While perusing the Internet(which, btw, we have almost finished), we came across this relatively new type of online tool – the online state encyclopedia. Not based on a tourist-board-chamber-of-commerce model, these worthy electronic tomes are the epitome of scholarly endeavor with articles written by experts, edited by subject specialists, funded by federal(NEH) and state(humanities councils or committees) entities, and undertaken with the cooperation of the respective states’ historical societies and universities. Many of these projects got their start in 2001 when the NEH gave seed money for the planning of these works. The works range from barely underway but still growing(Oregon) to the massively comprehensive(Texas). Among the states now online, we have: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. Other states set to appear shortly are Alabama and Virginia. If you, gentle reader, come across others that meet the above criteria, please let us know so that we may add them to our list.
Archive for February, 2008
Online State Encyclopedias
Pitchers and Catchers
Ignore the often incorrect divinations of an underground-dwelling mammal, the true harbinger of spring, with an 100% accuracy rate, is baseball spring training in its guises of the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues. In case you think that baseball statistics are modern number-crunching, mind-numbing phenomena, look at Spalding’s Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1895. If that is not punishment enough, peruse the Baseball Almanac with statistics back to 1876. And, as always, check OSCAR, the Library’s online catalog, for dozens of books on baseball ranging from Carl Prince’s Brooklyn’s Dodgers to Howard Bryant’s Juicing the Game.
Who is that seated figure at the top of this entry? Some hints for you: he was a West Point graduate, a Union general who figured prominently at the Battle of Gettysburg (his biased account can be read here), is the putative father of baseball, and his link to New Jersey is that he died in Mendham. Give up? He is Abner Doubleday. Read his entry in the American National Biography(located in the Reference Room along with hundreds of other biographical works), and consult his electronic bio in Biography Reference Bank (one of the more than 100 databases to which the Library subscribes.) Batter up!
Happy Birthday, Susan B Anthony
Today is her birthday. Besides checking out the Library’s books by and about her, not to mention numerous journal articles, you might want to see her six-volume work (as edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton) – History of Woman Suffrage – online. Also, please visit the Library of Congress and view “Votes for Women,” which contains selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Valentine’s Day Idea …
Sure we all love flowers, candy and other romantic gifts … But how about trying something a little different? Bring your sweetie a romantic library book! Or print out a love poem and put it her notebook. The following may be good starts:
A companion to romance : from classical to contemporary
edited by Corinne Saunders.
PR149 .R65 C66 2004
The descent of love : Darwin and the theory of sexual selection in American fiction, 1871-1926
Bert Bender.
PS374.L6 B46 1996
The double flame : love and eroticism
Octavio Paz ; translated from the Spanish by Helen Lane.
PN56.S5 P3913 1995
Drinking : a love story
HV5293.K53 A3 1997B
The first love stories : from Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult
Diane Wolkstein.
PN6071.L7 W65 1991
Forbidden fruit : love stories from the Underground Railroad
Betty DeRamus.
E450 .D47 2005
Love, again : a novel
Doris Lessing.
PR6023.E833 L47 1996
Of love and other demons
Gabriel García Márquez ; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman.
PQ8180.17.A73 D4513 1995
The Oxford book of English love stories
edited by John Sutherland.
PR1309.L68 O94 1996
Tango : the art history of love
Robert Farris Thompson.
GV1796 .T3 T46 2005
What lips my lips have kissed : the loves and love poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Daniel Mark Epstein.
PS3525 .I495 Z636 2002
The world treasury of love stories
selected and with an introduction by Lucy Rosenthal ; with a foreword by
Clifton Fadiman, general editor.
PN6071.L7 W67 1995
Happy Valentine’s Day
Did you know that in 2006, $14.9 billion of chocolate and cocoa products were shipped in the U.S? For this and other fun-facts, stop by here. And do not forget that in Down Under it is Library Lovers Day. Hug a book today.
Presidents’ Day
With the ongoing primaries culminating in Election Day and Presidents’ Day upon us, this site provides a great variety of historical resources on topics presidential from papers and speeches to timelines. Examine the papers of George Washington, view over 100 short films featuring Theodore Roosevelt, and read brief biographies on all our presidents.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 
