Have a happy and safe summer!

I would like to wish all of our library patrons a happy and safe summer. Thank you for using the NIU Music Library! As this is the last day of the Spring Semester, we will be closed this weekend, and we will begin our Interim schedule on Monday. We will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until noon, closed for lunch, and open from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Electronic journals in music

I subscribe to the listserv of the American Musicological Society, AMS-L. Today, I received a post on that list to announce the publication of the second volume of the online journal, Radical Musicology. This journal is available with no charge to the reader. This model of journal publication, often referred to as open access publishing, allows the research community to read current, peer-reviewed articles at no cost to the reader. I do not want to give the impression that this model is completely free, as it is not. You can read an overview of the open access model on Peter Suber's Web site at http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm.

My purpose for mentioning this on the Music Library blog is to introduce readers to this form of publication. Also, if you are interested in doing a thorough literature search while conducting research, you should not neglect to look at the open access music journals. They are often not indexed in RILM, IIMP, or The Music Index.

You can gain access to open access journals in music by going to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) at http://www.doaj.org/, selecting "Arts and Architecture" under "Browse by Subject," and then selecting "Music." DOAJ provides article level indexing for journals with the "DOAJ Content" label next to the title. Unfortunately, most music journals in DOAJ do not yet have this label. If you find an interesting journal here without the label, you will have to go to the journal and browse its contents.

Wireless Access!!!

The Music Library is now equipped to provide wireless Internet access to members of the NIU community with VPN connections! If you have not used wireless connections on campus before, please visit the NIU SecureNet site at http://securenet.niu.edu/index.shtml to set up your connection. You will need your NIU ID (student Z-number or employee network ID) and password. We hope that this service will greatly enhance your use of the Music Library. You can now bring your laptop and connect to all library databases and the Internet right from the comfort of your seat!