Top Shelf

By Patty Gianulis, John Tibbals, and John Stanton
Useful and interesting resources -- for homework or for your off-school hours.

Book Selection
Waller, Don. Ornamental Trees of San Diego. San Diego: San Diego Horticultural Society, 2003. Ref SB 437.65 S36 076 2003

Ornamental Trees of San Diego brings together 230 of the most glorious trees of this area, including photographs, detailed descriptions and cultivation tips. The text provides valuable, often first-hand information including where the plant originated, how long it should be expected to live, how big it will get and how to best care for it. Locations of all the trees shown are included so you can drive by and see how well they work in a garden. Other features include “How to Select a Tree for the Garden”, a color chart of flowering trees, guides to tree locations in Balboa Park and Quail Gardens, a select bibliography, indexes of common and botanical names and a list of local sources to purchase trees. This is an excellent local resource.
-Patty G.


Website Selection
Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents (at CSU San Marcos)
www.csusm.edu/csb

The most useful parts of the website are "Recommended Books in Spanish" and "Recommended Books in English About Latinos". In each area the user can enter a title or a subject, then select the desired grade level up through grade 12 (or search all levels at once by using the default "any"). A list of appropriate books will appear...then the user clicks on a title to get full bibliographic information as well as a summary and review sources. For example searching for the subject "migrant labor", any age, in English generates 23 hits.

The Barahona Center has been at CSUSM for many years and is a widely respected source of information in this field.
-John T.


Website Selection
Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), 2006-07 Edition
http://www.bls.gov/oco/

From the website's description:
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook—updated every 2 years—is a career reference that describes the job duties, working conditions, education and training requirements, earnings levels, and employment levels and projected employment change, and employment prospects for hundreds of occupations. It presents the analysis of the Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment projections, along with related information, to help students and job seekers identify and learn about careers."

The OOH is an excellent resource for college students wanting to investigate potential careers, This website is the online version of the classic reference work and it is available for free in the comfort of your own home. It is just as easy to navigate the online version as the print version.
-John S.