“Oh look, there’s Fred!” Davis recounts the plant’s original owner calling out, revealing the donated spider plant’s name. “And his babies are getting new homes.” These special reunions between plant owners and their beloved sprouts are the culmination of plant swap programs, where gardeners exchange their plant cuttings and share knowledge on how to grow … Continue reading Branching Out
One of the central themes of Transcendent Kingdom is the tension between science and faith. How did you approach the science aspect? It was really fun for me to do something so outside of my comfort zone. Talking to scientists, many of them conceptualized their work as a series of questions, as trying to get … Continue reading Newsmaker: Yaa Gyasi
Martin R. Kalfatovic, BHL’s program director, estimates that its 20 member libraries and 22 affiliates have scanned upwards of 147,000 titles, ranging from the 15th century to the present, with information on more than 180 million species. “Though most of them are scientists,” he says, “about 72% of our users are also interested in the … Continue reading Bookend: Finding Flora and Fauna
Acevedo grew up on a dirt road in the desert of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the daughter of a Mexican-American father and a Mexican mother who spoke little English. They moved often and sometimes had to live with relatives because money was tight. But young Sylvia excelled in school, went to college and was one … Continue reading Gratitude and Rocket Science
The NASA Social program, originally called NASA Tweetups, began in 2009 and has included thousands of participants for events that range from several hours to two days. NASA “socialites” receive the same access to press events as journalists—with additional exclusive behind-the-scenes access to NASA facilities, scientists, and engineers—and are encouraged to use their social media … Continue reading Sharing Space
The library furnished students with kits that they used to gather soil samples around campus, which were then returned to NCSU’s biotechnology lab for extracting DNA to locate the “gold-pooping gene,” as Lewis calls it. They then took the samples with the most Delftia and sequenced a portion of the gold genes at the Genomic Sciences Laboratory. With … Continue reading Excited about Science
Alison Ricker, head of the science library at Oberlin (Ohio) College, said, “Librarians are all a force for science, simply by what we do.” Her message was amplified by a blue T-shirt draped over the panel’s table that read “I am a force for science.” Ricker explained it was distributed by the American Association for … Continue reading Libraries: A Force for Science
“There is nothing like reading. I don’t want to shock you here at the library thing,” Nye announced to the laughter of librarians at the American Library Association’s 2018 Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Denver on Monday. “When you learn science, it’s empowering. You are not as afraid of things. You’re willing to take risks,” … Continue reading Bill Nye the Author Guy
In her session “A Few Things Libraries Can Do About Climate Change,” Veerle Minner Van Neygen, a Madrid, Spain–based district manager for the Climate Reality Project, warned of the environmental impacts of a warming Earth and highlighted a handful of mitigation efforts that libraries should pursue: reducing the library’s carbon footprint, building green collections, conserving … Continue reading Intersection of Libraries and Science: Day Four of IFLA WLIC
“You can’t make good choices if you don’t have access to quality information,” said ALA President Julie B. Todaro. “Librarians and library workers work diligently to curate tangible information resources for our more than 1.4 billion visitors who rely on the expertise of our nation’s scientists and researchers to fuel good choices through access to … Continue reading ALA to join March for Science on April 22
Nathalia Holt gives a voice to the seldom-recognized female mathematicians and scientists who shaped NASA in its earliest years and beyond, in her new book, Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us from Missiles to the Moon to Mars (Little, Brown & Company, April 2016). American Libraries recently spoke with Holt, herself … Continue reading Newsmaker: Nathalia Holt
