March Madness, Literary-Style

Did you know that every March, The Morning News hosts their very own March Madness-style tournament, the Tournament of Books?

From the about page: “The Tournament is an annual springtime event (2013 marks our ninth year) here at The Morning News, where 16 of the previous year’s best works of fiction enter a March Madness-style battle royale. At the end of the month, the winner of the Tournament is blessed with the Rooster, our prize named after David Sedaris’s brother (because why not).”

For a little Monday Fun (because why should Friday get all the glory?)…

Discovered via a blog post by one of the tournament’s colour commentators, John Warner.

16 Great Library Scenes in Film

Friday fun, courtesy of the website Book Riot, by way of Stephen’s Lighthouse: 16 Great Library Scenes in Film.

While I like all of these (the one from Ghostbusters is a personal favourite), I think a TV shout-out needs to go out to just about every scene that took place in the library on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Giles has to be top of the list for coolest librarian ever…  Also, no mention of the Noah Wyle film The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which is campy fun.

What do you think? What’s your favourite scene in a library, movie or TV?

Just in case you’re not done your shopping yet…

…here’s an idea for the word-lover in your life.  Cambridge University Press recently published Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary, a book that has ignited some controversy by asserting that one of its former editors “surreptitiously expunged hundreds of words with foreign origins.”

The Guardian and The Atlantic Wire have both published nice pieces on the book and its assertions, in addition to the New York Times article quoted above.  Take a look and see if you think there is a scandal here.

Does this book make your Christmas list?  If not, what books are on your list this year?

Film History Online

Catching up on my email over the weekend, I came across a press release for a fantastic new online resource.

The Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been working for the last couple of years to make part of their enormous archive available online.  The digital collections currently include Alfred Hitchcock Papers, Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, Movie Star Ephemera, and a Sheet Music Collection.

If you have a few minutes, take a quick browse.  There’s some very cool stuff for both cinematic scholars and casual movie lovers!

It’s Nobel Prize Week

The Nobel Prizes are being handed out this week, with a new one announced each day.

So far, prizes have been awarded for:

• Medicine
• Physics
• Chemistry

Still to come this week: Literature, Peace, and Economics Sciences.  You can follow all the action on the official Nobel Prize website.

Want to know why the discoveries by the prize winners are so significant?  Check out the relevant RDC Library Subject guide to get more information.  Remember that you will need your NEOS barcode and PIN to access many of our resources from off campus.

Summer Searching Fun from Google

Do you sometimes find that looking for pictures using Google’s Image Search can be a little bit overwhelming?

Did you know that you can filter your image search by colour?

In this article, Google Search Educator Tasha Bergson-Michelson shows you how it works, and also gives several examples of when the colour filter can be useful (some academic, some less so…).

Give it a try, and see if this different way of narrowing your search results works for you!

Crowd-sourced Cataloguing at the Bodleian Library

Have you always wanted to be a cataloguer? I know, who doesn’t? Here’s your chance to leave a mark on one of the world’s foremost libraries. The Bodleian Library at Oxford University has developed a project to have regular folks describe a collection of 4300 Victorian music scores for piano. They hope that this project will open the door to having other collections catalogued by the public.

Don’t panic if you’re not sure how to describe a musical score – there’s an extensive Guidelines section to help.

Want to participate? Check it out at http://www.whats-the-score.org.

The project is hosted by Zooniverse.org – another cool spot to participate in world-wide, crowd-sourced projects. You could help researchers understand how whales communicate, search the Milky Way for data on how stars form, or study the lives of Ancient Greeks. Perfect rainy day summer projects!

For those of you curious about how books are (or used to be) made…

Glen Milner has made a lovely 2 minute video showing the printing of a book from start to finish.  I was fascinated at how much of it is done by hand.  Enjoy!

Another Reason to Read

Last week’s edition of the New York Times Sunday Review had a very interesting article on what happens to your brain when you read fiction.  The article quotes a number of studies that found, among other things:

• When we read a word with scent associations, like cinnamon, both the language-processing and smell-processing areas of our brains are stimulated.  The same is true for texture and movement.
• “Individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective.”

Take a look at the article, then check out RDC’s library catalogue to find a new work of fiction to stimulate your brain!

Find the library catalogue

• in the LIBRARY tab of The Loop.
• in the Find … Books tab of any Subject Guide.

A New Kind of Library

Columbia architecture grad John Locke is conducting an experiment on the streets of New York City, setting up impromptu libraries in phone booths.  So far he’s set up two, but has plans for several more.  Check out the photos, read the interview, and then tell us what you think.  Is this a good idea?