BibMe, Zotero

When I heard that BibMe.org and Citavi.com had become WorldCat.org citation partners, I decided to check BibMe out. I went for BibMe simply because it's web-based, and that made it attractive for accessing from multiple computers--if I worked mostly from one machine, I would have downloaded Citavi to explore also.

I have to admit I'm rather new to online citation & reference management. I've been using Zotero.org for a few months, and love it for managing information gleaned from online sources, but was attracted to BibMe because it's a bibliography builder. I have to also admit that I haven't thoroughly explored Zotero's capabilities to generate bibliographies--after about five minutes of clicking around, I gave up, and the announcement about BibMe sent me there--so please let me know if there's great functionality in Zotero that I missed!

Within seconds, I was compiling a bibliography in BibMe. Registration isn't necessary--you can use it to generate citations immediately without registration. I did end up registering, though, because I wanted to save a bibliography and share it. I had a great bibliography generated in a few minutes: my Maritime Reading Lists (or lists that include maritime titles). If you want to add any of these to your own bibliography, click the "Add to Bibliography" icons--although you won't see anything happen, when you click the "Bibliography Maker" tab, the citations you added will be there, where you can manipulate them, download them, etc.

My only wish is that the URLs listed in the citations for websites be activated--having to copy & paste a link into a browser window to go there seems antiquated to me.

In the future, I will explore the capabilities of Zotero more thoroughly--I like it because of the short learning curve, or, really, no learning curve--I was up and running with it right away after installing it with my Firefox browser. But I won't be doing that right away--it runs very, very slowly for me. BibMe runs faster--everything loads quickly, and I have a citation in whatever standard format I choose right away, accessible from anywhere. With Zotero, I need to log in to see "My Library," (after doing a sync from the computer I've been using), and just logging in takes a long time.

So if you're new to managing your online sources, you may wish to check out these tools--or others--there are many, many out there! These are two tools that I've been trying out.

Assistant Librarian, Reader Services, Castine, Maine

The Nutting Memorial Library at the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, is seeking an Assistant Librarian, Reader Services. From the listing on LISJobs:

Assistant Librarian, Reader Services
Nutting Memorial Library
Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, Maine

The successful candidate will possess an MLS from an ALA-accredited Program; experience in an academic library; experience with integrated library systems (I.I.I. Millennium preferred); thorough knowledge of bibliographic database searching; and familiarity with web site design and maintenance. A background in teaching library skills is strongly preferred. Responsible for reference services, library instruction, interlibrary loan, and circulation services. Ten-month position with generous benefits, pay range 20 $35,511.97. Some nights and weekends may be required.

Interested candidates should submit a completed application and resume as soon as possible, including a list of at least three professional references to:
Director of Personnel Administration
Box 3
Castine, ME 04420
An original, Maine Maritime Academy application must be submitted to the MMA Human Resources Office, prior to consideration by a supervisor or selection committee. Successful candidates may be subject to a background investigation appropriate to the position offered. For an online application form, go to www.mma.edu under jobs@mma. MMA is an EOE ~~~ Women and minorities are particularly encouraged to apply.

Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) is an 850 student, public, fully accredited four-year college located in the small coastal village of Castine, Maine. The college is one of six state-supported Maritime Colleges in the United States. MMA is a college of engineering, transportation, management, ocean sciences and international business.

Library web site: library.mma.edu

When applying, please mention that you saw this ad on LISjobs.com.

The Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby

Memorials of the Sea : My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby by his son, the Rev. William Scoresby, D.D., is now available on Project Gutenberg.

Third in the author's Memorials of the Sea, the volume does seem to cover a remarkable career, as outlined by the table of contents:

Chapter I.—Early Life and Progress as a Seaman  3
Sect.  1. My Father’s early Life  3
   2. His First Year’s Apprenticeship  12
   3. His Progress as a Seaman, with Incidents of Sea-life  20
   4. Capture by the Enemy, and Escape from a Spanish Prison  26
   5. Rewards of Masterly Seamanship  31
   6. Entrance on, and Progress in Training in, the Greenland Whale-fishery  36
Chapter II.—Commencement and Progress in Whale-fishing Enterprise as Commander  42
Sect.  1. Disappointment in his First Command  42
   2. His Second Adventure and commencing Prosperity  52
   3. Further Successes, with their comparative Relations, in the Ship Henrietta  55
   4. Episodical Incident—the Rescue of endangered Pleasurers  65
   5. The Greenland Doctor  71
   6. Taming of a Bear—interesting Recognition  78
Chapter III.—The Ship Dundee, of London  86
Sect.  1. Entrance on, and general Results of, this new Command  86
   2. Dangerous Accident—admirable Tact  89
   3. The Dandy Sailor, or “Fine Tommy”  92
   4. Unfortunate Voyage, and Adventure in the Greenland Ices  96
   5. Successful Stratagem in War  103
   6. Extraordinary Exploit in “cutting in,” single-handed, a moderately-grown young Whale  108
Chapter IV.—The Ship Resolution, of Whitby  116
Sect.  1. Continued Prosperity; the Results, comparatively and generally, of this fresh Enterprise  116
   2. Treatment and Recovery of a half-frozen Seaman  126
   3. Judicious Treatment of Men having suffered from severe Exposure  129
   4. The Crow’s Nest  135
   5. Extraordinary Celerity in preparing an empty Boat for the Fishery  139
   6. Tact and Bravery in attacking and killing a dangerously-resisting Whale  144
   7. Remarkable Enterprise: the nearest Approach to the North Pole  152
   8. Devotional Habits, at Sea and on Shore  164
Chapter V.—Further Enterprises: General Results  171
Sect.  1. The Greenock Whale-fishing Company  171
   2. “Cum au greim a gheibhthu”  174
   3. Subsequent and concluding Enterprises  178
   4. General Results of his entire Whale-fishing Adventures  185
   5. Unusual Capture of Walruses  189
Chapter VI.—General Characteristics, and Miscellaneous Notices  195
Sect.  1. Superiority as an Arctic Navigator  195
   2. Natural Science  203
   3. Improvements and Inventions  215
   4. Miscellaneous and concluding Notices  224

The book also includes interesting statistics about whaling activities and the vessels' finances--it's wonderful to see this book become widely available from Project Gutenberg, like all their titles, in such a nice electronic edition, in so many formats.

Melville and Hawthorne

Robert McCrum's article, Herman Melville, the last great enigma of American literature : a new fictionalised account tries to unravel the dark secrets of the creator of Moby-Dick (published Jan. 30, 2011 at the Guardian's website) doesn't actually get around to mentioning Jay Parini's new novel, The Passages of Herman Melville, until the end. Until then, it's a witty, engaging introduction to this momentous encounter. His first mention of Melville is captivating:

...Herman Melville who, after a very successful debut (Typee), was struggling to complete an unwieldy coming-of-age tale about a South Seas whaler.

In no more than a couple of screens, McCrum presents many of the reasons why so many have been so interested in Melville for so long.

If you have never read biographical material on Melville, maybe even never read Moby Dick, and wonder what all the hoopla is about, take just a few minutes to read what Robert McCrum has to say on the topic.

Jennifer Ewing's Spirit Boats

San Francisco artist Jennifer Ewing has been exploring spirit boats through painting and sculpture. The article on her website about her Spirit Boat Series makes for wonderful reading--I don't want to attempt to paraphrase, as her writing is as beautiful as her paintings and sculptures.

If you're interested in exploring boats as an artistic metaphor, or especially in creating boats for personal mental and/or spiritual journeys, explore her website. There are also other locations with photos of her creations:

• Her page at artspan.org has nine images
  
• Search "jennifer ewing" "spirit boat" on Flickr to retrieve photos from Anna L. Conti's photostream of Ewing's paintings at the Royce Gallery and of her studio and installations.
  
  

So Ends This Day

The Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library send along this announcement:

So Ends This Day—The Portuguese in American Whaling

Saturday, January 22, 2011, 6:00 p.m. In the Maritime Library. Donation: $5 (general public); $4 (Library Friends and SFMNPA members)

Historian and author Don Warrin will discuss his new book, So Ends This Day—The Portuguese in American Whaling 1765-1927. In it he tells the story of the Portuguese crewmen who ultimately came to dominate the American whaling industry in its final days on the Pacific coast. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

TIA: The Friends support the Library where I work.

Online Historical Newspapers

Randy Seaver at the Genea-Musings blog posted an interesting list of historical newspaper sites as his Tuesday Tip for Jan. 4, 2011.

The second and third sites on his list have one entry per site--that is, on each of these sites, for example, the California Digital Newspaper Collection is one entry, even though it currently contains twenty-one titles.

The first entry, however, Miriam Robbins Midkiff's Online Historical Newspapers Website, is far more useful. Newspaper titles are listed geographically, currently covering Australia, Canada, and the USA. The site is not comprehensive, and encourages sending in suggestions for new entries. (The New York Times, for example, isn't listed, even though the title is available online back to 1851--for a fee.) Also, look through the listings carefully--the San Francisco Call is listed as San Francisco Call as well as Call, but using the find feature of a browser with a significant word (like "Call") ensures seeing all entries. Newspapers typically available via library subscriptions seem not always present, but over all, it's a very comprehensive list and very useful.

What's the most popular public room on the Minerva?

According to David Simpson's article in the Daily Mail, it's the library.

He writes about a library that sounds absolutely wonderful under the headline, "Cruise holiday on Swan Hellenic’s Minerva: Who needs water slides when you have a library?" And it's not just any library; it has been cared for by the same person for fourteen years, Victoria Kennedy, and assembled over fifty years to help passengers learn about the places they're visiting. A measure of its success is the passengers' repeat booking rate: 92 percent.

I found one site with a photo of the library, and it looks very comfortable. Plus, they have puzzles!

Records yield 200 years of fish population data

Dave Mosher's article Old, Ignored Records Yield 200 Years of Fish Population Data was published on Nov. 19, 2010 in Wired Science. Headlines such as "Old, Ignored Records" always make me smile--were they truly ignored? Hadn't they been cataloged and preserved in a library or archive? Of course, the article also uses the phrase "digging up," which also makes me smile--the researchers probably used carefully constructed catalogs and finding aids.

At any rate, the purpose to which they put these records was novel, using them as data sources for fish populations, and Dave Moser's article does provide a wonderful overview of their research, as well as a reminder that we can't always anticipate the future value of the materials preserved in libraries in archives.

Luckily, the product of the research, Coding Early Naturalists' Accounts into Long-Term Fish Community Changes in the Adriatic Sea (1800–2000) by Tomaso Fortibuoni, Simone Libralato, Saša Raicevich, Otello Giovanardi, and Cosimo Solidoro, is available for free online, including their interesting list of books that were analyzed as "Table S1," available as a Word document.

Is SF Bay fished out?

The December 2-7, 2010, edition of the East Bay Express features Alastair Bland's article, Is San Francisco Bay Fished Out? Even if you're not interested in California's fishery issues, the article is worth reading--the issues that Bland explores impact more than SF Bay's fishers, and more than the area that we think of as San Francisco Bay.

Reading the article made me realize that when I gaze out on the Bay's waters, I see only the surface. I don't see, and often don't think about, the ecosystem beneath the water's surface. I also don't keep in mind that the "boundary" between salt and fresh water is, if you'll forgive the pun, a fluid one. For example, the salmon fishery in California is one that can't be thought of in terms of "marine" or "fresh" waters--reading Bland's article reminded me that California's fishery issues can not be limited to discussions of catching the fish in the salty Bay's waters without considering the issues confronting the fishery upstream, in the fresh waters of the state's interior.

In addition, we can't limit our discussions to the fishers on the water--the issues facing the fisherman don't begin or end on the deck, but reach into the markets and restaurants where we consumers create the demand, and into the hearts of those of us devoted to that moment when we feel the tug of our dinner on the pole in our hands.

I recommend this article to anyone interested in any salt water fishery, past or present--Bland's featuring the fishers in SF Bay creates an awareness of the wider world in which the fish, the fishers, and the diners live. And when we keep in mind the fact that some fish are long-lived, long-distance champions, populating the oceans that circle the globe, it lends greater meaning to the resources, and traditions, that went into putting that filet on our plate.

Crochet Coral Reef in D.C. and N.Y.

Once again, The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is on exhibit! If you're in Washington D.C. or New York City, you have a chance to visit the The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (D.C.), or the portion of it that's on display at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (New York). In addition, crocheters have created the Smithsonian Community Reef, which is on display with Hyperbolic Reef in D.C.

Whether or not you can go in person, the Smithsonian has provided wonderful resources to enjoy the exhibit remotely. This month the Smithsonian Magazine has a great article by Jess Righthand about the exhibit and the community's creations, and the exhibit website is full of links to resources such as the Flickr and Ravelry groups, as well as links for further information on reefs, hyperbolic space, and how to create your own coral reef creations that you can photograph and share online.

My thanks to my friend Kate for sending this information along!

Dave Porter in the South Seas

"Another flash lit up the scene."

Illustration by I.B. Hazelton, from the Project Gutenberg edition of Dave Porter in the South Seas, or, The Strange Cruise of the Stormy Petrel, by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930).

Lighthouse Traveling Libraries

Through the Smithsonian Collections Blog, I've discovered Toniann Scime's very interesting Librarians Between the Covers, and the very interesting post about lighthouse traveling libraries.

I find traveling libraries fascinating, whether small such as these selections in a cabinet, in a traditional bookmobile motoring around, as large as a ship's library, or delivered via camel. The selections tell you something of the lives of the readers.

Sure, we are not of the same mind, when we, today, read the book that a lighthouse keeper read in 1898, but for a short time, the same words kindle our imaginations.

Libraries, Archives, Special Collections Jobs

Rachael Cristine Woody at the Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler Archives posted "How Can I Get a Job? (Libraries, Archives and Special Collections)" on Oct. 20, 2010, at the Smithsonian Collections blog.

She links to great resources for finding job and educational opportunities in museum libraries and archives, and provides sound advice--and links to more resources--for building a resume rich in social media experience as well as solid grounding in professional standards.

Also of interest to those already in the profession, are the statistics she reports:

Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010-2011 edition for Archivists, Curators and Museum Technicians, you'll see the profession is projected to grow a faster than average 20% by 2018. The statistics for Librarians are also expected to grow at least 8% and job competition to be favorable to potential employees as many librarians retire in the coming years.

Head over there to follow her links to the relevant Bureau of Labor Statistics sites for more info!

Albert Bigelow Paine's The Ship Dwellers

Originally published by Harper in 1910, The Ship-Dwellers : a story of a happy cruise, by Albert Bigelow Paine with illustrations from drawings by Thomas Fogarty and from photographs, is now available from Project Gutenberg.

Ka'iulani Murphy intervew

Lindsay Patterson's interview with Ka'iulani Murphy, "Ka’iulani Murphy’s star compass helps navigate oceans," is available in text and audio at one of my favorite blogs, EarthSky.org.

She succinctly describes traditional Hawaiian navigation, which uses the clues in nature to navigate on the ocean, rather than instruments such as a magnetic compass. In the short interview, she addresses how she navigates on cloudy nights when she can't see the stars, and where she plans to travel--around the world.

Ship Drawing at Hauntology

I really enjoyed my recent visit to the Hauntology Exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum. Although there's currently no online version of the exhibit, one of the most impressive pieces is reproduced in some of the online reviews, and also on Flickr, "Ship Drawing" by Paul Sietsema. Part of a diptych, it's worth seeing in person if you get a chance, not only because of it's size (50 3/4 x 70 in.) but because of the presence of the other half of the diptych. According to Figure 3 : Paul Sietsema, Museum of Modern Art, the work was created by retouching a photograph, copying, and building up layers--the effect of which is enchanting. The work drew me in to examine it closely, yet because of its size, I continually stepped back to take in the whole. It's also a work that has stayed with me, and I hope to visit it again before the exhibit ends.

"Hauntology," a term coined by Jacques Derrida, "is a philosophy of history that upsets the easy progression of time by proposing that the present is simultaneously haunted by the past and the future," according to the BAM website. An interesting concept for museums, historians, and artists.

Pigeon Point Light Station Anniversary

On Saturday, November 13, 2010, Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park will celebrate its 138th anniversary. According to the flyer (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format), the fresnel lens will be lit, the historic fog signal building & displays open, and the Seal House hostel will hold an open house, plus tours, videos, exhibits, displays, puppet show, and refreshments.

Sounds like a fun time, if you're near Pescadero, California!

Introductions to finding aids

Sometimes the visitors to our library are new to research, and it's not unusual for a visitor to arrive who has never used a library before. Some aspect of maritime history has intrigued them, and they want to learn more--usually about a ship or an ancestor.

We introduce them to the concept of our library catalog--that it's a listing of materials they can have paged to use here, but that are not for sale, and that they can not take home, and although there are links in the catalog to online materials, most of the items represented in the catalog are hardcopy books that are not available online. This part of the reference interview goes quickly.

Less easy to convey is the concept of an archival finding aid, that is designed to help the researcher decide if all or part of a potentially vast amount of material would be worth paging. Barbara Aikens, at the Smithsonian, has something that might help--"What Are Finding Aids?" on their Smithsonian Collections Blog. It's one of the best introductions I've seen to what exactly a finding aid is, with links for further exploration.

Keep this post in mind for research newbies, and even for experienced researchers--if you're considering research in the vast Smithsonian Archives, give it a read.

Duham's Journal of voyages

fig. 177, "The Pirates' plan of exercising the nerves of Captives."

Journal of voyages : containing an account of the author's being twice captured by the English and once by Gibbs the pirate; his narrow escape when chased by an English war schooner; as well as his being cast away and residing with Indians, to which is added some account of the soil, products, laws and customs of Chagres, the Musquitto Shore, and St. Blas, at the Isthmus of Darien. With Illustrations, by Captain Jacob Dunham is now available at Project Gutenberg.