Ohrstrom Blog

Lura Sanborn February 27th, 2009

The Ohrstrom Library gang wishes you ALL an enjoyable and healthy break.

Happy Trails in particular to the SPS:

• Baseball Team – traveling to Florida for spring training and early games
• Choir Members – traveling to South Africa
• Habitat for Humanity – traveling to Mississippi
• French students – traveling to Paris to study at Ecole Alsacienne
• German students – traveling to Leipzig to study at Humboldt Schule
• England Cultural Exchange students – traveling to London to study at Eton College and St. Paul’s Girls School
• Sweden Cultural Exchange students – traveling to Sweden to study at Sigtuna School

Enjoy your journeys, and we look forward to your safe return.

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Ohrstrom Library will be open during the March break and will follow the schedule below:

Tags: Florida, Happy Trails, Leipzig, London, Mississippi, Paris, South Africa, Sweden

• Geography , Library News
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Deb Baker February 26th, 2009

Deb Baker – Interim Reference Librarian

New Encyclopedia of Africa edited by John Middleton and Joseph C. Miller, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: Ref. 960 M858 2008 v.1-v.5.

A comprehensive introduction to Africa past and present, these five volumes contain over 1200 cross referenced entries with bibliographies, covering geography, human and natural history, politics, and culture, from ancient times to the present. The fifth volume’s reference aids include a chronology, charts of ethnic and other identity groups, a detailed index, and a thematic outline, grouping related entries.

HELPFUL FOR: Humanities III & V, Leadership for Social Justice, American Foreign Policy, The Cold War World, Introduction to Islam: Its Literature and Practice, Topics in Global Events

FUN FOR: global citizens, armchair travelers

Tags: Africa, American Foreign Policy, Humanities III, Humanities V, Introduction to Islam, Leadership for Social Justice, New Reference Book, The Cold War World

• Geography , History , Research , Social Sciences
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Lura Sanborn February 23rd, 2009

Lura Sanborn – Reference Librarian

Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present edited by George Childs Kohn, 3rd ed., Fccts On File, 2008.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 614.4 K82

Recall the Clark House email encouraging us to be extra good about hand-washing/sanitizing, and to consider using a fist-bump greeting during cold & flu season?

Perhaps this new reference book is all the inspiration we need!

Check out entries on: Bubonic Plague, Conjunctivitis, and/or the French Influenza Epidemic of 1740.  The back of this volume contains a geographical list of sickness & disease as well as a timetable of plague and pestilence.

Helpful for:  Humanities, History, Health Research

Image above: Policemen in Seattle Wearing Masks Made by the Red Cross, During the Influenza Epidemic. Photograph. December 1918. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Regional History from the NationalArchives. National Archives and Records Administration. 17 Jan. 2009.<http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html>.

Tags: Bubonic Plague, Conjunctivitis, flu, influenza, influenza epidemic, New Reference Book, pandemic., pestilence, plague, Research

• History , Research
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Lisa Laughy February 19th, 2009

Lisa Laughy – Archives Assistant

. . . just about everything!

A new book display in the Baker Reading Room brings together over a dozen books from the Ohrstrom Library collection that share a common thread: They all have “The Physics of” as part of their titles.  Beyond that connection it is a very diverse selection, covering topics that range from sports, music and sailing, to NASCAR, Star Trek, Superheros, and even James Bond movies.

Did you know that:

• A baseball compresses from a round shape to an elliptical one when the bat-ball impact approaches 140 MPH?
• When a hockey puck is tilted at a positive angle relative to the ice there is a lift force directed upward?
• The idea behind the deflector shield on the Enterprise originated with the concept of a coherent gravitational field that creates a curvature of space?
• Spiderman swinging on his web from building to building is a good illustration for the principle of conservation of energy?
• Having the ideal tire slip angle on a NASCAR race car can mean the difference between spinning off the race track or speeding across the finish line?
• The first watch camera was made in 1886, but James Bond’s ring camera worn in the film A View to a Kill is too small to actually function?

Come check out one of these interesting titles and find out some of the different ways that physics functions in your day-to-day world.

Tags: baseball, Hockey, James Bond, NASCAR, new book display, physics, Sports, Star Trek, The Pysics of

• Library News , Natural Sciences , Technology
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Lisa Laughy February 17th, 2009

Lisa Laughy – Archives Assistant

A few months ago Google began offering access to an unprecedented collection of photographs available as part of the Google Image search.  Google has partnered with LIFE Magazine to offer the LIFE Photo Archive, a fully searchable database of images from the extensive collection amassed over the years by LIFE Magazine.

According to the Official Google Blog:

“This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s.

Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We’re digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive — about 10 million photos.”

This incredible visual resource is available for “personal non-commercial use only” providing students a valuable research tool.  Fourth Form students working on their research papers may find inspiration by browsing the image collection for their assigned date range.  Additionally, students researching a particular photographer could search for works by that artist, and students researching specific events could find images related to that event.

Whatever your research needs are, be sure to take time to browse through the LIFE Photo Archive.

Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard & Elgar Mitchell practicing moon landing procedures inside LM simulator, 1970.

Tags: Fourth Form Paper, Google, image database, LIFE, LIFE Magazine, LIFE Photo Archive

• Fine Arts , History , Library Tech , Research , Web Resources
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