You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2008.
As part of an analysis of how well (or not so well) the library’s database subscriptions in English are aligned with the research needs of students and teachers, we currently have trial access to the following resources that you are welcome to use. Note that EBSCO products work much better with IE than Firefox.
On a related note, the library recently subscribed to an additional source for science reading and research: Scientific American Online (use IE; select from menu; login available for home access). Enjoy!
I encourage you to share feedback with me about your experiences. Some resources are available only from school during the trial, but others have logins for off-campus use. Stop by the library for more details.
Columbia Granger’s Poetry Index: School Edition (use IE; select from menu; login available for home access)
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Literature Reference Center (use IE; select from menu; login available for home access)
MLA International Bibliography (use IE; select from menu; login available for home access)
Thanks to a MLWGS parent, novelist Min Jin Lee will be speaking about her first novel, Free Food for Millionaires, in the Forum during 4th block on Tuesday, May 6th. Mrs. Lee is one of the six writers being honored at the Junior League’s 63rd Annual Book & Author Dinner at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Tuesday night.
If you do not have an AP test and your 4th block teacher will permit your absence (do NOT miss any AP test reviews or similarly important activities), you are welcome to attend. If you plan to come, please RSVP to Ms. Sellors by Friday, May 2.
Are you familiar with the fabulous reference sources for world history in the World History Resource Center and Virtual Reference Library? If not, you’re missing out! I’ve attached a PDF that lists the world history reference sources in these two databases (download: globalstudies_ref_whrc_vrl)
One of my favorites is the 21-volume History in Dispute series. It focuses on historical issues about which scholars disagree. Reading their arguments is thought-provoking and can help generate ideas for a research topic of your own. The MW library owns a print set too, but if you know a little trick, you can access it from home. Here’s what you do…
- Go to the World History Resource Center
- Switch from basic to advanced search
- Enter your search term(s) - for example, Kurds. Remember to start with a general topic and add terms only as necessary to narrow your results. Databases are smaller universes than the World Wide Web.
- In the search box below your search term(s), select Source from the drop-down menu and type the title of the source you’d like to search (or a title key word, such as dispute for History in Dispute).
- Search
For the example search (Kurds/source - dispute), one of your results would be scholarly pro/con essays regarding the creation of an independent Kurdish state.
Another reminder - you must search WHRC directly - the results are not included in a PowerSearch.
In contrast, articles from the e-books in the Virtual Reference Library WILL show up in a PowerSearch under the Books tab. You may also go to the Gale database main menu and open VRL directly to limit your search to these e-books or select an e-book from the title list (click Show All to view the complete list) and browse its table of contents, etc.
Happy researching! Don’t you just love learning?!
In case you get an opportunity to do so between now and June 8, I highly recommend traveling to Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum to see Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, an extraordinary exhibit organized in seven interconnected galleries: Way Finding, Mapping the World, Mapping Imaginary Worlds, Mapping Your World, Mapping Nature and Society, Mapping History: Making America, and Consuming Maps.
It is the largest exhibit of maps in 50 years, drawing together maps from public and private collections around the world, including the British Library, Newberry Library, Library of Congress, National Archives, C.V. Starr East Asian Library at U.C. Berkeley, and University Library Basel, Switzerland.
Here are just a few of the treasures you’ll see if you make the journey:
- 1566 cordiform projection world map by Cimerlini
- Jain cosmological diagram
- Hindu cosmologic globe
- Marvel of Created Things, 16th c. copy of a 13th c. work by Al-Qazvini showing the Islamic world view
- 19th c. Lukasa memory board from Luba (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- expansive Japanese woodblock map from 1694 of the Road Network in Japan during the Edo Period
- 18th c. atlas of Nanchang, China reflecting the blue-green style of landscape painting
- Babylonian clay tablet from 1300 B.C. showing the town plan of Nippur
- itinerary map from London to Chambery from Matthew Paris’s 1252 Book of Additions
- map of the Low Countries in the form of a Lion from 1583 (partial image in post above)
- Lindbergh’s NY to Paris flight plan
- sketchbooks from Union and Confederate cartographers
- maps of imaginary worlds - Lilliput, Yoknapatawpha County, the Hundred Acre Wood, and Oz
- physiographic diagram of the Atlantic Ocean floor that reinforced the concept of continental drift
- huge geological map of England (about 10 feet tall) that helped support the theory of evolution
- maps of Italy by DaVinci reflecting the first use of shades of color to indicate elevation
- Harry Beck’s famous depiction of the London Underground
Drop by the library to see the newest faculty showcase - Wild Woods handmade puzzles by Ms. Brenda Thornton, our ASL teacher.
A few of you have already asked how to get the MLWGS gadget for your iGoogle home page. All you need to do is click HERE. Once the gadget is on your page, you can move it and/or minimize it to show only the title bar (the words are a link to the library blog).
