Ohrstrom Blog » Sports

New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society

Lura Sanborn — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0000

New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society edited by Rodney P. Carlisle, Sage, 2009.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 790 C19P

A 2-volume set containing 450 articles focused on play, including: “games, toys, sports and entertainments found around the world.” (xii).

Examples include: Academic Learning & Play, Hide & Seek, Highland Games, I Spy, Mother-Child Play, Play & Evolution

Helpful for: Global Studies, Humanities, History, Social Studies, Sports, Anthropology

New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of Sports in America

Lura Sanborn — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:00:12 +0000

Encyclopedia of Sports in America: A History from Foot Races to Extreme Sports by Murry R. Nelson, Greenwood, 2009.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 796 N33

This 2-volume set identifies and describes American sports, sporting events and key athletes from 1607 through the 2000′s.

Examples include: Auto Racing in the 1910′s, College Basketball in the 1930′s, Horse Racing in the 1950′s, The Houston Astrodome and Wayne Gretzky

Helpful for: Humanities, Humanities IV, American History, Sports History

New Reference Set: Statistical Encyclopedia of North American Professional Sports

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:09:30 +0000

Lura Sanborn – Reference Librarian

Statistical Encyclopedia of North American Professional Sports: All Major League Teams and Major Non-Team Events Year by Year, 1876 through 2006 2nd ed. Edited by K. Michael Gaschnitz. McFarland, 2008.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 796 G21S

Use this set to locate statistics related to Major League team sports of the U.S. and Canada including: baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer and football. Browse or search by date or team.

Use this set to determine the number of wins by the Boston Red Caps in 1876 (39); to find that in 1959 Jean Beliveau lead the National Hockey League with 45 goals; and discover that in 1998 the Women’s National Basketball Association named Suzie McConnell Serio of the Cleveland Rockers the Newcomer of the Year.

Helpful for: Sports Fans, North American History.

Ohrstrom Library staff wishes best of luck to our spring SPS sports teams as they begin the new season: baseball, crew, lacrosse, softball, tennis and track!

Image above: Bennett, James E. Baseball Catcher. Patent 755,209. 22 Mar. 1904. United States Patent and Trademark Office. 14 Feb. 2009 .

The Physics of . . .

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:57:34 +0000

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.

Periodical Picks: Earth Day 2009

New Reference Book: The NYT Guide to Essential Knowledge

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:41:47 +0000

Deb Baker – Interim Reference Librarian

The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind, St. Martin’s Press, 2007.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: Ref. 031 N42

With over 1300 pages of information on dozens of subjects, the newspaper whose motto is “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” attempts to offer all the facts your curiosity desires. Dip into overviews of everything from the “History of Computing” to “African Literature” or a “Dictionary of Food” – and don’t miss puzzle editor Will Shortz’s tips on solving the NYT crosswords and sudoku.

HELPFUL FOR: Life, the Universe, and Everything

FUN FOR: puzzlers, foodies, trivia buffs, game show lifelines, Jeopardy contestants