June 28, 2011 by news
One of the best things about a library is that you can be writing a paper, researching your thesis, or finishing an exercise for Political Science 200 and you find that you are hungry. You know that it will take a long time to walk back to your apartment, so you start thinking about what you have available to eat, and then even better, what you would eat if you could eat anything. Pasta for, example. Hmm, that sounds good, and so you use Scholarsearch to see what the library has on pasta and you learn we have 10,966 items including books, articles, and even a score for an opera. Then you get up and find a book like the one by Silvano Serventi titled Pasta: the story of a universal food. Before you know it you have learned more about one of your favorite foods than you ever expected to. Sure, you are still hungry, and yes, you still have to finish your project, but you find that you are happy because like millions of other people you’ve learned one of the best things about libraries–they can feed your soul.
June 27, 2011 by news
They say that a lot of students take longer than four years to finish college. We can see why. If you go to school for four years that is only fourteen hundred and sixty days. That means it’s only thirty-five thousand and forty hours, or two million one hundred thousand and twenty-four hundred minutes. If you read a book a minute you would only get through a little more than half the books in the library. Seriously, why would anyone hurry through school if they were going to lose access to all those great books. But don’t worry students, there is an option that gives you more time to spend in the library–graduate school.
June 24, 2011 by news
At the south end of level 2 in the library is a music area where we play music. It is a great place to study if you like some quiet sounds. The music library organized several days of music that is played with a random setting. Today we noticed a Christmas song. We hope you enjoy it.
June 23, 2011 by news
The Harold B. Lee Library is pleased to announce a new exhibit featuring the work of acclaimed English satirical novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. Located in the L. Tom Perry Special Collection’s foyer and reference room on level 1, the exhibit highlights Thackeray’s works, just in time to celebrate his 200th birthday. The exhibit is currently open and available to the public through the end of July.
Visitors to the exhibit will be able to learn more about Thackeray’s career, as well as view rarely seen first editions of “Vanity Fair” and “The Newcomes.” Thackeray is also featured in the adjacent Literary Worlds exhibit, which is scheduled to be taken down mid-July.
Jessica Drollette, a senior graduating this August with her Bachelors of Arts in history, played a crucial role in seeing this exhibit come to fruition. Drollette spent countless hours performing research, collecting artifacts and creating displays for the exhibit.
June 22, 2011 by news
Did you know that one of the most popular sections of the Harold B Lee Library is the Family History Library? Not only do university students and faculty use the resources in the Family History Library but it is also used by members of the local community. You are invited to visit and see what they have to offer that will interest you. If you are unsure about what to do there or you feel intimidated by the idea of starting out searching for your genealogy you shouldn’t worry. The library has a great staff of professionals and volunteers who will walk you through the steps you need to take. They even offer free classes on some Sundays.
So, now you know. We’ll see you there!
June 21, 2011 by news
If you search for the term “Lego” in our Scholarsearch system you will find 3043 items. Oddly, the library doesn’t have any actual Lego®. That is not so unusual. The library has books on horses and nuclear reactors and we don’t have any of those either. Still, if you can think of a good scholarly reason we should have Lego® in our collections we’ll listen to your suggestions. Meanwhile we invite to explore the many resources available through the library by searching using the words you are interested in.
Our favorite Lego® related title is
“Prediction of folding preference of 10 kDa silk-like proteins using a Lego approach and ab initio calculations”
This article is available to BYU students and faculty through the library’s subscription to Web of Science.
June 20, 2011 by news
Every summer the university welcomes a small group of new students who get an early start on their university careers by taking classes summer term. Well new students, welcome to BYU and welcome to the library. Please know that even though the library is a large building it is staffed by hundreds of people who will be happy to help you. We can answer questions, give you suggestions for research sources, and we can even provide a little entertainment. Feel free to walk in our doors and start asking questions. We’re ready for you.
June 17, 2011 by news
Brigham Young University and the American Society of Papyrologists have invited scholars to a Papyrological Summer Institute with the goal of teaching how to read and use papyri. To support the institute, The Harold B. Lee Library has collected a number of ancient documents ranging from papyri to ostraca (potsherds) and metal foil that will be on public display during July. The exhibition will also feature the multispectral imaging device that revolutionized the study of papyri.
The multispectral imaging system allowed scholars to read text that had been overwritten by later writers as well as look at texts on damaged pages.
Regular photography shows the latest writing on this document.
The multispectral image reveals earlier writing on the same papyrus.
The exhibition, Documents from the Ancient World, is located on level 3 of the library. It is open during all library hours and admission is free. It is part of the library’s ongoing celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the library’s building.
You can learn more about papyri at the following links:
Papyrus Expert Q & A
What’s New in Papyrology Blog
Herculaneum Uncovered-PBS
CPART
June 16, 2011 by news
The inventor and early aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) wrote about the unnatural invention of the wheel. In his book My Air Ships he imagines how people who had grown up surrounded by nature would understand how they could carry things, and how animals could carry burdens. Both people and animals have legs and backs so that makes sense. They would understand how things could float, like a fish or a duck, so boats would make sense to them. But there is nothing in nature for us to copy that would give us the wheel, and yet the wheel was invented and is used the world over. Santos- Dumont went on to create other methods of transportation that were not natural, powered balloons and even some of the earliest fixed wing airplanes.
A century later his inventiveness is a good example for modern times. Many of us understand that when you go to school its natural to read books and write papers. Today, we’ve added electronic resources and search engines to our list of research tools, and rather than write or even type papers we enter them on keyboards and submit them via e-mail. Here at the library we invite you to go one step father, we offer you the tools to create more than research papers. With the applications and equipment available to students in the Media Lab on level 4 you can make digital presentations and even your own movies. It may not feel like the natural thing to do for a class, and you should certainly check with your professors and instructors to see if they are open to such things, but school is a time to try new things. You should also prepare way in advance just in case things go wrong, because, well, things always go wrong (really, have you notes ready to write a paper if your loose your video files). If you don’t know how to make a movie then stop in and sign up for a few classes. We have people who can teach you some basics.
Its all free for students, naturally.
June 15, 2011 by news
Tomorrow, June 16, you can learn how to use Adobe Dreamweaver. All you need to do is register and you will be welcome in the Media Lab. The Media Lab is inside the library’s Media Center at the south end of level 4 of the library. That is one floor up from the floor where you enter the building. To learn more about classes offered in the Media Lab please click here.
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