Laura Scott
December 2, 2009
INFO 521, Linda Marion
IPL SAMPLES
QUESTION: I am looking for a christmas program book that will show me how to set up a
script with young children as the actors for a christmas play in our community. To give them a
Joyous start of the holiday season.
Patron Provided Information:
location: New York City NY
area: Religion
reason: To teach young children the true meaning of christmas and have them act it out.
school: No
sources_consulted: none
MY ANSWER:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you are looking for a book to help you put together a Christmas program/play
for young children to perform that is religious in nature.
Here is a list of books that contain Christmas plays, all of which are available through the New
York Public Library (not sure which branch is your local library):
The Big Book of Christmas Plays (1988)
On Stage for Christmas (1978)
Christmas Plays for Young Players (1977)
A Treasury of Christmas Plays (1972)
Christmas Plays for Young Actors (1969)
A Trilogy of Christmas Plays for Children (1967)
Biblical Christmas Plays for Children (1940)
You can find each of these books using the catalog’s basic search function or by searching the
“classic catalog” by title (you’ll see the link to this above the basic search box). I found these
books by searching the basic catalog with two searches: <christmas plays for children> and
<biblical christmas plays for children>.
Here is the link to the NYPL’s catalog:
http://catalog.nypl.org/iii/encore/home?lang=eng
Here is the link to the library’s homepage:
http://www.nypl.org/
The branch on 42nd Street has a special Children’s Center you might want to visit, if you are
able. Unfortunately I was also not able to find online copies of any of these books so I am not
sure which contain plays that will convey the true meaning of Christmas.
Another resource, which is not available at the NYPL or online, is the book Christmas Program
Builder (ISBN 9780834177017) compiled by Kim Messer. You would have to purchase this
book, so I am hesitant to recommend it to you. I found this while I was searching Google Books
with the search term <christmas program resources>. Here is the link to Google Books, but the
text wasn’t available online for free:
http://books.google.com/
I would like to recommend one more resource to you (which isn’t a book) but is a very useful
website – Resources for Christian Teachers:
http://www.teacherhelp.org/
Here I found an entire section dedicated to Christmas Skits and Plays. If you click on the link
above, you’re brought to the TeacherHelp homepage. Scroll down the page a little and click on
the green word “Christmas”. This will bring you to all the Christmas resources. From here, you’ll
see a box of “quick links”. Click on “Skits and Plays” and you’ll be brought to a page with a
variety of links related to putting on Christmas plays with children:
http://www.teacherhelp.org/chris.htm#skits
Just so you are aware, this website is maintained by a community of users. Because membership
in this community may include non-experts, information taken from this source should be
verified using other, more reliable sources.
I found this website while searching Google with the search terms <resources for Christian
teachers>. I did this particular search because I wanted to be sure you had resources that were
specifically religious but if that is not the case, let me know.
I hope this is helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me again if you need additional
resources.
Thanks for visiting the IPL – come again!
Patron Response:
“Thank you so very much for taking the time out to help me, the information I received from you
is excellent resource for me. Just what I need. God bless you and your family and have a blessed
holiday season.”
QUESTION: Information about the medication Lipitor.
Patron Provided Information:
location: New York
area: Health
reason: as a research paper
school: Yes
sources_consulted: none
MY ANSWER:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you would like to find out more information about Lipitor for a research paper.
I want to emphasize that I’m not a health provider and do not have expertise on the subject;
nevertheless, I am able to provide you with resources to access information about Lipitor.
Lipitor is a brand name for the more generic medication atorvastatin. You can find drug facts
about atorvastatin on MedLine Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the
National Institutes of Health, to help answer questions about health:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a600045.html
I began my search on the IPL website, in the “Health” subject collection:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hea00.00.00/
If you scroll down this page, the National Library of Medicine is listed as one of the resources in
the category:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
I found the information on Lipitor by searching for “lipitor” on their website’s basic search
engine (link is above).
The IPL’s Health subject collection also lists the New England Journal of Medicine as a
resource:
http://content.nejm.org/
The NEJM is “a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings,
review articles, and editorial opinion on a wide variety of topics.” Note that this content is
generated by medical professionals for medical professionals, not consumers.
I searched for “lipitor” in a basic search and found twelve full-text articles that may be of interest
to you, depending on the extent and focus of your research paper:
http://search.nejm.org/search?w=lipitor&search=SEARCH
Another helpful website is Medicine Net – “Nationally recognized, Doctor-Produced by a
network of over 70 U.S. Board Certified Physicians, MedicineNet.com is the trusted source for
online health and medical information.” This resource is listed in the IPL’s Health subject
collection too. Here is the link:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp
A basic search for “lipitor” brings up 144 results, which can be refined by topics including
Medications, News & Views, and Health & Conditions, which may be helpful to you in your
research. Here is the link to the search results:
http://search.medicinenet.com/search/search_results/default.aspx?Searchwhat=1&query=lipitor&
I1.x=0&I1.y=0&I1=Search
Since the link above is long and might break, here is a tiny url to access it:
http://tinyurl.com/y94w8f7
Lastly, you might want to look at the information provided by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical
company that developed, researches, and markets Lipitor. Bear in mind that although Pfizer is
closely regulated by the FDA, it a for-profit company with a financial interest in the drug –
http://www.pfizer.com/
Across the top of the homepage is a toolbar; place your cursor on “Products” and select “Product
finder” from the drop-down menu. You can then search by product name to find information on
Lipitor:
http://www.pfizer.com/products/rx/prescription.jsp
This page provides separate information about Lipitor for health care professionals and
consumers.
I hope these websites are useful to you in your research. Please let us know if you need
additional assistance. Thanks for visiting the IPL – come again!
QUESTION: What is the best stance in baseball?
Patron Provided Information:
location: Coppell Texas
area: Entertainment/Sports
reason: My team
school: No
sources_consulted: My brain
MY ANSWER:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you are interested to find out the best stance in baseball.
The answer is that there is not one single best stance that every player must do. However, there
are several universal recommendations for a successful batting stance: feet about shoulder width
apart and facing forward from the body, slightly crouched at the legs, weight distributed evenly
on both feet. The stance is an important aspect of the swing and should be comfortable for the
batter.
I found this information on the website PlaySportsTV:
http://www.playsportstv.com/baseball/video#baseball-hitting_swing-stance
Here is the tiny url link to the page, in case the original breaks:
http://tinyurl.com/y95ah2o
This site offers video clips that talk through and demonstrate batting stance, as well as other
elements of a player's swing. If your team is a little league team, you will find this site extra
helpful because it offers tips for coaching younger players as well as older players.
I verified this information at two additional sites and browsed them to see if they offered
additional tips.
The first site is Batspeed, available at
http://www.batspeed.com/mech02.html
This site offers frame-by-frame graphics of the entire mechanics of hitting and echoes the first
site that the stance should be athletic, slightly crouched, even weight distribution on the legs.
They also add that there is "no absolute rule" about where the player's hands should be on the
bat; this differs among the best Major League Baseball players. There is a freeze frame graphic
of what a good, but modifiable, stance looks like.
The second site is Webball, available at
http://www.webball.com/cms/page1158.cfm
This is an interactive site, continually updated with advice from baseball coaches. They agree
that hitting is not just physics and that successful hitting varies from player to player. You might
check here to find out specific tips and hints that other coaches have tried and found to be helpful
for their teams.
To find this information, I began searching under the "Leisure" section of the IPL homepage
(located on the lefthand side):
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ent00.00.00/
From here, I clicked on the link for "Sports", then "Baseball and Softball", and chose "Skills
Development". I found the links to Batspeed and Webball listed here.
Next I went back to the main Sports page, which I accessed under the Leisure category on the
IPL homepage (same link as above).
I scrolled down the page, browsing the reliable sites that they recommend and decided on
PlaySportsTV since it says it offers videos and instructional tips.
These sites provide comprehensive information on batting stances. If you are interested, I would
recommend looking at all the aspects involved in hitting since the stance is just one of many
movements involved.
Thank you for visiting the IPL! Please contact us again if you need further information.
QUESTION: Has the composer Phillip Glass won any awards for his soundtracks?
Patron Provided Information:
area: Music
reason: Personal use, buying new music.
school: No
sources_consulted: None
MY ANSWER:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you are interested to know if the composer Philip Glass has won any awards for
his soundtracks.
The short answer to your question is yes, Philip Glass has won awards for his soundtracks. He
has won various awards for his music in the following movies: The Truman Show, Candyman,
The Hours, The Illusionist, Mishima, Kundun, and Koyaanisqatsi.
I found this information on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001275/awards
and verified it the Yahoo! Movies website:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800049891/awards
There are a lot of different awards that a composer can win for his/her music on movie
soundtracks. IMDb and Yahoo! Movies (links above) provide lists of the various awards Philip
Glass was won as well as awards he has been nominated for. I recommend checking out these
two links to see the whole picture of his nominations and wins from multiple awarding
organizations.
I began my search on the IPL website, in the Leisure subject collection:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ent00.00.00/
I chose the sub-heading "Music" and then scrolled down the page to see what sort of resources
were available to me. I selected the IMDb because IPL lists it as "probably the best place to look
first for movie information".
Once I got to the IMDb homepage, I searched for "philip glass" (with quotes) and when the
search results came up, his name was listed first, so I clicked on it. That sent me to his home
page, where I scrolled down and clicked on "awards" on the lefthand side of the page. This
brought me to the list of all his nominations/wins for soundtracks.
Next I tried the Yahoo! Movies website. There are two search options here: one for just movies
and another for the whole web. My search for <philip glass awards> on the second search option
(the whole web) brought me to Philip Glass's page on Yahoo! Movies. Here I found a link for
"Awards & Nominations" on the top lefthand side. (Searching for his name in just the movies
search was actually less helpful.)
I felt confident about these two sites (IMDb and Yahoo! Movies) since they were listed on the
IPL, but I felt even better that the lists were very similar. IMDb lists a few more lesser-known
awards that Philip Glass has won for his music on movie soundtracks.
If you are interested, I also found another site on IPL's Teen Space under Sports, Entertainment,
and Arts in the Music section:
http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/browse/se4600/
The site I found is called Filmtracks Modern Soundtrack Reviews:
http://www.filmtracks.com/
This site does not provide the straightforward lists that IMDb and Yahoo! Movies do. However,
a quick search for "philip glass" provides search results for links to his movie soundtracks. You
can read reviews, listen to audio clips, view the entire track list, and see what awards the
particular soundtrack was either nominated for or won.
Disclaimer: Also, this final site does contain some content that is generated from a community of
users; since users may be non-experts, information taken from this source should be verified
from other, more reliable sources.
I hope this is useful to you. Please let us know if you would like more information. Thank you
for visiting the IPL!
QUESTION: What year was baseball invented?
Patron Provided Information:
area: Other
reason: Home
school: No
MY ANSWER:
Hi Christopher,
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you would like to know when baseball was invented.
There was a popular theory that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown,
New York; however, that has been disproved. In the 1840s, Alexander Cartwright standardized
the game and the first modern game of baseball was played in 1845. Baseball's origins are
usually attributed to the English children's game rounders, which dates back to the 1700s.
I found this information in the online almanac Infoplease
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sports/A0856863.html
I found the same information on Encyclopedia.Com
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/baseball.aspx#1E1-baseball
I began my search on the IPL website, looking at the various encyclopedias available online:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref32.00.00/
Both InfoPlease and Encyclopedia.Com are listed here; I know that they are trustworthy because
this list of resources was compiled by IPL librarians. I searched for <history of baseball> on both
sites and found the articles I link to above.
I wanted to find one more source confirming that Alexander Cartwright had founded the modern
game of baseball in 1845.
I searched the Baseball Almanac, and found confirmation here:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1953n.shtml
I accessed this source through the IPL's Leisure collection, selecting the subtopics Sports and
then Baseball & Softball. I hope this answers your question.
Thank you for visiting the IPL – please let us know if you need additional information.
QUESTION: The first missionary visited south india to propgate Christianity.
Patron Provided Information:
location: Nagercoil
area: History
reason: Historical research regarding the portugal expedition to south Inidia early sixteenseventeen centuries.
school: No
sources_consulted: wikepedia
MY ANSWER:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you are doing research about Portugal's expedition to India and would like to
find out about the first Christian missionaries there.
Tradition has it that St. Thomas was the first Christian missionary to visit India in the 4th
century.
I found this information on Encyclopedia.com by searching for "Christianity in India". This
article is from the Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-IndPkstnndBngldshChrstnty.html
This link is quite long and could break, so here is a shortened version for your convenience.
http://tinyurl.com/ykjfyuu
I know this is a reliable source because it is available on the IPL's website in the Ready
Reference collection. I clicked on the subheading "Encyclopedia" and scrolled down the page to
find Encyclopedia.com which hosts this information.
Based on the reason you give for asking this question (the Portugal expedition to India in the
early 16th and 17th centuries), I think you are probably more interested in the first Portuguese
missionaries to India in the 1500s and 1600s.
The Portuguese began bringing western Christianity to India in the early 1500s during their
explorations. They continued to send missionaries to visit the Indian monarchs throughout the
16th century. Around 1542 (dates vary slightly) Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary, went to India
with the Portuguese explorers, and baptized some 10,000 people; he is considered the "Apostle
of the Indies".
I found this information on two online encyclopedias, The Columbia Encyclopedia and the
World Encyclopedia; the articles are available side-by-side, here:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Saint_Francis_Xavier.aspx
The steps above detail how to find Encyclopedia.com, where these are both housed. This time I
searched for "Francis Xavier." I knew his name from the other articles I had read doing research.
Here is a letter that Francis Xavier wrote about his time in India:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1543xavier1.html
I clicked on "Social Science" in the IPL subject collection and then clicked on "History" in the
list of sub-headings, available here
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/soc00.00.00/
From there, I followed this path: Region » Asian History » Indian History and selected the
resource "Internet Indian History Sourcebook"
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/indiasbook.html
Once on that site, I clicked on "Western Intrusion" and his letter is the second link listed.
Another helpful site, is the Europe-India Maritime History Project. I found this website by
searching Yahoo! for <"Portuguese missionaries in India">. This was the fourth site listed in the
search results. I can verify it is reliable because it was created as an initiative of the European
Union. A very helpful timeline is available.
http://www.edumaritime.org/html/public_html/portuguese_timeline.html
This link is quite long and could break, so here is a shortened version for your convenience:
http://tinyurl.com/ygfvgkh
I hope you find this information to be helpful to your research. I recommend checking out these
sites yourself to learn more about the topic. Please let us know if you need more information.
Thank you for visiting the IPL – come again!
Patron Response:
"Thank you for your reply. Could you help me how I can get any information from the Portugal
library."
Here is the response I sent back:
Greetings from the IPL!
I understand that you would like to get information from the Portugal library.
Here is the link to the National Library of Portugal:
http://www.bnportugal.pt/
I found this by searching Google with the search terms <Portugal library>.
The first search result is The National Library of Portugal's page on Libdex:
http://www.libdex.com/country/portugal/lisboa/library_22646.html
From here, you can click on the link for the website. This website is in Portuguese so I don't
know how helpful it will be to you. Unfortunately I can't read the language myself. From the
home page you can also find the library's email contact.
I would recommend emailing the library. If you contact them asking your question in English,
they may be able to reply and provide resources in English.
Here is the form:
http://www.libdex.com/edit_library/22646
Please let me know if you need additional help.
Thanks for visiting the IPL!