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February 29th, 2008
From the Texas Library Association
65 Reasons To Love Your Library
1. Get expert help with the Internet.
2. Use the library’s computers free of charge.
3. Keep up with the news and trends through newspapers and magazines.
4. Check out the latest bestsellers.
5. Prepare to tackle home improvement projects with how-to books and DVDs.
6. Borrow CDs and books before you buy them.
7. Enjoy comfortable, safe study areas.
8. Find biographies of the great and the average.
9. Research your health concerns.
10. Explore science, history and the world.
11. Use consumer research print and websites to find best buys on what you want and need.
12. Learn how to invest in an IRA.
13. Investigate the best schools and colleges for yourself and your children.
14. Enjoy story time with your child.
15. Participate in a book club.
16. Seek and find that rich uncle you never knew about in our genealogy department.
17. Get tips on investing your inheritance now that you have found your rich Uncle Harry.
18. Learn to care for your iguana –or other pet.
19. Track stocks or mutual funds.
20. Enjoy book talks for teens or adults.
21. Get help with your science fair projects and term papers.
22. Find the movie of the book you enjoyed –and vice versa!
23. Take a continuing education class.
24. Teach someone how to read.
25. Relish the helpful assistance of librarians and volunteers who enjoy assisting you and others.
26. Research your local history. Maybe you’ll find out where the skeletons are buried in your town.
27. Learn another language.
28. Ask your library to arrange a loan of a book or other resource from another library.
29. Locate back issues of magazines and newspapers.
30. Look for the print or electronic book or magazine your spouse threw away in your library.
31. Catch up on the classics.
32. Find selected foreign language books –libros del idioma extranjero.
33. Save money by borrowing your library’s collections of books, DVDs, audio books, etc. rather than buying them.
34. Join in community-wide affairs.
35. Enjoy good air conditioning when it’s hot and snuggly warmth when it is cold.
36. Plan a vacation anywhere from Argentina to Zanzibar.
37. Discover a love poem for your significant other.
38. Take a practice test for becoming a policeman, fireman, graduate student, citizen . . .
39. Find out what else happened on the day you were born.
40. Learn why all the fish died in your aquarium and how to train your puppy.
41. Get help on preparing your will, trust, etc.
42. Learn how to write a good letter of resignation and a new resume.
43. Check out a couple of great books on tape that the whole family can enjoy on the drive to  Grandma’s and other distant places.
44. Find out how to replace your lost birth certificate.
45. Check your e-mail with our free Internet access.
46. Get the lyrics or the CD of that old song you heard on the radio 37 years ago.
47. Obtain forms for federal financial aid.
48. Learn about how to obtain a U.S. patent or trademark.
49. Find out where to obtain free government publications.
50. Learn how to secure a copyright and get the forms, too.
51. Get your IRS forms online or at your library.
52. Find federal statistics on everything from cell phones to Internet use in the U.S. and world.
53. Get solid medical information from sources such as MEDLINE.
54. Use our easy access website to find links to free subscriptions to online resources and
databases.
55. Find the correct temperature to cook your Thanksgiving turkey.
56. Return books to any branch library in your library system.
57. Research ideas for statewide history day,Women’s History Month, Black History Month, Children’s Library Week and more months, weeks and days of note.
58. Turn in a list of books and other materials that you would like to see the library acquire.
59. Check out the best books to read to your children.
60. Suggest improvements to your library and know your suggestions will be appreciated.
61. Help your library by volunteering, participating in the Friends group, assisting with special projects. Your investment in time and ideas will pay off big time to your community and to yourself.
62. Read the latest comic books before they become movies.
63. Use the convenient outside book drop when the library is closed.
64. See original works of art on display.
65. Check your library account online.
What is it you love about libraries?
February 28th, 2008
Here’s a design that Dracula would love: a subcutaneously-implanted, wireless digital tattoo display whose fuel cell is powered by blood. An entrant into the same Greener Design Competition as the gravity clock, the concept uses Bluetooth to communicate with your portable gadgets—or even devices implanted elsewhere in your body.
Read all about it.
February 28th, 2008
Phil Bradley has done an evaluation on search engines. He separates his information into columns:
What do you need to find, and what do you already know?
AND
What is the best resource to make use of?
This is a comprehensive site and is updated frequently.
February 27th, 2008
Are you looking back at forty? Charla Krupp has filled this book with hair color, makeup clothing, jewelry, and shoe tips. She provides before and after photos, examples of good and bad styles, shopping lists of fashion and beauty products and addresses of where the pros go. NBC Today Show style expert gives out tons of ideas for anyone, young or old.
February 26th, 2008
 New BOCD’s
Darkest Fear by Harlen Coben
Myron never saw it coming. A surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend is unsettling enough. But Emily Downing’s news brings him to his knees. Her son Jeremy is dying and needs a bone-marrow transplant-from a donor who has vanished without a trace. Then comes the real shocker: The boy is Myron’s son, conceived the night before her wedding to another man.
The Chameleon’s Shadow by Minette Walters
When British lieutenant Charles Acland returns home from Iraq, his serious head injuries are the outward manifestation of a profound inner change: he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or it may be, as his psychiatrist suggests, “the prolonged destruction of a personality.”
Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink
A child of World War II, Petter Debauer grew up with his mother and scant memories of his father, a victim of war. Now an adult, Peter embarks upon a search for the truth surrounding his mother’s unwavering-but shaky-history and the possibility of finding his missing father after all these years.
The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
Andre Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retired to a life of solitude  on the Spanish coast. He spends his days painting a huge mural that pays homage to history’s classic works of war art and that incorporates a lifetime of disturbing images. One night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Faulques’ door and challenges the painter to remember him. As Faulques struggles to recall the face, the man explains that he was the subject of an iconic photo taken by Faulques in a war zone years ago. “And why have you come looking for me?” asks Faulques. The stanger answers, “Because I am going to kill you.”
The Senator’s Life by Sue Miller
Once again Sue Miller takes us deep into the private lives of women with this mesmerizing portrait of two marriages exposed in all their shame and imperfection, and in their obdurate, unyielding love.
(-Taken from book covers)
February 25th, 2008
From Marylaine Block…
19th Century Schoolbooks
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/n/nietz/
Searchable full texts of 142 American textbooks of the 19th century offer insights into what 19th century American students were taught about history, arithmetic, art, geography, and other topics.
100 Things To Do with Google Maps Mashups – gmapsmania
http://gmapsmania.googlepages.com/100thingstodowithgooglemapsmashups
I believe that the future of reference service lies not in finding information, but in helping people understand it through visualization. These Google Maps mashups demonstrate things like finding wi-fi hotspots, a public toilet, world hostels, webcams, etc., and tracking packages or US or Canadian flights in real time.
Access Newspaper Archive Institutional Version
http://access.newspaperarchive.com/InvalidIP.aspx
“a new program that gives public libraries and K-12 schools around the world FREE access to NewspaperARCHIVE.com’s historical newspaper database. Students and library patrons can browse tens of millions of newspaper pages in our archive for free through your institution. This free version of Access NewspaperARCHIVE will allow users to view, save and print full-page newspapers dating from 1759 to 1977.” For obvious reasons, I wasn’t able to try this out, but it certainly seems worth the effort for school media specialists to download the application form and send it in.
Ballot Box
http://governing.typepad.com/ballotbox/
If you can’t get enough political news and analysis, check out this new politics blog from the experts at Governing.com who routinely track federal, state and local government.
Butterfly Lab
http://www.naturemuseum.org/online/thebutterflylab/index.htm
Lots of information, pictures and diagrams on butterflies and their anatomy, life cycle, behavior, and interdependence. Browsable by species. Includes an Ask the Expert feature and suggested activities.
Government Information Online – Ask a Librarian
http://govtinfo.org/
Sometimes the answers you need are only available in hard-to-find government publications, so if you don’t have a government documents librarian right at hand, you can use this “free national online information service supported by nearly thirty public, academic, and state libraries throughout the United States. Participating librarians specialize in finding government information sources of all kinds, and will try to answer your questions through chat or email.”
Hairstylesdesign.com
http://www.hairstylesdesign.com/
The hairstyle galleries may help you find young men and women find a great hairdo before a visit to the stylist. Choose from men’s or women’s, short, medium, or long, formal or celebrity styles. Also check out galleries from Oscar and MTV award shows. There’s not much here for older customers, though.
The Industry Standard
http://www.thestandard.com/
If you were in on the early heady days of the world wide web, you were almost certainly reading The Industry Standard for the latest news. It folded as a print publication, but still exists online here, as a source of industry news and predictions.
Movie Toolbox: 85+ Tools and Resources for Movie Fans
http://mashable.com/2007/09/16/movie-toolbox/
Includes online catalogs, recommendation engines, master indexes, encyclopedic sources, review sites, free streaming video sites, and more.
Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines
http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-search-engines
Engines that use Web 2.0 technologies to improve relevance. “Some offer functionality that’s slowly making its way into traditional search engines. Others further the attempt to traverse the invisible Web and index other previously unsearchable research sources.”
(-Stolen From Neat New Stuff)
February 22nd, 2008
Run by Ann Patchett is a multi-character story about family. One family consists of a  father, a mother and one son. Regrettably only one son. The family adopts two little boys and the world seems a sunny place to be until the death of the mother. The father is a political enthusiast, while the boys gravitate to their own interests while dealing with the blow of losing a mom. The second family has a mother and one little girl. This family does not live in the good neighborhood but is bound tightly together by discipline and dreams.
Patchett allows each character their voice and viewpoint while moderating the story of the emotional difficulties associated with family and growing up. One dark and snowy evening after a Jesse Jackson lecture, a car wreck ties both families together in unexpected ways.
February 21st, 2008
 Do you have tons of DVDs and/or music CD’s sitting around and no way to find the one you are looking for? In the same vein as LibraryThing, a book cataloging site. this article on Mashable lists 20 different sites to help you organize your media. Have a blast!
February 20th, 2008
The Libraries of Literary Ladies 
Thomas Jefferson’s library was only the beginning. LibraryThing members are on a roll, entering the library catalogs of famous readers. A subgroup of LibraryThing members called “I See Dead People’s Books” has been busy cataloguing famous people’s libraries. This month highlighted women, including Isabella Stewart Gardner, Sylvia Plath, Marie Antoinette, and Susan B. Anthony. It started with a prompt from Karen Schneider, and then a post from Tim Spalding. A few short weeks later, and here we are!”…
Take a look at the libraries of famous people here. Maybe you share reading tastes with dead people?
February 19th, 2008
U.S. News Report
Librarian: Executive Summary
By Marty Nemko
Posted December 19, 2007
Forget about that image of librarian as a mousy bookworm. Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records. It’s an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons dig up information and, in the process, learning new things. Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. They even get to put on performances, like children’s puppet shows, and run other programs, like book discussion groups for elders. On top of it all, librarians’ work hours are reasonable.
Read more about all kinds of careers here.
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Texas Library Association and 65 Reasons to Love Your Library