And the groundhog saw....

The Non Sequitur comic strip says it all!

But if you'd like to read a bit of history - a Quick Search in GALILEO brought up this article in Ebsco's Academic Search Complete. The abstract teases us with:

The article focuses on the tradition of Groundhog Day, celebrated every February 2 in the U.S. While the origin of Groundhog Day remains uncertain, one explanation is that the tradition derives from the European celebration of Candlemas, which falls roughly halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal equinox. It asserts that the most celebrated Groundhog Day ceremony occurs just outside the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Georgia does have their prognosticator in General Beau Lee, Ph.D., Georgia’s Official Weather Prognosticator. See what he says for those of us in Georgia!

Bundle up, get ready, it may not end soon.

Glad you asked!

from Amazon.coms Book Description:

• Which brilliant mathematician broke enemy codes during World War II, laid the foundation for artificial intelligence, underwent 12 months of "hormone therapy," and then was found dead in his bed, poisoned by cyanide?
• Which bank relies on peer pressure as collateral for loans?
• Which fitness champion walked barefoot to work carrying a 40-pound bag of sand and preached the virtues of nudity and sleeping on the floor?
• And the monks of which world religion cover their mouths with cloth to prevent them from ingesting insects and violating their belief in nonviolence?

Stay tuned for the answers . . .

If something is worth knowing, it’s in Encyclopaedia Britannica, one of the most exhaustive and definitive sources of information and knowledge in the world.

In Glad You Asked, you’ll find many facts and ideas, some novel, some essential, but all interesting, culled by Encyclopaedia Britannica and presented in a descriptive and accessible manner. The results are the names, dates, facts, events, phrases, and ideas all readers will want to have in their arsenal of knowledge

Check it out from our library - Glad You Asked [AG 106 .G57 2006] from the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (and only 211 pages long).

Throw me something, mister!

A faculty member went to New Orleans last weekend and returned with beads galore. The colorful, shiny, plastic beads are the traditional "throw" from the floats to all those people in the street.

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the last fling before Lent. I used Credo (our new reference database) to look for information. Limiting my search to the Religion collection didn't pull up any references for Mardi Gras. I was a bit surprised. A search through all of Credo did provide the information I thought should have been pulled up the first time. Mardi Gras - French for Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday or the two week season just before Lent. A time to eat up the fats and sweets before fasting begins!

Credo works like GALILEO in sifting through multiple resources to provide you the information you requested.

Better than shiny beads are the resources at your fingertips through our library resources.

The Show Must Go On

And where have I been? Sick, teaching, covering the library with one less staff person.....oh my.

The screen writers are on strike so producers are coming up with a variety of ways to fill the air time.

I noticed the International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance (IBTD) a database in GALILEO which expands on the 16-year coverage of its multi-volume predecessor with an additional 100,000 articles, essays and book chapters mined from internationally selected publications in drama, dance, media, mime, mixed entertainment, storytelling, music-drama, and puppetry. IBTD is a research tool for university theater and language departments, theater organizations, primary schools, social scientists and professionals within the field.

International Bibliography of Theater & Dance with Full Text includes nearly 100 journal titles and over 120 full-text books not included in Academic Search Complete.

IBTD is an Ebsco product (green & blue) fairly straightforward to use- the PDF files will include color pictures!

I did a search for Tony awards and retrieved over 1000 articles. When I looked for Oscar awards - a few hundred but I noticed the other subject term Academy Awards (motion pictures) and that pulled up over 1000! Using the correct search term provides useful results.