February 4, 2010
Bibliophile’s Book Find : food for thought
Alright all of you foodies here at FSC – this week’s treasure in the Reference Room is dedicated to you. The books that I found in the TX section of the stacks were so electrifying, I couldn’t choose just one. At the recommendation of the Supreme Reference Goddess Marion Slack, I am going to tell you about two of our dictionaries dedicated to one of my favorite subjects – food!
Food : A Dictionary of Literal and Nonliteral Terms by Robert A. Palmatier (Greenwood Press, 2000) is a book that gives the definitions and origins of both culinary terms, as well as terms that include food or eating-related words. For example, most of us have heard the phrase, “American as apple pie”, and understand it to mean that something is “truly American”. Did you know that this phrase has been around since the 1760s, and that apple pies were actually brought to the U.S. from England? However, English apple pies generally do not contain a top crust, while American apple pies have a top crust with a side of either cheddar cheese or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (See page 4 for more details about this phrase). This entertaining book defines and traces many other phrases as well, including, “Hear it through the grapevine” (pg. 176), “fork in the road”(p. 139), “potatohead”(pg. 287) (as well as a discussion of Mr. Potato Head) and “Say Cheese!” (pg. 314)
The International Dictionary of Food & Cooking by Charles G. Sinclair (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998) provides relatively short definitions to the many different words related to “ingredients, additives, techniques, equipment, menu terms, catering terms, food science”… and more (title page)! Discover what exactly a “punkersdorker” is on page 436, or learn the true measurement of the word, “pinch” when it is called for in a recipe (pg. 414). Did you know that a “cushaw” is “a large variety of crookneck squash”, and that this word originated from the United States (pg. 156)? Expand your gastronomic horizons about try some fattoush for lunch today (pg. 197).
You can find Food: A Dictionary of Literal and Nonliteral Terms in the Reference Room at Ref TX 349 .P353 2000. The International Dictionary of Food & Cooking is also in the Reference Room, at Ref TX 349 .S55 1998. The Reference Room is room 118 on the first floor of the Library – stop by and check out these delicious titles.
If you have any questions about this or any other resource, contact a Reference Librarian in person, by phone at 508-626-4654, by email at reference@framingham.edu or IM at fscrefdesk. If you would like to suggest a treasure in the library’s Reference Room, please email me at lwilson2@framingham.edu
January 20, 2010
Bibliophile’s Book Find: “All Things Austen”
Hello again FSC community! I am very excited to share with you another gem in our Reference Collection at the Henry Whittemore Library. This week, please allow me to introduce to you, All Things Austen: An Encyclopedia of Austen’s World, written by Kirstin Olsen and published in 2005 by Greenwood Press (Westport, Conn). If you are a fan or researcher of Jane Austen’s work, this two volume encyclopedia is a must-read. In the introduction (pg. xi), the author writes this about the encyclopedia: “This book… attempts to provide the background material that makes her work more fully comprehensible.”
“Fully comprehensible”, indeed! This encyclopedia includes entries on “Beverages”, “Clothing”, “Insanity”, “Marriage”, “Teeth”, as well as many others. Discover why Austen rarely mentioned water as a beverage, (see page 76 of vol. 1 to find out!), or read about the dreaded “tooth-drawer”, a device that inspired terror in the minds of would-be dental patients (vol. 2 pg. 661). These volumes also include several historical illustrations and maps that bring to life the subjects and settings of Austen’s work.
All Things Austen inspired this Reference Librarian to perform silent jazz-hands of jubilation in the Reference stacks. Stop by the Reference Room, Room 118 on the ground floor of the Library. The call number for this encyclopedia is Ref PR 4036 O52 2005.
If you have any questions about this or any other resource, contact a Reference Librarian in person, by phone at 508-626-4654, by email at reference@framingham.edu or IM at fscrefdesk. If you would like to suggest a treasure in the library’s Reference Room, please email me at lwilson2@framingham.edu
January 13, 2010
Bibliophile’s Book Find : Treasures in the Reference Stacks
Hello FSC community! This is Laura Wilson, Reference Librarian at the Henry Whittemore Library. I have been inspired to share with you some of the treasures that we have in our Reference Room, Room 118 in the library. These are books that have a particular “WOW!” factor, either due to their subject matter, photographs and images, or other reasons. I will update this portion of the blog once each week with a new resource. Let’s get started!
For our first week, the Bibliophile’s Book Find is Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd ed, published in Detroit by Gale in 2003. This resource made me loudly whisper “Wow!” in the Reference Room for two main reasons. This encyclopedia has 17 volumes, ranging from “Lower Metazoans and Lesser Deuterostomes” to “Mammals” (plus a separate volume for a cumulative index). Each volume is organized by taxonomy, starting with the simplest forms of life. The organizational structure of this series makes information easy to find. The information covered offers enough detail to be useful for serious research, however, the writing style is surprisingly easy to understand for non-biologists. What I found particularly striking about this series are the beautiful photographs and images included to illustrate the subject matter. This series is fun to browse and great for research, so check it out!
You can find Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia in the Reference Room, Room 118 in the Whittemore Library. The call number is REF QL 7 .G7813 2003 v.1 – v.17
If you have any questions about this or any other resource, contact a Reference Librarian in person, by phone at 508-626-4654, by email at reference@framingham.edu or IM at fscrefdesk. If you would like to suggest a treasure in the library’s Reference Room, please email me at lwilson2@framingham.edu
November 17, 2009
Handy Citation Guides from EasyBib
EasyBib developed these handy PDF citation guides for MLA, APA and Chicago Style. Scroll down the EasyBib page to download the guides.
November 16, 2009
Gaming at the Library
On Saturday November 14th, hundreds of libraries all over the country celebrated the Second Annual National Gaming Day. AlphaBound Corporation and North Star Games donated the games LetterJAM!, Wits and Wagers and Say Anything to libraries including our own. To support National Gaming Day on our campus, the Whittemore Library will be permanently lending out these games to the campus community. All you need is your library card to the check out the games from the Circulation Desk. Play at the library or take them home and have fun!
If you like to play with words, try:
LetterJAM! Freestyle Pack
An intriguing, socially entertaining letter game for individual or team play among four people, each with a custom-designed colored letter set containing two alphabets (a to z and a’ to z’) and two wild cards. Details and rules are at http://www.letterjam.com/rules_tips. Every Freestyle Pack owner receives unlimited lifetime use of the WordMatch™ tool for discovery and challenges during play. The compact clear container houses the four colored sets for play of up to four people.
If you like to gamble, try:
Wits and Wagers
Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! Each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Feeling confident? Bet on your guess. Think someone else knows better? Bet on their guess. Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot! (4 –20 players)
Want to know what your friends REALLY think? Try:
Say Anything
Say Anything is a light-hearted game about what you and your friends think. It will get people talking, laughing, and having fun in minutes. Enjoy it with 3 – 8 family members or as a hilarious party game with adults. So dig deep into your heart or just come up with something witty — this is your chance to Say Anything!
