From antiquity to current times, there have always been writers devising literary forgeries of all kinds, either copying an existing book from the classical period or simply creating a fake […]
Why Aren’t All Journals Available Online?
We are always getting questions about why some journals are available online and some are not. Some of the comments from a recent library survey requested that we get “…..all […]
China in Ten Words
How is it possible to summarize a country as complex as China in ten words? Yu Hua, a renowned novelist in China, did just that. In his first work of […]
The End of the Book?
If someone said that recent technological advances made the printed book, as the conveyor of knowledge and information, obsolete, would you think this prediction a recent one? What about a […]
Adventures of the General Jewish Encyclopedia
Looking into MSEL’s collections can lead you to travel across continents and to share incredible adventures. Editing and publishing books can become quite an endeavor when it meets history’s turmoil. […]
The Art of Google Customization
Do you know about Google Custom? It’s a great feature that allows you to focus your Google searching across exactly the websites you want. Of course it’s really cool for personal use, […]
88 Books that Shaped America
I love lists. I especially love lists of books. The Library of Congress recently complied a list of the 88 books that shaped America. Note, that this isn’t a list […]
National Parks, Historic Sites, & Monuments
From its beginnings the US government has designated land for public use. In 1790, land for Washington, D.C., was set aside for the building of the country’s capitol. Then, in […]
A History of Johns Hopkins Yearbooks
In 1889, the undergraduates of The Johns Hopkins University published their first yearbook. Entitled The Debutante, the little book with a black-and-blue cover consists of 110 pages, and only a handful […]
Ouch That Hurts!
Every year the library circulates hundreds of thousands of books. In addition to circulating books, patrons use thousands of books in the library that are not checked out. Usually, the […]