University Libraries

1. Wind turbines withstand tornado with nearly 300-mph winds, June 6, 2013
   http://aweablog.org/blog/post/wind-turbines-withstand-tornado-with-nearly-300mph-winds

    

   Wind Energy Industry: Turbines Power Down Energy Prices

   September 26, 2012

   DES MOINES, Iowa – Home and business energy costs have been falling in the Midwest – and the wind industry is claiming partial credit. While it’s a win for consumers, says Bob Fagen, a senior associate at Synapse Energy Economics, other energy sectors aren’t pleased, and that’s why they’ve begun a campaign to try to derail renewal of the wind-production tax credit, which is pending in Congress. “When the wind is built and is available, it runs. When it runs, that generally means that natural gas-fired or coal-fired plants do not run. So, it puts downward pressure on prices.” Iowa’s wind-power production is at more than 4,500 megawatts – enough for about 1.1 million homes. The production tax credit has been in place for about 20 years, and has seen bipartisan support, although this year it’s being debated on the campaign trail. Fagen says the wind-production tax credit isn’t a loan or a “freebie” because there is no benefit until after production happens – and that means manufacturing jobs. “The real issue is that wind is a clean, inexpensive energy resource – homegrown – and it makes a ton of sense to continue to promote the wind industry.” Exelon Corp. is urging that the credit be discontinued, saying government funding should go to research and not production of components.

   Richard Alan, Public News Service – IA  From the IWEA News/Updates

Ellen Lauri Ochoa is a former astronaut and current Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa became director of the center upon retirement of the current director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012.  She was born May 10th, 1958 in Los Angeles and educated at Stanford University.  For more in depth information check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Ochoa.

Engineering Library resources on flight: http://ow.ly/kTQ6I 

Final Week Hours. Open till Midnight! starting Sun, 2:00 pm-Midnight. Mon, May 13- Thurs, May 16 8:30- Midnight. Fri, May 17: 8:30 am-5 pm….Closed May 18th & 19th.

Free Coffee and Hot Chocolate. Mon, May 13-Thurs, May 16th- 8:30 am- Midnight. Fri, May 17: 8:30-5 pm.  Until supplies last

Summer Break Hours:  May 20-June 10, 2013–Mon-Fri 8:30-noon. 1:00-5:00.  Saturday and Sunday Closed.  Regular hours resume June 11.

“It was a long way up for the humble zipper, the mechanical wonder that has kept so much in our lives ‘together.’ On its way up the zipper has passed through the hands of several dedicated inventors, none convinced the general public to accept the zipper as part of everyday costume. The magazine and fashion industry made the novel zipper the popular item it is today, but it happened nearly eighty years after the zipper’s first appearance.”  Check out the History of the Zipper at http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa082497.htm.  At this website you can check out the pictures of the inventors.

No one has received more U.S. patents than Thomas Edison – 1,093 to be exact. http://ow.ly/kx1Vs

http://www.earthday.org/blog/2013/04/22/its-earth-day

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/earth-day-2013-to-celebrate-google-doodle-puts-the-power-of-nature-at-your-fingertips/2013/04/22/3259c822-ab40-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_blog.html

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2262944/Earth-Day-2013-Google-Doodle-Control-the-Weather-in-Interactive-Logo

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=BUOQ_yPW_0s

Celebrate National Library Week, April 14-20, 2013, with Honorary Chair Caroline Kennedy.

Communities matter @ your library

Every day across the country, libraries open their doors to everyone: students, parents, seniors, teachers, writers, artists, job seekers, entrepreneurs, readers, gamers, movie lovers and travel buffs.

Head to your library during National Library Week to see what’s new and take part in the celebration.   Libraries across the country are participating.

Just in time for National Poetry Month and National Library Week: Check out Poetry Beats Studio, an interactive studio designed for students, educators and poetry lovers, where they can explore the rhythm and sound of spoken word. Poetry Beats Studio is in support of Caroline Kennedy’s new book, Poems to Learn by Heart.

ebrary currently hosts 630,401 documents with 13, 634 added in the past 30 days.  This month, ebrary added more than 5,500 e-books from Encyclopedia Britannica, Peter Lang Publishing, University of California Press, World Scientific College Press and other leading publishers to their growing catalog of over 399,700 titles for purchase.  ebrary has already added 13,5800 new titles in 2013!  At the Engineering Library find:  Membrane and desalination technologies with access limited to ebrary affiliated libraries and other ebrary e-book http://ow.ly/k9vC0 

April 15th Tax Day is when you celebrate this weird and wacky holiday called national Eraser Day.  Office supply geeks, eraser collectors, artists, writers, librarians school children and rubber eraser lovers band together every April 15th to praise this simple product that has done so much for so many.

Since the day Nicolas Conte made the first pencil back in 1795, many have owed a d3ebt to the inventor of the rubber eraser.  Edward Naime, an English Engineer, mistook a cube of rubber for the commonly used piece of bread to get rid of unwanted pencil markings and discovered a new property of rubber.  Since that day erasers have been the bookkeeper’s best friend and the writer’s handmaiden.  To learn more please check out http://www.squidoo.com/eraser-rubber-eraser-day.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraser

Look at this relevant books:  http://ow.ly/k5rpm;  The pencil : a history of design and circumstance /