Black-billed Magpie

A strikingly marked and conspicuous bird of the cold, shrub-steppe environment of western North America, the Black-billed Magpie has attracted much attention and had a colorful association with early Americans. It frequently followed bison-hunting Native-Americans and lived on the refuse of their hunts. When Lewis and Clark first encountered magpies in 1804 in South Dakota, these birds were bold, entering tents to steal meat and taking food from the hand.

Twelve subspecies of magpies are found throughout northern Europe and Asia, with probable connections via the Bering Land Bridge to Black-billed and Yellow-billed Magpies in western North America.

CABI "Swine" flu dashboard

CABI has developed a Swine flu 'dashboard' that brings together up-to-the-minute information on the virus. The 'dashboard' includes resources from CABI and critical advice from key health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The information is organised into the following tabs:

• Resources from CABI: links to selected abstracts from our databases, updates from our blog and a feed of valuable information selected by our subject experts
• Global Health: free access to CABI’s Global Health database, including prepared searches in this area
• Center for Disease Control and World Health Organisation: latest updates from these two organisations
• Wikipedia: latest updates
• Google: relevant search trend information
• Maps: two of the best visualisations showing information about swine flu

new journals

The Penn State community now has access to the current year of several core titles; The American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of General Virology, and Stem Cells. Enjoy!

Darwin 'Origin of Species' report

The NSF report on how Charles Darwin's seminal book "On the Origin of Species" has influenced science and society during the last 150 years. Includes an interview by PSU biological anthropologist, Kenneth Weiss.

Also, come in to the library to see our display on Darwin, in celebration of his 200th birthday!

2007 Census of Agriculutre

Results of the 2007 Census of Agriculture were released February 4, 2009.
http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/

Taylor & Francis Journals no longer online

Unfortunately we no longer have online access to most of the journals published by the Taylor and Francis publishing company. In December, without prior notice, the publisher presented Penn State with a new agreement that had new terms that we considered unacceptable. Our attempts to reach a mutually-agreeable compromise with Taylor and Francis have been unsuccessful. We are unable to ensure all-campus electronic access directly from Taylor and Francis without a large package subscription. The publisher’s most recent offers included unacceptable terms that would tie our hands by requiring us to maintain a “current spend” (over $400,000 per year) and not pay them any less per year over the course of the next 5 years. The cost and the terms of the Taylor and Francis agreement are untenable in the current economic climate. As a consequence the University Libraries have chosen not to renew the agreement.

We will have print copies of some of the higher use titles including:
Avian Pathology
British Poultry Science
Children's Health Care
Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences
Experimental Aging Research
Food Additives & Contaminants
Health Care for Women International
Health Communication
International Journal of the History of Sport
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
Journal of Community Health Nursing
Journal of Occupational & Environ. Hygiene
Journal Of Toxicology & Environmental Health Part A
Nutrition and Cancer
Society & Natural Resources
Systematic Biology

For other titles not in our collection, you can request articles through our Interlibrary Loan system, ILLiad, which will provide you an electronic copy directly to your workstation in a matter of days.

Also, remember that Faculty and Staff may request copies of articles from PRINT journals owned by Penn State delivered to their desktop. Simply choose the "article" link under the "Request Items Owned by Penn State Libraries" header in the ILLiad system.

Northern Harrier

The Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), called the Hen Harrier in Europe and Asia, is a slender, white-rumped, medium sized and low-flying raptor of upland grasslands and fresh- and saltwater marshes. The only representative in North America of the cosmopolitan genus Circus, the Northern Harrier breeds throughout North America and Eurasia.It is the most northerly breeding and most broadly distributed of all harriers and is a long-distance migrant throughout much of its range.

Like most other harriers, the Northern Harrier nests on the ground, usually in tall, dense clumps of vegetation, either alone or in loose colonies.