Posts by Kenneth Johnson

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of June 12 and 19, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012, the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012, and the weeks of May 22, 29 and June 5, 2012.

Did Cole Porter steal the music for some of his most popular songs? Ira B. Arnstein thought so. He took Porter, and several other songwriters, to court for copyright infringement during the 1930s and 1940s.

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of May 22, 29 and June, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012 and the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012.

As before, please be careful in using these - they're really not appropriate to use for prior art or other similar searches. Otherwise, please enjoy!

For a while now, it's been a pretty sure thing: U.S. Federal Government Documents are posted online, for anyone with Internet access to find. Or at least to look for - you can give the U.S. Government Printing Office (which we'll be calling the GPO) website a try. But if you might be researching older documents, you still may have to pay a visit to a U.S. Federal Government Depository Library like SIBL. And to help readers prepare for such a visit, this post will offer information about traditional resources we recommend to search for Government Documents in our library.

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012.

It's not quite time to worry about choosing your beach reading yet. But Memorial Day is coming, and so it is time to think ahead just a little. With that in mind, here is a selection of books new to the New York Times list of Business Best Sellers published this last Sunday, May 13th.

Let's face it; many different research tasks cause people to want, and in a lot of cases need, government information. Government information is on the Internet: result - happiness. Government information disappears from the Internet (or becomes nearly impossible to find, which is sort of the same thing): result - unhappiness. And then there are libraries.

Despite the shift from the Patent and Trademark Depository Library designation to our new Patent and Trademark Resource Center status, one vestige of over 140 years of being a patent depository remains. Color images for Plant Patents are only available in print, and are still being received here at SIBL in paper format. This seems like a good opportunity to take a look at some of the most recent ones we've received here, and so we've done a bunch of QAD color image scans. Please take a look...

No matter how hard you try to prioritize your reading, magazines can really pile up rather quickly. So... I've just finally gotten to the April 7th issue of The Economist, and discovered its quarterly business book selection for April.

Last June, I made note of one of SIBL's patent pamphlets cataloged long ago as the Haitian Patent Law for 1826. I had my doubts about it, and wondered if anyone could help. Now, to wrap things up I thought I'd share some of what I learned here... and give an answer to the question "what is it?"

I don't want to neglect highlighting some of the newer business best-sellers from the New York Times (Sunday, April 1, 2012, page 7). I've also included a selection from Nielsen BookScan as published in the April 7-8, 2012 Wall Street Journal (page C10). Happy Reading!

Thursday, March 15 was Freedom of Information Day here at SIBL. I would like to offer a big round of thanks (I'd add a round of applause, but don't have the audio file) to our speaker this year, Robert Weissman, president of the advocacy organization Public Citizen. His informative and inspiring presentation was very much appreciated!

I've Got a Secret. From a simpler time, it's a TV show title — one that, along with To Tell the Truth, becomes a whole lot darker in meaning in many a modern context. The simple, innocent deceptions that amused TV audiences in days of yore have given way to glaring problems in the public forum where stealth can disarm legitimate opposition and carry off the prize.

As previously posted, on March 15, SIBL will celebrate Freedom of Information Day (FOI Day) with speaker Robert Weissman from the organization Public Citizen. FOI Day has been the main focus of our annual efforts to highlight the public's right to know. But it need not be NYPL's only activity, and so I offer a suggestion: let's use this as an opportunity to move from one day to an entire week — Sunshine Week at NYPL!

This Sunday's paper listed the New York Times business best sellers. Rankings reflect sales for January 2012. Below are several of the titles culled from that list, sorted by genre, with links to our catalog.

The January 14 issue of The Economist has reviewed (and maybe recommended...) five new books on a few different business topics. I'm using this as an opportunity to post a list of these titles with links to the Library's collections.

I am pleased to announce our upcoming Freedom of Information Day celebration at the Science, Industry and Business Library. It will be held on Thursday, March 15, 2012 from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Healy Hall (on the lower level), and will feature as guest presenter Robert Weissman, president of the public advocacy organization Public Citizen. This event is free and open to the public. No reservations are required.

Every librarian understands that the increased reliance on digital resources is a Faustian bargain.

Working at SIBL has distorted my vision; I seem to have this sixth sense: I see advertising for financial services. Brokerage accounts, mutual funds, ETFs, bank accounts (online and otherwise) - everywhere. Do normal people see these?