NEW LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS FOR MEMBERS' LENDING
June -- 2001

California Academy of Sciences Library

Books
Children's Books
Multimedia & Audio/Visual
Curriculum Guides

BOOKS

Pub. QK149 .C36 1997
California's Wild Gardens: A Living Legacy / Edited by Phyllis M. Faber. Sacramento, CA: California Native Plant Society, 1997
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This lovely book tours botanical California, with stops along the coast, in the desert, in the mountains, and more. Over 100 places are visited through glorious color photographs and text.
Additional readings, organization information, a subject index, and author and photographer contact information are provided.

Pub. GE105 .E16 2000
The Earth Around Us: Maintaining a Livable Planet / Edited by Jill S. Schneiderman. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2000.

Bringing together 31 essays by various scientists, this book explores the Earth's history and processes. The essays are separated into themes, including Records of Time and History, Resources Reconfigured, Inventive Solutions, and Global Perspectives.
Notes and references are provided for each article, along with an index, some maps, photos, and illustrations.

Pub. QL614.7 .E52 1994
Encyclopedia of Fishes / Consultant Editors, Dr. John R. Paxton and Dr. William N. Eschmeyer. Sydney, Australia: UNSW Press, 1994
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The earliest group of backboned animals were fish, and there are more than 20,000 known fish species in the world. This encyclopedia, including more than 200 color photos and 150 original illustrations, diagrams, and maps, examines areas that include classifying fishes and the nature of classification, habitats and adaptations, fish behavior, and more.
The Academy's own Curator of Ichthyology, Dr. Eschmeyer, was a consultant editor for this ambitious project. An index is included in the volume.

Pub. QH375 .L54 1999
Evolutionary Wars: A Three-Billion-Year Arms Race: The Battle of Species on Land, at Sea, and in the Air / Charles Kingsley Levy. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999.

This volume provides an illustrated guide to nature's means of attack and defense. It closely examines the mechanisms of attack and defense, and speaks of evolution and natural selection to discuss how these mechanisms came to be. Bacteria, parasites, viruses, dragonflies, and mammals are all examined for hunting and fleeing skills.
The author is a Professor of Biology at Boston University and a Research Professor at Boston University Medical School. The book contains an index and illustrations.

Biodiv. HC79 .E5 J64 1995
Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability / Huey D. Johnson. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995
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"Green plans" are all encompassing environmental strategies meant to protect and sustain a healthy global environment. The plans are comprehensive, integrated, and large-scale, with the full cooperation and involvement of government. This volume contains a detailed and easy to understand examination of the theory, implementation and performance of plans already in place in countries like the Netherlands, Canada, and New Zealand. The author also examines plans under construction in places such as the UK, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and more.
The book includes notes by chapter, references, and an index.

Pub. QH91.17 .N53 1982
Marine Biology Coloring Book / Thomas M. Niesen. New York: HarperCollins, 1982.

Illustrations and text, along with your coloring skills, link concepts and present a unique educational experience. Mollusks, bony fish, characterization, diversity, coloration, and more are examined.
Clear instructions are given for each set of illustrations. An index and an appendix of scientific names are included.

Pub. RS160 .P57 2000
Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets / Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D. New York: Viking, 2000.

The author, an ethnobotanist, serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team and is a research associate at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History. In this book, he explores the role of nature and natural substances in medicine. It is a history, an examination of current research, and a glimpse into the future of natural sources being used to cure disease and ease pain. Cone snails, poison dart frogs, plants, and fungi are all discussed, exotic locations are visited and wondered over, and science comes to life.
A selected bibliography and an index are included.

Pub. QL638 .S2 P22 1991
Pacific Salmon: Life Histories / Edited by C. Groot and L. Margolis. Vancouver, British Columbia: UBC Press, 1991
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As the title suggests, this volume documents the life history of Pacific salmon. However, what the title doesn't let you in on is that are seven species of Pacific salmon. Five of them occur in both North America and Asia, and the other two only exist in Asia. Each species is examined in detailed offerings from individual scientists. Each section is like it's own paper, including references at the end, charts, graphs, and more.
The volume also includes a geographical and a subject index.

Pub. QC774 .G45 A3 1994
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex / Murray Gell-Mann. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1994
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The author, a professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology and winner of the 1969 Nobel prize in Physics, has written a fascinating book that encompasses his portions of his life and experiences along with examinations of natural history, biological evolution, the history of language, and the study of creative thinking.
Gell-Mann introduces readers to complex adaptive systems research: A study of systems that learn or evolve by using introduced information. His work is the story of finding connections between the laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world.

Pub. QL638 .S2 L49 1994
Salmon of the Pacific / Adam Lewis. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books, 1994
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This book provides a look at the lifestyle of Pacific salmon. It also examines the role of the salmon in the economy and culture of the region, as well as current problems facing the salmon population.
Identification of Pacific salmon species is included in the volume, along with some beautiful color photographs
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Pub. SH349 .M43 1995
Salmon: The Decline of the B.C. Fishery / Geoff Meggs. Vancouver, British Columbia: Douglas & McIntyre, 1995
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This volume examines the role of salmon in Canada, and includes information on conservation, commercial fishery, native fishing rights, and more. By examining how the salmon resources have dwindled and been threatened, the author points to historical information and current situations, bringing the issue close to home.
Sources are noted and an index is included.

Pub. G530 .T6 C37 1999
Titanic Adventure: One Woman's True Life Voyage Down to the Legendary Ocean Liner / Jennifer Carter and Joel Hirschhorn. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press, 1999
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As a child, Jennifer Carter dreamed of locating the Titanic. Instead, in 1987, she became the first woman to dive to and photograph the wreckage. Beginning with her childhood, disastrous first marriage, and learning to dive, the book moves on to a chronicle of her eight weeks with the joint American-French crew.
The book includes photographs and references.

Pub. R723 .G76 1998
To Be Healed by the Earth / Warren Grossman, Ph.D. Cleveland, OH: The Institute of Light, 1998
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Former psychotherapist and founder of The Institute of Light, Warren Grossman has written this book to describe his theories and techniques about healing and nature.
Beautiful illustrations by Mary Kelsey are included throughout.

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CHILDREN'S BOOKS

No titles in June.

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MULTIMEDIA/AUDIO VISUAL

Pub. AV&M QL696 .C52 H47 1998
Heron Island. Ben Lomond, CA: The Video Project, [1998].
Heron Island, or It Came from Stow Lake, is an entertaining short film filmed on location at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. Showcasing a little patch of wilderness in San Francisco, the 9 minute film features heron chicks during feeding time with Mom.

Pub. AV&M QH541.5 .E8 K52 1990z
Kids by the Bay. Ben Lomond, CA: The Video Project, 1990z.
Packing a variety of locations and projects into its nineteen and a half minutes, Kids by the Bay highlights ways in which children can help the environment in their own neighborhoods near San Francisco Bay. Habitat restoration is featured several times, with everything from picking up trash, to pulling weeds to allow native plant growth, to rehabilitating an island adding sand to island rock to attract endangered birds.
The video shows children on field trips who remind us about dumping into storm drains that lead to the Bay, splinting the leg of an injured duck, and planting to restore an area. The film is narrated by children, and it features a multi-ethnic group.

Biodiv QH541.5 .S35 L54 1998
Life at the Edge of the Sea. New York: Thirteen/WNET, 1998.
This 2 CD-ROM set, a companion to Western Pacific Ocean Life examines coral reef fishes from Pohnpei to Belau in the Pacific Ocean. Over 40 families of fish are explored, with relevant individual species mentioned for each family. Audio, video, and textual information are all presented. Some examination of behavior, including video, is also available.

Pub PQ2613 .I57 H5813 1987
The Man Who Planted Trees. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1987.
The Oscar winning Animated Short Film in 1988, this wonderful 30 minute film tells the story of a man, having gone through hard times, who decides to give back to a land that he feels is dying from lack of trees. He carefully, one by one, plants seeds and acorns to bring trees back to a desolate, drought stricken, and arid portion of the Earth. He does nothing for personal gain, in fact no one knows that he has done it, except the young hiker who comes across him at the beginning of the film, and becomes the narrator of our story.
Simple and elegant animation highlight the film, though young children are likely to find scenes of death, war, and hardship frightening. Narration is provided by Christopher Plummer, telling the inspirational story that encourages the actions of individuals, highlights the ability of one to change the world, and inspires thinking for and towards the future.

Pub QL620 .O24 v.2
Micronesia Ocean Life. San Francisco, CA: Sumeria, c1993.
This 2 CD-ROM set, a companion to Western Pacific Ocean Life examines coral reef fishes from Pohnpei to Belau in the Pacific Ocean. Over 40 families of fish are explored, with relevant individual species mentioned for each family. Audio, video, and textual information are all presented. Some examination of behavior, including video, is also available.

Pub QL620 .O24 v.1
Western Pacific Ocean Life. San Francisco, CA: Sumeria, c1993.
This fun and educational CD-ROM product is a fish identification to coral reef fishes off of Fiji, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The families examined include angelfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, clownfish, and more. Segments for each family are divided into species, and each species has its own video and textual information. Information for each species includes location and size guides.
The program is easy to navigate, with easy to understand buttons and simple mouse clicks.

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CURRICULUM

No titles in June.

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All of the materials above are available for check-out to Academy members.

This page will not be complete until the end of June. Please check back for more materials and reviews.


 

 

 

 

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Last update: June 27, 2001.