What happened in the year you were born?

A Boy Scout troop was assigned questions on what happened the year they were born, the moon landing, and their family history. Aside from showing them the history room and providing them with genealogical forms and showing them how to access ancestry.com (which is what we subscribed to at the time), I also used the almanacs and the following very interesting resources:

American Facts and Dates - R 973 CAR - a large, chronologically-arranged list of event in American history from 986 to 1992. Includes annual summaries and four separate chronologies for each year for political, cultural, economic and intellectual, and social events.

Chronology of World History - R 902.02 MEL - This one is my favorite. Four large volumes of events listed by date from 3000 BC to the 1990s. Events prior to 1492 are listed according to era, subsequent events by year. Mountains of information like lists of important books, music, and films of each year are included. Addictive!

Chronicle of America - R 973.0202 CHR - A colorful, easy-to-browse summary of headlines from year to year. Entertaining, especially for a younger crowd.

There are, of course, many similar sources, but those always work particularly well, and they did so in this case. The Boy Scouts were thrilled with the easy availability of the information, and it served them well.

A New Purpose

One of the first things my freshman English professor told us was "Write to be read." Well, sure, sometimes writing things intended for no one can be therapeutic, but blogging things intended for no one is just a total waste of time. So I've decided to put this blog to some use. Whenever I get a real interesting reference question that causes me to be creative and use some interesting resources, I will record the process here for my colleagues. It will enable them to be aware of resources they may not have used before. This should be fun and educational for all five or six of us, don't you think? What better way to spend the few free moments we have while on duty than to log in to fadeproofjazz.blogspot.com and explore the fountain of goodies flowing before us? Have a wonderful day, keep your feet on the ground, reach for the stars, and stay tuned!

Why the Name 'Renaissance Man/?

The 'Renaissance Man' of old was an expert in every field. It's been a couple of hundred years since the human brain was large enough to store all of the knowledge necessary to have any real competence in more than one or two fields at most. That's why they invented library science. The closest thing to a renaissance person of today is, of course, a reference librarian. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot get your hands on any old piece of information you want just by googling for it. A disproportionately large percentage of information remains hidden in vaults, databases requiring paid subscriptions, etc. Reference librarians to the rescue. If you need to find it, we can help. We are trained to. We don't know everything, but we can find almost everything the government hasn't classified. Sure, we come closer than most people to knowing everything. We're the best at cocktail parties. Trying to make us feel stupid by engaging us in discussions about economic theory, French cinema, architectural fads, and cutting edge research in mathematics is difficult. Sure, we slip and have to plead ignorance once in awhile, but that's only because we're human. I think $148,000 a year is a fair and adequate compensation for our knowledge and abilities.