Penn State Life Sciences Library

This month in our Audubon display case is the Sharp - tailed Grouse

2012-04-06T14:54:00.002-04:00

The Sharp-tailed Grouse is one of four species of North American Grousethat inhabit a broad range of plant communities dominated by grasses and shrubs where males engage in communal breeding displays. Historically, this species was found in steppe, grassland, and mixed shrub habitats throughout much of central and northern North America. Although it still ranges from the Great Lakes states west to Alaska and south to Colorado,its numbers have declined greatly in the southern and eastern portions of its historical range and many populations now depend on cropland to varying degrees.

This month in our Audubon display case

2011-06-30T10:21:00.002-04:00

This month we are featuring the Trumpeter Swan. The Trumpeter swan is the largest species of native North American waterfowl. It is a long-lived, social species, conspicuous by its large size, all white plumage, and trumpet-like call.

Internship

2011-04-19T15:37:00.002-04:00

Applications are currently being accepted for the University Libraries Bednar Internship in partnership with the Inter-institutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge. Applicants must be a student in Agricultural Sciences, Anthropology, Education, English, Rural Sociology, or Sociology of junior or senior standing for the 2011-2012 academic year. Salary is $8.50/hour for (up to 100) hours per semester. Deadline to apply is 2 May 2011.

This Month in our Audubon Display Case

2011-04-11T09:12:00.002-04:00

This Month in our Audubon Display case we are featuring the Common Redpoll. Redpolls are busy, acrobatic finches, spending much of their time flitting about, feeding, and calling with their incessant che,che,che contact calls or their plaintive dsooee. Their bouncy flight and rolling feeding flocks in winter fields add to the feeling of constant and exuberant activity.

Cookie Recipes

2011-03-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

We had an open house for other library staff this past Tuesday and pretty much stayed on a "cookie" theme for our munchies. Although there was quite a selection of store brought varieties (Wegmans and Keebler being predominant) we also had a nice selection of "made from scratch" cookies. Which resulted in a bunch of "do you have the recipe?" questions.

Since what we do is answer questions.... here you go:

Mushroom Cookies (made by Amy).
Peanut Butter Blossoms -with the Hershey Kiss. (made by Ann)
Laura Bush's Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (made by Sarah)
Oatmeal Scotchies (made by Helen)
Soft Snickerdoodles (made by Helen)
Coffee Crisps (made by Janet: variation of a recipe from the book "Cookies at the Academy', from the series California Culinary Academy, 1987, ISBN 1-56426-035-6)

1 ¾ cups flour
¼ teaspoon each salt, baking soda, and baking powder
1 tablespoon powdered or granulated instant coffee
½ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup each sugar & packed brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons (approximately) granulated sugar

In a bowl stir together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and instant coffee to blend thoroughly, set aside. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
In mixer bowl combine butter and shortening; beat until fluffy. Add sugars and beat until well blended. Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until just well combined.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Dip a flat-bottomed glass in granulated sugar, and use it to flatten each cookie to a thickness of about 1/4 inch.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes until cookies are golden brown and feel firm when touched lightly. Let stand on baking sheets for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.
Yield about 3 dozen 3-inch cookies

Lemon Sugar Crisps (made by Barbara)

½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp lemon extract
1 1/8 cup flour
¾ tsp baking powder

Cream together butter, shortening and sugar.
Add egg, lemon juice and lemon extract
Stir in flour and baking powder
Shape into ball
Flatten with glass dipped in sugar (can add some yellow food coloring to sugar) Bake at 400F for approximately 8 minutes
yield 24-36 cookies

This month in our Audubon display case

2011-02-10T11:49:00.002-05:00

This month in our Audubon display case we are featuring the Evening Grosbeak. The Evening Grosbeak is a stocky, heavy-billed finch of northern coniferous forests. An irruptive migrant across much of its range, it makes roughly biannual appearances at winter feeding stations throughout much of the coterminous United States. Often moving in large flocks, this boldly colored bird with the massive bill is difficult for observers to miss.

This month in our Audubon display case

2010-12-30T13:45:00.002-05:00

This month in our Audubon display case we are featuring the Swainson's Hawk. Each Autumn, nearly the entire breeding population of the Swainson's Hawk migrates from the temperate zone of North America to "wintering" areas in South America. From Prairie Canada, this migration is more than 10,000 km each way, a distance second among raptors only to that of the Arctic Peregrine Falcon. Swainson's Hawks forage and migrate in flocks often numbering in the thousands.

Librarian’s TimeSaver Tip - Library Toolbar

2010-12-15T14:48:00.006-05:00

(hey, we look for information all the time and know tons of time saving tricks. Here is one!)

Picture this: while browsing the internet, or reading your webmail, you come across a book that you would like to see. Does Penn State have a copy? You can go the library page, select the CAT and input a search to find out….OR… you can simply highlight the title, right click your mouse and select “search the CAT for title” and another window opens with your search already executed! See this in action by clicking the play button on the video below:

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

How about this… you are at home using an internet connection via your cable or phone company. Your advisor recommends an article at Elsevier’s ScienceDirect service and sends you a link, but since you are not on campus, you can’t read it without paying! But the library already has a subscription! You can go the library page and search the e-journal list, sign on and navigate to the article you want …. OR… simply right click anywhere in the page and select “Reload www.xxxxyyyyzzz.com via EZProxy” put in your PSU ID/Password and you have access!

You can do all this with the Library (LibX) Toolbar. This is a customizable browser plugin for Firefox (a great browser) that provides direct access to Penn State's library resources.

See more information and download the plugin!

We love it!

This month in our Audubon display case

2010-11-03T14:32:00.003-04:00

This month in our Audubon display case we are featuring the Sage Grouse. The Sage Grouse is North America's largest grouse. Its habitats are dominated by big sagebrush in western North America. The first written accounts of this species were based on observations by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, when the species was widespread in the west.
This species is renowned for its spectacular breeding displays, during which males congregate on relatively small lek sites to perform a strutting display in order to breed with females.

This Month in our Audubon display case

2010-10-07T15:05:00.002-04:00

The American Dipper

The American Dipper chooses a nest site, invariably along a stream, that provides security from floods and predators. Availability of suitable nest sites appears to limit its populations and is probably the principal limiting factor. It eats an exclusively animal diet, composed almost entirely of aquatic insects. This species' distinctive traits include incessant dipping, a blinking white eyelid, and frenzied feeding by jumping or diving into turbulent water even at ambient temperatures well below ) degrees Celsius. To persist in this demanding environment, the American Dipper has a low metabolic rate, extra oxygen-carrying capacity in its blood, and a thick coat of feathers. It aggressively defends both summer territories and winter spaces along streams.

This Month in our Audubon display case

2010-09-08T09:48:00.002-04:00

This month we are featuring the Sage Thrasher and the Varied Thrush. The Sage Thrasher, originally called the Mountain Mockingbird, has a long, melodious song of great variety, reminiscent of a mockingbird's song, and is found mostly in the shrub-dominated valley's and plains of the western United States. The Varied Thrush breeds from Alaska to California.It's contrasting black-and-orange plumage and eerie, penetrating song make it one of the most distinctive birds in the Northwestern forests.

Rock Ptarmigan

2010-08-02T14:18:00.002-04:00

This month in our Audubon display case we are featuring the Rock Ptarmigan. Also known as the Rock Grouse, Rock Ptarmigan are the quintessential arctic bird, living only on inhospitably cold and windswept tundra regions around the northern hemisphere. The Rock Ptarmigan is the only known bird species in which all populations spend their entire life cycle on the tundra, retreating only from the northernmost regions during the long period of winter darkness.

Band-Tailed Pigeon

2010-07-02T11:09:00.003-04:00

This month in our Audubon display case we are featuring the Band Tailed Pigeon. The Band Tailed Pigeon is in many ways reminiscent of its more widely distributed relative the Rock Dove, the Band Tailed Pigeon is similar in size and posture, movements, and reproductive and feeding behavior. It is equally a generalist, able to nest and feed in towns and near farms as well as in distant forests. The Band Tailed Pigeon is broadly distributed from Alaska to South America with only two sub-species north of Mexico. They inhabit the dry montane forests of four states in the southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado). For more information on the Band Tailed Pigeon, see this article in Wikipedia.

This month in our Audubon display case

2010-06-04T10:03:00.003-04:00

Featured this month in our Audubon display case is the Gyrfalcon. Largest of all falcons, and the most diurnal raptor, the Gyrfalcon inhabits circumpolar arctic and subarctic regions, with some individuals moving south into northern temperate zones during fall and winter. Gyrfalcons exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism in size (males weigh only about 65% as much as females) but not in plumage, which ranges from nearly pure white to an almost uniform dark gray-brown, referred to as "black."

Lapland Longspur

2010-05-11T13:43:00.003-04:00

This month in our Audubon Display case we are featuring the Lapland Longspur. One of the most abundant terrestrial birds in North America, the Lapland Longspur breeds across vast areas of the arctic, where it is almost invariably the most visible and abundant bird and sometimes it is the only songbird. In winter, it is generally uncommon in eastern North America and west of the Rocky Mountains, but huge numbers can be found west of the Great Lakes and across the Great Plains from southern Canada to northern Texas often feeding on waste grain in agricultural fields; some flocks have been estimated as large as 4 million birds.

Ag Day 2010

2010-03-26T11:30:00.002-04:00

April 21, 2010 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on the HUB lawn.
Help celebrate the goals and accomplishments of the College of Agricultural Sciences, its students and the agricultural field.

Audubon Display Case

2010-03-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

This month in the Audubon display case on the 4th floor of the Paterno Library is the Bohemian Waxwing also known as the Bohemian Chatterer. Named for the nomadic ranging patterns of its winter flocks, the waxwing moves widely, seeking crops of winter fruits, and irregularly sweeps into regions to the south and east of its typical winter range. The waxwing feeds primarily on sugary fruits during most of the year yet it feeds heavily on insects during the warmer months. The bohemian Waxwing is monogamous and breeding coincides with the ripening of a new season's fruits.

Audubon Display Case

2010-02-04T12:00:00.002-05:00

Featured this month in our Audubon display on the 4th floor of the Paterno Library are four members of the crow family, the Florida Scrub Jay, the Steller's Jay, the Yellow-Billed Magpie, and the Clarke's Nutcracker. As its name indicates the Florida Scrub Jay is found throughout central Florida, while the Steller's Jay, Yellow-Billed Magpie, and the Clarke's Nutcracker are all found in the western United States and Canada.

Ornithology by Gill now in Reserve Reading Room

2010-01-13T10:16:00.001-05:00

The textbook Ornithology, by Frank Gill, has been taken from the LS Reserves and put in the Reserve Reading Room due to request by the course's professor.

Blue Grouse

2010-01-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

This month in our Audubon display on the 4th floor of the Paterno Library is the Blue Grouse. The Blue Grouse is endemic to mountainous regions of western North America and have a restricted geographic range. Nevertheless, they occupy a wide range of breeding habitats from maritime to continental in climate, from sea level to 3600+ meters in elevation, and from northwestern coast rainforest to shrub/ steppe high desert and sub alpine/alpine tundra. Virtually all populations winter in conifer forests, where conifer needles comprise their main winter food. As a species, they share physical and behavioral attributes with both "forest" and "prairie" grouse.

Rock and Winter Wrens

2009-11-11T14:59:00.002-05:00

This month in our Audubon display on the 4th floor of the Paterno Library are the Rock and Winter Wrens. The Rock Wren is a pale wren of arid, western North America. These wrens are also found in non-rocky habitats as long as there exist areas rich in crevices, passageways, recesses, nooks and crannies of diverse shapes and sizes. These wrens are more easily heard then seen. Rock Wren songs are unmistakable, but beauty lies in the ears of the listener.

The Winter Wren creeps mouselike around the forest floor, next to, into, and out of large logsand other tangles and sings loudly from favorite perches. A superb songster, and more often heard than seen, this small, brown, cryptically colored wren generally inhabits dark, moist conifer forests in North America, although some breed in hardwoods or on cliff faces on treeless islands.

Rosetta Stone Presentation

2009-11-04T14:48:00.003-05:00

The presentation scheduled for Wednesday 11 November has been cancelled.

PubMed/New Interface

2009-11-03T11:32:00.003-05:00

The PubMed redesigned interface is now available. The goal of the new design is to simplify the search interface. More information is available http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/so09/so09_pm_redesign.html.

Rosetta Stone presentation

2009-10-22T10:23:00.001-04:00

Rosetta Stone, the company that offers language learning products, will be giving a demonstration of their online product on Wednesday, November 11 from 1-3 p.m. in Foster Auditorium.

This Month in our Audubon Display

2009-10-07T11:04:00.003-04:00

This month in our Audubon Display case on the 4th floor of the Paterno Library we are featuring three different birds, the Western Kingbird, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and the Say's Phoebe. The Western Kingbird is a conspicuous bird of open habitats that breeds in the western United States and winters in southern Mexico and Central America. It occupies a variety of habitats including riparian forests and woodlands, savannahs, shrublands, agricultural lands, deserts, and urban area. Typical of tyrant flycatchers, this kingbird forages by aerial hawking and perch-to-ground flights, often with acrobatic flying maneuvers. Insects make up the majority of its diet.

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a common sight throughout the south-central United States and northeastern Mexico during spring and summer. It favors open areas -- savannah, grassland, shrubland, and agricultural and urban habitats -- with sufficient perches for feeding and trees and shrubs for nesting. Well suited for life in the open grasslands, it eats mostly grasshoppers and beetles, more so than other North American flycatchers.

The Say's Phoebe is similar in behavior, size and breeding biology to the Black and Eastern phoebes, although its voice, coloration, and habitat preferences are distinctive. Say's Phoebe breeds over much of western North America, from the Great Plains west nearly to the PAcific coast. It has one of the broadest latitudinal ranges among the North American flycatchers, extending from central Mexico farther north than any other into the arctic tundra, apparently constrained only by the lack of suitable nesting sights.