Library Stuff

“There’s a name for it. “Library anxiety.” We learned about this in library school. Symptoms: anxiety, uncertainty, sudden shyness, fear, worry that one might seem woefully ignorant, embarrassment, bewilderment, lack of confidence, and perhaps even shame that one should “know better” or already know the answers before the questions are even posed. If not treated, additional more-severe symptoms may develop, including: frustration, despair, a spirit of defeat, giving up, bitterness, and a vow to never do this again (whatever “this” is). (via ancestry.com)

To Ling Guo, a curator for the Beijing Botanic Garden, one of the best places to learn about Chinese crab apples is half a world away, in Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library. Guo was wrapping up two months at the Arboretum as a visiting scientist and a recipient of the Jewett Prize, which supports researchers studying flowers and fruits. Guo, one of the world’s foremost experts on crab apples, has been creating an updated checklist of all the world’s varieties for use by her home institution as it takes over the rotating role managing the international crab apple registry, which helps monitor and assign names for new varieties.” (via Harvard Gazette)

“Mediander.com is aiming to solve the unecessary information overload by aggregating information relevant to what users are searching for with what they call “a knowledge engine powered by your curiosity.” Mediander has various sections that allow people to become better at seeking knowledge and information. There is the Connects page that will show you a topic and then what it’s connected to. There is a Culturemap that uses original content to show interactive perceptions of topics. They also have a bookshop where you can buy books related to the topics for which you are searching.” (via CNET)

“Hundreds of thousands of research journal articles are to be made available on computers in public libraries. The Access to Research initiative will give the public access to articles on health, biological research, engineering and social sciences for the first time More than 8,000 journals from around the world are included. It is hoped this will encourage more people to use public libraries. The Publishing Licensing Society (PLS) is behind the scheme.” (via BBC)

“Legend has it that the long arm of Texas law once extended to hotel balconies where the men with star badges would take into custody anyone who violated a state statute forbidding people to hunt buffalo from such a perch. The legend ends at the Legislative Reference Library of Texas, where a small team of well-referenced librarians has gone through the records and sorted out fact from fiction when it comes to the laws of the Lone Star State. “The ideas of the history of Texas capture the imagination with those stories of cattle drives and the old West. People want to still think it is like that and those laws are on the books,” said Catherine Wusterhausen, the library’s assistant director.” (via Reuters)