In the age of ubiquitous access to information, library special collections and archives have received renewed attention through digitization projects designed to share collections with the world at large. Yet these materials also offer opportunities for student learning through direct engagement with rare or unique items. While special collections and archives have largely been used by advanced researchers and scholars, an increasing number of undergraduate courses are taking advantage of these materials as guides in the instructional process.
Hello. I am a book. But I'm also a portal to the universe. I have 112 pages, measuring twenty centimetres high and twenty centimetres wide. I weigh 450 grams. And I have the power to show you the wonders of the world.
The first book of The Startrail fantasy series, The Startrail: Portal Painter, is a story of friendship, adventure, and fantastical realities that will make you look more closely at the world around you. What if reality was not at all what you thought? Maybe the very fabric of life around you is different from what you have been told. What if there were nearby realms so close and a dire circumstance that required the powers that you hold? All without you knowing... Until you do. Sarah Carlson is an ordinary teenager in every way except for the fact that she has the ability to see things that others cannot. Sarah finds mysterious keys that lead her on a journey to discover her true past and paramount future - a future in the reality that has been there all along. The Startrail is a network of realms all connected by portal paintings. These portals are created by Portal Painters, and their powers have been controlled by an evil dictator. The coveted seafaen is the supernatural ingredient that the Portal Painters need to create the portals, and this too has been hidden and inaccessible. Later, Sarah discovers that she may be a Portal Painter herself and that this is a power that evil individuals wish to control. She must remain vigilant and trust those around her to harness these newfound powers to help assure the survival of the Portal Painter's secret meeting place, The Painter's Keep.
Originally published as an interactive novel on computer disk in 1986, Portal is the story of an astronaut who returns to earth from a mysteriously aborted mission prematurely awakened from suspended animation. One hundred years have passed; animals and plants thrive, cities stand intact. Every human being, however, has disappeared. With the help of a slowly reviving computer network, the astronaut begins to piece together the events of the last century. He learns of the child prodigy Peter Devore, of a world orchestrated by stunning new technologies, and of Peter's race against time to unlock the secrets of the Portal.
Arizona's rugged Chiricahua Mountains have a special place in frontier history. They were the haven of many well-known personalities, from Cochise to Johnny Ringo, as well as the home of prospectors, cattlemen, and hardscrabble farmers eking out a tough living in an unforgiving landscape. In this delightful and well-researched book, Alden Hayes shares his love for the area, gained over fifty years. From his vantage point near the tiny twin communities of Portal and Paradise on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahuas, Hayes brings the famous and the not-so-famous together in a profile of this striking landscape, showing how place can be a powerful formative influence on people's lives. When Hayes first arrived in 1941 to manage his new father-in-law's apple orchard, he met folks who had been born in Arizona before it became a state. Even if most had never personally worried about Indian attacks, they had known people who had. Over the years, Hayes heard the handed-down stories about the area's early days of Anglo settlement. He also researched census records, newspaper archives, and the files of the Arizona Historical Society to uncover the area's natural history, prehistory, Spanish and Mexican regimes, and particularly its Anglo history from the mid nineteenth century to the beginning of World War II. His book is a rich account of the region and more, a celebration of rural life, brimming with tales of people whose stories were shaped by the landscape. Today the Chiricahuas are a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts and the site of the American Museum of Natural History's Southwestern Research Station—and still a rugged area that remains off the beaten track. Hayes brings his straightforward and articulate style to this captivating account of earlier days in southeastern Arizona and opens up a portal to paradise for readers everywhere.
What if what you know about God just ain't so? Portals can be rather inconspicuous and elusive, but when we find one of these obscure openings, we discover that it can be a divine door that ushers us out of darkness and despair into a whole new dimension of freedom. Unfortunately, because of negative encounters we may have had with churchy people or the guilt and condemnation we may have suffered under religious teaching, we end up being driven away, and rightly so, from any further involvement with religion. A portal (for the purpose of this book) symbolizes a gateway of knowledge and understanding into God’s grace and truth intended to bring to light the gospel of Jesus Christ to lead us out from behind the iron bars of false beliefs that may be enslaving us. This book was written to display God’s prismatic promises and the biblical wisdom God has provided for us as answers and antidotes to the various problems we may encounter in life.
The world of Santhenar has fallen Most of the old allies are dead or captured, and the conquering Merdrun are carving Skyrock into a gigantic tower, with a sapphire-clad tunnel at its base. Is it a horrific new weapon to cleanse the world, so they can take it for their own? Only their arch-sorcerer, the sickening, life-drinking magiz, Dagog, knows. Karan, Flydd and their broken allies have only thirty days to find the answer. Thirty days to unlock nine-year-old Sulien’s hidden memory and reveal the Merdrun’s one fatal weakness. But Sulien has been abducted by the magiz, who needs her talent of far-seeing for his monstrous conspiracy. To save her daughter’s life, Karan will have to break into a compound guarded by 150,000 enemy troops and every magical device known to the enemy. Assuming she can get past the traitor in the allies’ ranks. You won’t want to miss this truly epic fantasy series by a million-selling author What reviewers say about the Three Worlds books “A compelling adventure in a landscape full of wonders.” – Locus “A page-turner of the highest order … Formidable!” – SFX on Geomancer “It is the most engrossing book I’ve read in years.” – Van Ikin, Sydney Morning Herald “Readers of Eddings, Goodkind and Jordan will lap this one up.” – Starlog “Utterly absorbing.” Stephen Davenport, Independent Weekly “For sheer excitement, there’s just no one like Irvine.” SFX on The Destiny of the Dead “As good as anything I have read in the fantasy genre.” – Adelaide Advertiser
A story spanning worlds and centuries— • from a distant, destitute future and the ambitions of a young scientist, to the possibility of a thriving tomorrow... • from the dreams of a young village girl in India, to the broad vistas of the American West... • from a rain-drenched African jungle and the mighty Congo that flows through it, to a seed of understanding that could transform a world... This epic tale unravels mysteries arising out of our deepest past, and offers a glimpse of the surprising promise that lies ahead.
Hyperspeed offers a glimpse into the world as it might exist in the year 2076. It is futuristic, but it is not science fiction. The scenarios are plausible based on a logical extension of modern technological developments, where intercontinental travel is carried out in evacuated tunnels, called portals, that permit supersonic global travel, such as Paris to Shanghai, in just three-and-a-half hours. The story is about a recently retired corporate executive named Christophe Conally who inadvertently stumbles into a conspiracy to counterfeit and smuggle gold bullion by a sinister group called The Syndicate, who are intent on commandeering the global economy and seeking to fill the power vacuum left behind when central governments became irrelevant in the post-modern age. The story describes extremely complex construction projects; physicists, scientists, and engineers; farmers and vintners; diabolical international agents; pets and other friendly creatures. Both highly personal, with Christophe’s longing for closure to painful chapters of his life and his engagement with a pair of turtledoves and a few domesticated animals, interspersed with impersonal multinational corporations constructing nearly unimaginable public transport systems spanning the globe that double as gold-smuggling vessels. This story is engaging on many levels.
