TV and the Emmy Awards

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the 61st annual Emmy's award nominations yesterday. So, in honor of this announcement, I thought it would be fun to look at the Emmy's history and some other sources for television research.

The Academy, established in 1946, first awarded the Emmy in 1949. According to the Emmy Award database, the 1949 awards included only 6 categories: Best Film Made for Television, Most Outstanding Television Personality, Most Popular Television Program, Station Award, Technical Award, and a Special Award for the designer of the Emmy statue. Pantomime Quiz Time won the most popular TV program in the inaugural ceremony. You can see footage of Pantomine Quiz Time in several clips on YouTube. According to the online Encyclopedia of Television, the Emmy's were only given to Los Angeles-based shows and stations in the first year since the United States lacked coast-to-coast signals, driving the focus to shows that would have been seen by the Emmy Awards viewing audience. The Emmy's went national in 1954. The Encyclopedia of Television covers this early history, the split between Hollywood and New York, and the changes to the Emmy Awards in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences entry.

For more recent television news, there are hundreds of sources for TV reviews and information. Academic Search Complete, one of the Blume Library's databases, is a great place to look for TV reviews, research articles on the influence of television programming, and more details about the Emmy Awards. The Blume Library catalog also lists hundreds of books, ebooks, and government sources about television broadcasting. Of course, Google and other Internet searches provide an overwhelming number of webpages, videos, pictures, etc. about TV. For the latest TV and Emmy news, search Google News for updates from around the world.

The 61st Emmy Award show will be shown on Sunday, September 20 at 7pm Central Time on CBS. I'll be rooting for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to win Best Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs. I mean, how can you not love one of the first free, Internet-only TV shows, created by the awesome Joss Whedon? Which, of course, begs the question...what is a television show? Can something be a TV show if it was never shown on television? I guess it can.

If it may please the court....

Last week President Obama, no stranger to "firsts" himself, made history again, nominating the first Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. If you want to find out more about this appeals court judge in advance of her confirmation hearings in the Senate, there are lots of resources you can turn to.

Here is the President's official press release upon the nomination, and National Public Radio has news coverage and commentary from that day that you can review here.

The Law Library of Congress has compiled this extensive listing of resources, including some of her writings, citations to her previous confirmation hearings, and legal websites that are good sources for more information.

If you want to some Library research on your own, you can consult the Lexis/Nexis database. Searching on "Sotomayor" from the "People" tab will give you references to news items about the judge. To see the various cases she's been involved with, go to the "Legal" tab and choose "Federal and State Cases." By entering "Sonia Sotomayor" as a natural language term in the search box, you'll receive a list of the cases over which she's presided. Be warned, however, that this is a very long list!

City of San Antonio Runoff Elections

You might have heard that there were some local elections last month. Perhaps you even voted in the election. For registered voters in the City of San Antonio's Districts 2, 5, and 8, the elections continue. In fact, today is the first day of Early Voting for citizens who live in these three districts. More information and details are available at the Voter Information: Spring 2009 City of San Antonio Runoff Election page.

If you are eligible to vote in one of these City Council Districts and you can't get to one of the early voting polling sites by Tuesday, June 9, Election Day is Saturday, June 13. Polls will be open from 7am-7pm. See the Voter Information page to find your local polling site.

Spring 2009 Voter Information

Did you know that today, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), is the last day of Early Voting in Bexar County? The early voting site polls will be open until 8pm today. Information including links to early voting poll sites, as well as links to web sites--where available--of candidates who appear on the Bexar County generic sample ballot is included on the Voter 2009 web page. It also has information on where to vote, how to generate your personalized ballot, early voting, and several additional information sites.

And if you can't get to the polls today, Election Day is Saturday, May 9. Polls will be open from 7am-7pm. See the Voter 2009 page to find your local polling site.

Last fall, nearly 60% of registered voters in Bexar County voted. Predictions are that less than 20% of registered voters will vote this time around. What will you do to change that statistic?

Government Scientists Earn their Pay [updated]

When there's a crisis involving something technical, scientific, and complicated it's nice to know that your taxes are paying experts to keep on top of things. That's why the current swine 'flu scare is a good lead-in to our new government information display: Government Science.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have put up this informative website that's chock full of details, and links to more details, that go a long way toward explaining this scary—but, at least for now, still manageable—new threat. Scientific information from the government, while being a human-run enterprise and thus capable of containing errors of fact and judgment, is still 'way more reliable than the Center for Stuff That I Heard from Some Guy, recently reported from on the Daily Show.

One thing we've been hearing from both reliable sources and Some Guys, has been how important personal hygiene is to foil this outbreak. Note the sudden appearance of hand sanitizers all over campus, including at our Reference Desk. If there's anything more you want to know about the benefits of hand-washing, or how to do it properly, the CDC provides this factsheet.

As important a role as the CDC plays in keeping informed, it's only one of scores of government agencies working in all areas of science and technology. We pulled some samples from our tangible collection and from the voluminous government scientific web for our current display. Hope you enjoy it!

[Update: curious about our previous experience with swine 'flu? An Ohio librarian has updated a history/bibliography of the 1976 swine 'flu scare.]

Just in time for Earth Day

Now through May 1, you have free access to Environmental Studies & Policy Collection and select eBooks from Gale. Environmental Studies & Policy Collection is a compilation of over 700 journals, periodicals and magazines, which provide robust coverage of environmental issues and policies, including diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policy makers, as well as corporate interests. You'll find familiar, reliable content from periodicals and magazines, such as: Audubon, Mother Earth News, Natural History, American Scientist and many more.

You also have free access to select eBook titles, including:

Gale
Climate Change in Context
Environmental Science in Context
World of Earth Science
Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America
Environmental Encyclopedia
Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia
Weather Almanac

Macmillan
Animal Sciences
Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy
Plant Sciences
Pollution A to Z
Water: Science and Issues

U*X*L
UXL Encyclopedia of Biomes, 2nd ed.
Alternative Energy
Endangered Species
Grzimek's Student Animal Life Resource
UXL Complete Life Science Resource
UXL Encyclopedia of Biomes
UXL Encyclopedia of Landforms and Other Geologic Features
UXL Encyclopedia of Water Science
UXL Encyclopedia of Weather and Natural Disasters


Enter your search in the following box and take a test drive!

Congratulations to 3rd Annual Library Undergraduate Research Award recipients

On Friday, April 3, 2009, the recipients of the Third Annual Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award were recognized at the Tenth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. The awards recognize student researchers who demonstrate skill and originality in the application of library and other information sources in a research project.

The First Place Award of $200 was granted to Patricia Amalia Sipes for her project, "Beth, Babel, Boibel: Robert Graves and the Ciphering of Hidden Meanings in Celtic Poetry." The faculty mentor for the project was Dr. Alice Kersnowski.

The Second Place Award of $100 was given to Kristina Kay Lindsey for her project, "The Business of Charity: The Mindsets, Marketing Trends, and Solutions of Incorporated Non-profits during Times of Financial Downturn." The faculty mentor was Dr. Stephanie Ward.

We thank all the students who took the time and effort to submit an application and proposal for the Award. We encourage students who are eligible to apply next year for the Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award.

Congratulations to Patricia and Kristina!