Top Shelf

by Ron Vess and Patty Gianulis, SWC Librarians

Top Shelf is a weekly column of some of our favorite (and sometimes unusual) resources.

Book Selection
San Diego County Bird Atlas, by Philip Unitt
Call Number: Ref QL684.C2 U57 2004

“The San Diego County Bird Atlas addresses all the county's birds--wintering birds, migrants, and exotics as well as breeding birds. Each species account covers breeding distribution, nesting habits and schedule, migration, winter distribution, conservation outlook, and taxonomy, if relevant. The accounts include a chart showing the seasonal distribution of the nesting activity of each nesting species; they have at least one map for every regular breeding and wintering species.” –Amazon … I selected this one because I was viewing an episode of Planet Earth about birds from the jungles migrating into the Andes on the Discovery Channel this past weekend. Thought it was a grand program and then this book popped-up on the cataloging cart. So…enjoy.
-Ron

Website Selection
Science is fun in the lab of Dr. Shakhashiri
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/scifun.html

The master of chemical demonstrations, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, shares the fun of science through home science activities, demonstration shows, videos, and books Science is Fun is one part of a larger “Initiative for Science Literacy” that has two goals: to promote literacy in science, mathematics, and technology among the general public and to attract future generations to careers as the researchers, entrepreneurs, and teachers on whom the nation's continuing economic health and national security will depend. Check out the interesting articles on the “Chemistry of Autumn Colors” or the “Colors of Gemstones” in the section on Chemical of the Week. The site also includes a Periodic Table of the Elements (with an article on each element), recommended websites, and experiments you can do at home.
-Patty