Delaware library offers virtual version

One of the more recent addi­tions to the arse­nal of tools the Delaware County Dis­trict Library has to help us ful­fill our mis­sion of being our community’s infor­ma­tion provider is the Gale Vir­tual Ref­er­ence Library. You can access this cur­rent, accu­rate and author­i­ta­tive col­lec­tion of online ref­er­ence books by click­ing on the icon located on the front page of the library’s web­site, delawarelibrary.org.

Once you land on the Gale Vir­tual Ref­er­ence Library (GVRL) page, you will see a shelf of “books” on a wide vari­ety of sub­jects, from the envi­ron­ment to tech­nol­ogy. By click­ing on the cover of the “book” that inter­ests you, you can search its content.

GVRL has some unique fea­tures that I think you will like. I clicked on The Ency­clo­pe­dia of Crime and Jus­tice and searched “Ponzi Scheme.” My search yielded sev­eral arti­cles, from crim­i­nals involved with Ponzi schemes to the detailed descrip­tion of how it works. Once I clicked on the link I was inter­ested in, I found a highly read­able arti­cle with fur­ther read­ings and cross ref­er­ences hyper­linked for my con­ve­nience. I could also print, email or down­load the arti­cle, and there is even a reader that allowed me to lis­ten to it. Trans­la­tion tools are also avail­able. You can also access GVRL and dozens of other online data­bases from any com­puter with Inter­net access

You made the addi­tion of this won­der­ful tool by the library pos­si­ble by pass­ing our levy in 2009. Research data­bases such as these are expen­sive, and we could not have pro­vided it with­out your help. Thank you, again, Delaware for help­ing us to deliver a com­plete and pro­duc­tive library experience!

Where does the expres­sion “neck of the woods” come from?

My favorite type of ques­tion! I find these answers fun and intrigu­ing. Accord­ing to Facts on File Word and Phrase Ori­gins, “neck of the woods” means a cer­tain region or neigh­bor­hood. The term “neck” was invented by the colonists in Early Amer­ica to describe the geo­graph­i­cal fea­tures of their new home. There was a con­scious attempt made to depart from the style of place names used in Eng­land for thou­sands of years in favor of new Amer­i­can names; in place of “moor,” “heath,” “dell,” “fen” and other Old World terms, the colonists came up with “branch,” “fork,” “hol­low,” “gap,” “flat” and other descrip­tive terms used both as sim­ple nouns. Amer­i­cans were the first to apply “neck” to a nar­row stand of woods or, more impor­tantly, to a set­tle­ment located in a par­tic­u­lar part of the woods. In a coun­try then largely cov­ered by forests, your “neck of the woods” was your home, the first Amer­i­can neighborhood.

How did the Canary Islands get their name?

Lonely Planet gives this expla­na­tion: Sailors in ancient times named the Canary Islands Canaria from the Latin word canis (dog) because they found large, fierce dogs there. Canary birds are so called because they were first found on the Canary Islands. The islands once belonged to Queen Cather­ine of Castile, and later to the Por­tuguese prince, Henry the Nav­i­ga­tor. In 1479, they were returned to Spain. This group of 13 islands lies in the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 miles off the north­west coast of Africa. The islands cover 2,796 square miles and have 626 miles of coast­line. Seven are inhab­ited, with a pop­u­la­tion of about 1.2 million.

Which U.S. Pres­i­dents had no vice presidents?

A total of 17 US Pres­i­dents did not have Vice Pres­i­dents for at least part of their term of office, and four had no Vice Pres­i­dent for their entire term, hav­ing become Pres­i­dent on the death of the elected Pres­i­dent. The Con­sti­tu­tion orig­i­nally had no pro­vi­sion for elect­ing a replace­ment Vice Pres­i­dent. The Pres­i­dents with did not have a Vice Pres­i­dent ever were John Tyler (suc­ceeded William Henry Har­ri­son), Mil­lard Fill­more (suc­ceeded Zachary Tay­lor), Andrew John­son (suc­ceeded Abra­ham Lin­coln), and Chester Arthur (suc­ceeded James Garfield). The com­plete list of the 17 Pres­i­dents who did not have Vice Pres­i­dents for at least part of their term in office can be found in the Almanac of Amer­i­can Presidents.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing the library’s web­site, delawarelibrary.org. or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org . No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!