The Buzz...About Books

Award Winners at Your Fingertips

Need the names of the Newberry Medal winners?  Dying to know who won the 2010 Dagger award?  Curious about the Costas?

The new and improved Awards Section of the website will answer all your questions about literary prizes. It lists current and past winners and finalists for 37 Canadian and international awards in a variety of genres, non-fiction and poetry.  Childrens and young adult awards are included as well. 

The lists are linked to the library catalogue so you can place holds easily.  If you're looking for a prize-winning read, be sure to check it out in Find Your Way to Your Next Great Read.

 

 

World Digital Library Launch

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions yesterday launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site―located at www.wdl.org―includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.

The World Digital Library functions in seven languages―Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish―and includes content in more than 40 languages. Browse and search features facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site. Descriptions of each item and videos, with expert curators speaking about selected items, provide context for users and are intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.

Examples of other treasures featured include Arabic scientific manuscripts from the National Library and Archives of Egypt; early photographs of Latin America from the National Library of Brazil; the "Hyakumanto darani," a publication from A.D. 764 from the National Diet Library of Japan; the famous 13th century "Devil’s Bible" from the National Library of Sweden; and works of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish calligraphy from the collections of the Library of Congress.

Many of the Library of Congress’ rich international resources will be available through the World Digital Library at www.wdl.org, while other resources can be found at the Library’s main website and via interactive exhibitions on a new, personalized website at myLOC.gov.

100 Reference Books Online at TPL: Credo Reference

 

Here is another great database to explore online with your Toronto Public Library card.

Credo Reference
The full text of research books on a wide range of subjects, including The Bridgeman Art Library Archive, Atlas of the Bible, the Encyclopedia of the European Union, the International Dictionary of Homeopathy, and Who's Who 2006 and Who Was Who 1897-2005. Also includes French, German, Irish, Italian, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish dictionaries.

You can search 1,095,232 entries in 100 titles in categories such as:

Art
Business
Food & Beverage
General Reference
Geography
History
Language
Law
Literature
Medicine
Music
Philosophy
Psychology
Religion
Science
Social Sciences
Technology

Language lovers will really enjoy the following books:

LANGUAGE
American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms, The
Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (17th ed)
The Browser's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases
Chambers Dictionary of Eponyms
Dictionary of Contemporary Slang
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics
Good Word Guide
The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary
Rawson's Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk
Rawson's Wicked Words

LITERATURE
The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
Dictionary of Shakespeare, Peter Collin Publishing

DICTIONARIES
Bloomsbury Thesaurus
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary
Collins English Dictionary
American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms, The
The Browser's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases
Collins French Dictionary Plus

QUOTATIONS
Bloomsbury Biographical Dictionary of Quotations
Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations
Rawson's Dictionary of American Quotations
Respectfully Quoted
Simpson's Contemporary Quotations

How do you get there?

Go the the Toronto Public Library homepage.

Choose Find Articles in Magazines, Newspapers and more...

Click on List of Databases. Then choose Credo Reference, from the alphabetical list.

Then login with your card and PIN numbers and begin to explore.

 

Looking for your next new read?

Did you know that in addition to the dozens of databases available at Toronto Public Library for magazine and newspaper research, the library offers several rich sources of book information such as Gale's Books & Authors.

All you need is your library card number and you can search out books by authors, title or genre. You can see lists of the award winners. There are Expert Picks and Librarians' Favourites. There is non-fiction too.

How do you get there?

Go the the Toronto Public Library homepage.

Choose Find Articles in Magazines, Newspapers and more...

Click on List of Databases. Then choose Books and Authors, from the alphabetical list.

Then login with your card and PIN numbers and begin to explore.

UCLA Library Digital Collections Treasures

While you are reading about the new Huxley collection at the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, take a few minutes and explore more of the UCLA Digital Projects.

  Ray Bradbury, 1964

In particular, there is an amazing collection of photographs called Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920-1990. You can search or browse by subject.

For instance, check out these photos of 20th Century American Authors, which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

  James Baldwin, 1964            

  Louis L'Amour, 1970

UCLA Acquires Aldous Huxley Archive

The UCLA Library has acquired the literary archive of the visionary novelist and essayist Aldous Huxley (1894–1963). The collection contains literary materials he created subsequent to a devastating 1961 fire that destroyed his Los Angeles home and much of his earlier archive; correspondence, photographs and audio tapes; and typescripts and galley proofs retrieved from publishers after his death.

According to a March 6 press release: The literary materials include manuscripts and working papers for 12 books; 35 essays, articles and speeches; and 31 lectures. Among hundreds of letters are love letters between the writer and his wife, Laura. There are recordings of many of his lectures and of him reading from his novel "Time Must Have a Stop" (1944) and English and French poetry. The archive also contains a travel diary, four personal notebooks and personal effects, including his British passport, a magnifying glass, fountain pens and a leather wallet.

These materials join the Aldous Huxley Papers already held by the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.