The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball, is a historic arena and the home gym of the University of Pennsylvania Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball.  Located at 235 South 33rd St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, near Franklin Field in the University City section of Philadelphia, it opened on January 1, 1927.  The Palestra has been called "the most important building in the history of college basketball" and "changed the entire history of the sport for which it was built."  The arena originally seated about 10,000, but now seats 8,725 for basketball.  The Palestra is famed for its close-to-the-court seating with the bleachers ending at the floor with no barrier to separate the fans from the game.  Since its inception, the Palestra has hosted more games, more visiting teams, and more NCAA tournaments than any other facility in college basketball.  The building was completed in 1927 and named by Greek professor William N. Bates after the ancient Greek term palæstra, a rectangular enclosure attached to a gymnasium where athletes would compete in various sports in front of an audience.  Penn's Palestra was built adjacent to and today is connected to Hutchinson Gymnasium.  The Palestra hosted its first basketball game on January 1, 1927.  Pennsylvania defeated Yale 26-15 before a capacity crowd of 10,000, then the largest crowd ever to attend a basketball game on the East Coast.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestra

Although the spelling of sojurn confuses many people into thinking it means “journey,” a sojourn is actually a temporary stay in one place.  If you’re constantly on the move, you’re not engaged in a sojourn.  https://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/sojourn.html  A sojourn is an impermanent stay reached by journey, or a period of temporary residence. (The words sojourn and journey are cognate through their roots in the French word jour, meaning "day".)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourn

A journal (through French from Latin diurnalis, daily) has several related meanings:  (1)  a daily record of events or business; (2)  a private journal is usually referred to as a diary; and (3)  a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one published each day.  Many publications issued at stated intervals, such as academic journals (including scientific journals), or the record of the transactions of a society, are often called journals.  In academic use, a journal refers to a serious, scholarly publication that is peer-reviewed.  A non-scholarly magazine written for an educated audience about an industry or an area of professional activity is usually called a trade magazine.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal

Response to the article Artificial intelligence and Your Career--a Lighthearted Look:  The internet is great for quick answers and general information, but if you’re wanting something more in-depth and credible, you aren’t going to get it for free, and that’s where the library comes in.  With all the misleading info on the internet, it would be a nightmare if the only info we had access to was the free stuff on the internet.  Perrysburg, Ohio librarian

The English language is filled with metaphors, similes, and idioms, and many of them revolve around food and the act of eating.  Examples:  Comparing apples to oranges, rotten to the core, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, go bananas, sour grapes, pie in the sky, one smart cookie, a piece of cake, eat humble pie, that’s the way the cookie crumbles, tough cookie, you’re toast, flat as a pancake, nuts about something, hard nut to crack, in a nutshell, work for peanuts, cool as a cucumber, two peas in a pod, in a pickle.  Find many more food figures of speech at Maya Rook's blog, A Slice of Earthly Delight.  http://sliceofearthlydelight.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-forget-to-eat-your-metaphors.html

"We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive."  - Aldo Leopold (born in Iowa in 1887)  Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was established in 1996.  It is the only unit of the National Park System dedicated to the rich natural and cultural history of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.  This 10,894 acre portion of the once vast tallgrass prairie is being preserved as a critical resource for the benefit, education, and enjoyment of this and future generations. It is a unique private/public partnership between the National Park Service (the primary land manager) and The Nature Conservancy (the primary landowner).  Tallgrass prairie once covered more than 170 million acres of the United States, from Indiana to Kansas and from Canada to Texas.  Nearly all of it is gone, plowed under for agriculture or urban development.  An ancient past survives in the irreplaceable Flint Hills tallgrass.  In prehistory, what is now a sea of grass, was once a shallow sea of water.  Two hundred to 300 million years ago the gray and white rock limestone and steel tough chert commonly called "flint" began to form from this Permian Sea floor and the famous Flint Hills geology.  The result was shallow, rocky land considered unsuitable for plowing but excellent for pasture.  The natural prairie cycle of weather, fires, and animal grazing--once bison, now cattle--has sustained the tallgrass prairie and its diverse plant and animal species ever since.  Now you can find over 500 species of plants, nearly 150 species of birds, 39 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 31 species of mammals.  https://www.nps.gov/tapr/learn/nature/index.htm

Copyright is Not Inevitable, Divine, or Natural Right by Ken Sawdon   In September 2016 an important copyright lawsuit was settled in India that helps students and allows academia to continue to provide education for the majority of people.  In 2012, a few large textbook publishers had brought a photocopying service and Delhi University to court over the practice of creating unlicensed coursepacks and allowing students to photocopy portions of textbooks used in their classes.  The Delhi High Court dismissed the case and held that coursepacks and photocopies of chapters from textbooks are not infringing copyright, whether created by the university or a third-party contractor, and do not require a license or permission.  Beyond the immense benefits to students and academics, the ruling had some interesting wording that gained attention online.  Unlicensed custom coursepacks are not covered under fair use in the U.S., but they are in India.  The case was brought to the courts by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Taylor & Francis against the Rameshwari Photocopying Service—a business that provides booklets based on course syllabi—and Delhi University.  It started in 2012 when the courts restrained the photocopier from creating copies of academic resources.  “But Delhi University supported the photocopiers, saying the use of reproduced copyrighted books by [students were] ‘reasonable educational needs’ and should not be treated as infringement.  Students also rallied behind the kiosk, saying most of the books were too expensive,” according to the Hindustan Times.  The university pointed to the existing copyright exceptions and the fact that the materials were clearly being used for educational purposes, not meant for commercial exploitation.  Read more at http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=7552

December 1, 2016  The tally of law blogs in our directory has topped 4,000.  Sarah Mui and Lee Rawles present the 10th Annual Blawg 100 list from the American Bar Association.  http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/10th_annual_blawg_100

The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon.  The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March.  In 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year.  In 1582 the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's day.  Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was only gradually adopted among Protestant countries.  The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752.  Until then, the British Empire—and their American colonies—still celebrated the new year in March.  Borgna Brunner  http://www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearhistory.html

On December 31, 2016, a “leap second” will be added to the world’s clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  This corresponds to 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, when the extra second will be inserted at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Master Clock Facility in Washington, DC.  Read press release at http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/2016_Leap_Second%20Press%20Release%20-%20Final.pdf

http://librariansmuse.blogpost.com  Issue 1671  December 30, 2016  On this date in 1678, William Croft, English organist and composer, was born.  On this date in 1952, June Anderson, American soprano and actress, was born.  Thought for the Day  The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. - opening line of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley (30 Dec 1895-1972)