Culinary History Highlight: The Queen of the Kitchen (1886)

Inspired by today's royal wedding events, this Culinary History Highlight features the 1886 volume The Queen of the Kitchen.  Girls, although we may never have the chance to become the Queen of England, we now have the resource to help us become Queen of the Kitchen!  Note that this book contains "over one thousand Southern recipes"--just the information we need to reign over a household ;)

My favorite part about this book is that it contains not only recipes for food, but also information about practical household tasks, such as making and using cement and furniture varnish:

I doubt we'll see the new Princess Catherine making cement or varnishing her furniture, but surely this information could help you become Queen of the Kitchen!  You can read the entirety of this book online, or visit University Libraries' Special Collections to read the hard copy of this culinary history treasure . 

Like this post?  Check out more Culinary History Highlights that have been featured on this blog!  

What's a LigerCat?

...do you know?  Don't bother checking Zoological Record--you won't find a LigerCat listed in there!  LigerCat is a different kind of animal...

Okay, enough with the mysteriousness:  LigerCat stands for "Literature and Genomic Electronic Research Catalogue," and is actually a search tool for PubMed, developed several years ago by a group of collaborators including the Marine Biological Library and Biology of Aging.  LigerCat searches PubMed in real time and uses tag clouds to provide users with a visual overview of important concepts, trends, and research.  In LigerCat, users can focus their searches on articles, journals, or genes.

Many users claim that LigerCat makes PubMed more user-friendly!  It can help users view MeSH terms in an understandable way and help users actually build searches to send to PubMed.

This is one tool that I definitely want to play around with a little more.  I can see a lot of interesting applications for instruction, but also in my own personal research.  What do you think--how could this tool be used?  Play around with it a bit!

FARQ: Lost Books

Hello all!  I'm blogging live from the 4th floor (SciTech) reference desk this afternoon, and have received one question so often over the past 90 minutes that I decided to write another installment of Frequently Asked Reference Questions!  The question of the day seems to be:

Addison (the catalog) says this book is available, but it's not on the shelf...where is it?

Although this question seems straightforward, there are actually several possible answers!

1.  If the book is not on the shelf where it should be, stop by either the 2nd or 4th floor reference desks.  We can double check the shelf, check the book's record to see if it was recently returned, and offer other support!

2.  The librarian may recommend that you check a reshelving room to see if the book is waiting to be reshelved.  Most of the time, books will be shelved on carts, in call number order, while they wait for shelvers to put the books back where they belong.  There are reshelving rooms on every floor of the library (2-5), located not very far from the location of the reference desks!  It's not a bad idea to go ahead and check the reshelving rooms if you cannot find a book on the shelf.

3. If the book isn't in a reshelving room, and hasn't been returned so recently that it is still waiting to be put on a cart, then you will need to request that we search for the item.  You can do this through an online form, which will prompt our staff to search for the book throughout the library.  If/when we find the book, we will send you an email letting you know it's waiting for you!

Books can be missing for any number of reasons:  someone might be using a book (definitely possible if the book is for an assignment due soon!), someone may have mis-shelved a book, or someone may have stolen a book!  Although it's frustrating when you can't find the book you need, rest assured that we'll do everything we can to help you find the book.

Library Research Skills Class

Still thinking about the courses that you may want to take, or recommend that someone else takes, in the fall?  (Note:  this class will not be offered this summer) Look no further than:

GRAD 5124:  Library Research Skills (CRN 96267), 1 credit:  http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/class_schedules/grad_courses/index.html#lib

The objective of this course is to assist students in using relevant information resources effectively and building advanced research skills.  Research tools like EndNote and Zotero will also be discussed; students will emerge from this class with a personal database of literature applicable to any research project that a student selects.  While the course was developed for graduate students, the current Graduate Catalog indicates that seniors are also eligible to take graduate level courses, and I believe that seniors anticipating graduate level work would benefit greatly from this course. 

I will be the co-instructor in this course, and the primary instructor for students from HNFE who register for the course.  Students interested in taking this course should make sure that they register for CRN 96267 (“Meier” will be listed as the instructor; we will break out students into disciplines after registration).

Questions?  As always, let me know!  I look forward to teaching many HNFE students in this course in the fall!

Grow Green with Sustainable Gardening @ Blacksburg Library

TOMORROW:  Tuesday, April 19, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Blacksburg Library
Learn things you can implement now to make your garden more sustainable and healthier for you and your family!  Short presentations and question-and-answer sessions will be available with the following experts.  More information available on the Blacksburg Library's event page

• “Permaculture Design,” by Sarah Gibbs of NatureScapes
• “Composting 101,” by Sustainable Agriculture Consultant Barry B. Robinson
• “Organic Gardening Basics,” by Rebekah Paulson of Rebekah’s Country Garden

Information from Cathy Prati's Blacksburg Library and Activities Newsletter

Happy National Library Week!

Image from www.haynerlibrary.org

I've been remiss in my role as a librarian blogger this week!  I have so far failed to wish you all a Happy National Library Week!

National Library Week celebrates the important work done in and around libraries in the USA.  The American Library Association had a full week of events and programs, all of which you can check out here:  http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek/index.cfm.

And on this Friday, I will leave you all with a CNN article:  Librarians:  Masters of the Info Universe.  I even learned something from this article--the American Library Association reported that, during 2010, reference librarians answered an average of 5.7 million reference questions per week!

Bookmobiles, Audrey Niffenegger, and Roanoke

Niffenegger behind the wheel of the Aurora Public Library
bookmobile.  Image from www.pio.ala.org

Yesterday was National Bookmobile Day!  The celebration was part of National Library Week (which is this week, April 11-16; there will be a blog post about that tomorrow, I promise), and I just realized that it has a hometown tie for us here at Virginia Tech.

This year's Honorary Chair for National Bookmobile Day was Audrey Niffenegger.  Her name may sound familiar to you because she has written several bestsellers, including The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry (my personal favorite).  She has also written an illustrated short story for adults--The Night Bookmobile.  If this title sounds familiar to you, that is because the Taubman Museum of Art in downtown Roanoke is currently hosting a special exhibit on The Night Bookmobile.

I actually just visited this exhibit earlier this week, and was completely enthralled.  The exhibit will be at the Taubman through Sunday, April 24, and I highly recommend both the museum and the Audrey Niffenegger exhibit.

You can read more about National Bookmobile Day and Audrey Niffenegger here:  http://www.pio.ala.org/visibility/?p=2859.

FDA & Social Media

I must confess:  after the recent series of excellent posts by guest contributors that highlighted ideas for National Nutrition Month and intelligent book reviews, I think I've had a bit of blogger's block!  However, a story I've been following for the past few weeks has pulled me right out of my blog-writing slump.

Have you all been keeping up with news about the FDA and its promise to develop a set of guidelines for the use of social media?  I've written about the relationship between social media and health information here before, but the FDA's (potential) involvement in the social media environment highlights the changing nature of health information in a really big way.

According to news reports, the FDA started discussing the relevance and significance of social media as far back as November 2009, when they held a hearing to solicit interest from the public about whether or not FDA-regulated industries and products needed any sort of social media regulation to help prevent the spread of misleading or bad information, and encourage the use of social media for legitimate information purposes.  A September 2009 NPR story illustrates the starting point of this conversation:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/09/fda.html.  As you can imagine, people and businesses in the drug, medical device, healthcare, and biomedical research areas became increasingly interested in what sort of regulations the FDA might impose.  

Then, in December 2010, a representative from the Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications stated that any draft guidance from the FDA would not be available until early 2011.  You can read a brief synopsis of that update here:  http://www.eyeonfda.com/eye_on_fda/2010/12/breaking-its-official-fda-delaying-social-media-guidance-until-at-least-q1-2011.html. 

It seems like people are a bit confused why the FDA isn't prioritizing the development of guidelines that could very well be critical for many consumers!  An April 2011 article (from last week!) actually addresses this issue, revealing that consumers overwhelmingly want to interact with the healthcare (and related) industries via social media, and that they want accurate and credible information.  From other reports published this year, we know that a significant number of people are turning to social media to get health information.  Interestingly, the April 2011 article I linked above represents a call to action for healthcare companies to get more involved in social media efforts, inundating the digital environment with GOOD health information and drowning out the bad, in light of the absence of any real guidance from the FDA.  

Will we see FDA regulations regarding social media?  Undoubtedly.  It seems like it may be a long time coming, but this may be one story that you'll want to follow as it develops.  FDA-regulated social media certainly won't solve the problem of bad information on the Web, which means that you'll still need to practice critical information evaluation, but it does create an interesting discussion point as we think about healthcare industries participating in social media.  

Graduate Students: Apply for the Peacock-Harper Culinary History Collection Scholarships!

The Graduate School is responsible for promoting the Janet Lowe Cameron and Jean Allen Phillips graduate scholarships provided by the Peacock Harper Culinary Collection Committee - each Scholarship is $1000. Recipients have to use the Peacock Harper Special Collection in some aspect of their research or scholarship.  

 http://www.grads.vt.edu/financial/for_departments/gs_funding.html#peacock

The Peacock-Harper Culinary History Collection Committee awards two annual scholarships of $1000 in honor of Jean Allen Phillips, professor in human nutrition and foods at Virginia Tech from 1969 to 1986, and Janet Lowe Cameron, a pioneer with the Virginia Cooperative Extension service at Virginia Tech. The Peacock-Harper Culinary Collection is one of the unique Special Collections housed at the University Library. Applicants’ scholarly pursuits should encompass topics related to material in this collection, such as the history of foods, human nutrition or food culture. Applications must include a statement of how the Collection’s resources will be used in the student’s research. 


Deadline for the Janet Lowe Cameron Scholarship is May 31 and will be awarded prior to the start of the Fall semester. Deadline for the Jean Allen Phillips Scholarship is October 31 and will be awarded prior to the start of the Spring semester.

No Office Hours Today

Unfortunately, I need to cancel office hours in Wallace Hall for today, Tuesday (April 12).  Be sure to catch me from 9:00-10:30 a.m. TOMORROW (Wednesday) for my next Wallace Office Hours.

See you then!

New Books: March 2011

The March 2011 new books list is out!  Click on the title of the book to view the Addison record, and see if it's available for checkout.  Don't forget to review the entire March 2011 new books list, since the ones I've highlighted below are just a small sampling....  Enjoy!

Blood, Bones, & Butter:  The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

Read a few reviews!

The A-Z of Food Safety

This is an electronic resource!  Read the full book from the comfort of your own home...

Fat Politics:  The Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic

Read a review!

Nutrition and Well-Being A-Z

Read a brief summary!

How Science Works:  Exploring Effective Pedagogy and Practice

Food, Energy, and the Creation of Industriousness:  Work and Material Culture in Agrarian England, 1550-1780

Read a brief summary!

Healthy Foods:  Fact Versus Fiction

Read a few reviews!

More EndNote!

This semester, I have gotten more questions about EndNote than ever before!  On April 15, FDI (Faculty Development Institute) will offer a 2-hour workshop on EndNote X4.  Information about registration is available here:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/libnews/2011/2011-04-01.html, and any VT faculty, staff, or graduate student is eligible to register.

Of course, I am also always available to sit down with you, or your class, and go over the EndNote program.  X5 will be coming out soon, and it looks like the update has some really cool features!

FARQ: Understanding a Journal Record

Over the past several weeks, we've had lots of marvelous guest contributors on this blog.  A huge thanks to both the VT Dietetic Interns and the Communicating with Foods (HNFE 3224) class--your book reviews and Eat Right With Color posts have been wonderful!  Today, we return to library/research material issues with a long over due Frequently Asked Reference Questions post....  Looking over the emails I've received in the past few weeks, one particular reference question stands out to me:

I'm looking at a journal record in Addison, but can't understand it.  What do we actually have access to?

Journal subscriptions through the library can be a confusing and complex issue, especially when you're trying to figure out whether we do or do not have access to a specific article that you need right away.  We've tried to consolidate information in Addison, our library catalog, but you have to know where to look for the information, and then understand what it means when you find it!

Searching for journal information.  If you have basic information about an article (say, the citation), and decide that you'd like to see the full text of the article, the first thing that you'll want to do is figure out when/if University Libraries subscribed to the journal that the article is from.  Within the citation, the journal will generally be the italicized title, followed by volume or page information.  The citation may only include the abbreviation of the journal title; if this is the case, you'll want to figure out the full title of the journal.  Contact a librarian (or me!) if you have trouble doing this.

Next, use Addison to find the journal's record in our catalog.  This will tell you if we have access to it, and the extent of that access:

Understanding the journal's record.  Once you search for the journal title, and find the record for it, you'll want to look for a few specific things in the record to determine how, or if, we have access to the article you're looking for.  If you do not even find a record for the journal, then you should immediately turn to Interlibrary Loan and request the article that way!  But, if you do find the record, you'll want to examine the record to see if:  we receive the journal in print, online, or BOTH; which years we subscribe(d) to the journal; whether or not your article is available through University Libraries.  

For this journal, Evolutionary Biology, we have information about a print subscription AND an electronic subscription.  The print subscription, which you can see under the "Holdings" category, was discontinued with Volume 33, which is why it says "1-33" in the area next to "Holdings."  Above that, we see a link to "Springer" under "Connect to" that indicates we have 2007-present online.  

So, if you were looking for an article from Volume 15, you would want to visit the shelves in Newman Library, go to the call number area (QH, which would be on the 4th floor) and then pull Volume 15 off the shelf.  If you were looking for an article from 2009, then you would be able to simply click the "Springer" link, and navigate to the article online.

Years and Volumes.  You'll notice here that our "holdings" are listed by volumes, but our electronic access is listed by "years."  In order to see where a gap in access may occur, we'll need to figure out what YEAR Volume 33 was published, or what VOLUME was published in 2007.  This information may be not be found in the Addison record, so we'll need to find the publisher's information about this journal.  To do this, I Googled the ISSN (0071-3260, found in the Addison record), and came up with the publisher's page:  http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/evolutionary+%26+developmental+biology/journal/11692.  

Here, I learned that Vol. 1-33 ran from 1967-2003, and that Vol. 34 was not published until 2007, meaning that University Libraries has no gap in access.  Although it took a little digging, the record for this journal now makes complete sense!  If you need an article from 2003 or older, then you'll need to get it in print, from the library building itself.  If you need something 2007 or newer, then you can access it online.

Other details.  If you are off campus, you will, of course, need to log in through Off Campus Sign In in order to access electronic journals.  If you are an "extended campus user" then you can access PRINT articles through our Interlibrary Loan service, having them delivered to you wherever you are.  Again, if University Libraries does not have access to the article you want (i.e., our subscription doesn't cover the particular year(s) you need), then you can ALWAYS use Interlibrary Loan to request the item.

More questions?  Just let me know!  I'd be more than happy to talk with you about understanding our journals, and how to get the article(s) you need!  View my contact information here.  

Book Review: Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, by Janet Poppendieck

Poppendieck, J. (2010). Free for all: Fixing school food in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Reviewed by Rachel K. Miller, VT Dietetic Intern




INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY
How do you remember school lunch?  A windowless room lined with uneven tables and lopsided round stools?  Is it eating the soft, warm, yeasty roll that always had its own compartment on the tray?  Or was it the excitement of getting to drink the chocolate milk that was forbidden at home?  Whatever your memory of school lunch was, you may be surprised by the reality of today’s cafeteria experience. 
In Janet Poppendieck’s Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, firsthand accounts from college students describe cafeteria days filled with long lines, foul odors, and a stigma attached to eating the standard school lunch.  Other students remembered going off campus to a local convenience store or restaurant, eating outside, or even purchasing food from fast food vendors who were invited into the cafeteria.  Some even remember avoiding the cafeteria all together, and maybe grabbing a bag of chips and a soda from the vending machine.
Alongside these accounts, Poppendieck, a professor of sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York, outlines how the National School Lunch Program began and how it has progressed into the program in which students are currently participating (or not participating, as the case may be).  Throughout the book’s 296 pages, firsthand accounts, interviews, anecdotes, and hopes for the future are woven together with facts about the progression of the program as well as the policy and politics behind school food. 
Whether you are a policy maker, parent, nutritionist, dietitian, or someone who “brown bagged” it to avoid the cafeteria daily, this book will challenge your thoughts about the school lunch program and is likely to leave you with more questions to ponder than answers.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Published in 2010, Free For All is a timely work that continues to bring childhood nutrition to the forefront in a political light.  With the hype of Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization Act, The First Lady’s call to action and “Let’s Move” campaign, and the national obsession with health, food, weight, and money, Poppendieck chose an opportune time to publish such a work.  While her opinions and loyalties clearly emerge throughout the text, the overall tone of the work remains mostly respectful, informative, and motivational.  An extensive commentary and index at the end of the book provide all of the references to research, interviews, and firsthand accounts mentioned in the chapters. 
Strengths of the work include solid research and a citation for practically every other sentence.  It is obvious that the history of the school lunch program and the other objective information presented are truly factual and provide a learning opportunity for any reader.  The book also challenges the reader to critically think about and appreciate the situation in which school food service directors and cafeteria workers live every day:”  the decision of what to serve and how  to serve it is not an easy one.  Poppendieck presents the more obvious challenges such as the need to serve children of all economic, educational, and ethnic backgrounds with one standard meal pattern as well as some that may not be so apparent.  What happens to the children whose parents make just enough money to not qualify for free or reduced lunch, but still cannot afford lunch?  These are just two examples of the questions Poppendieck raises throughout the text.  The work is also laid out beautifully—a solid foundation of where school food started and what is has evolved into today is a necessary background to the opinions and calls to action that are the main purpose of the book.
The main weakness of the work is the repetitive nature of the author’s point.  The entire conclusion chapter is simply a rehashing of everything that the Poppendieck already said in the previous chapters.  While the information is important and necessary for nutrition professionals to be aware of, it could have been presented more succinctly. 

SUMMARY 

Overall, reading the book was an educational experience to say the least.  It is important for health professionals, parents, teachers, and students to keep up-to-date with the latest “talk” around the school food system.  This book surely gives a detailed overview and urgent perspective that many political and nutrition professionals hold.  As questions begin to form in the minds of readers, additional information from the “other side” of the “Free for All” argument will hopefully be sought out, allowing the reader to form his/her own opinion on the subject.  This reviewer and future dietitian now feels that she has the information to intelligently converse about the topic with colleagues.  Unfortunately, because the book is very much in the here-and-now, the information may be considered outdated in less than five years.

Like this review?  Read others by VT Dietetic Interns:  more book reviews