MIT Wind Ensemble.

He has also written works for string quartet, string orchestra, unaccompanied violin, viola and cello. He plays live analog electronic instruments with the group Sonic Sandbox.

Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows.
Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

Aga Khan Documentation Center presents a film viewing of

Slingshot Hip Hop

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

“Documentary Competition” Sundance Film Festival 2008
Top 3 Finalist for the IDFA- “DOC U” Competition, Amsterdam
“Audience Award: Best Documentary“ Films de Femmes, France
“Audience Award: Best Film“ DOX BOX Film Festival, Syria
“Best Director” Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“Jury Prize” Festival Cinéma et Politique de Tours, Paris, France
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Arabian Sights/Washington DC International Film Festival
“Silver Hanoman Prize” JAFF film festival, Indonesia
“Best Mediterranean Film” Granada Festival Cine del Sur, Spain
“Audience Award: Best Documentary” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Audience Award: Best Film” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Most Anticipated Film” Cairo Refugee Film Festival, Egypt
“Audience Award: Best Film“ Toronto Palestine Film Festival, Canada
“The Festival des Libertés Award” Festival des Libertés festival in Brussels, Belgium
“Aloha Accolade Winner” Honolulu Film Festival, Hawaii

Brown bag lunch event – dessert provided

Tuesday, 9 April 2013, 12:30 (film length 83 minutes)

7-134A (Rotch Library Conference Room)

Please join us!

This special presentation is made possible by the Aga Khan Program Documentation Center @ MIT Libraries

Questions? Contact: scsmith@mit.edu, 617.354.5022

Composer forum series: Don Byron will talk about his new Concerto for Clarinet.

Don Byron (Photo: Dave Weiland)

Don Byron has written arrangements of Sondheim’s Broadway musicals and original scores for silent film, television, and dance companies. He has composed music for a variety of media, documentaries, big band, violin, piano and string quartets, etc.

Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

Start cultivating a garden of knowledge with MIT Libraries’ research guides. Our guides dig deeper than Google to uncover the best sources for information on your research topic. Each guide contains lists of resources recommended by expert librarians. Suggestions for print and electronic resources, databases, and journals—it’s all there!

• Researching soil chemistry properties in the scholarly literature? What database does the Chemistry guide suggest?

• Not sure what the first settlers in Massachusetts grew in their gardens? Try the Historical Newspapers guide.

• Want to do market research on produce? Have you seen the Do-It-Yourself Market Research guide?

We even have guides about organizing your references, managing your data, getting published, and so much more! Seriously, think of a topic – any topic. Yep, we probably have that, too.

And you’re always welcome to ask us for help!

David M. Epstein conductor of the MIT Symphony Orchestra, 1965-1998, Photo: MIT Museum

A new exhibition exploring the extraordinary connection between the MIT mind and music has opened in the Libraries’ Maihaugen Gallery.

Noteworthy Connections: Music in the MIT Libraries delves into the holdings of the Lewis Music Library and the Institute Archives and Special Collections, to reveal MIT’s diverse musical interests, the accomplishments of its talented students and faculty, and the rich history the Institute’s musical groups and clubs.

The exhibit will be on view in the gallery until December, 2013. Visit the gallery:

Monday-Thursday
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Building 14N-130

The MIT Libraries now have a subscription to Naxos Video Library. This streaming video database provides a large collection of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts, and documentaries.

Shortcut URL: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/naxosvideo
(MIT certificates required; 5 simultaneous users)

Composer forum series: 5 pm, Lewis Music Library Bldg. 14E-109
Reception follows. Free and open to the public.

Elena Ruehr

Thursday, February 14, 2013
Elena Ruehr, Lecturer in Music at MIT, discusses her new CD, Averno, for chorus and orchestra, with poetry by American poets Louise Gluck, Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson.
Visit: elenaruehr.org/

Cindy Cox

Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Cindy Cox derives her “post-tonal” musical language from acoustics, innovations in technology, harmonic resonance, and poetic allusion. Her compositions synthesize old and new musical designs.
Visit: cacox.com

Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts.

Thursday, January 10, 2013, 3-4pm in 14N-132 

photo by L.Barry Hetherington

Are you interested in music, video, literature, art or architecture? Join Libraries staff for a session highlighting some of the vast arts, culture, and multimedia resources available to you through the MIT Libraries. Learn how to access over a million tracks of streaming audio (everything from classical to jazz to popular music), over 150,000 online music scores, streaming video of foreign films, dance, theater, documentaries and more, and over one million high-res images of art, architecture, science and the humanities.

Please register for this class.

Questions? Contact Mark Szarko.

Composer forum series: 5 pm, Lewis Music Library Bldg. 14E-109
Reception follows. Free and open to the public.

Peter Whincop

Monday November 5, 2012
Peter Whincop, Lecturer in Music at MIT, teaches Electronic Music Composition. He will provide an exposition of a few of his works involving text, or voice in a more abstract context, based on simple perceptual and algebraic precepts.

Philippe Leroux

Thursday, November 15, 2012
Continuity and Gesture in the Music of Philippe Leroux

Philippe Leroux is an Associate Professor in composition at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University. At the Paris Conservatory he studied with Ivo Malec, Claude Ballif, Pierre Schäeffer and Guy Reibel; he also studied with Olivier Messiaen, Franco Donatoni, Betsy Jolas, Jean-Claude Eloy and Iannis Xénakis. His compositions, about sixty to date, include symphonic, vocal, electronic, acousmatic and chamber music. and have been commissioned and performed internationally. He has received many prizes and awards and has taught at IRCAM, McGill, Universite de Montreal and others.

Sponsored by the Music and Theater Arts Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Composer forum series: Peter Whincop, MIT Lecturer in Music, teaching Electronic Music Composition. Whincop will provide an exposition of a few of his works involving text, or voice in a more abstract context, based on simple perceptual and algebraic precepts.

Date: Monday, October 29
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public

Roger Reynolds (Photo: Malcom Crowthers)

Composer forum series: Roger Reynolds, Resource and Outcome. An illustrated presentation with performance (Gabriella Diaz, violinist).

Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Place: Lewis Music Library, Bldg. 14E-109
Time: 5-6 pm
Reception follows
Free and open to the public

See more information.