Anticipating Surprises

Did you know that the National Academies Press makes all their books available for free online?  One of the Academies is the National Research Council and you can find their new book Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises (2013) here.

The History of Food in America, sort of

I went to the Lunch and Learn today on the subject of food sustainability - and what a great pot luck!  Soup!  Pie!  Crusty bread! 

All of this got me thinking about, of course, government information.

Okay, I'm the government information librarian, so it's a vocational hazard.  But take a look at the titles of some of these early twentieth century Department of Agriculture publications, all in our collection.  Back then the farmer didn't have the Internet.  He or she might not have had access to a library.  These free or inexpensive pamphlets available from the County Agricultural Agent might make a big difference in crops, and therefore income.  I wonder how good the advice would be today?  By the way, most of the pre-1976 government publications we own are not in the online catalog, but the call numbers below will get you there, in Haggard 2.

Adequate diets for families with limited incomes (1931) A 1.38: 113
American medicinal plants of commercial importance (1930) A 1. 38:77
Are we well fed? (1941) A 1.38: 430
Blue fox farming in Alaska (1925) A 1.3: 1350
Consumption of food in the United States, 1909-49 (1949) A 1.38: 691
Cooperative marketing (1920) A 1.9: 1144
DDT and other insecticides and repellents developed for the armed forces (1946) A 1.38: 608
The farm woman’s problems (1920) A 1.4: 148
Harmfulness of headache mixtures (1909) A 1.9: 377
Is the public market a good civic investment? (1931) A 1.35:73
Kudzu as a farm crop (1943) A 1.9: 1923
Northwestern apple packing houses (1921) A 1.9: 1204
The sanitary privy (1915) A 1.9: 463 (That's an outdoor toilet)
The school garden (1917) A 1.9: 218
Some forms of food adulteration and simple methods for their detection (1911) A 7.3:100
Toward farm security (1938) A 1.38: 308

Friday at the Library: COME CELEBRATE!

There will be all kinds of celebrations in the Library this Friday afternoon and we hope to see you all there!

1-2 PM. Library Skybridge.  Celebrating 50 years of providing government information to the public!  We have been a federal depository library since 1962 and we will be showing off with cake, speeches, and displays of weird government documents (jigsaw puzzles, comic books, how-to-grow-hemp).  Did we mention cake?

2-3:30 PM.   Library Presentation Room.  (Wilson Library 164).  Four Western professors, all expert researchers, will explain how they use government information in their work.  One will be Andy Bach of Huxley College's  Department of Environmental Studies.

4-6 PM.  Main Reading Room (Wilson Library 4 Central) The opening of the Northwest Collection in its new home, the Main Reading Room.  There will be a reception from 4-5 and from 5-6 John Scurlock, a great Washington photographer, will discuss his pictures of the Cascades.

Oh, and a bonus!  All day go to Special Collections (Wilson Library 6th Floor) to see "The Owl and the Woodpecker," a display of amazing photographs by Washington photographer Paul Bannick.

Is the military sustainable?

I happen to be the government information librarian at Western, so from time to time I will go to the Library's Government Environmental Webpages list to take a look at what various  agencies are saying or doing about sustainability.

The Pentagon might not be the first place you would expect to find green thinking, but those folks know they use a lot  of energy.  Some of the highlights on their Sustainability Page:

* They are trying out 500 electric vehicles, modified to send power back to the grid when idle.
* The Air Force is using wind turbines to create the power they need.
* In Afghanistan, where every fuel run can be dangerous, the Army is testing hybrid technology.
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