Music Online

Free Download - Lutoslawski's Overture for Strings

Witold Lutoslawski, a Polish composer, conductor and pianist, composed this Overture for string orchestra in 1949. His compositional style, more structured at first, changed to include more twelve-tone techniques after traveling to the US and Britain after conditions in Poland were relaxed in the late 50's.

This recording is performed by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie; Jean-Paul Dessy (Conductor).

Download this work now through September 8, 2009.

Promote your online collections with marketing tools from Alexander Street

Online collections offer library patrons a wealth of content that might otherwise be unobtainable or inaccessible, combined with technology that can deliver the content directly to a home computer. The library has expanded from a physical destination in the community to a far-reaching, digital network capable of serving a much broader audience than ever before. With so much information and material available in the electronic realm of the Web, how does a library make sure its patrons are aware of the resources available to them?

Even a "veteran library user" like Knoxville Symphony Orchestra violist Katy Gawne can be pleasantly surprised to discover streaming audio, scores, and reference content available via the library's Web site.

Alexander Street is helping libraries promote and publicize their online collections through a suite of marketing tools, available free of charge. From the physical (bookmarks and posters) to the digital (widgets, MARC records, and free downloads), our marketing tools are designed to support the mission of your library.

We echo Gonzaga University's belief that Music Online has "something for every music lover." And helping your patrons discover this fact for themselves is a task we'd like to accomplish together. Our marketing team is here to help, so if you have special requests or ideas please let us know. We will try to accommodate all requests and work with your library to spread the word.

The Free Resources section of our Web site is constantly growing, and we've seen libraries do some very creative things with our marketing tools. If you have ideas, need ideas, or have already successfully promoted your online collections, we'd love to hear from you. And if you haven't already subscribed to the periodic Music Online News, it's a great way to keep up with the latest news and see what other libraries are up to.

Customizable bookmarks for your online music collections

Looking for physical marketing tools to publicize your electronic resources? Try our new customizable bookmarks for your Alexander Street online music collections.

Bookmarks are great reminders for library patrons that there is a whole world of electronic resources available to them. And in many cases, these resources are available from home.

Each bookmark can be customized with your library or institution name, and detailed instructions for patrons wishing to access your online collections from a home computer. The editable regions can be customized using Adobe Reader.

 

To see a complete list of available bookmarks, and to download the customizable PDF files, visit http://alexanderstreet.com/resources/bookmarks.htm. We're adding new bookmarks all the time, so be sure to check periodically.

If you don't see a bookmark for a particular collection, or if you have any questions, please contact us.

Free Download: Wieniawski's Scherzo-tarantelle in G minor, Op. 16

Wieniawski, himself a virtuoso violinist, gave over 200 concerts in Russia from 1851-1853 with his younger brother, an accomplished pianist. He composed this scherzo-tarantelle for violin and piano around 1856.

This recording is an orchestrated version for symphony orchestra. It is performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Radio-Télé-Luxembourg (Hubert Soudant, conductor), and Patrice Fontanarosa, violin.

Download this work now through August 25, 2009.

Search widgets for libraries

We're working on several new marketing tools to support libraries and help boost usage. Just released are the embeddable search widgets for select Alexander Street collections, including the cross-searchable Music Online interface..

The embeddable search widgets provide a great way to publicize your online collections, while also allowing your library patrons to quickly search the collection from any page on the Web. Embedding the widget is as simple as copying a few lines of code and pasting it into the HTML code of your Web page or blog. If you're an experienced HTML user, you can customize the widget to match your page's theme.

Below is a bare bones example of the Music Online widget. Take a look at The University of Pennsylvania's Music Library Web page for an example of a customized Music Online search widget.

Alexander Street Press: Music Online

Cross-search audio, video, scores, and full-text reference content

Please note, that this particular widget is set up to authorize you based on your IP address. If you are not a subscriber to Music Online, or if you are outside of your subscribing library's IP range, access will be denied. To enable access from off campus, you'll need to amend the URL in the HTML code with your proxy prefix.

Detailed instructions and HTML code for the embeddable search widgets can be found at http://alexanderstreet.com/resources/widgets.htm.