Did you know that an estimated 5,000 blacks were an early and integral part of the California Gold Rush? Did you know that black history in California precedes Gold Rush history by some 300 years? Did you know that in California during the Gold Rush, blacks created one of the wealthiest, most culturally advanced, most politically active communities in the nation? Few people are aware of the intriguing, dynamic often wholly inspirational stories of African American argonauts, from backgrounds as diverse as those of their less sturdy- complexioned peers. Defying strict California fugitive slave laws and an unforgiving court testimony ban in a state that declared itself free, black men and women combined skill, ambition and courage and rose to meet that daunting challenge with dignity, determination and even a certain elan, leaving behind a legacy that has gone starkly under-reported. Mainstream history tends to contribute to the illusion that African Americans were all but absent from the California Gold Rush experience. This remarkable book, illustrated with dozens of photos, offers definitive contradiction to that illusion and opens a door that leads the reader into a forgotten world long shrouded behind the shadowy curtains of time."

Government data and resources are uniquely useful to researchers and other library users. But without a roadmap, sifting through the sheer quantity of information to find the right answers is foolhardy. The first edition of this text is well established as an essential navigational tool for both LIS students and professionals; now this newly revised, peer-reviewed update is even more attuned to new sources and types of government information and how best to locate them. Unmatched in its scope, this book covers such key topics as the history of government information, from its colorful beginnings to the era of Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, and data breaches;how to think like a government documents librarian in order to find information efficiently, plus other research tips;all types of law resources and information, including public laws and the U.S. Code, Case Law and the judicial branch, and regulations;Congressional literature, from bills and committee hearings to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set;patents, trademarks, and intellectual property;census data, educational information, and other statistical resources;health information, with an in-depth look at the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the trend toward and impact of online medical records; and science, environmental, and energy resources from agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.Exercises throughout the text support instruction, while the approachable and well-organized style make it ideal for day-to-day reference use.

An environmental History of California during the Gold Rush Between 1849 and 1874 almost $1 billion in gold was mined in California. With little available capital or labor, here's how: high-pressure water cannons washed hillsides into sluices that used mercury to trap gold but let the soil wash away; eventually more than three times the amount of earth moved to make way for the Panama Canal entered California's rivers, leaving behind twenty tons of mercury every mile—rivers overflowed their banks and valleys were flooded, the land poisoned. In the rush to wealth, the same chain of foreseeable consequences reduced California's forests and grasslands. Not since William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis has a historian so skillfully applied John Muir's insight—"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe"—to the telling of the history of the American West. Beautifully told, this is western environmental history at its finest.

"This is a very readable account of gold mining in California from the earliest days to the present and of its economic, social, cultural, and literary consequences. It should provide many evenings of enjoyable and informative reading."—Paul C. Bateman, U.S. Geological Survey, retired "Mary Hill's first-rate narrative is a remarkable synthesis. She skillfully weaves together the geology, history, and romance of the gold story in a lively and informative style. Anyone interested in California history, especially the Gold Rush, will relish this book."—Martin Ridge, Huntington Library

Mining the World Wide Web: An Information Search Approach explores the concepts and techniques of Web mining, a promising and rapidly growing field of computer science research. Web mining is a multidisciplinary field, drawing on such areas as artificial intelligence, databases, data mining, data warehousing, data visualization, information retrieval, machine learning, markup languages, pattern recognition, statistics, and Web technology. Mining the World Wide Web presents the Web mining material from an information search perspective, focusing on issues relating to the efficiency, feasibility, scalability and usability of searching techniques for Web mining. Mining the World Wide Web is designed for researchers and developers of Web information systems and also serves as an excellent supplemental reference to advanced level courses in data mining, databases and information retrieval.

"Over the past five hundred years, North Americans have increasingly turned to mining to produce many of their basic social and cultural objects. From cell phones to cars and roadways, metal pots to wall tile and even talcum powder, minerals products have become central to modern North American life. As this process has unfolded, mining has also indelibly shaped the natural world and North Americans' relationship with it. Mountains have been honeycombed, rivers poisoned, and forests leveled. The effects of these environmental transformations have fallen unevenly across North American societies. Mining North America examines these developments. Drawing on the work of scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, this book explores how mining has shaped North America over the last half millennium. It covers an array of minerals and geographies while seeking to draw mining into the core debates that animate North American environmental history generally. Taken together, the authors' contributions make a powerful case for the centrality of mining in forging North American environments and societies"--Provided by publisher.

Surface coal mining has had a dramatic impact on the Appalachian economy and ecology since World War II, exacerbating the region's chronic unemployment and destroying much of its natural environment. Here, Chad Montrie examines the twentieth-century movement to outlaw surface mining in Appalachia, tracing popular opposition to the industry from its inception through the growth of a militant movement that engaged in acts of civil disobedience and industrial sabotage. Both comprehensive and comparative, To Save the Land and People chronicles the story of surface mining opposition in the whole region, from Pennsylvania to Alabama. Though many accounts of environmental activism focus on middle-class suburbanites and emphasize national events, the campaign to abolish strip mining was primarily a movement of farmers and working people, originating at the local and state levels. Its history underscores the significant role of common people and grassroots efforts in the American environmental movement. This book also contributes to a long-running debate about American values by revealing how veneration for small, private properties has shaped the political consciousness of strip mining opponents.