Monday 29 April 2013

Scan and Deliver: re-launch of the CSL scanning service

The service, offered by the Central Science Library (CSL), is provided to allow current staff and students at the University to be able to get scanned copies of material from printed works that is not currently available electronically. 

This service will now be known as Scan and Deliver. The other major change is that users will now be charged for the service.

Please visit the CSL's website to see how you can order and pay for items to be scanned: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/CSL/serv.html#scanning

Wednesday 24 April 2013

UL Drop-in sessions for dissertation and research help


As part of the University Library's Research Skills Programme, a number of drop-in sessions will take place during Easter term which will offer help with dissertations and research. Sessions will take place every Tuesday of Easter term in the North Reading Room from 11.00 am until 12.30 pm. 

The course aims to offer help and advice on a variety of information issues, including:

  • Finding and managing research information
  • Citation, referencing and attribution
  • Reading, writing and notemaking

Topics covered:
  • Literature searching
  • Reading and writing strategies
  • Information management
  • Citing and attribution
  • Reference management software

This link provides more detailed information http://training.cam.ac.uk/cul/event/644652

Tuesday 23 April 2013

New acquisitions

Acquisitions made in April so far can be found on our Pinterest site at http://pinterest.com/zoolib/

See the board for 'New books April 2013'.

I have also created a new board for 'Life science professional development' books that are available in the library. They cover presentation skills, planning your research, writing about science, planning your scientific career, writing your thesis, writing and publishing scientific papers, using grammar correctly, creating poster presentations, talking to the media etc. They are aimed at graduate students, post-docs and lecturers. If you have any suggestions for purchase in this area please let us know.

Monday 22 April 2013

New e-book purchased by the Zoology Library!

We have just purchased the e-book Vision and brain : how we perceive the world, by James V. Stone.

To see and access all the e-books available in zoology and neuroscience, and to keep up-to-date with the library's latest book and e-book acquisitions, please visit our Pinterest online pinboard at http://pinterest.com/zoolib/.

Thursday 4 April 2013

Rare book now on display



A history of the birds of Europe including all the species inhabiting the Western Palaearctic region, by Henry E. Dresser. Volume 3. London: Published by the author; 1871-1887.

Due to popular demand, more remarkable plates from this work will be on display throughout the year!

Balfour Library shelf mark: qKZ.4 (1)

The book is open at: Plate 144, Oriolus galbula (Golden oriole). This plate is a hand coloured lithograph produced by J. G. Keulemans, a renowned ornithological illustrator, and depicts a male and a female oriole perching on a branch. The yellow feathers of the male are particularly striking, and the detail in the fine hand colouring, especially on the breast of the female, is also very impressive. As always with Keulemans’ lithographs, the treatment of the eyes of the birds really brings them to life on the page.

Henry Eeles Dresser (1838-1915) was born in Thirsk. After his schooling in Bromley, Kent and at a German school near Hamburg he entered his father’s timber-merchant business and travelled extensively in northern Europe from 1834 to 1862. From his time at school in Germany he began to systematically collect the eggs and bird skins of Palaearctic birds. He deposited some 12,000 items at the Manchester Museum from 1899 onwards.

Dresser left England with a cargo for Texas in 1863 and spent over a year collecting there. Shortly after his return to England he published his first scientific paper, Notes on the birds of southern Texas, in Ibis in 1865. He continued to contribute to Ibis from then until 1909; and also joined the British Ornithologist’s Union in the same year. He was also a member and fellow of the Linnean Society and Zoological Society of London, and was an honorary fellow of the American Ornithologist’s Union. He was an authority on the birds of Europe and the author of several important works, including A history of the birds of Europe. Eight quarto volumes of this were published between 1871 and 1881, which were illustrated with 633 hand coloured plates, mainly prepared from drawings by Joseph Wolf, J. G. Keulemans and E. Neale.

After returning from Texas, Dresser started work in the iron trade in London but continued to travel extensively throughout the whole of his life.

John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912) provided the plate on display here. He was a Dutch bird illustrator who worked in London from 1868 and regularly provided illustrations for Ibis and The Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and many important bird books such as A history of the birds of Europe. His illustrations were produced through traditional lithography [a method for printing using a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface], allowing for a finished product that depicts a vivid, life-like figure through depth and tone.

Professor Alfred Newton subscribed to A History of the Birds of Europe as it was published in its parts. He has made a note inside the first volume of the number of subscribers (374), the top three of whom are “His Majesty the King of Italy, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh K.G., H. H. Duleep Singh, Elveden Hall, Thetford”, in that order. Interestingly, the Newton family lived on the Elveden Estate on the Norfolk-Suffolk border until Newton’s father died in 1863.

According to the RSPB the elusive Golden oriole mainly arrives in May and stays until August. The best place to find them is at Lakenheath Fen; try finding them by listening for their call in May to July.

Sources:


Dresser’s obituary in Ibis 58 (2) 340:342 (April 1916) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1916.tb07939.x/abstract


RSPB http://www.rspb.org.uk/ 

Wikipedia John Gerrard Keulemans’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gerrard_Keulemans 

Wikipedia ‘Lithography’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography