Treasure Cove Sale and End of Summer Reading Party

CARL Summer Reading SALE continues with even greater discounts.  See flier below.

REMINDER End of Summer Reading Party begins at 4:30 on Friday.  Cake, Storyteller, Puppets show and DOOR Prizes.

Come see the preview of Door Prizes in the Store Display Case. 

The Muppets: Pöpcørn

Friday Fun: The Cutest Porcupine You'll See All Day

2010-01 MMAS Theses

The CGSC Class 2010-01 Master of Military Art and Science Theses are available on the Combined Arms Research Library Digital library HERE.

All available Master of Military Art and Science Theses from 1964-Present may be accessed from the collection splash page at: http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/contentdm/mmas.htm

SUMMER READING SALE

Beginning Sunday July 18th all remaining items in the store inventory will be up 50% off. 

Friday Fun: Muppet Babies

Can you name all ten Muppet Babies in 5 minutes? Take today's Mental Floss quiz!

Mental Floss is a monthly magazine and website that has your fix random facts, interesting tidbits and  articles about things you never knew that you wanted to know. Check out their main website http://www.mentalfloss.com for more fun quizzes and tidbits.

Digitization efforts at the artillery library at Fort Sill

Army.mil has a great article in their news section about Fort Sill's digitization efforts! Fort Sill's Morris Swett Technical Library, at the Artillery School is part of the consortium of libraries hosting material with the Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library. Our friends at Fort Sill are working to preserve fragile and difficult-to-access materials from before the Revolutionary War and up through the Vietnam war.

One fascinating book they've been working with is War Department document No. 582, "Notes for Infantry officers on Trench Warfare," which gives an officer's personal experiences and advice on hygiene topics such as head lice, roaches and vermin. It's a great, specific-interest historic document that's now available all over the world, for free.

From the article: 

"Notes for Infantry Officers on Trench Warfare" is one of the books that has been digitized and made available by the Morris Swett Technical Library the Army's artillery school library. Staff members at the library are currently digitizing 1 million pages of historical coast, field and air defense artillery documents as well as historic Fort Sill documents and putting them online. 

Top digitization priorities include items they feel will be in highest demand, and those which are too fragile to be handled by researchers. Putting them online makes them available 24-7 to researchers and curious souls around the world, without the need for white gloves, long traveling times, or an appointment.


To read the full article, be sure to visit:
http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/06/24/41341-artillery-library-digitizing-documents/

A tip of the hat to our friends at Fort Sill! We're glad their preservation and access efforts are being acknowledged, promoted and shared!

Defense Centers of Excellence

DCoE assesses, validates, oversees and facilitates prevention, resilience, identification, treatment, outreach, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs for psychological health (PH) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) to ensure the Department of Defense meets the needs of the nation's military communities, warriors and families.

DCoE is working to tear down the stigma that still deters some from seeking treatment for problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and TBI with their Real Warriors Campaign.

http://www.dcoe.health.mil/Default.aspx

National Space Policy

The Whitehouse has issued a new National Space Policy. It can be viewed in PDF form here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/national_space_policy_6-28-10.pdf

Read it, memorize it, share it with all of your friends! 

Happy Independence Day (for real, this time!)

The library is closed today and tomorrow, and will reopen Tuesday at the normal time. 

Have a great day, whether you're coming to Fort Leavenworth for the Independence Day festivities, visiting family and friends, or sticking closer to home.

Be safe--with your fireworks, with your cookouts, your adult beverages, and your driving! We want to see everyone back here bright and early Tuesday morning!

And if you can't get to the fireworks, here's a brief clip from a show in Japan!

Happy Independence Day!

The technical date of legal separation with Great Britain for the American Colonies is actually July 2nd, 1776.  This was the date the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the resolution of independence that had been proposed back in June. The Declaration of Independence, which was Congress' statement explaining the decision, wasn't actually approved and signed until July 4th.

There were technically five authors of the Declaration of Independence, Roger Sherman, John Adams, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the primary author, and did most of the "heavy lifting," but all five labored over every word to make sure it precisely expressed the Congress' intentions and desires.

In fact, the Library of Congress has recently revealed just how much labor had gone into every word of the Declaration of Independence. With the help of Hyperspectal Imaging, they have been able to see changes made to the Declaration, including key phrases.

One rough draft refers to the "fellow subjects" of the Colonies, but the final version we know today refers to "fellow citizens." With the imaging technique the Library of Congress was able to see that not only did this wording of "subjects" survive the drafting process, but actually made it into the final version. In the final version, the new term is placed over the old in much darker text, but was previously unreadable. At some very late point, Jefferson's thinking on the matter of a person's relationship to the state (and vice versa), and changed the word to "citizens," which is connotative of a more fraternal society, instead of the old hierarchical order of Europe.


The tiny find is fantastic for archivists and historians; it gives a great insight into the early formation of our country, and the men who created it. It also shows us just how human Jefferson was. Not only was he rethinking huge issues up until the last possible moment, but he scratched things out and rewrote as better thoughts came to mind. Historically, that one word had the ability to change the direction of our country, from another copy of the old European model, into something new that we're still trying to define today.

Want more resources?

Books/Digital Library Resources/Media/More:
CARL catalog-Declaration of Independence 
CARL catalog-American Revolutionary War

Web articles:
Hyperspectral Imaging by Library of Congress Reveals Change made by Thomas Jefferson in Original Declaration of Independence Draft 


Archiving Early America-Declaration of Independence

Web video:
Inside The Vaults - The Declaration of Independence via U.S. National Archives

(discusses preservation of the document, and a mystery associated with it)


 

Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863

Today marks the 147th anniversary of the start of Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and a turning point for Union forces. General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the north was cut short in this battle by General George Gordon Meade,  who had replaced General Hooker just a few days before.

Previous to this battle and the battle at Antietam, Maryland the year before, Lee had great success in battle, though at the cost of high casualty rates.  His success rate had been so high, he'd thought himself nearly-invincible. It is perhaps because of this, and high  morale among his men, that he shrugged off suggestions to withdraw from recently-captured Gettysburg to find ground more favorable to Confederate troops.

The battle, known as the High Water Mark of the confederacy,  began when Confederate soldiers attacked a Union cavalry division west of town. Even though they were outnumbered, Union forces held off the attack. They were eventually driven back through by Confederate reinforcements, and many Union soldiers were captured in the ensuing chaos. During the night, the union troops built up defenses as the remainder of the army arrived.

By the next morning, Union and Confederate troops took up positions on two opposing ridges, nearly a mile apart. Lee ordered an attack on both Union flanks. On the south end, Confederates broke through union lines leaving so many dead and wounded the area is now known as Bloody Run, and left the rocky area called Devil's Den at Little Round Top in chaos. In the north, the Confederates took Culps Hll on one occasion, but eventually the attack was futile. Southern troops were in-fact very close to Northern supply trains, and additional assistance was available. But due to communication problems, both of these opportunities were missed.

On the final day of battle, Lee attempted to attack the middle of Union lines. Both sides made a spectacular display of the power of their artillery, but it didn't weaken the Union battle lines. Eventually, General George E. Pickett made a final attempt to recapture some of the previous day's successes. Fifteen hundred infantry troops crossed the open field toward the Union lines. In 50 minutes, they managed to cross the mile between the ridges, even while being cut down by artillery and rifle fire. They reached the Union line, but did not break it. In the 50 minutes of the Pickett's Charge, two-thirds of men had become casualties. Lee's army retreated the next day.

There were around 51,000 casualties on both sides in addition to 5,000 dead horses and almost 600 tons of expended ammunition. Add to that the 172,000 men and 600 cannons that had torn through the landscape for three days of horrific battle, and the landscape was reduced to a hellish scene of devastation with bodies needing to be disposed of quickly due to the summer heat. Four months later, when Lincoln arrived to mark the dedication of the location as a National cemetary, the landscape was still scarred from the epic battle.

The eventual end result of the battle was that Lee made no more offensive moves toward the north, in fact, he remained on the defensive for the remainder of the war. Any hopes that the Confederacy had of either recognition of their state by other nations, or of bringing about a truce favorable to the Southern cause were lost.

The town of Gettysburg today is still a small bedroom community in south central Pennsylvania. The battlefield is now a National Park and National Cemetery. Every year in Gettysburg there are commemorations and reenactments on the days of the battle, and various events throughout the year.

CARL's resources:
CARL books, dvds, audios and digital items
Digital Library Documents

Other resources:
www.civilwar.org
National Park Service-Gettysburg
Flickr-Civil War Preservation Trust's Photo Stream

Friday Fun: Need a joke?

Q. What do you get when you cross a Tyrannosaurus Rex with fireworks?

A. DINO-MITE!

Dumb Jokes That Are Funny