Archives Exhibit

If you've come by recently, you've probably noticed the new exhibit at the entrance of the Library and Media Center. This display features a sampling of items found in Berklee's newly-formalized Archives. 

"From Schillinger House to Berklee School: One College's Journey..."

Here are a few highlights: 

• Official announcement of Berklee’s renaming in 1970 when it became the Berklee College of Music. The College had previously been known as the Berklee School of Music since 1954, following its founding as Schillinger House in 1945.

• Early student records featuring a registration form dating from the College's initial days as the Schillinger House, Arif Mardin's (‘61, H ‘85) certificate of acceptance, and a roster starting with student number 1.

• Commencement 1971 program, featuring commencement speaker Arif Mardin (‘61, H ‘85) and Berklee’s first honorary degree recipient, Duke Ellington (H ‘71).

• Three works by former Berklee faculty member (1959-1985) John D. LaPorta (1920-2004): Developing the School Jazz Band, Tonal Organization of Improvisational Techniques, and “Excursions for saxophone quartet” (original composition). A saxophonist and clarinetist, LaPorta was a prolific composer for professional and collegiate ensembles as well as a dedicated educator who authored a number of instructional workbooks and other teaching material.

• Framed and signed composition written by Berklee faculty members Al Kooper and Dennis Montgomery III for Lee Eliot Berk, president of the College from 1971-2004:

“Musical Fortress: The Lee Berk Song”

Lee Berk didn’t grow up in the style of Tom Sawyer.
Lee Berk went to school to be a lawyer.
But Lee Berk’s name backwards is a musical Acronym,
so he went to work in the school they named after him.
Twenty four years he’s been our leader and the man
and in this space he’s made a place every musician can understand.
The more you know about what it is you do
a better melody will come from deep inside of you.
Lee Berk, all of us salute you tonight.

Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal and Other New eBooks

Reference books don't circulate, which means they are always available in the library, but that does mean you need to get to the library to use them. This is what makes our online resources so convenient. A great example that was just added to our collection is the Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music from our eBook collection. You can access it from anywhere. And although, like our other eBooks, you can download the full text, because it is an encyclopedia, you'll probably only need to look up specific entries, which you can view online.

If you love heavy metal enough to at least consider reading this encyclopedia cover to cover, be sure to look at its bibliography, which will lead you to more sources to dive further into the subject.

EBooks that are new to our collection show up in our eBooks on EBSCOhost database before they make it to our catalog, so it's always worth the extra step of looking there when doing research. Among other new titles in the collection:

• Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's 'Illmatic' by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai
• No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays by Ellen Willis
• Writing The Broadway Musical by Aaron Frankel
• The Beatles and McLuhan: Understanding the Electric Age by Thomas MacFarlane
• Sounding Like a No-no?: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-soul Era by Francesca T. Royster

On-Campus Access to Electronic Resources

We don't have off-campus access to our electronic resources, but you can still get to our eResources, including databases and streaming media, from on campus.

If the page won't load when you click on the link for a resource, delete this from the beginning of the URL:

http://catalog.berklee.edu:2048/login?url=

Reload the page with page with the remaining URL (something beginning with http://), and you should have full access.

We apologize for the inconvenience and are working hard to restore full service to all our resources.

Citing Tweets

One of the challenges of citing sources in your research is that new types of sources emerge faster than rules for citing them properly are formulated. We have a research guide, How to Cite Print & Electronic Sources, with examples of how to cite most common sources. In our reference collection, we have style guides such as MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (LB2369 .G53 2009).

But what about citing tweets? Twitter wasn't much of a consideration when MLA was last updated in print, but the Modern Language Association answers the question of how to cite tweets on their website.

Joy Division: Learn the Myth, See the Mythbuster

Peter Hook, bass player for Joy Division and New Order, will speaking at Porter Square Books on Friday, February 8 to discuss his new book Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division. A halo of myth surrounds Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, who sang of gloom and despair on the bands' two iconic album then hanged himself at 23 on the eve of their first American tour. Hook brings not only his first-hand knowledge of life in Joy Division but also the perspective he's gained in the three decades since the band's demise. In an interview on Salon promoting the book, Hook discusses how his has sliced through the Curtis mythology:

Peter Hook: Ian Curtis wasn’t curled up in a ball, head in his hands

We don't have Hook's memoir yet, but an understanding of the legend helps to fully appreciate his point of view. To comprehend it, check out:

The two Joy Division studio albums:

• Unknown Pleasures (Annex CD (Box 57))
• Closer (CD 10095)

The feature film about the band and their Manchester scene:

• 24 Hour Party People (DVD 1203)

Documentaries about Joy Divison:

• Joy Division: The True Story of the Meteoric Rise and Fall of One of the Most Influential Bands of Our Time (DVD 3354)
• Joy Division: Under Review (DVD 4359)

Books about the band and their work:

• Torn apart: The life of Ian Curtis by Mick Middles & Lindsay Reade (ML420.C92 M53 2009)
• Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott (ML421.J696 O88 2004)

Peter Hook appears at Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street
Cambridge, MA, 02140, 617-491-2200, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 8, 2013.

Sound FX and Other eBooks Available, But Not in the Catalog

Looking for Sound FX: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects by Alexander U. Case? If you check our catalog, you may assume that we only have it in our Valencia library. While we do have it in print in Valencia, we also have it as an eBook, but for now you won't find it in our catalog. Although most of our eBooks (and we have about 8,000) are listed in our regular catalog, we have about a thousand eBooks that you can only find by searching our eBook collection specifically.





Until we get those books added to the catalog, you can find and access them by:
Click E-Resources in the left column of the library homepage.
Click Search Articles & More
Click Search by database
Click eBooks on EBSCOhost (the name, not the check box next to it)

You can then search for, access and download our complete eBook collection.

And here's a direct link to Sound FX, which several students have been looking for. 

The Composer Who Tested Fighter Planes And Partied With Sinatra

Jimmy Van Heusen may not have the name recognition of Cole Porter or George Gershwin, but his grandnephew claims that the composer would probably place in the Top 20 on ASCAP's roster. Van Heusen wrote many of Frank Sinatra's hits, including "Come Fly with Me" and "My Kind of Town," and the two were so close that Van Heusen is buried in the Sinatra family plot. To mark the 100th anniversary of Van Heusen's birth, NPR has a story on his remarkable life.

The Composer Who Tested Fighter Planes And Partied With Sinatra

Be sure to check our collection of materials by Van Heusen to appreciate his legacy.