Wishing upon the Shooting Stars: The Geminid Meteor Shower

Have you been wishing for something and it hasn’t come true? Well you are in luck. The Geminid meteor shower will be giving us plenty of shooting stars (meteors) to wish upon from Dec. 4-17, and according to Ptolemy (1st century A.D.), when there are shooting stars the gods will be looking down on us …

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Andrew Carnegie – Man of Steel

Many in the library world think of Andrew Carnegie in terms of the many public libraries his fortune built, but otherwise, who was this man? Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland on November 25, 1825. His family immigrated to the United States when he was a child and eventually they settled in Pennsylvania.  Carnegie …

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Pics of the Week: Sequoyah

We have visited the topic of the images on the bronze doors of the Adams Building in several posts – Itzamna, Quetzalcoatl, and Brahma.  Today’s post  celebrates Native American Heritage Month by featuring two pictures from the Adams Building. One image is of Sequoyah from the building’s bronze doors done by Lee Lawrie, the other …

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Veterans History Project: Illuminating the Future by Sharing the Past

Today’s post is by Veterans History Project (VHP) Liaison Specialist Lisa A. Taylor who works in the John Adams Building. With the Project since 2009, Lisa is on the team responsible for program communication and coordination. Among other duties, she writes and edits materials for publication and works with local and national organizations and Congressional …

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Creatures of the Night

Halloween is here and neighborhoods will be filled with magical, mysterious, and mystical creatures such as devils, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, witches, and vampires. We will also see plenty of bats displayed in homes, windows, and yards. On this holiday of the supernatural, the bat (Order Chiroptera) is a real-life creature of the night which may …

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Meet the Einsteins

Every year I look forward to mid-October when the Einstein Fellows visit the Science Reference Section. The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows Program is made up of master teachers from across the United States and is sponsored by the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. The Einsteins, as I like to call them, spend …

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¡Felicitaciones! Science.gov

Wouldn’t it be great to have a feature on your website that could translate your online content into another language with the blink of an eye? Well, that wish has finally been granted. Earlier this month Science.gov released a Spanish version of its website – Ciencia.Science.gov. This initiative is truly amazing and inspiring. Government science …

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Business Research Orientation class turns 5

Back in 2007, my coworker Jan Herd and I decided to develop a class specifically for business researchers.  Our very first class was in October 2007. While we included some general information about doing research at the Library and a detailed overview of the Library’s online catalog, we wanted to feature specific guidance on business …

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Watching Baseball at the Opera House

The following is a guest post by Emmy-Award-winning engineer Mark Schubin. He has been writing about the intersecting histories of opera and media technology since 1972 and currently serves as engineer-in-charge of the Metropolitan Opera’s Media Department. In October 2011, Mark gave a presentation at the Library on the “Fandom of the Opera: How a …

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