New Titles in the Reference Collection

While the Reference Department doesn't add nearly as many titles every year as the other collections, we try to find interesting, authoritative resources to help library users answer basic or bizarre questions. Here are just some of the titles just coming in!

The Kingfisher Encyclopedia of Life: Minutes, Months, Millennia - How Long is a Life on Earth?
Did you know that an ocean quahog, a hard clam that lives in the Atlantic Ocean, can live 250 to 500 years? An American flamingo can live to 50 years old, but a porcupine only lives 5-7 years. There are fungi colonies that are believed to be more than 2000 years old, and the Great Barrier Reef is more than 10,000 years old! This heavily-illustrated book looks at the average life spans of plants, animals, and microorganisms around the world.  (Ref 508.03 B223)

The Graphic Designer's Business Survival Guide
Being a really good graphic designer is just the start of what you need to go into business. From creating a business plan, to knowing when you should hire someone to do your bookkeeping, to managing your time and building your reputation, this book covers many of the basics a graphic designer would need. Marketing, time sheets, how to deal when things go bad, and other aspects of small business are all discussed here. (Ref 741.60 D228)

Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places, 2nd edition
 Helpful and threatening, human or animal, this book gives the details of many paranormal experiences around the world. Churches, cemeteries, highways, castles, apartments, restaurants, trains, stores, and inns are all scenes of visitations. (Ref 133.1 St33)

1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think
When you think of the history of ideas, things like "I Think, Therefore I Am" come to mind. While the background of that idea is in this new reference book, you'll also find things like the origins of the newspaper (first stone or metal tablets in 131 BCE Rome that were public notices of important events, then after the Gutenberg press was invented, in 1605 the first modern newspaper appeared in Germany), a brief history of angels, the possibilities offered by the theory of genetic determinism, and many, many more. Organized by time period when the idea arose, you can use the category index to help you find the origins of things like reggae music, fatalism, ageism, Kwanzaa, Prohibition, etc. (Ref 153.4 A15)