Exploratorium

The online presence of San Francisco's "museum of science, art, and human perception" is an experience itself, offering facts and fun through interesting articles, interactive features, and various multimedia tools. Although one might think of this site as the perfect source of activities for kids (who will get some great ideas for science projects), adults will find that mind-bending puzzles may help them think "outside the box" in their workday lives. The digital library offers resources for educational use. In addition to an "asset" database, in which there are over 11,000 documents, images, movies, and sounds, educators (and parents) can also search the Learning Resources Collection for activities and view webcasts related to the museum's exhibits. [information outlook 10(2)]

www.exploratorium.edu

Do You Want to be a Zookeeper?

The American Association of Zoo Keepers, http://www.aazk.org/zoo_career.php, offers a description of what it's like to be a zoo keeper and the educational requirements of such a career.

You may also visit the American Zoo & Aquarium Society's career page for more information: http://www.aza.org/ForEveryone/Careers/

Contact Information

The Brookfield Zoo Library is open to zoo staff, interns, volunteers and zoo members. Members of the general public may visit the library by appointment only.

Library Hours:
M-F: 830am-430pm; weekends by appointment

Please e-mail Courtney Lavery, Librarian & Archivist @ colavery@brookfieldzoo.org with any questions.

Global Amphibian Extinction Crisis

Biologists at the Chicago Zoological Society Brookfield Zoo are working on an initiative to save amphibians from a deadly fungus. To learn more about the disease and extinction crisis, please read John Bierner's article "Deadly Fungus Devastating Populations of Amphibians" published in today's Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060425fungalfrogs,1,2016792.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Brookfield Zoo Library Collection

The Brookfield Zoo Library, a zoological research center, provides Zoo staff, interns and volunteers and members,and the general public (by appointment) with a core collection of books, monographs, and periodicals enabling their continuing education. The collection contains materials in the fields of: exotic wildlife (animal behavior, husbandry, conservation, ecology, veterinary medicine, pathology, genetics and nutrition), horticulture, and zoos (history, design, and exhibitry).

General Research Collection (Circulation and Reference)
The Brookfield Zoo Library contains more than 8,000 volumes and currently receives over 300 periodicals (print and electronic) devoted to zoology, botany, species’ biodiversity and biogeography. The Library maintains in-depth monographs on the animal families and genera; representative endangered species at Brookfield Zoo and in the wild; as well as materials that support the core collection. In addition, the Library has a special collection of publications from other zoos such as animal collection inventories, annual reports, guidebooks and miscellaneous pamphlets.

Special Collections
The Library’s special collections consist of archival material relating to the history of Brookfield Zoo, its scientists and staff, expeditions and research, Zoo exhibitions, education, and general administrative history. These archives also include personal papers and manuscript collections of individuals closely associated with the Zoo and/or the history of zoological science. In addition to textual material, are a large Photograph Collection, and the Art and Memorabilia Collection, including drawings by Ralph Graham, Ugo Mochi, and Karl Plath as well as Zoo memorabilia.

The Library also has a modest collection of rare books and periodicals that do not circulate.

Digital Collections
An initiative to create digital collections was launched in 2003. The goal is to create a database complete with Brookfield Zoo history that can be used by researchers around the world. The pilot project of the Digital Library is focused on the early years of Brookfield Zoo: 1920-1950. This has provided the Library with the opportunity to mount digital images, of photographs and correspondence, on the Metropolitan Library System’s Catalogue, SWAN (http://swan.sls.lib.il.us) as well as the OCLC catalogue, World Cat (http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org).

Brookfield Zoo Library Catalog

Search the Brookfield Zoo Library Catalog via SWAN:

http://swan.sls.lib.il.us

The Brookfield Zoo Library is a member of SWAN, an integrated library automation system, shared by 77 member libraries within the Metropolitan Library System