ASK!

In conjunction with the upcoming annual Singapore Arts Festival from 14 May to 13 June 2010, National Library Board has collaborated with the National Arts Council to bring you a series of “Festival Chats” to be held in some of the Public Library branches. These informal sharing sessions with some of the local artists serve as a preview to the festival, and also provides an interesting insight to the various festival events as well.

My colleague Librarian, Peck Keong from Esplanade has done up a post on this at the Esplanade blog. Please do check it out to find out more details about this series of “Festival Chats”, as well as its schedule.

We hope you will enjoy the talk sessions held at the Library branches as well as the Arts Festival for this year.

If you have any enquiries or comments, please drop us an email at ask@nlb.gov.sg and we will reply within 3 working days.

Posted by Mr Justin Tan
Librarian
Adult & Young People’s Services

ASK about Myths & Facts

Happy Birthday To You is the most frequently sung song in the English-speaking world. It was derived from the song, Good Morning to All, written in 1893 by sisters Mildred Hill (1859 -1916) and Patty Hill (1868 – 1946).

History of the song
Mildred and Patty Hill were both sisters who are known for their work on kindergarten education in Kentucky. In 1893, they composed a collection of songs called Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Good Morning to All was one of the songs.

A number of events, possibly birthday parties, followed which lead to the substitution of the phrase ‘happy birthday’ into the song. Historical accounts from Kentucky suggest that the first time ‘happy birthday’ was used was for a birthday party at the Little Loomhouse. A historical marker was erected here by the Kentucky Historical Society in 2009 to honour the origins of the song. See how it looks here.

According to news sources (see References), it was first copyrighted in 1936 by Summy Company, who published Good Morning to All. In 1988, Time-Warner Corporation bought over the rights. The current copyright expires in 2030.

References

Posted by Ang Mei Jun,Associate Librarian, Adult & Young People’s Services

(Image courtesy of morel mushroom hunting)

Toadstool is a common term for fleshy and umbrella-shaped poisonous fungi. The word toadstool was thought to have originated from the German word “todes” which means death.

Mushroom is the term usually applied to edible species of fungi. Scientists who study fungi, however, make no such distinction between toadstools and mushrooms as most of them can be poisonous.

Many toadstools and mushrooms in the wild can be poisonous and most of the poisonous types belong to the family, Amanita. The commonly encountered poisonous fungi include the death cap, (a mushroom often adorned with one to several patches of thin white veil tissues and has a white pallid stalk), the destroying angel, (a totally white and tall mushroom), and the fly amanita, (a yellow-orange mushroom). Consuming these mushrooms will result in nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, liver damage and death.

It must be noted however that all mushrooms and toadstools in the wild have to be consumed only with professional advice.

Sources:
Toadstool. (2007). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0291140-0
American Mushrooms: http://americanmushrooms.com

Read more about mushrooms and toadstools!

All Rights Reserved, London: Dorling Kindersley
Mushrooms by Thomas Laessoe
Publisher: London : Dorling Kindersley, 2000
Call No.: English 579.6 LAE
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, London: Dorling Kindersley
The Edible Mushroom Book by Anna Del Conte
Publisher: London : Dorling Kindersley, 2008
Call No.:English 641.358 EDI
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, Portland: Timber Press
Edible and poisonous mushrooms of the world by Ian R. Hall
Publisher: Portland : Timber Press, 2003
Call No.: English 579.6 EDI
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Image courtesy of The University Of Aberdeen
(http://www.abdn.ac.uk/)

Is the idea of vampirish bats real? Or do these blood sucking creatures belong in the dark gothic fiction world of Dracula and Twilight?

Well, there are bats that suck blood and they are aptly known as vampire bats.

A vampire bat bites other animals and drinks their blood. A vampire bat may bite a sleeping horse, cow, or even a person, without being noticed. First, its sharp teeth make a shallow cut. Then the bat simply laps up a small amount of blood and flies away. The chief danger to the victim, (unlike what most gothic movies and books suggest) is not loss of blood but rather infection. This is because vampire bats are known carriers of rabies, a   “fatal viral disease that infects domestic and wild animals and is spread through people through close contact with infected saliva”.

Sources

Land, B. (2008). Bats. (K. F. Koopman, Rev.). The New Book of Knowledge®. Retrieved September 6, 2008, from Grolier Online http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2002420h
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/

For more information on vampire bats, do check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, New York: Power Kids Press
Vampire bats: hunting for blood by Barbara A. Somervill
Publisher: New York: Power Kids Press/Rosen Publishing Group, 2008
Call no.: JP English 599.4 SOM
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, New York; Londer: Kingfisher
Dangerous Creatures by Angela Wilkes
Publisher: New York; London: Kingfisher, 2003
Call no.: J English 591.6 WIL
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, New York: Power Kids Press
Vampire Bats by Emily Raabe
Publisher: New York: Powerkids Press, c2003
Call no.: J English 599.4 RAA
Click here to view item availiability

Extracted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services