Resource of the Week: United States Naval Observatory Library
By Shirl Kennedy, Editor

The first question you might have is, “What the heck is the U.S. Naval Observatory?” Well, it does some very cool things:

The U.S. Naval Observatory performs an essential scientific role for the United States, the Navy, and the Department of Defense. Its mission includes determining the positions and motions of the Earth, Sun, Moon, planets, stars and other celestial objects, providing astronomical data; determining precise time; measuring the Earth’s rotation; and maintaining the Master Clock for the United States. Observatory astronomers formulate the theories and conduct the relevant research necessary to improve these mission goals. This astronomical and timing data, essential for accurate navigation and the support of communications on Earth and in Space, is vital to the Navy and Department of Defense. It is also used extensively by other agencies of the government and the public at large.

In our wanderings around the federal Internet, the library website here is one of the more intriguing ones we’ve seen. It offers three basic ways to navigate — via links in a vertical navigational window on the left, via text links at the bottom of the page, or via links surrounding the attractive image of the Greek muse Urania, who is the muse of astronomy. This image is the Observatory Seal, and is also featured on the library bookplate. And the OPAC here is called Urania.

The library is in the process of scanning its historical photo collection. More than 800 of the 5,000+ photos and glass plates have been scanned so far. Use the box provided to search the collection. Dropdown menus provide boolean, case matching and image type options. Alternately, you can use the list of search keywords; simply check the box or boxes next to the relevant terms.

For more eye candy, have a look at Images, Artwork and Historical Objects at the US Naval Observatory for pictures of old globes and maps, clocks, telescopes and more.

Speaking of eye candy, check out this historical picture of the library, probably from the 1890s.

The electronic journals page is extensive; a few links are restricted to the Observatory community, but most are not. Browse alphabetically; obviously, the listings are heavy on astronomy specifically and science in general. There’s a nice page of links to other libraries; you’ll find many that are new to you and may be worth a browse. Links to key astronomical resources are available from another page.

The Abstracts & Indexes page also provides links to useful resources such an acronym finder, an astronomy thesaurus, bibliographies, historical and biographical documents, and more. You’ll find something new here — guaranteed.

Alas, while I enjoyed browsing here, it reminded me of how I am still upset about Pluto being kicked to the curb, unceremoniously demoted to “dwarf planet” status. Oh well…

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Resource of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.