New Semester, New Interface on Alexander Street Press

Happy New Semester! To celebrate our fresh new semester we're rolling out the fresh new look for Alexander Street Press (ASP).

Alexander Street Press has updated their interface. We are in the process of moving all of our links to the new links. The searching will still work either way, but if you want to use the new interface, just go to the Music Research Guide here: http://uncg.libguides.com/mus and go to the Audio/Video Recordings tab. Or just go straight to this page: http://search.alexanderstreet.com.libproxy.uncg.edu/music-performing-arts 

It is pretty user friendly, but just in case, here is a handy page of tutorials (on searching, making playlists and creating clips) made by Alexander Stree Press to help you with adjusting to the new interface: http://alexanderstreet.com/support-center/resources/alexander-street-press-video-tutorials

More information:

Here’s what you can experience in the first release:

•       Powerful faceted browsing capabilities: Browse content with “smart facets” that change as you search, allowing you quickly to find exactly what you’re looking for. It’s as if the interface knows what you’re asking.

•       A new video player and toolbar that lets you bookmark your place in a video, choose between multiple layouts; and bit-rate streaming that automatically adjusts to the highest quality file the user’s bandwidth can support. This is all in addition to the functionality you expect in Alexander Street video: thumbnails, visual table of contents, and clip and playlist creation.

•       A waveform view on our audio player pages that lets you view the music being played and create, annotate, and share audio clips.

•       Discipline- and genre-based landing pages with featured content and editorially-curated playlists.

•       The ability to translate every page, liner note, and transcript into dozens of languages using Google Translate.

•       Tools for exporting citations in MLA, Chicago, and APA formats.

And here’s what will be available on the new interface over the next year:

•       A dedicated smartphone app, in addition to the “send to mobile” tool you’re already using.

•       Outbound discovery—your Alexander Street content will link out to select Internet archives, greatly expanding the content available to your users at no charge, and all semantically indexed to make it cross-searchable with the other Alexander Street content.

•       Fully text-searchable liner notes displayed along select albums.

•       Most content within the music video products will have searchable, scrolling transcripts alongside the videos.

•       Dedicated learning object apps that let you:

◦       Develop online quizzes

◦       Create digital study guides

◦       Build timelines

Also, be aware that in our transitional time it might say “access denied,” the track might still play, so be sure to try listening before you give up. I’m sure that will be resolved soon. And let me know (sbdorsey@uncg.edu) if you have frustrations and we’ll get you connected asap! Thank you for your patience!

New Send-to-Mobile functionality in Alexander Street streaming collections

We now have "Send-to-Mobile" functionality in Music Online, including all of the individual streaming music collections and some items in Opera in Video. This functionality will follow in all of our Alexander Street streaming video collections later this year.

What this means is that you can now send an audio track, video track, album, or playlist from our streaming collections to your mobile device to listen to later. The item that you send stays on your device for 48 hours.


Go to any of our Alexander Street streaming music databases and look for a cell phone icon ("Send-to-Mobile") next to each track, album, or playlist. Wherever you see that icon you can click it and obtain a “shortlink” to send and enable playback on your mobile device.

We provide several methods to send this link:
* We can send a text message to your mobile.

* We can email the link to your email address, which you can pick up on your mobile.

* You can enter the link URL manually into your mobile's web browser.

* On supported devices you can scan a QR-Code directly from your computer screen. You will need to download a QR-Code reader application to do so.

At this time, this functionality is supported on:

* Apple iPhone on 3G network or better

* Mobile Device with Android OS


Shortlinks cannot be accessed outside of your institution network after 48 hours but will still be usable within it.

For more information please visit the Help page at http://muco.alexanderstreet.com/help/view/using_your_mobile_device


Let us know what you think.

New content for Music Online from Alexander Street Press

We have updated the Music Online collection with the following new material:



JAZZ MUSIC LIBRARY

120 albums (1,508 tracks) from Concord Jazz, Contemporary, Jazz Alliance, Jazzology, Neon Tonic, Playboy Jazz, and Riverside. New material includes recordings from Sonny Rollins, Pete Escovedo, Art Farmer, Doc Evans, Bobby Darin, Sarah Vaughan, Tito Puente, and more.


Example new albums include:

Bobby Darin: Live! At the Desert Inn
Swiss Dixie Stompers: Petite Fleur
Ray Bush’s BBC Jazz: American Jazz With A British Accent
Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz: Bill Evans
Doris Day: The Love Album

OPERA IN VIDEO


Subtitles released for the following operas:

Cosi Fan Tutte (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592116)
Carmen (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592122)
Die Walkure (Netherlands Opera) (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592013)
Die Walkure (Liceu) (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/591994)
Don Carlo (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581032)
Don Giovanni (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/577883)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/580998)
Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578543)
Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578541)
Il Viaggio a Reims (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592048)
La Boheme (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578396)
La Cenerentola (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581017)
La Fille du Regiment (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592137)
La Traviata (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/592066)
Le Nozze di Figaro (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578410)
L’incoronazione di Poppea (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578539)
L’Orfeo (2006, Het Muziektheater) (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/578508)
L’Orfeo (2002, Liceu) (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581262)
Luisa Fernanda (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581027)
Macbeth (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581257)
Otello (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/579054)
Tamerlano (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/591981)
The Rake’s Progress (http://opiv.alexanderstreet.com/View/581019)


CONTEMPORARY WORLD MUSIC


236 albums (3,853 tracks) from ARC Music, Blue Flame Records, Buda Musique, Celestial Harmonies, INEDIT, Lyrichord, PAN Records, and Tropical Music. New material released includes Afro-pop, cumbia, electronic music, world fusion, klezmer, griot music, joropo, funeral music, and more.


Example new albums released include:

In the Time of My Fourth Great-Grandfather: Western Sisaala Music from Lambussie, Ghana
Mother Volga: Volga Matj, Music of the Volga Ugrians
El Houssaine Kili: Safran
Stewart Sukuma: Afrikiti
Novedades De Chile


Music Online now contains:


258,367 tracks
17,897 albums
64,898 pages text reference
17,265 scores (330,852 pages)
407 videos


Enjoy the new content and the new subtitles!

Cool info on Streaming Audio Playlists

One of the cool things about the streaming audio databases we have is the ability to create playlists.  So professors can make playlists for their classes to use or individuals can keep their fav tunes together.  The Alexander Street Press playlists are pretty straightforward on their website.  The Naxos instructions for faculty are more involved, so with the help of my dear friend Diane Steinhaus over at UNC Chapel Hill (and a little nudging from Jim Douglass here at UNCG), here are some helpful hints:

Creating Playlists in Naxos Music Library

A: Professors or Administrators [B: Students – see below!!]

You have the ability to create institutional playlists by logging in with the professor/administrator password at www.NaxosMusicLibrary.com (ask Sarah for the password) .Once logged in, click on the playlist tab at the top of the page. It has a user-friendly interface, and there is also a PDF Playlist User Guide on the right of the screen. This walks you through the process step-by-step or see below. NOTE: Be careful not to delete/edit playlists that aren't yours! Unless you lock your list and create a password, we all have the same access through the username and password.
Open either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Go to www.naxosmusiclibrary.com (rather than going through the library's web site)
Log in at www.naxosmusiclibrary.com with username and Password you can get from Sarah.
Once you are logged in, search for the recordings you want to put in a playlist. When you are in the screen for a particular CD, click the tracks you want to include (or click the whole work). Click on the + sign next to the track to see the performers.
Once you've selected the track(s) you want, select Add to Playlist from the menu on the left side of the screen. The first time you do this, Select locations Tab = My Playlists, Folder = Current; and name a New Playlist – save to UNCG tab if you want others to see it! [There is a limit of 60 tracks or 4 hours per playlist.]
Once your playlist is complete, select Playlists from the upper toolbar (in this same login) to create and name a folder for your class (eg. MUS437/637).
Under the UNCG Playlists, select and name a New Folder. Then click on the My Playlists tab, put a check box next to your playlist, select Move Playlist to move your list to the UNCG playlists (from My Playlists). Select the University of North Carolina Greensboro tab, and select the folder you want to move your playlist(s) to.
Now your playlist(s) will be accessible to students who visit Naxos from the library website.
STUDENTS: Students may create your own, private playlists. Go to Naxos through the UNCG library website as usual. Click on the Playlist tab on the top of the page. Click on Student/Member Playlists and Sign-up. Follow the instructions and you will be ready to create your own playlists from any piece in the Naxos Music Library. Each time you access the NML, you will need to sign-in to the student playlists to access your personal playlists.

Have fun, everyone and if you have any questions, ask Diane or Jim...ha ha, JOKE - ask me, Sarah, anytime!