LIBR 210 Rene Stilwell

Almanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010

Almanacs, Yearbooks, and Handbooks

Part I - Questions

1. When was daylight savings time introduced in the U.S.? Check at least two
sources and specify which answer is best.

Answer:
In 1966, the Uniform Time Act went into effect in the United States. It
proclaimed that all states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions
were to observe Daylight Saving Time starting at 2am on the last Sunday in
April and ending at 2am on the last Sunday in October.

Source: The New York Public Library Desk Reference. Fourth Edition. New
York: Hyperion, 2002.

Answer:
Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who first
suggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when William
Willett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Waste
of Daylight.

The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in
1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one
year later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passed
the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment
lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from
dairy farmers (cows don't pay attention to clocks).

During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this time
year-round) to save fuel. Since then, Daylight Saving Time has been used on
and off, with different start and end dates. Currently, Daylight Saving Time
begins at 2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 A.M. on
the first Sunday in November.

Source: Old Farmer’s Almanac. http://www.almanac.com/

Answer:
Daylight Saving Time traditionally ran from the first Sunday in April to the last
Sunday in October. In 2009, Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am on March
8th and ends at 2am on November 1st.

Daylight Saving Time was first observed in the US during World War I and
then again during World War II. In the intervening years, some states and
communities observed using whatever beginning and ending dates they

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Almanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010
chose. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which provide that
any state or territory that chooses to observe Daylight Saving Time must
begin and end on the federal dates.

Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: World
Almanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

The best answer depends on how much information the patron is looking for.
The first answer is quite brief and doesn’t give much history. The second
answer gives a lot of history and the third is a good comprise between the
two.

2. How does the population density of Haiti compare to that of the Dominican
Republic? Be sure to specify the currency of your statistics.

Answer:
The population density (per sq km) of Haiti at mid-2008 is 351.4.
The population density (per sq km) of Dominican Republic at 2007 is 192.1.

Source: Europa World Year Book. 2 vols. Routledge: London, 1989 - .

Annual. (I used Volume 1, 2009.)

3. I’ve heard it is proper to eat asparagus with one’s fingers. Is this true?

Answer:
By reputation this is a finger food, but the ungraceful appearance of a bent
stalk of asparagus falling limply into someone’s mouth, dripping moisture,
commends it to be eaten with a fork. When it is prepared al dente so that the
stalks are firm, and any sauce is only on the tips, you may pick it up with your
fingers, one stalk at a time, and eat it from the tip to the opposite end in
manageable bites. When the stalks are covered in sauce or are limp, then
cut them with your fork or fork and knife and eat them in small pieces. All
hard ends should be cut off asparagus before it is served. If this has not been
done, do not attempt to eat the ends. If you can’t cut them, you can’t chew
them. Just cut or eat the spears to the point at which they cease to be tender
and leave the remainder neatly on your plate.

Source: Post, Peggy. Emily Post’s Etiquette. 16th ed. New York:
HarperCollins, 1997. 241p.

4. How many country music stations are there in the United States?

Answer:

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Almanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010
As of June 2008 there are 2,028 country music stations in the United States.
Chart: U.S. Commercial Radio Stations by Format, 1998-2008.

Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: World
Almanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

5. What were the seven wonders of the ancient world? Are any still able to be
seen?

Answer:
Since ancient times, numerous “seven wonders” lists have been created. The
content of these lists tends to vary, and none is definitive. The seven wonders
that are most widely agreed upon as being in the original list are the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World, which was compiled by ancient Greek
historians and is thus confined to the most magnificent structures known to
the ancient Greek world. Of all the Ancient Wonders, the pyramids alone
survive.

1. The Pyramids of Egypt are three pyramids at Giza, outside modern Cairo.
The largest pyramid, built by Khufu (Cheops), a king of the fourth dynasty,
had an original estimated height of 482 ft (now approximately 450 ft). The
base has sides 755 ft long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weight
of each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 B.C.
2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were supposedly built by
Nebuchadnezzar around 600 B.C. to please his queen, Amuhia. They are
also associated with the mythical Assyrian queen Semiramis. Archeologists
surmise that the gardens were laid out atop a vaulted building, with provisions
for raising water. The terraces were said to rise from 75 to 300 ft.
3. The Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia was made of gold and ivory by the
Greek sculptor Phidias (5th century B.C.). Reputed to be 40 ft high, the statue
has been lost without a trace, except for reproductions on coins.
4. The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus was begun about 350 B.C., in
honor of a non-Hellenic goddess who later became identified with the Greek
goddess of the same name. The temple, with Ionic columns 60 ft high, was
destroyed by invading Goths in A.D. 262.
5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was erected by Queen Artemisia in
memory of her husband, King Mausolus of Caria in Asia Minor, who died in
353 B.C. Some remains of the structure are in the British Museum. This
shrine is the source of the modern word mausoleum.
6 The Colossus at Rhodes was a bronze statue of Helios (Apollo), about 105
ft high. The work of the sculptor Chares, who reputedly labored for 12 years
before completing it in 280 B.C., it was destroyed during an earthquake in 224
B.C.
7. The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was built by Sostratus of Cnidus
during the 3rd century B.C. on the island of Pharos off the coast of Egypt. It

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was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century.

Note: Some lists include the Walls of Babylon in place of the second or
seventh wonder.

Sources: Information Please Almanac. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1947- .

Annual. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001327.html

D'Epiro, Peter, and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, What Are the Seven Wonders
of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists. First Anchor Books, New
York. 1998.

6. When is Chinese New Year in 2011 and what will it be the year of?

Answer:
Chinese New Year is 3 days long. In 2011, the 1st day of 3 begins on
February 3 and it will be the year of the Hare.

Source: Weaver, Robert S., International Holidays: 204 countries from 1994
through 2015, with tabular appendices of religious holidays, 1900-2100.
McFarland and Company, 1995.

7. Who is the patron saint of librarians and what day of the year is his memorial
day?

Short Answer: Jerome.

According to the 2009 Catholic Almanac under Saints – Patrons and
Intercessors p 209.

Source: Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Almanac. Our Sunday Visitor

Publishing Division, Huntington, IN. 1904 - . Annual.

Long Answer: Patron Saint of Libraries is Jerome (c. 341-420).

Feast day: September 30.

Jerome is honored as one of the greatest scholars of the early Church whose
genius made large contributions to Christian thought, particularly in the area
of biblical scholarship.

Definition of Patron Saint: Saint chosen as a special protector or intercessor

for a place, person, church, diocese, ethnic group, organization, or country.

Source: Bunson, M., Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints. Our

Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Huntington, IN. 1998.

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8. What is the current time difference between Los Angeles and the Philippines?

Answer: According to the time zone map on page 460 of the 2010 World
Almanac, there is a 15 hours time difference between Los Angeles and
Manila. A time zone map is also available online at infoplease.com.

Sources: The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Mahwah, N.J.: World
Almanac, 1868-76, 1886- . Annual.

Information Please Almanac. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1947- . Annual.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855474.html

9. I am interested in learning more about Zocor, a drug I have seen advertised.

What do the pills look like? When is it likely to be prescribed?

Zocor is also called Simvastatin.

Simvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering medication that blocks the production of

cholesterol (a type of fat) in the body. Simvastatin reduces low-density
lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and total cholesterol in the blood. Lowering your
cholesterol can help prevent heart disease and hardening of the arteries,
conditions that can lead to heart attack, stroke, and vascular disease.

Simvastatin 10 mg-TEV

Round, pink, imprinted with 93, 7153

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Almanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010

Sources: RxList – The Internet Drug Index. http://www.rxlist.com/zocor-drug-

patient.htm

Physicians’ Desk Reference. Thomson Healthcare. Annual.

http://pdrhealth.com

Part II – Reflection

I enjoyed this source assignment, as I have always been fond of almanacs

and handbooks. Before the Internet, I would consult my copy of the World
Almanac and Farmer’s Almanac for random answers quite a bit. I did find a
few sources that I was not familiar with. The Europa World Year Book is
fantastic. I wish I knew about this reference when I was in high school
working on reports of countries of the world.

I found the New York Public Library Desk Reference handy but not
particularly in depth. For me, this was an example of why it is important to
have overlap in reference collections. As noted in Bopp and Smith, this
overlap occurs because users vary in the amount of information they need
and some prefer different presentations of information (p 361). Also
mentioned is the importance of uniqueness. I found the sources on Saints to
be very unique and was actually surprised to find them on the reference shelf.
Although, they were a bit dusty. I knew most major religions have books
published but I didn’t expect to find them in the reference section of the
library.

It seems that a lot of almanacs are beginning to find their way on the Internet.
I find that I still prefer to look up the information on paper because sometimes
the electronic interface isn’t as good. For instance, Informationplease.com
has a map of time zones online but it is difficult to read and not interactive. I
found it much easier to read the information on a map in the print edition of
the World Almanac. I also found the map quicker using the index in the print
edition. Lucky for me, the library I chose for this assignment has many
current print editions of almanacs, yearbooks and handbooks in its reference
collection. However, when answering the question about the prescription
drug and what the pills look like, it was much easier to show a picture from
the online version. I can see how this could be helpful especially when
answering the question via electronic communication.

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Almanacs Sources Assignment October 24, 2010