Databases

One hundred years ago today, photographer Gordon Parks was born. According to Wikipedia, Parks "...was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, writer and film director. He is best remembered for his photographic essays for Life magazine and as the director of the 1971 film, Shaft."

The library has a couple of books written by Gordon Parks, a children's book illustrated by Parks, and e-book of Parks' autobiography. We also have a DVD copy of the movie Shaft. Check one or more out today!

If you are interested in Gordon Parks' photography, you can view a few images through the MLibrary Image Collections database.

   

On this date fifty years ago, Algeria banned the Communist Party and closed its newspaper.

The Mardigian Library has online access to a few historical newspapers that covered this news item. These news articles can be accessed through ProQuest Direct. If you are looking for newspaper coverage of historical events, you can search individual newspapers by checking ProQuest Historical Newspapers and ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers. Or, you can search all newspapers available through ProQuest at one time by searching ProQuest Direct.

The other day, I was looking for new music to play during the holidays. I have multiple copies of a lot of the standard Christian hymns, but I wanted to learn something new. So, I searched the library catalog and found The New Oxford Book of Carols. This book includes the music and text for 201 carols from the last 700 years. I found a few new pieces for my Eb harmonica and there was so much for my D pennywhistle that I had a hard time limiting my choices. Now, to find the time to get out the guitar and keyboard as well…

How about checking out online sources of sheet music from the 19th century?
Music for the Nation: Sheet Music ~ 1820-1860 & 1870-1885, Historic American Sheet Music: 1850-1920, and Godey’s Lady’s Book (available in Accessible Archives) all include thousands of pieces of sheet music. I didn't check these specifically for holiday music, but give them a try!

   

     

This Friday (November 16), Dr. Kristi Judd from Eastern Michigan University will speak at the Natural Sciences Colloquium. Dr. Judd’s presentation will be “Effects of Phragmites invasion and removal on ecosystem structure and function in Great Lakes coastal wetlands.”

Do you know what Phragmites are? You might want to check them out in JSTOR Plant Science. JSTOR Plant Science offers:
• The world’s largest database of plant type specimens – more than a million specimens.
• Links to over 175,000 scientific research articles and other content dating back hundreds of years from leading academic journals.
• More than 20,000 paintings, photographs, drawings, and other images.

     

Another Stewardship Saturday will be held this Saturday (November 17) at the EIC. The goal of Stewardship Saturdays, held each month, is to remove invasive plants from the Environmental Interpretive Center Natural Areas. For more information, see the EIC’s newsletter Natural Explorations.

And, if you are interested in reading about invasive species, the library has a wealth of resources. Check our Summon discovery tool for books & e-books, book chapters, conference proceedings, dissertations & theses, journal articles, newspaper articles, radio program transcripts, reports, etc.

     

On this day in 1887, John Henry (Doc) Holliday died of tuberculosis. There was much more to Doc Holliday than his association with the Earp brothers and the 30-second Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881. How much do you know about the life of Doc Holliday? Wikipedia has quite a biography, with links to the well-known and not-so-well-known events in Holliday's life.

The Mardigian Library also has links to biography databases with information about Doc Holliday. The two best are probably:
• American National Biography Online
• Biography in Context

          

SpringerLink will be migrating to a new platform on Monday, November 26, 2012. If you would like to see the new platform before then, click here.

If you have up your own account on springerlink.com, your account will be lost. If you have favorites, searches, or alerts set up, you might want to go into your account to see what you have set up, so you can set them up again in the new SpringerLink.

Dr. Sofia D. Merajver will speak at the Natural Sciences Colloquium this Friday, November 6. Dr. Merajver is Professor of the Department of Internal Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology, and Director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Evaluation Program – all at the University of Michigan. The topic of the presentation will be “Global Health Equity in Cancer Care: Research Bridges the Gap.” Students are welcome. The presentation is from 3:10 to 4:00 p.m. in 1010 SLRC, with refreshments at 2:30 p.m.

Many journal articles and book chapters by Dr. Merajver can be found in the SpringerLink database. So, if you would like to find out what kind of research Dr. Merajver does before her presentation Friday, SpringerLink is a good place to start.

American History in Video includes commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries that allow students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation, over time. It includes over 6,000 videos with a run-time of over 1,600 hours.



Gale NewsVault provides cross-searching of nine different historical newspaper and periodical archive collections:
● 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
● 19th Century British Library Newspapers
● 19th Century U.S. Newspapers
● Economist Historical Archive
● Illustrated London News Historical Archive
● Liberty Magazine Historical Archive
● Sunday Times Digital Archive
● Times Digital Archive
● Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Readers’ Guide Retrospective indexes articles from over 550 periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada between 1890 and 1982. Current events and news, fine arts, fashion, education, business, sports, health, consumer affairs, etc. are covered.
Audience: Databases, Faculty, News, Staff, Students
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