Dreams of Biblical Proportions

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By Lauren Fink, ARB Intern, 2011-2012

Bible

Bible in ARB

Though no longer a large part of our socio-political life, in years passed, dreams influenced both religion and government.  In fact, in their foundation, most major religions involve some sort of divine vision and/or dream experience revealed to man from a higher being.  Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all document dream and visionary experiences in their holy books.  For example, in the Old Testament of the Bible (in Chapter 41 of Genesis) the Pharaoh has a dream which Joseph, son of Jacob (dreamer of the ladder to heaven in Gen., ch. 28), is able to interpret.  Because of his interpretation, Joseph is made a secondary ruler of Egypt, is able to prepare Egypt for the seven years of famine to come, and is ultimately able to save his kin that all move to Egypt under the Pharaoh’s blessing.  If not for Joseph’s interpretation, the 12 tribes of Israel might not have existed – Joseph’s fathers and brothers most likely would have perished in Canaan. Continue reading →

SERVICE NOTE: Emergency UC Internet Maintenance Occurring Overnight

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The CERF optical ring, which provides Internet connectivity to the university, is experiencing a hardware-related issue affecting UC connectivity only. Therefore, emergency maintenance will occur overnight and is expected to last from midnight to 2 am. The university’s Internet access will be down while the maintenance is performed and the unit is rebooted. Continue reading →

Falling Asleep Reading in The Archives and Rare Books Library

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By:  Lauren Fink, ARB Intern, 2011-2012

Falling asleep reading is common problem that can result from a number of factors.  Firstly, reading typically involves the photoreception of dark text against a light background, or vice versa, which can tire out the muscles of the eye due to their repeated adjustment to contrast.  Secondly, reading may become habitual with falling asleep, i.e. if you always read before bed you will associate reading with time to fall asleep.  The following are some important considerations when trying to read and comprehend effectively:Eye Drawing

  • Make a habit of reading during a time of day when you are most awake.
  • Do not read in the sun
  • Avoid bare light bulbs
  • Avoid light windows
  • Avoid glare on your book page
  • Reduce screen glare
  • Reduce contrast in your room and on computer screen
  • Avoid hypnotism from highlighting
  • Improve sitting posture
  • Get up and move around.  In general, take breaks about every 45 minutes
  • Stay hydrated; take water breaks (dehydration makes you tired). Having to get up to go to the bathroom will also wake you up and get your blood flowing!
  • Snack – not on something that will induce a sugar crash though!  Try fruit or nuts.
  • Sit up while studying; change positions regularly; do not lay in bed or in a comfy chair

And if you’re looking for something to read, try these books about reading in the Archives and Rare Books Library: Continue reading →

Workplace Health and Safety Information Resource

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The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) provides multiple resources and tools that address workplace health and safety in Canada, the United States, and other countries around the world.  Resources included in this platform are:

  • MSDS: more than 310,000 Material Safety Data Sheets, obtained directly from 2,000 North American manufacturers and suppliers
  • CHEMINFO: comprehensive and up-to-date chemical health and safety information for more than 1,700 workplace chemicals
  • RTECS® (Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances): find critical toxicological information including 400,000+ chemical names and synonyms plus 130,000 unique CAS numbers plus citations on over 165,000 chemical substances from more than 2,500 sources
  • OSH References:  a collection of bibliographic databases that provide authoritative, international sources of OSH-related information.  Databases in the collection include: OSHLINE®, NIOSHTIC®, NIOSHTIC-2, HSELINE, CISILO, Canadiana, and PubMed.   Continue reading →

No Food or Drink in the Library! An Exploration of Coffee and Tea in ARB

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By Lauren Fink, ARB Intern, 2011-2012

Choice Songs Title PageBoy RowingWith three Starbucks Cafés, Rohs St. Café, Taza Coffee House, and Sitwell’s Coffee House all within walking distance of campus, readers should have no problem staying awake while reading these fascinating coffee and tea-related titles in the Archives & Rare Books Library (but be sure to finish your beverage before entering!):

Continue reading →

PubMed: New Filters Sidebar

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Use the new Filters sidebar to narrow or focus your PubMed search results!  Filters are now visible next to your search results.  PubMed replaced the Limits page with a Filters sidebar on May 10, 2012.  Applying filters still work the way limits worked; once they’ve been selected, all subsequent searches will be filtered until you remove or change the filters.

To see examples of how the filters sidebar can be used, view the National Library of Medicine tutorial on YouTube or take a look at the NLM Technical Bulletin news article.

Want to learn more about how the filters sidebar works in person?  Register for a PubMed class taught at the Health Sciences Library.  Each month an introductory or a more advanced PubMed class is offered.  Both classes include using filters to narrow or focus search results.  To register, browse the HSL class schedule at http://webcentral.uc.edu/hslclass/

 

Dreaming of Books in the Archives and Rare Books Library

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By Lauren Fink, ARB Intern, 2011-2012

Stack of Dream BooksThough sayings like, “you can sleep when you’re dead,” abound in American, and especially college, culture, sleep is a crucial activity for maintaining health, conserving energy, and learning.  During sleep, the body decreases its temperature by about 1-2 degrees Celsius, rests its muscles, rebuilds proteins, and reorganizing synapses.  Increased brain activity occurs in the same areas of the brain that were activated by the learning of a new task during the day and correlates with improved performance on the same task the following day.

Humans spend 1/3 of their lives asleep, with about 1/5 of that time in Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) sleep.  A typical nightly sleep cycle occurs in about 90 minutes with a pattern of stages 1-2-3-4-3-2-REM. Though the exact function of REM sleep remains a mystery, it is known that REM deprivation results in increased time spent in REM when no longer REM-deprived.  Dreams, which also remain elusive in terms of function, if not meaning, occur mainly during REM sleep but can also occur during other stages. Continue reading →

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: A Man after My Archivist Heart

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Yesterday, my colleague Laura Laugle and I were discussing how to arrange archival collections, which reminded me of a letter (seen below) that I recently came across during the redaction process. I wanted to share this letter since I thought other archivists reading the blog would also appreciate it.

First page of letter from Dr. Sabin to Dr. Feldman, April 28, 1952

First, a little bit of explanation – one important task that archivists perform when they are processing a collection is referred to as “arrangement.” According to A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology by Richard Pearce-Moses, arrangement is “the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context and to achieve physical or intellectual control over the materials.”[1] I realize that definition contains a lot of archival jargon, such as “provenance” and “original order.” Provenance, according to the same glossary, essentially refers to the person or organization that created the collection of materials.[2] Original order is the “organization and sequence of records established by the creator of the records,” which hopefully provides perspective into how the record creator used the materials.[3] Continue reading →