Quantitative assessment of soil parameters in Western Tajikistan using a soil spectral library approach

Soil degradation is a major problem in the agriculturally dominated country of Tajikistan, which makes it necessary to determine and monitor the state of soils. For this purpose a soil spectral library was established as it enables the determination of soil properties with relatively low costs and effort. A total of 1465 soil samples were collected from three 10x10 km test sites in western Tajikistan. The diffuse reflectance of the samples was measured with a FieldSpec PRO FR from ASD in the spectral range from 380 to 2500 nm in laboratory. 166 samples were finally selected based on their spectral information and analysed on total C and N, organic C, pH, CaCO₃, extractable P, exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, and the fractions clay, silt and sand. Multiple linear regression was used to set up the models. Two third of the chemically analysed samples were used to calibrate the models, one third was used for hold-out validation. Very good prediction accuracy was obtained for total C (R² = 0.76, RMSEP = 4.36 g kg⁻¹), total N (R² = 0.83, RMSEP = 0.30 g kg⁻¹) and organic C (R² = 0.81, RMSEP = 3.30 g kg⁻¹), good accuracy for pH (R² = 0.61, RMSEP = 0.157) and CaCO3(R² = 0.72, RMSEP = 4.63 %). No models could be developed for extractable P, exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, and the fractions clay, silt and sand. It can be concluded that the spectral library approach has a high potential to substitute standard laboratory methods where rapid and inexpensive analysis is required.

Exhibit: "Michigan-I-O": Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition"

In 1938, a young folk music collector named Alan Lomax—destined to become one of the legendary folklorists of the 20th century recorded Michigan’s richly varied folk music traditions for the Archive of American Folk-Song at the Library of Congress. Michigan in the 1930s was experiencing a golden age of folksong collecting, as local folklorists mined the trove of ballads remembered by aging lumbermen and Great Lakes schoonermen. In addition to the ballads of these north woods singers, Lomax recorded a vibrant mix of ethnic music from Detroit to the western Upper Peninsula. The multimedia performance event Folksongs from Michigan-i-o combines live performance with historic images, color movie footage, and recorded sound from the Great Depression. Some of these materials haven’t been heard or seen by the general public for more than seven decades. The traveling exhibition Michigan Folksong Legacy: Grand Discoveries from the Great Depression brings Alan Lomax’s 1938 field trip to life through words, song lyrics, photographs, and sound recordings. Ten interpretive banners explore themes and each panel contains a QR code that links to related sound recordings from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Exhibit: "Michigan-I-O": Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition"

In 1938, a young folk music collector named Alan Lomax—destined to become one of the legendary folklorists of the 20th century recorded Michigan’s richly varied folk music traditions for the Archive of American Folk-Song at the Library of Congress. Michigan in the 1930s was experiencing a golden age of folksong collecting, as local folklorists mined the trove of ballads remembered by aging lumbermen and Great Lakes schoonermen. In addition to the ballads of these north woods singers, Lomax recorded a vibrant mix of ethnic music from Detroit to the western Upper Peninsula. The multimedia performance event Folksongs from Michigan-i-o combines live performance with historic images, color movie footage, and recorded sound from the Great Depression. Some of these materials haven’t been heard or seen by the general public for more than seven decades. The traveling exhibition Michigan Folksong Legacy: Grand Discoveries from the Great Depression brings Alan Lomax’s 1938 field trip to life through words, song lyrics, photographs, and sound recordings. Ten interpretive banners explore themes and each panel contains a QR code that links to related sound recordings from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Exhibit: "Michigan-I-O": Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition

In 1938, a young folk music collector named Alan Lomax—destined to become one of the legendary folklorists of the 20th century recorded Michigan’s richly varied folk music traditions for the Archive of American Folk-Song at the Library of Congress. Michigan in the 1930s was experiencing a golden age of folksong collecting, as local folklorists mined the trove of ballads remembered by aging lumbermen and Great Lakes schoonermen. In addition to the ballads of these north woods singers, Lomax recorded a vibrant mix of ethnic music from Detroit to the western Upper Peninsula. The multimedia performance event Folksongs from Michigan-i-o combines live performance with historic images, color movie footage, and recorded sound from the Great Depression. Some of these materials haven’t been heard or seen by the general public for more than seven decades. The traveling exhibition Michigan Folksong Legacy: Grand Discoveries from the Great Depression brings Alan Lomax’s 1938 field trip to life through words, song lyrics, photographs, and sound recordings. Ten interpretive banners explore themes and each panel contains a QR code that links to related sound recordings from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Building Up: A history of Montana Tech Library 1900 - 2006

This paper traces the history of the Library of the Montana State School of Mines from its inception in 1900 to 2006. The history includes sketches of the library directors over 106 years, and the library’s various campus locations and emerging collections and services.

Teaching Information Literacy to Undergraduate Students: Reflecting on the Past, Present and Future of Library Instruction

The need to teach information literacy skills to undergraduate students is often framed as a 21st century concern, but debate over the value and practice of teaching this set of skills can be found as far back as the early 1900’s. This article reviews the history of information literacy instruction in academic libraries from its origins to the present, examines the current state of information literacy instruction in academic libraries, and explores possible future directions that this instruction may take. Looking to the past, present and future shows that while library instruction has evolved, many central concerns remain unanswered.

The James Lind Library: explaining and illustrating the evolution of fair tests of medical treatments

The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org) has been established to improve public and professional general knowledge about fair tests of treatments in healthcare and their history. Its foundation was laid ten years ago at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and its administrative centre is in the College's Sibbald Library, one of the most important collections of historic medical manuscripts, papers and books in the world. The James Lind Library is a website that introduces visitors to the principles of fair tests of treatments, with a series of short, illustrated essays, which are currently available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. A 100-page book-- Testing Treatments--is now available free through the website, both in English and in Arabic and Spanish translations. To illustrate the evolution of ideas related to fair tests of treatments from 2000 BC to the present, the James Lind Library contains key passages and images from manuscripts, books and journal articles, many of them accompanied by commentaries, biographies, portraits and other relevant documents and images, including audio and video files. New material is being added to the website continuously, as relevant new records are identified and as methods for testing treatments evolve. A multinational, multilingual editorial team oversees the development of the website, which currently receives tens of thousands of visitors every month.