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LIBR 210 Rene StilwellAlmanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010

Almanacs, Yearbooks, and Handbooks

Part I - Questions

1. When was daylight savings time introduced in the U.S.? Check at least twosources and specify which answer is best.

Answer:In 1966, the Uniform Time Act went into effect in the United States. Itproclaimed that all states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessionswere to observe Daylight Saving Time starting at 2am on the last Sunday inApril and ending at 2am on the last Sunday in October.

Source: The New York Public Library Desk Reference. Fourth Edition. NewYork: Hyperion, 2002.

Answer:Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who firstsuggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when WilliamWillett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Wasteof Daylight.

The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched oneyear later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passedthe Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment

lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition fromdairy farmers (cows don't pay attention to clocks).

During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this timeyear-round) to save fuel. Since then, Daylight Saving Time has been used onand off, with different start and end dates. Currently, Daylight Saving Timebegins at 2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 A.M. onthe first Sunday in November.

Source: Old Farmers Almanac.http://www.almanac.com/

Answer:Daylight Saving Time traditionally ran from the first Sunday in April to the lastSunday in October. In 2009, Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am on March8th and ends at 2am on November 1st.

Daylight Saving Time was first observed in the US during World War I andthen again during World War II. In the intervening years, some states andcommunities observed using whatever beginning and ending dates they

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chose. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which provide thatany state or territory that chooses to observe Daylight Saving Time mustbegin and end on the federal dates.

Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: World

Almanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

The best answer depends on how much information the patron is looking for.The first answer is quite brief and doesnt give much history. The secondanswer gives a lot of history and the third is a good comprise between thetwo.

2. How does the population density of Haiti compare to that of the DominicanRepublic? Be sure to specify the currency of your statistics.

Answer:The population density (per sq km) of Haiti at mid-2008 is 351.4.The population density (per sq km) of Dominican Republic at 2007 is 192.1.

Source: Europa World Year Book. 2 vols. Routledge: London, 1989 - .Annual. (I used Volume 1, 2009.)

3. Ive heard it is proper to eat asparagus with ones fingers. Is this true?

Answer:

By reputation this is a finger food, but the ungraceful appearance of a bentstalk of asparagus falling limply into someones mouth, dripping moisture,commends it to be eaten with a fork. When it is prepared al dente so that thestalks are firm, and any sauce is only on the tips, you may pick it up with yourfingers, one stalk at a time, and eat it from the tip to the opposite end inmanageable bites. When the stalks are covered in sauce or are limp, thencut them with your fork or fork and knife and eat them in small pieces. Allhard ends should be cut off asparagus before it is served. If this has not beendone, do not attempt to eat the ends. If you cant cut them, you cant chewthem. Just cut or eat the spears to the point at which they cease to be tenderand leave the remainder neatly on your plate.

Source: Post, Peggy. Emily Posts Etiquette. 16th ed. New York:HarperCollins, 1997. 241p.

4. How many country music stations are there in the United States?

Answer:

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As of June 2008 there are 2,028 country music stations in the United States.Chart: U.S. Commercial Radio Stations by Format, 1998-2008.

Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: WorldAlmanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

5. What were the seven wonders of the ancient world? Are any still able to beseen?

Answer:Since ancient times, numerous seven wonders lists have been created. Thecontent of these lists tends to vary, and none is definitive. The seven wondersthat are most widely agreed upon as being in the original list are the SevenWonders of the Ancient World, which was compiled by ancient Greekhistorians and is thus confined to the most magnificent structures known to

the ancient Greek world. Of all the Ancient Wonders, the pyramids alonesurvive.

1. The Pyramids of Egypt are three pyramids at Giza, outside modern Cairo.The largest pyramid, built by Khufu (Cheops), a king of the fourth dynasty,had an original estimated height of 482 ft (now approximately 450 ft). Thebase has sides 755 ft long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weightof each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 B.C.2. The Hanging Gardens ofBabylon were supposedly built byNebuchadnezzararound 600 B.C. to please his queen, Amuhia. They arealso associated with the mythical Assyrian queen Semiramis. Archeologists

surmise that the gardens were laid out atop a vaulted building, with provisionsfor raising water. The terraces were said to rise from 75 to 300 ft.3. The Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia was made of gold and ivory by theGreek sculptorPhidias (5th century B.C.). Reputed to be 40 ft high, the statuehas been lost without a trace, except for reproductions on coins.4. The Temple ofArtemis (Diana) at Ephesus was begun about 350 B.C., inhonor of a non-Hellenic goddess who later became identified with the Greekgoddess of the same name. The temple, with Ionic columns 60 ft high, wasdestroyed by invading Goths in A.D. 262.5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was erected by Queen Artemisia inmemory of her husband, King Mausolus of Caria in Asia Minor, who died in353 B.C. Some remains of the structure are in the British Museum. Thisshrine is the source of the modern word mausoleum.6 The Colossus at Rhodes was a bronze statue of Helios (Apollo), about 105ft high. The work of the sculptor Chares, who reputedly labored for 12 yearsbefore completing it in 280 B.C., it was destroyed during an earthquake in 224B.C.7. The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was built by Sostratus of Cnidusduring the 3rd century B.C. on the island of Pharos off the coast of Egypt. It

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was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century.

Note: Some lists include the Walls ofBabylon in place of the second orseventh wonder.

Sources: Information Please Almanac. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1947- .Annual. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001327.html

D'Epiro, Peter, and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, What Are the Seven Wondersof the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists. First Anchor Books, NewYork. 1998.

6. When is Chinese New Year in 2011 and what will it be the year of?

Answer:

Chinese New Year is 3 days long. In 2011, the 1

st

day of 3 begins onFebruary 3 and it will be the year of the Hare.

Source: Weaver, Robert S., International Holidays: 204 countries from 1994through 2015, with tabular appendices of religious holidays, 1900-2100.McFarland and Company, 1995.

7. Who is the patron saint of librarians and what day of the year is his memorialday?

Short Answer: Jerome.According to the 2009 Catholic Almanac under Saints Patrons andIntercessors p 209.

Source: Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Almanac. Our Sunday VisitorPublishing Division, Huntington, IN. 1904 - . Annual.

Long Answer: Patron Saint of Libraries is Jerome (c. 341-420).Feast day: September 30.

Jerome is honored as one of the greatest scholars of the early Church whosegenius made large contributions to Christian thought, particularly in the areaof biblical scholarship.

Definition of Patron Saint: Saint chosen as a special protector or intercessorfor a place, person, church, diocese, ethnic group, organization, or country.

Source: Bunson, M., Our Sunday Visitors Encyclopedia of Saints. OurSunday Visitor Publishing Division, Huntington, IN. 1998.

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8. What is the current time difference between Los Angeles and the Philippines?

Answer: According to the time zone map on page 460 of the 2010 World

Almanac, there is a 15 hours time difference between Los Angeles andManila. A time zone map is also available online at infoplease.com.

Sources: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: WorldAlmanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

Information Please Almanac. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1947- . Annual.http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855474.html

9. I am interested in learning more about Zocor, a drug I have seen advertised.

What do the pills look like? When is it likely to be prescribed?

Zocor is also called Simvastatin.

Simvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering medication that blocks the production ofcholesterol (a type of fat) in the body. Simvastatin reduces low-densitylipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and total cholesterol in the blood. Lowering yourcholesterol can help prevent heart disease and hardening of the arteries,conditions that can lead to heart attack, stroke, and vascular disease.

Simvastatin 10 mg-TEV

Round, pink, imprinted with 93, 7153

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Sources: RxList The Internet Drug Index. http://www.rxlist.com/zocor-drug-patient.htm

Physicians Desk Reference. Thomson Healthcare. Annual.http://pdrhealth.com

Part II Reflection

I enjoyed this source assignment, as I have always been fond of almanacsand handbooks. Before the Internet, I would consult my copy of the WorldAlmanac and Farmers Almanac for random answers quite a bit. I did find a

few sources that I was not familiar with. The Europa World Year Book isfantastic. I wish I knew about this reference when I was in high schoolworking on reports of countries of the world.

I found the New York Public Library Desk Reference handy but notparticularly in depth. For me, this was an example of why it is important tohave overlap in reference collections. As noted in Bopp and Smith, thisoverlap occurs because users vary in the amount of information they needand some prefer different presentations of information (p 361). Alsomentioned is the importance of uniqueness. I found the sources on Saints tobe very unique and was actually surprised to find them on the reference shelf.Although, they were a bit dusty. I knew most major religions have bookspublished but I didnt expect to find them in the reference section of thelibrary.

It seems that a lot of almanacs are beginning to find their way on the Internet.I find that I still prefer to look up the information on paper because sometimesthe electronic interface isnt as good. For instance, Informationplease.comhas a map of time zones online but it is difficult to read and not interactive. Ifound it much easier to read the information on a map in the print edition ofthe World Almanac. I also found the map quicker using the index in the print

edition. Lucky for me, the library I chose for this assignment has manycurrent print editions of almanacs, yearbooks and handbooks in its referencecollection. However, when answering the question about the prescriptiondrug and what the pills look like, it was much easier to show a picture fromthe online version. I can see how this could be helpful especially whenanswering the question via electronic communication.

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