Reading around the world

Take a look at Steve McCurry's photographs of people reading around the world on his blog. The title of the essay is "Fusion: The Synergy of Images and Words."

Secure Passwords Explained by Common Craft

In this video, Common Craft offers tips on creating secure passwords.

Blekko

A new search engine named Blekko is being released today. The New York Times writes: "Blekko’s search engine scours three billion Web pages that it considers worthwhile, but it shows only the top results on any given topic. It calls its edited lists of Web sites slashtags."

A winner!

Wubing Ye won the $25. Amazon gift certificate in the library's drawing. She correctly identified the 3rd floor of the Sherman Fairchild Library as the location of the wall sculpture. Congratulations, Wubing!

Drawing for $25 Amazon gift card

Caltech Library Services will hold a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card on October 15, 2010. The drawing is open to Caltech faculty, students, and staff. To be eligible to win, correctly identify the campus location of the image above. Submit your answer via the library’s text service, Text a Librarian. Text caltech, the location of the image, and your name and contact info to 66746.

LexisNexis quiz with prizes

LexisNexis, a database the library subscribes to, is starting the school year by sponsoring a weekly quiz. It will run through November 15th. By winning points, you will be able to redeem gift cards from a variety of national chains. What, exactly, can you search for in LN? News, legal cases,and information about countries, people, and companies. To access, go through the library portal To take the quiz, go here. Good luck!

Do you read Nature?

The University of California contemplates calling for a boycott of the Nature Publishing Group in response to a 400-percent price hike. More...

Wikipedia

Common Craft has created a 3 minute video explaining what makes Wikipedia, Wikipedia.

Friends of Caltech Libraries June 3rd event on campus - free for students

The Friends of Caltech Libraries present The Man in White and the Other Woman: Revisiting Mark Twain, featuring Laura Twombley, President of Pitzer College, Mark Twain scholar and author. 7 p.m. - Thursday, June 3, 2010. Hameetman Auditorium, Cahill Building 1216 East California Blvd.

Isabel Lyon was Mark Twain’s personal assistant in the final stages of his life. Despite years of complex interdependence, Twain was ultimately to denounce Lyon publicly, using outrageous invective against her even in his private correspondence. Whatever lay behind such outbursts and caused the iconic writer to break with his carefully crafted and cool public persona are subjects that Laura Trombley explores in her groundbreaking new book, Mark Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years. A foremost expert on the great American writer, Trombley was featured in Ken Burns’ documentary on Mark Twain. Among her other works are Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship and Mark Twain in the Company of Women.

Moderator Cindy Weinstein is Professor of English and Executive Officer of Humanities at Caltech. Professor Weinstein’s broad understanding of 19th century American literature and culture and her scholarly focus on the reconfigured family in sentimental novels make her the perfect moderator for an evening filled with intellectual stimulation.

ebrary books

The library is collecting more and more e-books. This ebrary page, assembled by Arun Sannuti, Caltech PMA librarian, explains the nuts and bolts of how to make the most of this particular collection.

Help with keywords and phrases for your searches

Check out Visuwords, an online graphical dictionary. It's useful for both keywords and definitions.
KwMap.net is another source for keywords. Google Wonder Wheel does something similar.

Harvard’s libraries deal with disruptive change

An article by Jonathan Shaw in the May-June issue of Harvard Magazine discusses libraries and the Internet, and where they might be headed. A snippet:

The journals themselves have grown in number and quantity of articles, but “the amount of data being produced and analyzed in large, curated databases,” Kohane [director of the medical library] says, “exceeds by several orders of magnitude what appears in printed publications.” The fact that students and doctors don’t think to use this digital material is an international problem. “Even at Harvard,” where “we spend millions of dollars” annually for access to the databases, “many of the medical staff, graduate students, and residents don’t know how to use…,” he pauses. “Well, it’s worse than that. They don’t know that they exist.”

Friends of Caltech Libraries present guided hike to Lookout Mountain

Albert Michelson, America’s first Nobel Laureate, made many measurements of the speed of light. His most accurate and final measurement was made in the San Gabriel Mountains, using mirrors on the summit of Mount Wilson and Lookout Mountain. Wayne Steinmetz, a member of the FOCAL Board, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Pomona College and a US Forest Service volunteer, will conduct a hike to the summit of Lookout Mountain on Saturday, 10 April. The route will follow an unmaintained trail and will cover a pristine canyon, rugged sections of the Sheep Mountain Wilderness, and the historic summit. We might see Nelson bighorn sheep. Hikers considering the 10-mile hike should regard it as strenuous. See map.

WHEN: Saturday, 10 April 2010 at 8:00 a.m.(rain cancels)
Please sign on via email to wsteinmetz@pomona.edu. A head count will be helpful.

WHERE: The hike will begin in the parking lot by the Community Church in Baldy Village. If you are coming from Pasadena or Los Angeles, take the Towne Avenue exit off of the 210. Turn left and head north over the freeway to Baseline. Turn right onto Baseline and head east to Mills Avenue. Turn left onto Mills and proceed north until Mills ends at a stop sign. Turn right onto Baldy Road which first heads east and then turns north in the vicinity of San Antonio Dam. Continue north on the Baldy Road until Baldy Village. The Community Church is on the left (west) side of the road, after the fire station and before the USFS visitor center.

WHAT: Be prepared for a strenuous but memorable hike. Wear good hiking boots and long pants (chaparral!). Bring 2 Liters of water, a lunch, and the usual 10 essentials. A hiking stick is recommended. The hike leader will provide a map for the route.

WHY: The trail is disappearing and the hike leader is moving away from Southern California. This may be your last chance to see the route.


For more information, email Wayne Steinmetz at wsteinmetz@pomona.edu or call 909-624-6981.

Wall Street Journal: Engineering grads earn the most

"New college graduates may be entering the worst job market in decades, but there are still some majors that pay off—and all of them are in the applied sciences...." Read more.

New York Times mathematics column

Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics at Cornell, has been writing a math column for the New York Times this winter. "In 2007 he received the Communications Award, a lifetime achievement award for the communication of mathematics to the general public. He previously taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received the E.M. Baker Award, an institute-wide teaching prize selected solely by students... He is the author, most recently, of “The Calculus of Friendship,” the story of his 30-year correspondence with his high school calculus teacher."

The Chicago Manual of Style now online

Writing a paper? The Chicago Manual of Style is now available online. Look here for guidance on a host of writing issues, including citing electronic sources and using correct punctuation and grammar.

Biomedical and engineering competition

Kristin Buxton, engineering and computer science librarian, and house librarian to Dabney and Fleming Houses, found this announcement of an biomedical and engineering competition with prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2500.

RSS feeds to literature collections

Would you like to stay on top of new additions to the Leisure Reading Collection, as well as to the American and English literature collections? Subscribe using an RSS feed, with these URLS:

http://library.caltech.edu/techservices/new/feeds/LitAme.xml

http://library.caltech.edu/techservices/new/feeds/LitEng.xml

Protecting reputations online

Common Craft, a video producing company, has made a clever video explaining the long term risks of sharing inappropriate information online.

Did you know 4.0?

British Library to offer free ebook downloads

More than 65,000 19th century works of fiction from the British Library's collection are to be made available for free downloads by the public.

New printers on first floor SFL have been installed

Get ready to SURF!

• The SURF Proposal Writing Workshop will be coming up soon. If you’re feeling unsure about where to search for information on your topic, the library can help. Not clear about locating the papers of a potential mentor? Looking for the latest findings on a particular subject? Caltech librarians can steer you towards the right databases with helpful searching tips. Contact your house librarian who can set up an appointment for you individually or as a group, your choice. February 22nd is the deadline for SURF applications this year.

• As researchers and potential authors of scholarly papers, you might want to take a look at

The Right to Research is a student guide to issues in research. It was written by an undergraduate for undergraduates. You can also pick up a paper copy of the guide from any Caltech library.

• The library has begun the process of updating its printing equipment. Stay tuned for future updates.

• Heard of Safari Books Online? The library subscribes to many in the Safari Basic Tech collection. You can view all the titles here.