Archive for December, 2013

New books list, December 18, 2013

Wednesday, December 18th, 2013

August Weismann (1834-1914) und die theoretische Biologie des 19. Jahrhunderts: Urkunden, Berichte und Analysen.
Herausgegeben von Klaus Sander. Freiburg: Rombach Verlag, 1984. HOLLIS# 013868986
QH31.W42 A8 1985

Baltasis gandras Lietuvoje: lizdų atlasas.
[By] Mindaugas Dagys, Daiva Vaitkuvienė. Vilnius: Gamtos tyrimų centras, 2013. HOLLIS# 013863950
QL696.C535 D24 2013

Beastly London: a history of animals in the city.
By Hannah Velten. London: Reaktion Books, 2013. HOLLIS# 013844176
SF53.V45 2013eb [e-book]

A beginner’s guide to diatoms.
[By] Jacob John. [Ruggel, Liechtenstein]: A. R. G. Gantner Verlag, [2012]. HOLLIS# 013847081
QK569.D54 J64 2012

The birds of Africa. Volume 8, the Malagasy region.
Color plates by Martin Woodcock. London; New York: Academic Press, 1982-2013. HOLLIS# 001042897
QL692.A1 B72 1982 v. 8

Guide to the butterflies of the Palearctic Region. Volume 3, Nymphalidae, part 6, subfamily Limenitidinae.
Editor: G. C. Bozano. Milano: Onmes Artes; 1999- . HOLLIS# 009115949
QL546.G84 1999 v. 3, pt. 6

Molecular genetic characterization of animal genetic resources.
Rome: Commission on Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011. HOLLIS# 013323196
SF105.3.M64 2011

Ornitologia italiana: identificazione, distribuzione, consistenza e movimenti degli uccelli italiani. Volume 8, Sturnidae – Fringillidae.
By Pierandrea Brichetti, Giancarlo Fracasso; disegni di Silvia Gandini. Bologna: Alberto Perdisa editore, c2003 – . HOLLIS# 012816896
QL690.I8 B75 2003 v. 8

Physiology of the cladocera.
By Nikolai N. Smirnov, D.Sc., Institute of Ecology, Moscow, Russia; with additional contributions. Amsterdam: Elsevier, [2014]. HOLLIS# 013868224
QL444.B83 S65 2014eb [e-book]

Second International Cone Meeting.
Pierre Miramand, Directeur de publication. La Rochelle: Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 2013. HOLLIS# 013800868
QL430.5.C75 S33 2012

70 jahre Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft: 1943-2013.
[By] Daniel Weβelhöft und Oliver Matuschek. Braunschweig: Appelhans Verlag, 2013. HOLLIS# 013870877
Q49.W47 2013

Tidal wetlands primer: an introduction to their ecology, natural history, status, and conservation.
By Ralph W. Tiner. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013. HOLLIS# 013853265
QH87.3.T57 2013

A voyage across the Americas: the journey of Henri de Büren, 1852-1853. Adaptation by Jean-François Buren ; edited by August Cosentino. Pregny-Geneva, Switzerland: Editions de Penthes, [2013]. HOLLIS# 013868030
E27.B87 2013

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Librarian Travels: Villa I Tatti & Biblioteca Berenson

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

 

While attending the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) meeting in Florence, Italy in late October, I was able to spend an afternoon at the Villa I Tatti, a Harvard Center that is considered to be “the foremost research institution in the world for Italian Renaissance art, history, literature, and music.” Scholars of the Italian Renaissance, have an opportunity to spend a full year here on a post-doctoral Fellowship or return for shorter periods as Visiting Fellows.  The Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (opened in 1961) is not open to the public as it is a research facility but tours can be arranged by request for those with a special interest in the topic or ties to Harvard. Other key features are the working farm and a historic Italianate garden designed by Cecil Pinsent.

Villa I Tatti was a gift to Harvard from Bernard and Mary Berenson whose lives and work are fascinating. The couple met at Harvard and remembrances of this time can be seen in the online exhibit:  Bernard and Mary Berenson as (Harvard) students.  Bernard Berenson established himself as an expert on Italian Renaissance paintings and drawings and made his living as an art critic and advisor.

Bernard Berenson believed that new and exciting ideas develop through deep study and conversation with others similiarly involved in research.  Thus, one of the requirements for being a fellow at the Villa I Tatti is that you join the other fellows for meals.   The Center sits in the midst of a working farm that grows olives and grapes and produces its own oil and wine.  According to the tour guide, all the products on the farm are for the sole use of those living and working at the Center.  Information about the program states that much of the most valuable scholarship since the 1970s on the Italian Renaissance has been a result of work done at the Villa I Tatti. The Berensons collected enough art to comfortably decorate (but not over-decorate) the main house.  According to the tour guide, the art works were not necessarily top quality–the Berensons often collected second tier works.

Along with the beautiful villa, garden and farm, the Berensons established an extraordinary library that is meant to  provide comprehensive coverage of Italian Renaissance scholarship, an extensive photograph collection, an archive that documents the work of the Berensons, and a music library for medieval and Renaissance music.  Currently there are more than 175,000 volumes, 250,000 photographs and subscriptions to more than 600 scholarly journals. The Biblioteca Berenson is a quite modern facility and it is easy to see how one could become immersed in research there. The library is vital to the mission of I Tatti–the books, photographs, digital images, archives, manuscripts and recordings offer interdisciplinary opportunities for studies of late medieveal and early modern Italy and also the life and times of the Berensons.  Additionally, as part of the vast Harvard Library, there is access to all of the holdings of Harvard.

A Finding Aid to the papers of Bernard and Mary Berenson held by Harvard provides more information about the Berensons.

~Connie Rinaldo


 

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Librarian travels: Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

Saturday, December 7th, 2013

I was privileged to attend and present as part of a symposium at the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) meeting October 28-November 1, 2013. The theme for 2013 was “Virtual Communities for Biodiversity Science”, an apt theme for the global virtual Biodiversity Heritage Library.  The venue was beautiful Florence, Italy and the weather was warm.

Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy

Six members of the Global BHL community participated in the symposium, “Crafting the Future of a Global Biodiversity Heritage Library for Diverse Communities’ Needs“.  My contribution to the symposium was a review of feedback the BHL has received through surveys, interviews and messages, looking for common threads and what has been resolved.The most common thread throughout the years and echoed by the 50 or so audience members is:  “Scan more!!”.

Left to right: Martin Kalfatovic, Connie Rinaldo, Trish Rose-Sandler,Lucy Waruingi, William Ulate, Jiri Frank

TDWG is a long and information-packed meeting that incorporates many topics of interest to the Biodiversity Heritage Library and librarians.  Metadata, vocabularies for taxonomy, interoperability and linked open data are common themes at TDWG  to which librarians, particularly those engaged in biological information,  can relate.  I particularly enjoyed the poster sessions.  There were 31 posters and I will highlight a few in this post.

BHL partners such as ViBRANT (http://vbrant.eu/), OpenUp (http://open-up.eu/), BioStor (http://biostor.org/), and Zookeys (http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/) and others were represented at TDWG ensuring lively discussions.  The poster “Bibliography of Life: Comprehensive services for biodiversity bibliographic references” (https://mbgserv18.mobot.org/ocs/index.php/tdwg/2013/paper/view/339) addressed de-duplicating and parsing the components of references from a variety of sources to improve and expand literature searching.  Other posters highlighted object digitization and the TDWG Audubon Core (http://www.tdwg.org/standards/638/)metadata standard.  The Naturalis Biodiversity Center reviewed their work digitizing collection objects, including videos, (https://mbgserv18.mobot.org/ocs/index.php/tdwg/2013/paper/view/395) using the Audubon Core standard for metadata.  Another poster from Belgian institutions, Agora 3D Evaluating the Digitisation of Scientific Collections, reviewed scanning technology and techniques for biological specimens to develop a set of standards and protocols for museums (https://mbgserv18.mobot.org/ocs/index.php/tdwg/2013/paper/view/398).  Other posters highlighted taxonomic information such as “From Dendroeca blackburniae to Dendrceca blackburniae:  what’s in a name” https://mbgserv18.mobot.org/ocs/index.php/tdwg/2013/paper/view/344 citing the need for clean, correct scientific names to support names-based architecture and ” ComTax: Community-driven Curation for Taxonomic Databases”, a project designed to support manual correction and verification of name data (http://taxoncuration.myspecies.info/). The TDWG meeting has much to offer archivists and librarians looking for the biological perspective on metadata and curation.  For the curious, you can find the uploaded presentations at the TDWG site.

~Connie Rinaldo

 

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New book list, December 5, 2013

Thursday, December 5th, 2013

Bears of China.
By Yiqing Ma. Chengdu: Sichuan Science and Technology Press, 1994. HOLLIS# 013847097
QL737.C27 M2 1994

Blütenökologie. Bd. 1. Die Partner der Blumen.
By Hans-Joachim Flügel. Magdeburg: VerlagsKG Wolf, 2013- HOLLIS# 013853608.
QH549.5.F58 2013 Bd. 1

A contribution to the herpetology of Northern Pakistan: the amphibians and reptiles of Margalla Hills National Park and surrounding regions.
By Rafaqat Masroor. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University. 2012. HOLLIS# 013776774
QL661.P18 M37 2012

Cranial sutures as tools to infer skull function in fossil fish and amphibians: an experimental approach using the extant fish Polypterus.
By Molly Jeanette Markey. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2006. HOLLIS# 011416917
QL638.P76 M27 2006 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Dai 60-kai Nihon Seitaigakkai taikai puroguramu: 2013-nen 3-gatsu 5-nichi – 9-nichi = The 60th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ 60) 60th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ 60) Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ 60).
[Kyoto, Japan]: Ecological Society of Japan, 2013. HOLLIS# 013703969
QH540.N546 2013

Dynamic stability of running over rough terrain: the role of limb posture and distal limb muscle performance.
By Monica Ann Daley. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2006. HOLLIS# 010910639
QP310.R85 D25 2006 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Evolution and development of limb reduction in the Australian skink Hemiergis (Reptilia: Scincidae).
A thesis presented by Michael David Shapiro. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2001. HOLLIS# 009333880
QL666.L28 S42 2001 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Evolution, phylogeny, biogeography, and diversification of the Australasian hydromyinae (rodentia: muridae).
A thesis presented by Andrew William Torrance. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 1997. HOLLIS# 008048096
QL737.R666 T67 1997

Fish caudal fin control mechanisms and fluid dynamics.
By Brooke Elizabeth Flammang-Lockyer. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2010. HOLLIS# 012548258
QL639.4.F52 2010 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Functional morphology and modulation of prey capture behavior in hexagrammid fishes (scorpaeniformes).
By Donna Nemeth. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 1996. HOLLIS# 006725142
QL638.S42 N45 1996 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Fur; a practical treatise.
By Max Bachrach. New York, Prentice-Hall, inc., 1930. HOLLIS# 013847105
TS1061.B18 1930

Herpetofauna of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
By Marine S. Arakelyan … [et al.]; paleontological notes by David Vasilyan. Ithaca, N.Y.: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, c2011. HOLLIS# 013780382
QL661.A76 H47 2011

Locomotion and mechanics of the knee joint in the laboratory rat and the primates.
By Arthur Spiess. Thesis, B.A., Harvard College, 1974. Cambridge, Mass., 1974. HOLLIS# 004691021
QP301.S74 1974 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Locomotion, posture, and comparative anatomy of Malaysian forest primates: a thesis.
Presented by John Gwynn Fleagle. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 1976. HOLLIS# 004685570
QP301.F53 1976 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Lung morphology, gait analysis, and locomotor-respiratory-visceral interaction in the domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
By Rachel Susan Simons. Thesis, Ph. D. University of Utah, 1997. HOLLIS# 013846247
QP301.S45 1997 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Mechanical effects on the development and evolution of locomotor form and function.
By Nicole Danos. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2011. HOLLIS# 012943008
QL639.4.D25 2011 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Mechanics and control of vortex capture in swimming fishes.
By James Chienan Liao. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 2004. HOLLIS# 010087155
QL639.4.L42 2004 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Mechanics of pectoral fin locomotion in the surfperches (perciformes).
A thesis presented by Eliot Gilbert Drucker. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 1996. HOLLIS# 007123250
QL639.4.D78 1996 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

The Princeton guide to evolution.
Jonathan B. Losos, editor in chief. Princeton: Princeton University Press, [2014]. HOLLIS# 013826289
QH367.P85 2014

Quaternary geological and geomorphological maps of Fredheim and Skansbukta.
By Evangeline Sessford and Anne Hormes. Tromø: Norsk Polarinstitutt, 2013. HOLLIS# 013854477
QE281.S37 2013

Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption: Rome, 25-29 January 2010.
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: World Health Organization, 2011. HOLLIS# 013853458
TX556.5.J65 2011

Report of the third Meeting of Regional [Fishery] Body Secretariats Network: Rome, 7-8 February 2011.
Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011. HOLLIS# 013853438
SH328.M44 2011

Running economically: form, gait, and muscle mechanics.
By Thomas Jay Roberts. Thesis, Ph. D., Harvard University, 1995. HOLLIS# 006582026
QP310.R85 R63 1995 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Strange locomotion: from humans running on their hands to lizards running on water.
By James Walter Glasheen. Thesis, Ph. D.,Harvard University, 1995. HOLLIS# 006554423
QP301.G52 1995 [gift of Farish Jenkins]

Winter distribution of guillemots (Uria spp.) in the Barents Sea.
By Harald Steen, Erlend Lorentzen and Hallvard Strøm. Tromsø: Norsk Polarinstitutt, 2013. HOLLIS# 013853500
QL696.C42 S73 2013

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