Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Those who check Brian Leiter’s blog on a regular basis have likely already seen this information, but for those who don’t or haven’t, the papers in the Philosopher’s Annual 2008 are now available.  As the editors note:

Our goal is to select the ten best articles published in philosophy each year—an attempt as simple to state as it is admittedly impossible to fulfill.

To whet your appetite, here are three of the winners, chosen randomly:

• Tamar Szabó Gendler (Yale), “Alief and Belief” from the Journal of Philosophy
• Penelope Maddy (UC Irvine), “How Applied Mathematics Became Pure” from the Review of Symbolic Logic
• Michael G. Titelbaum (Wisconsin), “The Relevance of Self-Locating Beliefs” from the Philosophical Review

Also of interest: the August 2009 book reviews from the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Are any of these worth considering for acquisition for the Robbins collection?

Good morning, readers!

Over the last several months, HCL has rolled a new search interface for HOLLIS. But, this doesn’t mean that we’ve left the older interface behind — far from it.  Now re-branded as “HOLLIS Classic,” the older interface is still available for you to use.

Both HOLLIS and HOLLIS Classic can search Harvard’s library catalog, but what are the advantages of each, and when should you use them? My HCL colleagues have come up with the following cheat sheet:

HOLLIS

• Easy-to-use, intuitive interface
• Relevance-ranked results
• One-click search refinement – filter searches by publication, date, format, language and more
• More searchable tables of contents
• Built in spell checker

HOLLIS Classic

• Browse subject headings and author names
• Search by call numbers
• Search using non-Latin characters
• Refine searches using exact phrases
• Powerful “Expanded Search” feature for more precise searches

In short, both interfaces have their place in your research toolkit.  When used in tandem — just as when you use, e.g., JSTOR and Academic Search Premier in tandem — your searching becomes that much more effective and powerful.

If you are interested in learning more about the interfaces, or are interested in seeing a demonstration, please let me know.  I’d love to show you!

———————————————————————————–

For Firefox users, check out this post by Adrienne Carlson, “50 Firefox Extensions to Turn Google Into the Ultimate Research Tool.”  Some very cool stuff here.

Good morning, readers, and welcome back to Harvard readers who’ve returned for the start of term!

Just a reminder of the many things I can help you with as a librarian:

• Reference & Research

Having trouble finding an article?  Need some help locating information or doing research?  Confused by the Library of Congress classification scheme?  I can help!

• Bibliographic Instruction

If you’re curious to learn about all of the resources available to you at Harvard, or if you want to learn how to search with greater skill and efficiency, I can show you how. Get out of that Model T Ford research mode in which you’ve been driving and step into the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 research mode with a bibliographic instruction session.  Or, if you’d like to get started on your own, check out my Bibliographic Instruction page.

• Research Tools

Let me tell you about tools like LibX, RefWorks, EndNote, and Zotero, which will make your research life much easier.  Also check out Writing Resources and Secondary Sources in Philosophy.

• Web site Set-up and Design

Looking to set up a personal Web page?  Need help with course iSites?  I’m happy to provide support

• Collection Development

Are there books and other items that you think belong in the Robbins collection?  Stop by, and we’ll discuss.

• Course Reserves

Would you like to put materials out on reserve in Robbins for a philosophy course?  Drop me a line, and I’ll arrange for them to be placed on the reserve shelf.

• Navigating the HUL labyrinth

Confused about how the Harvard University Library (HUL) system is organized?  Not sure which library to go to look for information?  I can help guide you through the maze.

All these things, and much more.  So, drop by Emerson Hall 211, send me an e-mail, or give me a call, and we’ll set up some time to chat.  I’m looking forward to working with you in the coming academic year!

*For those who may be too young to get the reference in the title of this post, all your questions will be answered here.

As the summer winds down, here’s some food for thought:

It would not be too much to say that the passion for originality begins with modern philosophy. Each thinker is intent on developing his own system and contrasting it with previous efforts. One wants a personal stamp on what one proposes: the Bullwinkle theory of knowledge, the Basil Faulty [sic] account of moral evil. There is indeed a lot of originality in modern philosophy, a lot of novelty. Most of it has a very short shelf life, pushed aside by the new and improved. In philosophy, as in the arts, novelty is all too easily come by, but truth is neither new nor old.

– Ralph McInerney, “Philosophia Perennis“

Over the course of its over one hundred years of existence, Robbins Library has acquired several special collections. One of the more interesting of these collections contains approximately two hundred volumes of primary and secondary sources by and about Søren Kierkegaard.

In addition to works by and about Kierkegaard, this collection also includes several works by people connected with him. From Rasmus Nielsen, for example, we have, e.g., Religionsphilosophie (1869) and Mag. S. Kierkegaards „Johannes Climacus” og Dr H. Martensens „Christelige Dogmatik”: En undersøgende Unmeldese (1849). From H.L. Martensen, for another, we have an English translation of his Christelige Dogmatik (Christian Dogmatics, 1871).

In general, the collection is comprised mainly of books, but there are also several photocopies of articles by Harald Höffding, a nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and scholar of Kierkegaard. Overall, the items range in date from the 1840s to the 1960s. The primary works include the complete published writings of Kierkegaard, along with his Journals and Papers, in Danish. Additionally, there are various German, Spanish, and English* translations of a number of his individual works. The secondary literature is in Danish, German, French, and English. It is our understanding, after consulting with those versed in the literature on Kierkegaard, that this part of the collection contains a number of important secondary works, some of which influenced the young Martin Heidegger in his own studies of Kierkegaard.

All of the materials in the Kierkegaard collection have been cataloged and can be found via HOLLIS at http://discovery.lib.harvard.edu. These items will have the notation “Kierk” before the call number.

If you are interested in looking at the Kierkegaard materials, please contact me at pannone [at] fas [d0t] harvard [d0t] edu, to set up an appointment.

——————————————————————————————-

*The English translations are mostly, but not entirely, those of Walter Lowrie.

Good morning, readers!

Here are the July 2009 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.  Please let me know if you think any are worth considering for the Robbins collection.

I’m away again for the final week of summer vacation next week, so will post again on 21 August.  See you then!

Good morning, readers!

Today, I am going to start a series of occasional posts on the history of philosophy at Harvard University.  I have been doing some research about this, and I would like to share the fruits of my labor with you.  Harvard has had (and still has) a large and influential role in American philosophy, so it’s interesting to learn more about this history.
——————————————————————
Given the prominence and history of Harvard in American education, it is unsurprising that several famous figures have passed through the Department of Philosophy over the years.

Three of the Department’s most famous visitors are Bertrand Russell, Rudolph Carnap, and Alfred Tarski. These three taught at Harvard during the 1940-1941 academic year: Russell and Carnap in the Department of Philosophy, and Tarski in the Department of Mathematics. [1]

Yet, we may number more than philosophers among those who have passed through the Department. There are poets among these ranks, most notably Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) and T. S. Eliot. (1888 – 1965). Stevens attended Harvard from 1894 to 1897 as a non-degree special student, and became close to George Santayana – in fact, one of his later poems is “To an Old Philosopher in Rome,” written in homage to his old mentor. [2] Stevens maintained a life-long interest in philosophy, as evidenced in his poetry and essays. [3]

On his part, Eliot attended Harvard from 1906 to 1910, taking his A.B. in the latter year. He spent the next several years studying philosophy and traveling in Europe, submitting a dissertation in philosophy to Harvard in 1916. However, he was not awarded a Ph.D., since he did not return to Cambridge for a dissertation defense. Philosophy would be part of the fabric of Eliot’s work for much of his life.

Finally, J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967), the father of the atomic bomb, included philosophy among his studies during his undergraduate years at Harvard. Bird & Sherwin (2006) write that, as a concentrator in chemistry, he attended Whitehead’s 1924 course on the Principia Mathematica. [4]  They also include a letter of Oppenheimer’s to a friend, in which he notes that he spent a good deal of time studying in Robbins Library. [5]  Oppenheimer, a gifted polymath, retained an interest in philosophy, especially Asian philosophy, throughout his life.

Notes:

[1.] For those who are curious, the Harvard President’s Report for 1940-41 lists their respective courses, along with enrollment numbers: http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/AnnualReportsCites.htm#tarHarvardPresidents.

[2.] A copy of this poem can be found at http://englishhistory.net/keats/old-phil.html.

[3.]  See Stevens, W. (1997).  Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose.  New York: Library of America.

[4.] Bird, K. & Sherwin, M.J. (2006).  American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.  New York: Vintage Books, 34-35.

[5.] Bird & Sherwin (2006), 35.

Good morning, readers! Welcome back after several weeks of vacation!

Today’s post is about a review of Web browsers in PC Magazine that I found via “American Libraries Direct.” Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari are all reviewed — both with a short review and with a more detailed review. Pros and cons are listed for each.  It’s useful when comparing which browsers you might want to use.  (For the record, I remain a firm believer in the Firefox browser.)

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers!  Here’s this week’s installment:

• Simon Critchley discusses the relevance of Heidegger here, here, and here. (A hat-tip to Bookforum.com for these.)
• The June 2009 book reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews are in.
• Update: I received word this morning about new changes to Project MUSE:

“– A ‘Search this Journal’ search box. This search box appears on each journal’s home page, on the Table of Contents (TOC) of each issue, and on each article. The ‘Search This Journal’ feature enables a user to quickly check all issues of the journal in MUSE, with a single search, for all articles in that journal pertaining to a particular subject.

– Summaries (abstracts) for articles. MUSE now provides a link for the summary of each article. Users know that the ability to scan summaries of articles is essential to determining which articles are relevant to their research. That ability is now available in MUSE. The Summary links appear on the TOCs and in search results, next to the article format options of HTML and PDF.

New Option for Custom Print
–Custom Print is a service provided by Sheridan Press that allows a user to click on a link from MUSE and purchase an article or groups of articles for the purpose of creating a custom publication. MUSE is one of the first online providers to activate this service. The user may choose either print or electronic format for the purchased articles. At this time, articles contained in ‘The American Indian Quarterly’ published by the University of Nebraska Press are the only articles in MUSE for which this option is available. On the article page, look for the link ‘Custom Print’ to initiate the transaction.

MUSE on Facebook
MUSE has been on Facebook for some time now, but we just secured our own URL and wanted to pass the word on to MUSE users. Find MUSE at www.facebook.com/ProjectMUSE. Become a fan of MUSE! You can also follow us on Twitter, @ProjectMUSE.”

I will be on vacation starting next and will be away for two weeks.  I’ll resume posting on 24 July.  Until then, have a happy and safe Fourth of July, and I’ll see you when I return!

Good morning, readers!

I came across this article yesterday while browsing through bookforum.com — “Thomas Aquinas would have loved genetics” — and found it fascinating.  I think you might, as well.

Next week, readers, I will be posting on Thursday, because of the July 4 holiday.  See you then!