Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection is live

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection delivers, for the first time online, more than 300 important dramatic works in streaming audio from the curated archive of the nation's premiere radio theatre company. Optional downloads for every performance make the plays conveniently portable via personal handheld devices.

The plays—performed by leading actors from around the world and recorded specifically for online listening—will be used for research and instruction well beyond literature, as the works are chosen not only for their literary significance, but also for their ability to challenge presumptions and examine complicated moral and ethical questions. To see a terrific example  of the collection's value for interdisciplinary use, take a look at what the University of Maryland's School of Law has done with it here.

Audio Drama is available online to libraries and academic institutions through annual subscription or outright purchase. Learn more about the collection here.

New MARC records for streaming audio collections

We've just released new item-level MARC record sets for Jazz Music Library, American Song, and Classical Music Library. These are the first sets of records for Jazz Music Library and American Song, and the third supplemental set for Classical Music Library. Additional supplemental sets for all of these—and other Music Online collections—will be released soon. Download these records now, and see our updated MARC record release schedule at http://marc.alexanderstreet.com.

Two Alexander Street collections are named Booklist Editor's Choice Selections for 2009

Every January, Booklist editors select the previous year's top reference titles. Two Alexander Street online collections were chosen for the 2009 award: American History in Video and Music Online. Both collections were praised for being comprehensive and easy to use. Booklist subscribers can read the American History in Video starred review here, and the starred review of Music Online here.

To request a price quote or free trial for your library, please email sales@alexanderstreet.com.

Coming Soon: Ethnographic Video Online

A visual encyclopedia of human behavior and culture, online in streaming video.

Ethnographic Video Online will feature more than 750 hours of the most frequently used videos in anthropology classrooms, including:

• Classic documentaries by world-famous pioneers in the field, including Edward Curtis, Robert Flaherty, John Marshall, Jean Rouch, Margaret Mead, Robert Gardner, and Timothy Asch.

• Contemporary films from the most innovative ethnographic documentary-makers world-wide.

• Indigenous media—from early experiments to modern-day works.

• Previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field, which will open up new possibilities for research and study in the discipline.

• Related materials including field notes, liner notes, filmmaker biographies, seminal articles, and study guides.

Learn more about Ethnographic Video Online.
 

American History in Video                                                                        

The largest, most affordable collection of history video, streamed to your desktop.

"Based on content, design, and price, this product is a solid ten. It tops any other similarly themed resource in its field and, at this price, is an amazing deal. . . . This is a product I wish every library in the United States could make accessible to its researchers, from elementary-school children to history scholars, and everybody in between. Resoundingly recommended." —Library Journal, August 15, 2009

• Quickly growing to 5,000 complete newsreels and documentaries totaling 2,000 hours.

• Synchronized, scrolling full-text transcripts for every video.

• High-quality, full-screen, fast-streaming video and no special software required.

• Powerful playlist functionality and clip-making tools.

• Subscriptions start at just $775 a year for K-12 libraries and at $995 for academic libraries. Also available for one-time purchase. Full details here.
  

Music Online is the broadest and most comprehensive resource available for the study of classical, jazz, world, and American music. The hundreds of thousands of items in Music Online—now all cross-searchable through a single interface—include nearly 110,000 tracks of music in streaming audio from dozens of music labels and publishing partners; more than 13,000 musical scores; 45,000 pages of reference content; 285 hours of dance and opera videos; 20,000 jazz recordings; and thousands of liner notes, biographies, and images. There’s nothing else like it—Music Online is a major milestone in digital reference.

Read the press release.