Rare book on display in the library

The rare book on display from our collection is:

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique, par François Levaillant. Tome cinquième. Paris: Delachaussé , 1804.

Balfour Library class mark: q Strickland 400.

The book is open at: Planche 210. Le coucou didric, mâle. The bird is from the genus Chrysococcyx (bronze-cuckoos), species Chrysococcyx caprius (Diederik cuckoo).

This splendid green, bronze, black and white coloured male bird is depicted perching on a branch. This is a high quality hand coloured metal engraving. The adult birds of both sexes actually have striking red irises and eye-rings (as seen in photographs online), whereas those of this bird are painted as brown. Its distribution is sub-Saharan Africa, also Saudi Arabia. The bird gets its name from its call “dee-dee-dee-diederik”, and it is a brood parasite. Le Vaillant visited Africa personally to observe the habits and collect specimens of the birds there.

François Le Vaillant (1753-1824) was born in Surinam but returned with his family to Europe in 1763. According to the François Le Vaillant: traveller and ornithologist website, he lacked formal training but was an enthusiastic field ornithologist and a skilful and prolific hunter. Le Vaillant’s voyage to South Africa in 1781 was sponsored by Jacob Temminck and he returned with collections of over 2,000 birds, insects, mammals, plants and ethnological objects. On his return to Paris he began working on his books of travels.

Le Vaillant has always been controversial. His travel books are considerably fictionalised and his bird books include conspicuous falsehoods and fabrications, but recent research has apparently begun to rehabilitate his reputation.

Le Vaillant is most famous for his 6 volume work Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique, 1799-1808 which contains sumptuous bird engravings.

Sources:

Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2008. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed May 27, 2010 at http://animaldiversity.org

Internet Bird Collection http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/diederik-cuckoo-chrysococcyx-caprius Accessed May 27, 2010

del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J. eds. (1997) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Balfour Library classmark: qK (51)

Beautiful birds: masterpieces from the Hill Ornithology Collection, Cornell University Library http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ornithology/ Accessed May 27, 2010

François Le Vaillant, traveller and ornithologist http://web.slais.ucl.ac.uk/2004/p036/p036slc/ Accessed May 27, 2010

Further reading:

François Le Vaillant and the birds of Africa, by L. C. Rookmaaker ... [et al.]; translator, F. M. Webb. Johannesburg : Brenthurst Press, 2004. Balfour Library classmark: q KZ .6 (49)

New books and theses acquisitions

New books:

Butterflies of Tanzania, by Jan Kielland. Melbourne, Vic.: Hill House; 1990. Balfour Library shelf mark: qQNB (9) (Quarto, large size book shelves)

Carcasson's African butterflies: an annotated catalogue of the Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea of the Afrotropical region, editors P. R. Ackery, C. R. Smith and R. I. Vane-Wright. East Melbourne, Vic.: CSIRO; 1995. Balfour Library shelf mark: qQNB (7) (Quarto, large-size book shelves)

Mothers and others: the evolutionary origins of mutual understanding, by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (337)

Pennington's butterflies of Southern Africa, 2nd ed., edited by E. L. L. Pringle, G. A. Henning and J. B. Ball. Cape Town: Struik Winchester; 2004. Balfour Library shelf mark: qQNB (8b) (Quarto, large size shelves)

Translational control in biology and medicine, 3rd ed., edited by Michael B. Mathews, Nahum Sonenberg, John W. B. Hershey. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: EM (83c)

Theses:

A genetic analysis of cooperative breeding in the banded mongoose Mungos mungo, by Hazel J. Nichols. Cambridge; 2010. Balfour Library shelf mark: Thesis (477) (Library Office)

Cdc20 and its regulation during mitosis, by Mona Yekezare. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: Thesis (474) (Library Office)

Individual variation in cooperative behaviour in meerkats, by Sinead English. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: Thesis (476) (Library Office)

Offspring care and communication in the banded mongoose, by Bonnie Metherell. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: Thesis (475) (Balfour Library Office)

Book donations:

East African bat atlas, by Robert Kityo ... [et al.]. [Kampala]: Makerere University; University of Dar es Salaam; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: YV (14)

International zoo yearbook: volume 44, managing editor Fiona A. Fisken. London: Zoological Society of London; 2010. Balfour Library shelf mark: D.11 (54)

Unusual library visitor

Jane spotted this Lime Hawkmoth in the library today!

It was clinging on to the corner of the table that the card catalogue stands on - maybe he was looking for a book on his friends?

It likes urban lime trees apparently.

We released him back into the wild (well, as wild as Downing Street gets!). Thanks to Neal Maskell for identifying it for us.

Are you involved in biomedical research?

If so, please help the British Library understand how you access and manage information by completing their survey.

To thank you for your feedback, four lucky respondents will win a £25 voucher to spend at the British Library Online Shop.

The British Library's has a world-leading collection of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information for researchers. See their Science pages to help you find the information you need and discover the range of services and activities that they provide, at: http://www.bl.uk/science There is a link to the survey from there too.

CamLib, a new mobile interface for Cambridge Libraries

Cambridge University Library would like to announce the Beta launch of CamLib, a new mobile interface for Cambridge Libraries.

The interface itself can be found at:
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/mob/camlib.cgi

Information can be found at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/camlib.html

We have also added it as an option on the Newton home page (last item on list) at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/

It has been tested for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android mobile devices (apparently it's also working on Opera Mini browser on Blackberry). You can also try it out on a normal computer - you just have to imagine everything being squashed together on a much smaller screen!

CamLib replicates the functionality of the Cambridge Libraries Widget with some new mobile-specific functionality - outlined in this blog post:

http://arcadiaproject.blogspot.com/2010/05/mobile-interface-for-cambridge.html

It's still a work in progress, so any feedback or suggestions (particularly bug reports) would be very welcome to Huw Jones at hej23@cam.ac.uk.

Balfour Library Satisfaction Survey for non-members of the Department of Zoology

Do you use the Balfour Library in the Department of Zoology, but you're not a member of the Department?

If so, please help us improve the library service further by taking a few minutes to complete this short survey. The results will be used to inform future service delivery and development.

N.B. Undergraduates should NOT complete the survey, as they have been surveyed already.

You may access the survey at:
https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/direct/eval-assigngroup/3545

The closing date to give your feedback is 17th May.

Environmental Sciences Research Officer post

The British Library is currently looking for an experienced post-doctoral researcher in the environmental sciences for this post which is being advertised at http://gs10.globalsuccessor.com/fe/tpl_britishlibrary01.asp?newms=jj&id=73533

The role provides a unique opportunity to work within an innovative, dynamic team to deliver the strategy for Science, Technology and Medicine at the British Library.

Easter Term - essential information

As the Easter term begins I thought it would be useful to mention a few things that will be helpful for you to bear in mind, to ease the stressful exam period when you will (hopefully!) be hard at work revising in the Balfour Library. Be aware that much of it applies to cardholders only however.

Help us to help you keep the Balfour Library a pleasant place to study.

If you have any further queries on this then please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to help. Good luck with your exams!

Working in the library out of hours

• Remember that if you are working in the library outside of opening hours then you will effectively be 'lone working'. Inform someone at home/college where you are and when you are expected to return. Keep to your agreed time of return, or ring to say you have left early, or will be late leaving.
• Such calls using your mobile phone should preferably be made outside of the library, so that you do not disturb other readers. However there is a phone available on the wall opposite the Library Office should you need it.

New Museums Site archway gate

• This closes at 10:00pm each night. After 10:00pm your access card will require you to leave the department via the Downing Street exit (down the flight of stairs immediately outside the library). However you are unable to enter the department through this door at any time. It is therefore recommended that you are on site by 10:00pm, after which time you can leave whenever you like.
• The gate to the site is opened very early in the morning.
• The gates will open and close at the usual times on both Bank Holiday Mondays.

Access cards

• Please remember that your access card is for your use only. You should not lend it to anyone else to gain entry to the department or library. This also means that you cannot bring any friends who are not access card holders into the department or library with you outside of opening hours.
• All Part 1B students doing Zoology-taught courses may apply for out of hours access to the library by completing a grey form which is available from library staff.

Valuables

• Please do not leave these unattended in the library as we cannot guarantee their security.
• Try to secure them to the desk in some way, or take them with you when you leave the library for any amount of time.

May Bank Holidays on the 3rd and 31st May

• The library will be open as usual.
• Reception will be open as usual on the 3rd May only. This means you would need an access card to be able to enter the library on 31st May, whereas the Receptionist would be able to let you in on 3rd May.

Priority for study places

• Please remember that Part II Zoology/Neuroscience/BBS students will take priority for use of the limited amount of study places available in the library. Other students may be asked to leave.

Help us to keep the library clean and tidy and quiet

• Please remember that food and drink cannot be consumed in the library.
• Mobile phones should be kept on 'silent' mode and conversations on them should not be held in the library.
• Library staff may tidy up your stuff if it takes up too much space on the desks.

Library purchasing: tell us what you want!

You may not be aware of it, but the Balfour Library encourages recommendations from you all for the purchase of books and other media for our collections.

We welcome recommendations from postgraduates, researchers and teaching staff for purchases which are relevant to teaching and research that takes place in the department, especially text books provided on reading lists, as well as purchasing material to develop particular subject areas. Items recommended for purchase should ideally be of benefit to a range of people in the department.

Books: Would you like more text books, or those with additional teaching materials included? How about guides on how to write about science or do your PhD? Do you have a particular series in mind that would complement our collections?

DVDs or CDs: Would you like to be able to borrow a DVD or CD from the library? We do keep any that accompany text books in the library office for you to borrow but there might be other ones useful to you?

Donations: Are there any books that you own that you don't want anymore and think would be really useful for the library to have? Recent titles are preferred.

Ebooks: The library contributes funds annually to the ebooks@cambridge team and we can recommend titles for purchase by them (for undergraduate teaching purposes, preferably Part I, only). I can ask them if particular books are available in ebook format.

Ejournals: Purchasing of new ejournals titles is achieved through a central fund that all libraries in the university contribute to. We can recommend new titles for purchase on your behalf or you can do so yourself, via the 'Recommend an ejournal title' form online at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/help/index.php Recommendations are considered for purchase a couple of times per year usually.

Eresources and trials of eresources: Purchasing of new eresources (e.g. not an ejournal or ebook) is generally achieved through University Library funds. We can recommend new eresources for purchase on your behalf or you can do so yourself, via the 'Recommend an eresource' form online at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/help/index.php We can also arrange trials to be set up for eresources you consider to be useful.

Complimentary library services and collections: Remember that if a particular journal article or book is not available in Cambridge we can request it, for a subsidised fee, from the British Library. We also have a collection of over 100,000 reprints from the 19th and 20th centuries in the library. We have many of the theses written by postgraduate students based in this department.

How to tell us what you want!

We have an annual donation of a few hundred pounds to spend from Cambridge University Press, and an 18% discount from Heffers. Have a look at our 'Books and ebooks' website at http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/books.html to find links to various booksellers. We also have many booksellers' catalogues in the library office that we can lend you.

I can take recommendations by email at cmc32@cam.ac.uk or we have recommendation cards available in the library office. For books and ebooks, please provide details of the author, title, date of publication, publisher, ISBN, price, who the book will be useful for and why. For ejournals please see the online form I have mentioned above and let me have those details.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Clair

New ebooks

These texts have been recommended on the reading list for a module of the NST Part II Zoology course and they have been purchased in electronic and printed format by ebooks@cambridge and the Balfour Library respectively:

Fox - Barrel cortex
Carnevale - The NEURON book

The easiest way to find them is to search for them on Newton, the catalogue for the libraries of the university, at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/

Find out more about the ebooks available by visiting the ebooks@cambridge websites at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ebooks.php and http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/ebooks@cambridge/