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!

Leaves on the trees, new sprinklers, and dandelions.  Children running, jumping and enjoying their lunch.  Students throwing Frisbees, kicking soccer balls, and suntanning (remember your sunscreen everyone!) The Bowl has been alive with life since the weather turned nice and we at the Science Library have been reaping the benefits of easy access to the outdoors!  We have noticed other staff heading out to take walks in the sunshine – wave as you pass our windows — we can see you even if you can’t see us!

As for what’s happening inside the branch, we are happy to say…a lot!  We had a Hawaiian themed birthday party last week, as well as a picnic for an Un-Birthday the week before!  We have several projects on the go, including a new display (Why does it smell so good after it rains?) that will be going up the first week of June; we are also working on archiving past displays.  And, of course, our students are enjoying their short&sweet&warm&relaxed summer classes, and show us their dedication by studying until 4:29:59 most days.

Enjoy the sunshine everyone, and we hope to see more of you enjoying it over the coming summer!

Another wonderful display is being showcased this month at the Science Library. The theme is the Solvay Conference of 1927, the fifth in a series of conferences still held to this day.  Sponsored by Ernest Solvay, the conference brought together the greatest scientific minds of the time to discuss scientific theories; in 1927, the list of attendees included familiar names such as Marie Curie, Einstein and Schrödinger. The theme that year was Protons and Electrons, and the main discussion was centred on the newly formulated quantum theory. Over a dozen Nobel Prize winners are highlighted in the new display.

Along with the new display is the new grass that is just peeking out around the building.  The staff have all spent a minute or two laughing at the ground squirrels and birds running, jumping and fighting each other on the grounds.  We are all eagerly awaiting the budding of the trees and the blooming of the flowers, if for no other reason than to shade us from the noon sun that streams almost blindingly into our office.  Poor us.