Operation Alexandria Gutenberg: How the Talking Book and Braille Library Transitioned to Customized Cartridges

Since the beginning of the Talking Book and Braille program in 1932, books circulated to print-impaired users as single titles. Users had to return all the items that made up a single book in order to receive the items for another single book. Though the audio format changed several times over the years from records to discs to cassette tapes to flash-memory cartridges (reducing the number of items needed per book), the 1-for-1 circulation method remained essentially the same. But that was about to change. A new circulation method had been in development by our ILS vendor for years, one that would allow us to load cartridges with customized lists of books based on a user’s requests and preferences. Each cartridge could hold up to eight audiobooks loaded from a digital storage unit that would be constantly updated in real-time. All users could have whatever titles they want whenever they want them. No more unavailable titles, no more waiting for copies, no more overdue items. This new method would reduce the number of cartridges mailed out per day from 1,200 to 150. The daily circulation process would be reduced from four hours to one hour. It would shrink our 90,000+ audiobook collection’s physical footprint from thousands of shelves to one computer. This revolutionary circulation method makes everyone’s life better. Then COVID-19 happened. Elke was promoted to Program Manager in mid-March, and two days into her tenure she had to make the tough call to temporarily discontinue mail delivery of books—just one week away from implementation of customized cartridges.   Note: A new version of this article was posted on Nov. 6, 2020, to include the author's updated State Library of Oregon email address

Blessed are the Dead Which Die in the Lord : The Influence of the American Tract Society on the Historical Evolution of American Literary Sentimentalism

Studies of American literary sentimentalism usually focus on either the genre\u27s origins in the novels of the early republic or its zenith as represented by the midnineteenth- century bestsellers. Such a focus reveals two distinctly different versions of sentimentalism. While the novels of Susanna Rowson, Hannah Foster, and William Brown evidence a genre influenced by Calvinism, the bestsellers of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Maria Cummins, and Susan Warner represent a sentimentalism inextricably fused with nineteenth-century evangelicalism. The evolution of the genre is more clearly explained by the intervention of the American Tract Society (ATS). In its ongoing efforts to convert the nation to Christianity, the ATS adopted sentimentalism, particularly the genre\u27s most conventional trope: the deathbed scene. Adapting this trope to its evangelical sensibilities, the ATS framed heaven as a home and death as a homecoming. Furthermore, the Society replaced the isolated fallen women of the early novels with the puer senex, the wise child who joyously anticipates death and who forms the center of a community of loved ones. With the addition of an exhortation, hymns, and scriptural language, the deathbed scene created by the ATS heavily influenced these same scenes in the mid-century bestsellers. This study undertakes a comparison of the death scenes in the early republican novels, the early-nineteenth-century ATS tracts, and the mid-nineteenth-century bestsellers. Such an analysis reveals the ways in which the Society crafted not only a genre with mass appeal but also a community of readers in which both nineteenth-century and twentieth-century sentimental bestsellers could flourish

Preface of Veterinary Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

An important symposium was presented on Veterinary Pharmaceuticals in the Environment at the 233rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society on March 25-26, 2007, in Chicago, IL. The excellence and timeliness of the presentations indicated the need for an ACS Symposium Series book addressing the environmental chemistry and toxicology of this group of emerging contaminants. The purpose of this symposium was to bring together scientists from academia, government, and industry to discuss and present data relevant to the significance of veterinary pharmaceuticals in the environment. A broad range of topics was covered, including environmental chemistry studies focusing on transport, mobility, sorption, persistence, and bioavailability of the compounds, as well as development of analytical techniques relevant to detection of the pharmaceuticals in environmental matrices, discussion of ecotoxicological studies of veterinary pharmaceuticals, and information relevant to ecological risk assessments. The primary classes of drugs addressed herein are veterinary antibiotics and syntheti

Identification of Tylosin Photoreaction Products and Comparison of ELISA and HPLC Methods for Their Detection in Water

Tylosin is a widely used macrolide antibiotic for therapeutics and growth promotion in swine, beef cattle, and poultry production. Through various routes such as manure application, emission, inappropriate disposal, etc., tylosin enters the environment. The fate of tylosin in the environment is not yet fully understood. In this study, two photoreaction products of tylosin in water were identified as isotylosin A alcohol (E,Z) and isotylosin A aldol (E,Z). Tylosin A, B, C, D, isotylosin A alcohol, and isotylosin A aldol were purified, and immunological cross-reactivities of these tylosin-related compounds were tested with a specificity of 26% for tylosin B, 19% for tylosin C, 106% for tylosin D, 121% for isotylosin A alcohol, and 46% for isotylosin A aldol, compared to 100% for tylosin A. Competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for tylosin detection in water was compared with a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method by analyzing the same water samples from a study of tylosin dissipation in water. ELISA kits detect the other tylosin-related compounds besides tylosin A, which can result in differences in tylosin determination in water

Control Of Flexible Structures-2 (COFS-2) flight control, structure and gimbal system interaction study

The second Control Of Flexible Structures Flight Experiment (COFS-2) includes a long mast as in the first flight experiment, but with the Langley 15-m hoop column antenna attached via a gimbal system to the top of the mast. The mast is to be mounted in the Space Shuttle cargo bay. The servo-driven gimbal system could be used to point the antenna relative to the mast. The dynamic interaction of the Shuttle Orbiter/COFS-2 system with the Orbiter on-orbit Flight Control System (FCS) and the gimbal pointing control system has been studied using analysis and simulation. The Orbiter pointing requirements have been assessed for their impact on allowable free drift time for COFS experiments. Three fixed antenna configurations were investigated. Also simulated was Orbiter attitude control behavior with active vernier jets during antenna slewing. The effect of experiment mast dampers was included. Control system stability and performance and loads on various portions of the COFS-2 structure were investigated. The study indicates possible undesirable interaction between the Orbiter FCS and the flexible, articulated COFS-2 mast/antenna system, even when restricted to vernier reaction jets

Evacuated Enclosure Mounted Acoustic Actuator and Passive Attenuator

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77190/1/AIAA-2002-1355-680.pd

Phytoremediation—An Overview

The use of plants (directly or indirectly) to remediate contaminated soil or water is known as phytoremediation. This technology has emerged as a more cost effective, noninvasive, and publicly acceptable way to address the removal of environmental contaminants. Plants can be used to accumulate inorganic and organic contaminants, metabolize organic contaminants, and encourage microbial degradation of organic contaminants in the root zone. Widespread utilization of phytoremediation can be limited by the small habitat range or size of plants expressing remediation potential, and insufficient abilities of native plants to tolerate, detoxify, and accumulate contaminants. A better understanding and appreciation of the potential mechanisms for removing contaminants from the root zone and the interaction between plants, microorganisms, and contaminants will be useful in extending the application of phytoremediation to additional contaminated sites