stevejzoo

The Bronx Zoo in Fiction

3. The Evil Primatologist

In zoo-based fiction and movies, I am accustomed to seeing the evil animal dealer and, perhaps, the evil herpetologist as mad scientist. It was in the work of a Pulitzer prize winning writer, Paul Zindel, that I first encountered a primatologist so evil that he was willing to burn down a primate exhibit in order to collect on insurance. In order to build another exhibit. The book is The Lethal Gorilla. The setting is the Bronx Zoo. "Contrived" is a charitable description of this book.

2. The New Zoo by Rikki Ducornet

Rikk Ducornet perhaps read an early annual report of the New York Zoological Society before writing The New Zoo. Knowledge of Bronx Zoo is not necessary to appreicate Ducornet's language and narrative. In my case, however, I believe that prolonged exposure to NYZS annual reports enhanced my joy through numerous re-readings of The New Zoo..

1. Robert W. Chambers and the Bronx Zoo.

Some years ago I posted the following note on library listservs: For use by a WCS researcher, I would appreciate references to the Bronx Zoo as a setting in novels, poems and other "non-zoo" and non-technical literature. For example, Robert W. Chambers used a fanciful version of the Bronx Zoo as setting for his popular novel In Search of the Unknown (1904, reprinted 1974; 1904 edition available via Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18668..

Among the author's fancies was a woman zoo curator, more than half a century before the Bronx Zoo made such an appointment. My main amusement was that book sat on my book shelves, unread, for decades after I purchased it new in 1974. I did not notice the Bronx Zoo angle until I had worked at the Bronx Zoo for more than 25 years.

Since I posted that notice, which drew no responses, I have moved on from my job at the Bronx Zoo Library, but my interest in the organization has not abated. I invite reports of the Bronx Zoo in fiction and comments on same.

BioOne

Quoting the organization's boilerplate language, BioOne is a "unique aggregation of high impact bioscience research journals." More than eighty ejournals are distributed through BioOne.One. Earlier this year, BioOne launched a second collection, which contains forty titles of this writing.

Following the best practices of commercial publishers of scholarly journals, BioOne makes tables of contents, article abstracts, searching, and citation downloads for BioOne journals freely available at www.bioone.org. BioOne subscribers may brand their accounts so that library users know who is providing the resource, regardless of how they reach it.

From 2004 through 2007, I served on BioOne's Library Advisory Group. In practice, this appointment meant that I expressed opinions and suggestions to BioOne management. In the past, BioOne has implemented user suggestions such as a "search by institution" field in the advanced search function, institutional branding, and free access to citation download functions.

Because of BioOne's demonstrated responsiveness to users, I am pleased to participate in the feed back process.

You are welcome to send questions or comments about BioOne to me: sjohnson at westnet.com.

NYLINK

A statewide association of libraries and related agencies, NYLINK is best known as the New York affiliate of OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center.

In June 2006, I completed six year's service on NYLINK Council, where I represented libraries other than academic, public, school, medical, and business libraries. This "other" category usually includes museum, zoo, and botanical garden libraries, regional library councils and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES agencies).

I know that NYLINK management listens carefully to what members, and potential members, have to say about the services and products. I would be happy to pass along any comments individuals did not care to pass along in person.