What an amazing several months it’s been for scientific discovery! We’ve ranged from New Horizons’ incredible encounter with Pluto, named after the Roman god of the underworld, to exciting new possibilities concerning the ancient dead of Egypt, who have long been residents of that underworld. Resources on planetary exploration will be a good subject for another time, but is there more to Tutankhamun’s tomb than anyone ever thought? Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves believes he has identified two sealed-up doorways in the decorated walls where Tutankhamun was laid to rest in his golden mask.

But wouldn’t Howard Carter have discovered any such hidden doors when he found and excavated the tomb in the 1920s? Wouldn’t any number of Egyptologists and visitors since have noticed them? Modern technology made the difference. In creating a full-size replica for visitors in order to save the original tomb from environmental deterioration, very high resolution scans were made of the burial chamber walls; these scans were also posted online:

http://www.highres.factum-arte.org/Tutankhamun/

(Please note that all of the links in this article will take you away from the Consortium Library’s website.) Click on the central square and then on the subsequent text to see the painting on the entire north wall. Notice the controls at the bottom, particularly the tiny white triangle; click on that triangle to bring up the scans for all four walls. But there are eight scans! Modern scanning enables you to see what the surface of the walls look like with and without their paintings. Being able to view the walls stripped of the distraction of their paintings is what ultimately led Reeves to believe that there are previously undiscovered rooms in the tomb. If they are actually there, perhaps they are simply storage rooms, or perhaps they conceal the burial place of Nefertiti or another royal woman. And whether you can see the outlines of Reeves’ doorways or not, looking closely at the black and white scans will reveal lines where the drawings were etched in the walls before they were painted.

In late September, a physical examination of the tomb by Reeves and the Egyptian antiquities authorities found indications that these theoretical doorways might actually exist. In November, a special radar unit from Japan will be used to determine whether there are spaces beyond the walls or not. Here’s National Geographic’s report, written just after the examination:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150928-king-tut-tomb-door-nefertiti-archaeology-egypt/

We do have the National Geographic Virtual Library under ‘Databases’ on the library’s home page; while this story is too new to be in it yet, the NGVL does have plenty of other articles on ancient Egypt (and many other things as well). You can even find a lengthy May 1923 article on the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, which would have been the first in-depth account that most Americans would have read. Just search on Tutankhamun in NGVL to find it.

But what else do we have in the library that might help bring ancient Egypt to life as we wait for the radar results? Quite a lot! To give a few examples, you could start with Howard Carter’s own three-volume report on the discovery and excavation:

DT 87.5 .C37                    The tomb of Tutankhamen

Or start with a summation of much more modern research, as well as with relevant biographical works and genealogical works:

DT58.9.H28 2005          Tutankhamun and the golden age of the pharaohs

DT87.45.T95 1999          Nefertiti: Egypt’s sun queen

DT87.4.S55 2006            Akhenaten and Tutankhamun

DT83.D63 2004              The complete royal families of Ancient Egypt

And what Egyptian tomb-related list is complete without at least one title on the pyramids?

DT63.R66 2007              The Great Pyramid: ancient Egypt revisited

There are also some Reference titles that make for enjoyable browsing:

eBook                                Companion to Ancient Egypt

eBook                                Experience of Ancient Egypt

REF DT58.O94 2001     Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (3 vols.)

REF DT58.W55 2005    Thames & Hudson dictionary of ancient Egypt

REF DT 61 .S63 2014    The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt

The last title is well-illustrated; it not only covers individual cities, but it also describes what it would have been like to be a resident in an Egyptian city.

We have titles on the entire Valley of the Kings as well; for instance, this resource from the Theban Mapping Project, which can also be found online on the Project’s website:

G2492.V3 A8 2005   Atlas of the Valley of the Kings

http://www.thebanmappingproject.com

You can examine tomb locations in the valley and view plans of the various tombs (which were named after their sequence of discovery in the Kings’ Valley; for instance, Tutankhamun’s is KV62). In the online version, you can measure interior distances in feet, meters, and even cubits; they used lasers to measure as accurately as possible. In addition, we have two works by the lead archaeologist of the Theban Mapping Project, Kent Weeks:

DT73.B44 W43 1998    The Lost Tomb

DT73.B44 K95 2000    KV 5: a preliminary report on the excavation of the tomb of the sons of Rameses II in the Valley of the Kings

The lost tomb refers to KV5, a tomb of few rooms and little interest first discovered in 1825 and later lost again; the mapping work of the 1990s revealed it to be the largest tomb complex ever found in the Valley of the Kings, with well over 120 rooms and corridors.

We also have books on mummies, hieroglyphics, mythology, and many other related subjects worth investigating. And speaking of mummies, with Halloween only a week and a half away, there’s even time to catch Boris Karloff in one of his iconic roles while we’re waiting for the radar results. While we don’t have a dvd of ‘The Mummy’ ourselves, the Loussac public library branch has two copies, complete with sequels!

It’s a great feeling at Commencement to walk across that stage and receive your diploma after years of toil and effort, as many associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral students will do this May. And I’m sure that many students have grown accustomed to using at least a few of the many databases that are available through the Consortium Library. But after graduation?

Well, you’ll still be able to come into the Library and sign in as Guest to use those databases, but you’ll no longer be able to get to them from home and off-campus because our licensing agreements only include on-campus use and current students, staff, and faculty. This is where – as new alumni and Alaskans – you really need to know about one of the best-kept secrets in Alaska, SLED: the Statewide Library Electronic Doorway. You can find a link to SLED at the lower right of the Library’s home page, or go here: http://sled.alaska.edu

SLED’s home page is a sort of resource control panel; clicking on one of the 12 labeled images will take you to a variety of databases that are paid for by the State for ALL Alaskans, not just university people. What if a database asks you for a logon and password? Look beneath the images for database assistance. And if you don’t want to figure out which of the images would be best for what you need, you’ll find a search box above them.

Are these useful databases? Many of them are ones we use all the time in the Consortium Library, such as Academic Search Premier. Others, like MasterFile Premier, are more public library-oriented. Which is good, because – need a new fridge or a lawn mower? – you’ll find things like Consumer Reports in full text in MasterFile Premier. You’ll also find databases for language learning, auto and small engine repair, genealogy, and many other subjects in SLED. Thinking about going on to graduate school, or perhaps you need to take the PRAXIS test? In the Testing and Education Reference Center database, you can find preparation materials for things like the GRE, the MCAT and LSAT, CLEP, PRAXIS, TOEFL, U.S. Citizenship, and other tests. There are also databases for our younger population, such as Searchasaurus, the ever-popular Live Homework Help, and Teen Health & Wellness – which is not just about teenagers, but is actually for teenagers.

SLED has more than databases. One of the 12 images (and a delightful place to browse) is for Alaska’s Digital Archives, created from the collections of libraries across the state for the 50^th anniversary of statehood. It includes not only photographs, but also short films and oral histories.

So why is it called SLED? Steve Smith, who led much of the early work on SLED, said that he and his kids had gone sledding not long before the service needed to be named, and that they’d had such a wonderful time that they just wanted to go sledding again and again. He named the service SLED in that same spirit, in the hope that Alaskans would find SLED to be such a wonderful and vital resource that they, too, would want to go SLEDDING again and again. And in the case of this particular SLED (and thinking back on our last two winters), no snow is required!

I began wondering recently which databases and web resources I’d want to have available if I suddenly found myself marooned on a remote island resort in the Indian Ocean like San Serriffe. While we have many wonderful resources available to us through the Consortium Library (and after graduation, through SLED – http://sled.alaska.edu ), my needs might be very different as a castaway. But since I’d be a modern castaway with modern requirements, I’ll plan on finding a wifi coconut tree with battery-charging connections in the trunk, a top quality laptop near a comfortable beach chaise overlooking the sea, and – with any luck – a nice cold kiwi fruit drink right next to an iPad-Mini Retina! But what shall I use them for? Here are a few things that come to mind; the websites are easy to find, and clicking on the ‘Databases’ link on the Library’s home page will lead you to the rest.

1a. Project Gutenberg. (https://www.gutenberg.org )
1b. Literature Criticism Online
     Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson would be good castaway role models that I could find in Project Gutenberg, but what if I needed to find out what other people had thought of those books? I’d probably start by searching in Literature Criticism Online.

2. National Geographic Database.
Now, how much, when puka comes to shell, do I really know about islands in the Indian Ocean? Searching the full online text of the National Geographic database can only help!

3a. Mango Languages
3b. LLBA (Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts)
What if Friday shows up and I can’t talk with him? After all, he may want a kiwi fruit drink, too, or to borrow my laptop, or – more importantly – he might know where the kiwi supply is! If I’m signed into Mango Languages, then I can practice any of 30-odd languages and see if he understands me at all. And if they’re all Greek to Friday, then searching in LLBA might come up with articles to help me understand common linguistic patterns of Indian Ocean populations.

4a. PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed )
4b. Toxline
4c. Zoological Record
Well, it IS the tropics, after all, and it might not be all pineapples and coconut cream pies out there. It only makes sense to have some excellent health information resources like PubMed on hand just in case. And does anyone know if there are any poisonous snakes or insects on San Serriffe? Better check Zoological Record and Toxline — and taking another careful look in that National Geographic database won’t hurt, either!

5a. Sage Research Methods
5b. Student Resources in Context
If I were a student and had to work on a capstone project while marooned at San Serriffe, this database could help me learn how to do effective social science research. For term papers for other classes, I could find a lot of articles on many different subjects in Student Resources in Context. When I finished writing my paper, I’d cork it in a digital bottle with my professor’s address on it, and throw it as far as I could into the wine-dark electronic sea. I’m sure it’ll get to my professor eventually — after all, how many degrees of separation can there be?

6a. The Complete Manual of Typography, 2^nd ed. (REF Z250.F44 2012).
6b. How To Write (eBook)
I won’t go on to a full ten listings this time, but it might be useful to know where to find a good typographic manual, such as James Felici’s The Complete Manual of Typography, 2^nd ed. (REF Z250.F44 2012), and a nice ebook on general writing like Alastair Fowler’s How to Write (you can find links to ebooks in QuickSearch and the Library Catalog). After all, you never know when a copy of Microsoft Office might wash up on the beach at San Serriffe, and both of those books could be a lifesaver as I speed-write my castaway memoirs to have them ready for instant publication once I’m rescued! Ah, I can almost feel a warm tropical breeze riffling through my first draft right now… New York Times Best Seller List and Hollywood, here I come!

By the way, if you’re interested in finding out more about that wonderful island hideaway of San Serriffe, here’s all the travel information you’ll ever need to start planning that idyllic February getaway:

http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/san_serriffe

You can find a little more on San Serriffe in The Times [of London] Digital Archives 1785-2007, along with plenty of other articles. Have fun, slather on plenty of that no. 40 sunscreen, and don’t forget to write!

One of our most common ebook sources is ebrary (which is now owned by ProQuest).  ebrary has just come out with an updated interface after several years of ‘the same old thing,’ and two immediate advantages are, first, (to quote Etta James) At Last! we can read the content by scrolling smoothly through many pages rather than having to use the arrow icons in the menu bar to go back and forth one page at a time!  And second, the only search box in sight searches in the ebook you’re reading; there were two search boxes in the old version and the most prominent search box could get you lost very fast because it searched everything in ebrary rather than just your ebook.

For more search functions, there’s now a search menu at the top of the interface.  The content now appears on the right with the table of contents on the left, and you can still have a user account where you can select your own ‘bookshelf’ of titles and keep notes on the content.  The various functions, such as magnifying the text, seem to work more smoothly than in the older version.  All in all, using the new ebrary interface is a much more pleasant experience than the older version.  By the way, while our titles are available for online reading, they won’t download unless we’ve got a multiple-user license for them; that’s why you’ll often see a ‘Not Available for Download’ message.

I’ve been looking at the Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War while writing this; going somewhat beyond Mexico, here’s another ebrary example that’s worth searching for in the catalog or QuickSearch:

Atlas of the Galilean Satellites

After the introductory chapters, there’s a fine moon-by-moon display of maps and photographs for Calisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io.  Enjoy!

How do librarians find titles to order for the library? Requests from students, staff, faculty, and others are carefully considered. Sometimes, we purchase prepackaged collections of books; this is particularly true with ebooks. Our online ordering system provides us with lists of relevant titles to select from. Major journals in many disciplines have a regular section of book reviews that can be very helpful, as can subject-oriented review databases like PsycCritiques for Psychology. But one of the best selection resources for librarians is Choice, a monthly review journal published by the American Library Association. The reviews are short and pithy, often only a paragraph long, but they cover a broad range of academic subjects. Choice reviews not only books, but also relevant websites and databases. You can find Choice from the Library’s home page by clicking on Databases, then clicking on C, and then clicking on Choice Reviews Online. You can browse the current issue, or search many thousands of reviews going as far back as 1988.

So what good is Choice for someone who isn’t a librarian? Well, you might like to see if there’s a review for a book you’re reading. If you’re interested in a particular subject – the Cultural Revolution, for instance – you might want to find what other books on the subject have been recommended over the years, such as Andreas’ Rise of the Red Engineers.  And one thing I use it for myself is holiday and birthday shopping: for instance, I know someone very interested in submarines, and it’s a great help to be able to enter ‘submarines’ in Choice and get a nice set of reviews to choose from. (By the way, Choice Reviews Online is a database where phrases like “Cultural Revolution” really must be placed within quotation marks to avoid getting everything that happens to have either cultural or revolution in it.)

Another review resource is Library Journal, although it’s not quite as completely review-focused as Choice. But Library Journal covers some popular public library subjects that Choice doesn’t, such as romance, mysteries, cookbooks, do-it-yourself titles, audiobooks, and videos. Library Journal is not a dedicated database in itself like Choice is, but you can find it in Academic Search Premier. On the Library’s home page, click on Databases and then click on A, and then click on Academic Search Premier. When the database opens up, there will be a list of Search Options beneath the search boxes, one of which is Publication; type Library Journal in that box to limit your searches to that particular journal. Then to find reviews, enter whatever terms you like in the search boxes, such as a genre like romance, or an author like Louise Penny, or a subject like – yes – submarines!

If you’d like to browse print issues, both titles are in our Journal Collection (although our Choice subscription was stopped in 2010 in favor of the online version). Both Choice and Library Journal are worth a look, no matter which format you prefer.