Monthly Website Review - October 2006


http://www.artic.edu/

To begin searching the vast resources of the AIC online databases, users will click on the "Libraries" tab and go to the "Information for Researchers" link located in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the webpage. There, you will be given the key that will open the door to the online resources offered by the AIC website. Worth checking out are:

To begin searching the vast resources of the AIC online databases, users will click on the “Libraries” tab and go to the “Information for Researchers” link located in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the webpage. There, you will be given the key that will open the door to the online resources offered by the AIC website. Worth checking out are:

  • http://www.artcyclopedia.com/, Artcyclopedia, a comprehensive index of every artist represented at hundreds of museum sites, image archives, and other online resources.
  • http://lumiere.lib.vt.edu/iawa_db/, Biographies of women in architecture, International Archive of Women in Architecture
  • http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html, Art History on the Web, where visitors have access to all things related to art: the artists, the movements, from Prehistoric period to contemporary.

The Library Resources link is also worth a browse. Visitors should check out the Mary Reynolds Collection: Surrealism and its Affinities link http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/ . The Mary Louise Reynolds Collection website is the gateway to a journey through the surrealist art movement including links to artists, exhibits, and other information suitable for research and general information needs.

For the variety of information and links to other art-related online resources, I recommend that the Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/aic/ website be included as a bookmark under your favorites!

Reviewed by Library staff member – Lucille Bellamy

 

 

Monthly Magazine Review - October 2006

Title: Vogue Knitting
Publisher: SoHo Publishing Company
233 Spring Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
(877) 860-6164
Website: http://www.vogueknitting.com
ISSN: 0890-9237
Published: Four times a year/ January, March, August, and October
Subscription Rate: $19 a year

Vogue Knitting International is the matriarch of the knitting magazine world. Unfortunately, that designation is not always a good thing. New knitters tend to perceive the patterns provided as complicated and difficult, or too sophisticated for their level of experience. I urge any knitter who has passed over Vogue Knitting to give it a second look.

Aside from the beautiful patterns in each issue, this magazine does an exceptional job of covering topics of interest to knitters. Each issue always has a bit of knitting history, brand new knits from the most recent runway shows, and a survey of new products. Even the advertisements are exciting, leading readers to great knitshops and yarn manufacturers, easily accessible online.

The patterns are by far the star of the show. Vogue Knitting does an amazing job of including very easy, basic patterns labeled "Very Easy, Very Vogue," right on up to advanced patterns that will challenge experienced knitters. The garments are always stylish, beautiful, and thoughtfully designed. Beginning knitters who pass this magazine over saying that the patterns are too complicated, are shortchanging themselves. Knitting is a fairly easy, uncomplicated activity. It consists of only two basic stitches, knit and purl. Once you have mastered these, you are ready to tackle anything. Break the pattern down into manageable sections. Read through the whole thing once or twice. Even write it out, spelling out the abbreviations if you have to. You will be surprised what you can tackle. You are capable of making something from Vogue Knitting! Give it a try.

Also check out knit.1, the new magazine from Vogue Knitting, which has easier patterns with even more fashion-forward style than its parent magazine.

Reviewed by Library staff member – Robin Dodge

 

 

Monthly Book Review - October 2006

Title:Hungry Planet: What The World Eats
Author:Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Publisher: Ten Speed Books
Box 7123
Berkeley, CA 94707
(800) 841-2665
Website: http://www.tenspeed.com
ISBN: 1-58008-681-0
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 287
Price: $40.00

 

Hungry Planet surveys the world's eating habits via the weekly budgets and food choices of a sampling of families from around the world. Each family is photographed in their dining area with a week's total of food, their story is told alongside interesting statistics describing the food consumption of the country they represent. For those of us from developed countries, Hungry Planet is an opportunity to see what it is we have the chance to enjoy on a daily basis, though we seldom notice; navigating the staggering amount of choices at the grocery store distract us from understanding the nature of our eating habits and how they fit in with the rest of the world.

The introduction traces the dietary changes that occur when families and communities transition from poverty to financial security, essays dispersed throughout highlight different issues that globalization has on world diet, and how each family contributes a recipe important to their family culture. Vegetarians may find their ideas confirmed by the author's preachy attitude about the American avoidance of meat in its original context, i.e. what in a less developed country would be a local butcher's display of carcasses, and rather than a disinterested journalistic observation the reader is served passionate opinions about the state of American values about food. Regardless of the reader's own opinions on the state of the world's eating habits, Hungry Planet provides amazing photographs and an experience something like being a "fly on the wall" of kitchens around the world.

Reviewed by Library staff member - Caroline Bautista