Happy 40th Birthday, WorldCat!

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive online library database (and as I've told scores of USI students, my personal favorite).  In addition to the subscription version of WorldCat, which is available to all USI students, faculty, and staff, there is now a free version, known as WorldCat.org.  The database currently has in excess of 240,000,000 bibliographic records, representing 2 billion items of all types held by over 72,000 libraries worldwide.  (See the database's stats sheet.)  It's always fascinating to "Watch WorldCat Grow" in real time.  For the complete text of the press release announcing the anniversary, click here.

P.O.

Surviving the Summer Heat with Good Books (and Videos)

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

At least one of the topics that’s been a part of our conversations this past week (aside from Washington politics and investigations of British tabloids) has been the weather—more specifically, the temperature.  In the words of Porky Pig, “Gosh, I’m roastin’!”  With that in mind, the LTL Blog thought it might be interesting to look at some library resources related to heat and temperature.

We begin with Heat.  Searching this word as a subject term in the RL catalog uncovers over 80 items, including Heat and Thermodynamics:  A Historical Perspective and the Excessive Heat Events Guidebook.  The latter is a U.S. government document which defines excessive heat events (EHEs) and explains how best to respond to them.  A print copy of the document is available in RL’s General Collection, but it is also available online.  For those able to tackle physics, upper level mathematics, and probability, let me recommend Random Walk and the Heat Equation, a 2010 work by Gregory F. Lawler.  According to reviewer Miklos Bona, “This is a very readable introductory course resource on topics . . . that have more than their fair share of unreadable textbooks.  Even so, definitely not a beach read for most of us.  For those, like me, needing a simpler explanation of the scientific principles of heat, try Rob Moore’s children’s book Why Does Water Evaporate?: All About Heat and Temperature, a title from RL’s Curriculum Materials Collection (4^th floor). 

There is also a subject term for Body temperature.  With this search, I uncovered Mark Blumberg’s 2002 work entitled Body Heat:  Temperature and Life on Earth.  The book’s synopsis from the publisher (Harvard University Press) states, “Whether you're a polar bear giving birth to cubs in an Arctic winter, a camel going days without water in the desert heat, or merely a suburbanite without air conditioning in a heat wave, your comfort and even survival depend on how well you adapt to extreme temperatures.”

Next I searched the catalog using Global temperature changes and Global warming and received 32 results and 225 results respectively (as of 7/22).  Among the items found with these subject term searches were the books Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change by Melanie Lenart and How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate by Jeff Goodall.  Interestingly enough, at the top of the result list was Karen Dionne’s 2011 novel Boiling Point, available in RL’s Popular Reading Materials (1^st floor).  This ecothriller is definitely a beach read.  And for scores of other suggestions related to these topics, don’t overlook the Global Warming and Climate Change LibGuide. 

Finally, for those who would prefer to watch a video rather than read a book, let me recommend the Frontline/NOVA production, What’s Up With the Weather? (science), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (drama), or Some Like it Hot (comedy).

Oh, and the quote above?  Historically, many have attributed it to Mark Twain, but you might be interested in reading what the online source Quote Investigator has to say about its origin as well as Respectfully Quoted:  A Dictionary of Quotations, available in Rice Library's CREDO reference, a collection of electronic reference books.

Have fun reading (or viewing), everyone, and stay cool!

PO

Annual Awards for Best in Children's Literature

Each year during its Midwinter Conference, the American Library Association (ALA) announces winners for a number of awards for children’s literature and media, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medals.  The winners of these two highly sought-after awards are selected by separate committees made up of members of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA.

The John Newbery Medal is given for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.  This year’s winner was Moon over Manifest, written by Clare Vanderpool and published by Delacorte Press.  Vanderpool’s fictional story, set in 1936, tells of twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker who is sent to Manifest, Kansas for the summer by her drifter father.  While seeking to learn more about her father’s past, Abilene becomes involved in “an honest-to-goodness spy hunt” and uncovers some of the secrets of the town’s past and her father’s life.  Other works recognized as Honor Books by the selection committee were:  Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House), Heart of a Samurai:  Based on the True Story of Manjiro Nakahama by Margi Preus (Amulet Books), Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children), and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad).

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott and is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.  This year’s medal was presented to Erin E. Stead who illustrated A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by her husband Philip C. Stead and published by Roaring Brook Press.  When zookeeper Amos McGee’s daily routines are suddenly interrupted by a bad cold, the animal friends he has made at the zoo pay him a visit which succeeds in cheering him up.  Stead’s illustrations are successful too.  In the words of Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman, “Like the story, the quiet pictures, rendered in pencil and woodblock color prints, are both tender and hilarious.”  The 2011 Caldecott Honor Books included Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, illustrated by Bryan Collier and written by Laban Carrick Hill (Little, Brown and Company) and Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein (Candlewick Press).

Once the awards are announced, the medals are presented to the recipients during ALA’s annual conference held during the following summer. Each winner makes an acceptance speech, and the speeches are published annually in the summer/fall issue of Children and Libraries and the June/July issue of Horn Book. Rice Library has at least two books which include copies of some of these acceptance speeches. They are:

     Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books, 1956-1965: With Acceptance Papers, Biographies, and Related Material Chiefly From the Horn Book Magazine [GEN COL: Z1037 .A2 K5 1965]
     Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books, 1966-1975: With Acceptance Papers, Biographies, and Related Material Chiefly From the Horn Book Magazine [GEN COL: Z1037 .A2 N48]

Rice Library’s collections also include copies of most of the books which have received these prestigious awards over the years (since 1922 for the Newbery Medal and since 1938 for the Caldecott Medal) as well as many of the Honor Book selections. Additionally, the library has a number of resources for those interested in using the books in classroom settings. Among these are such works as:

     Teaching With Favorite Newbery Books [GEN COL: LB1575.5 .U5 L53 1999]

     Developing Better Readers and Writers Using Caldecott Books [GEN COL: LB1576 .M3934 2006]

     Newbery/Prinz Companion: Booktalk and Related Materials for Award Winners and Honor Books [Z1037 .A2 G56 2006]

     The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books [REF COL: PS374 .C454 N46 2006]

Finally, don’t overlook the Children’s and Young Adult Literature LibGuide as an excellent introduction to the topic and a gateway to the library’s many resources.

For assistance with these or other Rice Library resources or services, please contact the library’s Reference Desk at 812/464-1907.

 

PO

Happy Birthday, America: Let Freedom Ring!

As our nation prepares to celebrate the 235th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, the LTL Blog thought it would be interesting (and fun) to highlight some of Rice Library’s newest books related to Fourth of July themes. For books that deal with freedom in a contemporary context, you might enjoy reading John Kampfner’s Freedom for Sale: Why the World is Trading Democracy for Security or Evgeny Morozov’s The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. The ideas of both of these authors will challenge mainstream thought on the topics they address. 

For recently published books on the American Revolution itself, you might want to consider the hefty collection of primary source material contained in John Adams: Revolutionary Writings, 1775-1783 edited by Gordon Wood or Thomas Kidd’s God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution. The second of these two titles is available as an electronic book from ebrary. Another history book covering a later event that celebrated the ideals of the Revolution is Sabina Yasmin Khan’s Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty.

For treatment of an event closer to our own time, let me recommend Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed a Nation by Clarence B. Jones and Stuart Connelly. Jones was a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and assisted him in crafting the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. For another work that deals with the quest for freedom by African Americans, you might enjoy Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July. Although not as recently published as the others here listed, this work nevertheless causes its readers to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday, especially for the disenfranchised among us.

Finally, one can hardly think about American independence apart from the rights that would eventually be guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. For those interested in studying this foundational document, they might want to consider The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence edited by Jack N. Rakove. This too is an electronic book. For a work that examines how the Constitution has affected an important aspect of American life, don’t overlook Rodney Smolla’s The Constitution Goes to College: Five Constitutional Ideas That Have Shaped the American University, and for a general reference book that treats all aspects of the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees, be sure to consult the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment.

Each of the works above was located by searching the library’s catalog using one of the following subject terms:

     Civil rights

     Freedom

     Fourth of July

     Liberty

     United States. Constitution. 1st Amendment

     United States. Declaration of Independence

     United States—History—Revolution, 1775-1783

Additional materials on these topics may be found by clicking on the subject terms above. And lastly, don’t overlook the many excellent resources suggested by the following relevant LibGuides:

     Civil Rights

     American History 101: To 1865

     American Wars

Enjoy your holiday, everyone, and happy reading!

For assistance with these or other Rice Library resources or services, please contact the library’s Reference Desk at 812/464-1907.

PO

CREDO Adds New Reference Books

CREDO reference has announced the addition of four titles to its ever-growing collection of electronic reference books. These include:



Encyclopedia of Archeology (Elsevier Science & Technology, 2008) – A 3-volume encyclopedia that encompasses all aspects of archaeology, including the nature and diversity of archaeology as a scientific discipline, the practice of archaeology, archaeology in the everyday world, and the future of the discipline. [See also CREDO’s Encyclopedia of Archaeology: History and Discoveries.]

The Human Brain Book: An Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function and Disorders (Dorling Kindersley, 2009) -- A complete guide to the one organ in the body that makes each of us what we are—unique individuals. [See also CREDO’s Encyclopedia of the Human Brain.]


Key Concepts in Sport & Exercise Science (Sage UK, 2008) – A very useful introduction to the key concepts in five main areas of study in sport and exercise science.


The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics – A comprehensive reference work dealing with all aspects of its subject: history, types, movements, prosody, and critical terminology. [See also CREDO’s Encyclopedia of American Poetry. The Twentieth Century.]

For assistance with these or other Rice Library resources or services, please contact the library’s Reference Desk at 812/464-1907.


PO

Still Going Green

In April, the LTL Blog informed readers about six new electronic books from the Sage Reference Series on Green Society (see post for 4/18/11). These titles were:

     Green Business: An A-Z Guide
     Green Cities: An A-Z Guide
     Green Consumerism: An A-Z Guide
     Green Energy: An A-Z Guide
     Green Food: An A-Z Guide
     Green Politics: An A-Z Guide

Today the Blog announces the addition of six more electronic titles in this series:
     Green Culture: An A-Z Guide
     Green Education: An A-Z Guide
     Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-Z Guide
     Green Health: An A-Z Guide
     Green Issues and Debates: An A-Z Guide
     Green Technology: An A-Z Guide


The Green Society series attempts to explore all aspects of environmentalism, and the fact that these resources are available 24/7 is a real plus to student and faculty researchers. Each title contains approximately 150 articles, photographs, numerous cross references to entries both within a specific volume and across the volumes in the series, and many lists of additional references.

For other resources related to environmentalism, be sure to check out the following LibGuides:
     Environmental Science
     Green Guide
     Global Warming and Climate Change
     Oil Spills
     Energy and Alternative Energy

PO

All Things Presidential

The May 27 issue of the Friday Facts, an electronic newsletter published by the Indiana State Library included an interesting piece on The American Presidency Project, an online clearinghouse of information related to U.S. presidents. The site was begun in 1999 by John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, professors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and it contains over 90,000 documents, including radio addresses, media clips, executive orders, and State of the Union Addresses. One of the website’s most interesting features is the presidential Data Archive page which has sections on such topics as Relations with Congress, Popularity, and Public Appearances. It’s good to know that this important site is included in several of Rice Library’s LibGuides, including the American Presidency, Civil Rights, and JFK.


Students of the American presidency may find a number of other useful resources available to them on the Internet as well as within Rice Library’s collections. The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States dating back to 1991 are available online, and will be an important resource for the serious researcher. Among the periodical resources available in Rice Library are such publications as Congress & the Presidency, Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, Presidency (Washington, D.C.), and Presidential Address. In the library’s Reference Collection, students will find several useful items, including Facts About the Presidents: A Compilation of Biographical and Historical Information [REF E176.1 .K3 2009], Vital Statistics on the Presidency: George Washington to George W. Bush [REF JK518 .R34 2009], Presidential Scandals [REF E176.1 .S353 2000], and How to Research the Presidency [REF JK516 .M365 1996], to name just a few. Lastly, let me mention that a search for the subject terms “presidents” AND “united states” AND “sources” uncovers a number of interesting items, including Inside the Oval Office: The White House Tapes from FDR to Clinton [E176.1 .D73 1999], Nixon Presidential Press Conferences [E855 .N4747], The Papers of Andrew Johnson [E415.6 .J66 1967] and The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant [E660 .G74].

If you need assistance locating or using any of the resources listed above or other materials related to the American presidency, please don’t hesitate to stop by the Rice Library reference desk or contact us by telephone or e-mail (812/464-1907, toll free 800/246-6173, libref@usi.edu).

PO

Yale University Makes Digital Images of Its Art and Artifacts Available to All

On Tuesday, May 10, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Yale University had announced “that it is making digital images of objects in its many collections freely available online.”  The university’s official announcement stated, “In a departure from established convention, no license will be required for the transmission of the images, and no limitations will be imposed on their use.  The result is that scholars, artists, students, and citizens the world over will be able to use these collections for study, publication, teaching, and inspiration.” 

Currently more than 250,000 images are available, with thousands more to be made accessible in the future.  All of the items are searchable through an online catalog with basic, advanced, and faceted search modes.  The digital images are drawn from the following institutions:  Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Library, Yale University on iTunes U.  Among the images being made available are  the war bonnet of Sioux chief Red Cloud, a Mozart sonata in the composer’s own hand, an 1810 map based on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, John Turnbull’s painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and a fossil of an extinct trilobite Cambropallas telesto from Morocco.  Click here for a slideshow of some highlights.

P.O.

Patent Searching: Necessity is the Mother of Invention, or Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force

If your research involves looking for patents, there are both subscription and free sources that you might find useful.  One of the subscription sources available through Rice Library is LexisNexis® Academic (LNA).  To complete a patent search in LNA, from the database’s main page open the “US Legal” section located along the left sidebar menu and click on the link labeled “Patents.”  The “Patents” search screen allows you to search by keywords and phrases anywhere in the patent or limit your search to patent number, applicant name, application number, assignee, inventor, or patent title.  Users may also limit the search to specific dates or date ranges and to specific patent sources, including both foreign and domestic patents.

One of the free sources which many patent hunters find useful is Google™ Patents.  For those serious researchers using this source, the “Advanced Patent Search” mode is recommended.  Here you are able to search by patent number, title, inventor, assignee, U.S. or international classification, document status, patent type, and issue or filing dates.

 

Perhaps one of the best free patent search engines is FreePatentsOnline.  Users of this site are encouraged to create their own free account to make use of its full functionality and to avoid much of the advertising that clutters the result lists if the user is not logged in.  The site provides multiple search methods, including both Quick and Expert modes for patent searches as well as a Chemical Search.  There are also a number of value-added features, including a University Patent search, a section on Design Patents, and lists of Most Popular Patenting Companies and Most Popular Patent Topics.  One of my favorite features is Patent Maps which shows graphically the patents that were awarded within specific geographic areas within the U.S.  Another is Crazy Patents which does indeed include a patent for an “Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force” along with several others including “Subliminal Glasses” and “Dog Nose Art.”  The site continues to add new features and functionality.  Most recently it has added the full text of thousands of articles drawn from over 150 research journals.  Those seeking a brief introduction to FreePatentsOnline might benefit from a tutorial developed by the MIT Libraries.  This tutorial along with three others related to patents are available here.

There are, of course, other useful sources for searching patent literature, including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.  For an excellent summary comparison of the features available in four of the most popular of these sources, visit the MIT Libraries’ Patents LibGuide.

For assistance with these or other Rice Library resources or service, please contact the library’s Reference Desk at 812/464-1907.

P.O.

Green From A-Z!

The library has just acquired a series of online, reference books perfect for an environment enthusiast. These guides from SAGE offer a user-friendly method for researching a wide variety of green topics.

In Green Food discover the differences among Locavores, Vegans, and Vegetarians.

What does NIMBY stand for? Find out in Green Politics.

Look into Green Cities to see which locations in the country and around the world are taking the largest initiatives to be eco-friendly.

Users can browse by subject or use a simple search box to look up topics.

There are currently 6 Green Guides in Rice Library’s collection with 6 more to come this summer. Try them out!

Green business: An A-to-Z guide

Green cities: An A-to-Z guide

Green consumerism: An A-to-Z guide

Green energy: An A-to-Z guide

Green food: An A-to-Z guide

Green politics: An A-to-Z guide