Blog Posts by Subject: Animals

I love the cat breed illustrations on the inside of the front and back covers of this book. All of the cats look so happy! The book is full of poems that indicate the nature of cats, and anyone who has experience with cats or who has lived with cats knows exactly what Crawley is talking about in these cat poems.

In the poem "Brand X," a cat was acting for a commercial for cat food. Wouldn't you know it? When asked to choose between 

This is a story about bats taking over the library at night when it is closed: "Bat night at the library." What could be better? It is a bat holiday that bats wait for all year, like Christmas.

These bats are quite a literary group. They talk about the books that they have read. They create shapes in the light of the projector to make images on the wall. They photocopy themselves, play in the water fountain, look at pop-up books. They get into all types of trouble. Basically, these bats treat the library as if it were their cave.

However, 

A shopping trip with mama and baby. But Llama Llama is disappointed because he wants to play. Countless other types of animals also shop at the Shop-O-Rama. Llama Llama does not like shopping for clothes... or food.

He is tired of sitting in the shopping cart, and he wants to go home! Llama Llama has a tantrum and throws all of the contents of the 

Ever wanted a yellow cow? How about a green salamander? Or a turquoise frog? You will not find any salamanders or frogs in this book. And if you did, they would not be green or blue. However, the yellow cow is a winner in this tale.

This book enlists kids to use their imaginations when considering how to draw and color animals in perhaps different colors from those which adorn them in nature. A lovely blue horse appears on the cover. A 

Many have heard about slow food, but fewer still about slow looking. This Wall Street Journal article from 2011 coined the term, referring to LSU's Hill Memorial Library and the way in which they presented their collection of John James Audubon's four-volume Birds of America (1827-38): slowing turning the pages for a rapt audience.

Closer to home and until May 19th, the New-York 

This blog post was actually spawned from a visit to Devon Saddlery near Washington, D.C. I saw a poster there for a horse event, which included information on the National Sporting Library. I then became curious as to what other horse libraries were out there.

I visited the Kentucky Horse Park as a teenager when I was competing in the National Horse Bowl Competition in Lexington, KY. Horse Bowl is a jeopardy-like contest in which contestants are on two teams of four individuals. The competition consists of team and individual 

Most of my experience with animals has been with domesticated animals, but I am also interested in wildlife. Below are some wildlife libraries and museums that I found.

Special Libraries

from the Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers, 40th ed., 2012

Animal Alliance of Canada Library 221 Broadview Ave., Ste. 101 Toronto, ON, Canada M4M 2G3 416-462-9541 Animals, 

According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, the snake is equivalent to the Taurus in Western tradition. February 10th, 2013 to January 30th, 2014 will mark the Year of the Snake.

In the Chinese zodiac calendar, the snake is the sixth animal and symbolizes grace and calmness — it is introspective, cunning, and modest, but also mysterious, deceptive, and possessive. Those born in 2013, 2001, 

Charles Waterton by Charles Willson Peale oil on canvas, 1824 ©National Portrait Gallery, London. Creative Commons BY-NC-NDMost recently discovered, just last week, is Charles Waterton (1782–1865). I've not read enough to evaluate him as a writer (of which all authors tremble in dread), but he certainly led an interesting life. Of a very ancient Catholic family including St. Thomas More and Margaret of Scotland among his ancestors, he became interested in nature in 1804 when he travelled to British 

"Why, we must have been blind all our lives; here were the most wonderful things possible going on under our very noses, but we saw them not." —Walther Besant.

Richard Jefferies (1848-1887), though a novelist, is more known as a nature writer. His childhood was spent on a farm in Wiltshire (now a museum), during which he began his observation and awareness of nature and people within it. At the age of 9, he was already an adept at tracking and hunting, and perhaps not surprisingly, left school at the 

I'm a literary Anglophile. There — I've confessed and we can move on. One of their really cool genres is nature writing. They do it in such a quiet and smooth style, as if they've lived in field and woods all their lives. (Dah!)

Perhaps the most famous, or at least the most referred to, is

This snowy Saturday afternoon has brought to mind a couple of scenes from nineteenth-century children's books in the Rare Book Division. First, a scene of "Wintervergnügen" (winter fun) from Jugendspiele zur Erholung und Erheiterung (Tilsit, 1846). This is a two-volume work, one devoted to girls and one to boys. Sledding is categorized as one of the boys' games (Knabenspiele), but of course that needn't stop 

Like always, I am horse crazy as ever, so I definitely wanted to see which professional associations and journals are out there to aid horse professionals. When I was a librarian at a corporate library, part of my job was to dig up medical professional journals. I found an association for recruiters in health care for my supervisor that she did not know about. I became aware that there is a professional association for everything, and I sometimes refer patrons to professional associations.

Once at the library, I had a parent inquire about education for her child, and 

Happy Thanksgiving to you! In honor of the holiday, here's a page from one of my favorite drawing manuals in the collection, 1913's What to Draw and How to Draw It by E. G. Lutz.

This turkey (along with his tiny companion, the fantail pigeon) is just one of dozens of possibilities — like owls, elephants, pelicans, pigs, castles, cats, and men and ladies — you'll find in these pages. Want to see the entire book? It's been digitized and you can

I absolutely love animals. I have fostered many cats, including a queen and her three kittens this spring. I have been riding horses since I was nine years old. I volunteered in two zoo libraries, and I walked dogs for six years in various animal shelters. I used to be a big fan of Animal Planet and Steve Irwin and the Australia Zoo. Animals are cute, adorable, and they just make me happy.

Special Libraries

from the

One can scarcely think of any park in NYC — or any city, really — without envisioning the ubiquitous pigeon there as well.

Booktalking Duchess by Ellen Miles, 2011

In the wonderful Kitty Corner series by Ellen Miles, Mia and Michael and their family foster cats and kittens who need a temporary home, much like people foster children. Mia met Duchess through her friend Logan, who alerted her to the fact that Duchess's owner Abby was moving to Iceland, and she did not want to 

Alice-Miranda on Vacation by Jacqueline Harvey, 2010

Seven-and-a-half year old Alice-Miranda is home from boarding school, and she is making a splash. She brings her friend Jacinta with her to a wonderful mansion that is 

A Taste of Perfection by Laura Langston, 2002

Erin was ecstatic about her chance to volunteer at the SPCA over the summer, only to learn that her father had been laid off and she was to spend the summer at her grandmother's kennel, with black and yellow Labrador Retrievers. On the positive side, at least she gets to see her friend Cassie, who is about everything