Congratulations to Beth Matheson who is the winner of the Veterinary Medicine Library Treasure Hunt.  She won a beautiful Harden & Huyse Chocolate Puppy.

Thanks to everyone who came out to visit our branch and participate in the Treasure Hunt.

Have a great summer!                                                                                                    Vet Med Library Employees

This spring, the staff at the Science Library have been amusing themselves by watching people in the Bowl perform the Caterpillar Dance. To join in, walk under a tree, then either duck and weave from side to side or stagger backwards while flailing your arms and sputtering.

Cankerworms and their cousins, tent caterpillars, are known as defoliators, insects that strip deciduous trees of their leaves. The outbreak we are currently experiencing in Saskatchewan is one of four species of tent caterpillar (though “ours” shouldn’t really be called tent caterpillars at all because their larvae congregate in clumps, not tents). Often, “outbreaking insects” like tent caterpillars are thought of as a single unit: basically, a homogenous eating machine. This article states that there are lazy caterpillars and more aggressive, hungry caterpillars. Their individual behavior greatly affects the ecology of the species.

Photo courtesy of Glenda Goertzen

Visit the Saskatchewan Environment website for more information on forest tent caterpillars.

Dangling worms aren’t the only insect to threaten us on campus this season. After venturing out on Saturday to the prairie at Wanuskewin, walking beside the tall grasses and under the hanging trees for several hours, a Science Library staff member came home happily bug free. However, sitting down at a workstation on Monday, the staff member, mind not quite attending (saving us from a screech) followed the feel of tiny feet and flicked an insect onto the floor. Retrieving it on a piece of paper, she carried it into the back office for confirmation. A tick! It was duly identified, photographed, catalogued, and dissected in the sink. The staff determined the bloodthirsty little hitchhiker was not the Lyme-carrying deer tick, but a smaller and less dangerous species. For more information about ticks and how to keep them off your pets, visit this article courtesy of the Veterinary Medical Centre.

Photo courtesy of Megan Johnson
Tick courtesy of Beth Matheson

Our campus recently made the news when 75,000 honeybees were collected from the exterior of the Health Sciences Building by a Saskatoon high school student.

Let’s be careful out there!

Not to be confused with What’s That, UASC? Nobody reads these for the pithy and creative titles, I hope.

So, what is new with us?

Well. . . we’ve been moving around furniture trying to make our space look more welcoming.  Instead of these scary grey cabinets by the front door:

we now have a freebie table / display cabinet (right now showing some food-relevant items such as old cookbooks, handwritten recipes, and ration stamps courtesy of curator Amy Chillog). Two other new cases have also been installed and will hopefully be used for more permanent display of art and artifacts held within the University Archives and Special Collections.

Amy also represented UASC at:

We were given the opportunity to supplement the film showing with a small display of lesbian-related materials from the Neil Richards Collection of Gender and Sexual diversity.

For anyone interested in a similar film-related event, check out the Queer As Film Series at the Frances Morrison Central Library. A small sampling of Neil Richards’ queer film posters will also be available for viewing.

Another important development has been the completion of a linked resource through the Great War database which allows anyone searching the name of someone connected to the University of Saskatchewan who served during WWI to find everything we have within the archives on that person, as well as their records in provincial and federal memorial websites. Check it out at:  The Great War Database

Also over the past few weeks, Nancy from iPortal (and Truda also learning the ropes) have been scanning 5 volumes of the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development (JAED) [http://www.edo.ca/edo-tools/jaed] to add to the iPortal. The merging of iPortal and UASC is an important step in the digitization for use on the iPortal of this and other resources of value in the study of indigenous history and current aboriginal affairs.

For any interested for personal research or reference purposes,  I’ve posted the latest archival materials processed at UASC over on our blog. Topics include: Saskatchewan writing and journalism, history of public libraries in Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan heritage, personal residential school histories, Northern indigenous affairs and art, art in Saskatchewan, Diefenbaker, the University of Saskatchewan, music, and education. If any of this strikes a chord, send us an e-mail for the full finding aid at ua.sc@usask.ca

Merry Christmas to all!

Working with all these sweet people, Lois grew her heart two sizes.