On the 27th of January it is the 2012 observance of the ‘International Day of Commemoration in memory of Victims of the holocaust’

The theme this year will focus on ‘Children and the Holocaust’

“The United Nations will remember the one-and-a-half million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust, together with the thousands of Roma and Sinti children, the disabled and others, who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Some children managed to survive in hiding, others fled to safe havens before it was too late, while many others suffered medical experiments or were sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arriving at the death camps. Highlighting the impact of mass violence on children, this theme has important implications for the 21st century. ” (http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2012/calendar2012.html)

From our collection: ‘Did the children cry? : Hitler’s war against Jewish and Polish children, 1939-1945′  by Richard C. Lukas

‘The hidden children : the secret survivors of the Holocaust’  by Jane Marks

 ‘Children of the Holocaust : conversations with sons and daughters of survivors’  by Helen Epstein.

Image: UN website

You may have seen recent media reports about Private Sarbi the black labrador cross who was recently brought back from Afghanistan.

New to the Academy Libraries collection is ‘Saving Private Sarbi’ by Sandra Lee.

This true story about Private Sarbi ”is the dramatic and heart-warming true story of a scruffy black Labrador-cross trained by the Australian Army as an explosives detection dog for the most dangerous combat mission imaginable. This canine warrior went missing in action following an historic battle between the elite SAS and the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008″ (Book cover)

We also have a number of other books about dogs and war including:

‘War dogs’ by Shane Bryant with Tony Park.

‘Animal heroes’  by Anthony Hill.

‘Animal allies’  by Ross Pearson.

‘Ebony and White : a story of the canine corps’ by Joseph J. White

‘War dogs : canines in combat’ by Michael G. Lemish

The Australian War Memorial also has a  web page you might like to look at  ‘A is for Animals’ that looks at the A-Z of animals roles during war and the various jobs they had to do. You can explore and read about the collection of objects and photographs they have in the collection as well as  videos. You can also check out this article  ‘Dogs of War’  by Elizabeth Stewart about dogs during the Vietnam War.

OneMine is a collaborative effort among multiple societies to place the world’s most comprehensive collection of mining and minerals based research in one place. Despite being significant in their respective fields, many mining and minerals society journals are still unavailable electronically, OneMine is an attempt to resolve this issue. The Mining and Minerals database includes: technical documents, conference papers, articles, pre-prints and late papers. Though this resource is a ‘.org’ it is not all publically available; to get full text access to material  please link through the UNSW Electronic Resources Portal.

UNSW Access is currently available from here:  OneMine

Contributers to OneMine include:
AIME -The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers
AusIMM – The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
DFI – Deep Foundations Institute
IMMS -International Marine Minerals Society
NIOSH – National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
SAIMM – The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
SME – Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration
TMS – The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon

Australian water dragons can be found locally at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and they are always worth a visit at this time of year. There are also numerous articles available through UNSW FirstSearch on the specific species of dragons found at the Gardens.

In the Academy Library: Songs of the immortals : an anthology of classical chinese poetry page 134 – Su Shi (Su Dong-po 1037-1101) the “Water-dragon chant”.

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Bibliographies of topics in the classics, criminology, international relations, medieval studies and Victorian literature. With introductions to each topic area, and including guides to introductory works, textbooks, guidebooks, journals, reference works etc., and links to useful websites.

Access is currently available:  Oxford Bibliographies Online