The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London begin later this month on July 27th. For nineteen days, athletes from 205 countries will compete in 300 events for gold, silver, and bronze medals. Over one billion people watch the Summer Olympics, when it is held every four years. This month, the colonnade of Ellis Library is showcasing both the history of the Olympic Games and this year’s host city, London. As you are walking through the library, why don’t you stop by one of the displays and learn about some of the most memorable moments in Olympics history, or the history and culture of the only city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times.
Resources and Services
The Fourth of July Orations Collection: Independence Day 1812
July 4, 2012, will likely see many Americans partaking in backyard barbeques and enjoying fireworks displays. However, generations of earlier Americans celebrated Independence Day in a different way: with a sermon.
On this day two hundred years ago, the young United States was preparing itself to go to war yet again with a world superpower, Great Britain. In Washington, renowned orator Daniel Webster delivered an impassioned anti-war address on the subject. The war, he argued, would damage American business and place American liberty in peril:
Under these circumstances we believe that the War, “instead of elevating will depress the national character; instead of securing, it will endanger our rights; instead of improving, it will prejudice our best interests.”
Not only that, but the war would in effect ally the U.S. with Napoleonic France. What could be worse than that? Webster can’t think of much.
If there be any among us so infatuated, or so stupified [sic], as not to shudder at the prospect of a French Alliance, let them come and behold the nations that lie mangled and bleeding at the foot of the Tyrant’s throne, in a mixture of moral and political ruin.
Webster’s speech is one of the 450+ sermons and addresses that are now preserved in the Fourth of July Orations Collection in Special Collections. Spanning 1791 to 1925, the collection documents the issues and debates that mattered to the American people across a broad span of our history.
The collection is completely digitized. It is available online at the University of Missouri Digital Library, and also in traditional format in the Special Collections Reading Room.
July 4 Holiday Hours
July 3 (Tuesday) 8am to 5pm
July 4 (Wednesday) Closed
July 5, Resumer Summer Semester Hours
Finch Report on Open Access
The Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings (U.K.) has recently published “Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications.” It’s know as the Finch Report after chair Dame Janet Finch. Check it out online!
The report states:
“The principle that the results of research that has been publicly funded should be freely accessible in the public domain is a compelling one, and fundamentally unanswerable. Effective publication and dissemination is essential to realising that principle, especially for communicating to non-specialists. Improving the flows of the information and knowledge that researchers produce will promote
- enhanced transparency, openness and accountability, and public engagement with research;
- closer linkages between research and innovation, with benefits for public policy and services, and for economic growth;
- improved efficiency in the research process itself, through increases in the amount of information that is readily accessible, – reductions in the time spent in finding it, and greater use of the latest tools and services to organise, manipulate and analyse it; and
- increased returns on the investments made in research, especially the investments from public funds.”
Science Magazine’s recap: UK Panel Backs Open Access for All Publicly Funded Research Papers
Additional info: UK Says It Will Move to Open Access for Publicly Funded Research
Now Online: Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
The National Research Council has released Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine. Check it out online!
Press Release from NAP
Date: May 30, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Current Focus of Veterinary Medical Profession Leaves Research, Food Security, Public Health Needs Underserved
WASHINGTON — Without immediate action, a new National Research Council report warns, the academic veterinary community could fail to prepare the next generation of veterinarians for faculty teaching and research positions as well as for jobs in state diagnostic laboratories, federal research and regulatory agencies, and the pharmaceutical and biologics industry. Although the supply of veterinarians is growing, more than half of veterinary students seek training in companion animal or pet medicine. In addition, increasing debt from veterinary education may inhibit graduates from pursuing Ph.D. training that would prepare them for academic careers, key jobs in the public sector, and some positions in industry.
Cost-cutting measures at universities have adversely affected the ability of colleges and schools of veterinary medicine to hire faculty in less popular fields of veterinary medicine and to support graduate research training. A potential shortage of professionals with training beyond a Doctor of Science in Veterinary Medicine could impact the supply of veterinarians to fill jobs overseeing and enforcing food safety and animal health standards, conducting research in human drug development and advances in pet health, and participating in wildlife and ecosystem management, infectious disease control, biosecurity, and agro-terrorism prevention.
“Companion animal medicine and its growing number of specialties that improve the health and lives of pets has been a success story, but it dominates veterinary schools’ curriculum and resources, sometimes to the detriment of equally critical fields,” said Alan Kelly, emeritus professor of pathology and pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “We must ensure that schools train qualified veterinarians in sync with the diverse and growing array of societal needs.”
For example, food-animal production is changing dramatically in the U.S. and abroad. Large U.S. producers need veterinary services to focus on “herd health” while small producers, who have difficulty collectively supporting a full-time veterinarian, need primary animal care. Having fewer veterinarians in rural areas raises concerns about the level of animal disease surveillance in the field, which is critical to the prompt detection of outbreaks with potentially massive economic consequences.
In developing countries, where meat demand is growing, crowding animals in hot, humid conditions places the health of animals, humans, and ecosystems at risk and is unsustainable. “The fact that 60 percent of all infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin and 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases in the last decade arose from animals underscores the importance of maintaining expertise in other areas of veterinary medicine,” explained Kelly.
Addressing these challenges depends on the profession’s commitment to promote and develop diverse career paths in veterinary medicine and on the efficient delivery of veterinary services, which in some cases may mean using veterinary technicians to extend the field’s reach. The report’s recommendations center on partnerships among professional veterinary organizations, academia, industry, and government. These groups could form a national consortium or committee to focus on the economic sustainability of the profession in all sectors of service, education, and research, and develop a national veterinary curriculum that could be delivered electronically or through alternative measures.
Veterinary medical organizations and the deans of veterinary colleges could work to increase the profession’s visibility, standing, and potential to address global food security, says the report. Establishing a health-oriented think tank with the goal of advancing sustainable food-animal husbandry practices, welfare policies, ecosystem health standards, and the capacity of the veterinary profession in the developing world is important and could help future generations of veterinarians collaborate across professions, disciplines, and cultures. A part of this body could also evaluate the competencies required of U.S. veterinary graduates to address the global challenges of food and water safety and security, the impact of urbanization on food supply systems, and the health of wildlife and ecosystems.
The study was sponsored by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Bayer Animal Health Inc. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter. Panel members, who serve pro bono as volunteers, are chosen by the Academies for each study based on their expertise and experience and must satisfy the Academies’ conflict-of-interest standards. The resulting consensus reports undergo external peer review before completion. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org/studycommitteprocess.pdf. A panel roster follows.
PubMed: results by year; PMC image search
On your PubMed results screen, you’ll now see year information and image search information in the right-hand column.
2012 June 08 [posted]
PubMed “Results by year” and PubMed Central “PMC images search” tools will soon display in the discovery column for all PubMed users (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: PubMed results with “Results by year” and “PMC images search” tools.
The “Results by year” timeline tool will display for search results with 10,000 or more citations. Mouseover the bars in the timeline to display the number of citations for each year, click the right and left arrows to display older or newer years, and click the individual bars in the timeline to display the results for a single year (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Mouseover for the PubMed “Results by year” timeline tool.
The “PMC images search” tool will display for PubMed search results that meet a number of criteria, e.g., results with a minimum of 250 citations, filters are not active, the search does not include Boolean operators, the search retrieves a minimum of 4 relevant images calculated using a term weighted algorithm.
To enhance the size of an image, mouseover the thumbnail in the tool (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Mouseover of an image in the “PMC Images search” tool.
Click within the enhanced image box to display the PubMed Central article for the image.
The PubMed discovery column tools may be modified in the future.
By Kathi Canese
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Poems about Fathers
Happy Father's Day! Today we're offering a selection of poetry by, for, and about fathers. John MacKay Shaw, a father of two, was a businessman and bibliophile with a particular interest in the literature of childhood. He wrote this volume of poetry, entitled The Things I Want, at the request of his young children, Cathmar and Bruce, in the 1930s. Shaw's library is now housed at the Florida State University Libraries.
Wyatt Prunty is a professor of creative writing at the University of the South, and his poem "To My Father" deals with a son watching his father struggle with disease. This copy of the poem was produced as a broadside by the Palaemon Press. The edition was limited to 126 copies; the Libraries' copy is number 99 and was signed by Prunty.
Finally, from the library of John Gneisenau Neihardt comes Father: An Anthology of Verse, published in 1931. The anthology contains poetry both humorous and sentimental on the subject of fathers, fatherhood, children and families. Neihardt received this book as a review copy, and the book still has its original review slip.
Skin white as snow, hair black as ebony
Snow White's been busy lately. This year alone she’s starring in two movies while also appearing in a television series.
First published by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm as part of their Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder-und Hausmӓrchen), the brief story introduces all the familiar faces: Snow White, her evil stepmother, the huntsman, and the dwarves. The elements and characters have been adapted in many ways over the years, from films and books to ballets and opera. Many of the narratives stick close to
that original tale, while others take a bit of creative license.
In Special Collections we see Snow White in very recognizable tales. A copy of Grimm’s Household Stories from 1896 and Grimm’s Fairy Tales from 1962 both contain the story as recorded by the Grimm brothers. The illustrations present a young girl with dark hair.
The comic series Fables catches up with Snow White in the present. The action takes place well after the adventures found in the Grimm's tale, with Snow White serving as deputy mayor for a community of relocated fairy tale characters. She is joined by other familiar faces, including Cinderella and the wolf who appears in many tales.
Click on any of the images below to see a few illustrations from some of the many works featuring these characters in our collection. You'll find both the well known versions of their stories and some with creative twists.
Gardens in Special Collections
June is prime time for gardeners in Missouri, and it’s also a great time to take a look at the rare and historic horticulture and gardening books in Special Collections. Since MU has a long history as an agriculture school, Special Collections has a great collection of these early texts on plants, gardening, and landscape design.
The Edible Garden
The last decade has seen a renewed interest in local and sustainable food, including vegetable gardening and heritage or heirloom varieties. The absence of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and modern machinery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries meant that kitchen and market gardeners had to be experts in the care of a wide variety of food crops. Advice for gardeners from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries contains information on historic plant varieties as well as natural solutions to problems with climate, soils, and pests.
The Flower Garden
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the introduction of a number of new flowering plants as botanists and nurserymen identified foreign species and developed hybrids. Although color publications such as Curtis’s Botanical Magazine remained popular through the period, most gardeners learned about new flowers through descriptions or black and white plates. Botanical gardens such as the Royal Gardens at Kew became popular spots for the public to see exotic and colorful plants in person.
The Park
Garden design has changed dramatically from the formalized symmetry of Italian and French gardens to the informal plantings of today. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, English gardeners began to break away from the geometrical patterns of Renaissance knot gardens and Baroque parterres. Instead, the new garden style focused on creating picturesque, naturalistic views. Landscape architects during this period sought to shape the landscape without the outward appearance of control, creating “natural” scenery too perfect to exist in nature.
More Information
Search for Gardening, Fruit, Botany, or Landscape architecture in the MERLIN catalog. Limit your search to Special Collections to find more primary sources on historic gardens and gardening practices.
Edwin Ellis Art on Display
Edwin E. Ellis has over 35 Years of photography experience, traveling throughout the United States plus a few trips to mexico and Canada to capture nature, scenic, and wildlife photographs. He has been awarded 17 first place trophies for prints and slides in competitions and numerous gold ribbons and medals in nature, photo travel, color, contemporary and photo Journalism at Camera Circle of Glendale and (S4C) Southern California Council of Camera Clubs. Mr. Ellis now resides in the beautiful town of Columbia, Missouri, his original home state before leaving Missouri May 2nd 1957 when he was 17 to journey to California where he has lived for many years. Mr Ellis now plans, in between employment to photograph the beauty of Missouri and surrounding states for the rest of his life. His art is on display in the Bookmark Cafe.