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Book Fair

We will be hosting the Ellis Elementary Scholastic Book Fair Monday May 20th and Tuesday May 21st. Come and check out the great deals and help raise some $$$$ for the Ellis Elementary PTA!

Miss Pocatello and Dr Seuss @ the Library!

Red Cross Blood Drive

The library is sponsoring a blood drive on Monday, January 28th from 1-5 p.m.  All eligible donors are asked to schedule an appointment to donate blood by signing up at the main service desk at the library, or by calling Jeanne at 237-2192. All it takes is your willingness to help someone in need and a pint of your blood. Any healthy person age 17 or older and weighing at least 110 pounds may be eligible to donate blood. Valid ID is required for all blood donations. For more information about blood donations or eligibility, see the front desk, or visit www.redcrossblood.org

GAME NIGHT!

We will be having game night Friday Dec. 28th from 7-9 p.m. Spread the word!!!

HERE’S TO A NEW YEAR AND A NEW LOOK!

With the new year comes many great things at the library. We would first like to thank our patrons for your patience and understanding as we have renovated and rearranged.  The library looks wonderful, and we hope you’ll enjoy it! The library will be closed for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but on January 2nd we will be open for regular services at our normal hours, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. M-Th, 10-6 Fri and Sat.

Children’s programming will resume on January 7th and our children’s librarian is so excited to have all the kids back in the library for lots of stories, crafts, and fun!

Our adult non-fiction section is in transition as we reorganize it according to genre. It will be super easy to find any book you need on any subject!

Look around and find all of our little comfy areas to sit and enjoy a book or study. Our public computer area is also new and improved and more patron friendly.

Have a great holiday, and a great 2013!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a national holiday that mixes European and Native traditions.  The first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 by Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians, creating our tradition of giving thanks for future generations.  Thanksgiving was made an official holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.  Thanksgiving is a celebration of thanks and a celebration of family.  We are thankful for you, our community members, and for the bounty of books and materials so we may continue to learn and enjoy literature, movies and media, and gaming.

Learn more about Thanksgiving at these two links:

Thanksgiving at History.Com

Thanksgiving on Wikipedia

A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism by Slavenka Drakulic

In her book, A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism, Slavenka Drakulic uses small animals to tell the reader about the realities of life under the Soviet Union.  Drakulic, who was born in occupied Croatia, has written extensively about Communism and life in the USSR, and has also published other books like this one, which use fiction to tell about the realities of life under an oppressive regime.
In this book, your guides include a mouse, a parrot, a bear, a cat, a mole, a pig, a dog, and a raven.  Each of these animals tells a different story, with the mouse living in a history classroom and the talking parrot belonging to a brutal Marshal from now-divided Yugoslavia.  Using animals to tell about the horror and banality of the USSR seems silly, but the stories that are told by the animal narrators really serve to bring to light many of the facets of the USSR and the countries that came out of it in a way that people from the West in general, and the United States in particular,  might not have previously thought about.

Koki, the parrot, tells the reader “in order to impress them even more, he lived in the former king’s palace in Belgrade.  A Communist revolutionary living in a palace; that is what I call not only stylish but smart.  After all, his people were used to being ruled in a monarchic tradition, no?”  In this small space, the parrot helps the reader to understand the ways in which the rich and the leaders in the Soviet Union took the best and the most valuable possessions and properties for themselves, and how they justified that action.

In another section, the mouse asks the visitor to the museum to “think of how people lived — hundreds of millions of them — with a feeling that an interrogation room had been installed in their brains.  You could not see it, but it was there… The system of surveillance and self-control lives off fear and suspicion.  It is a simple and efficient psychological mechanism that turns people into liars — and, therefore, into accomplices of the regime”  This section gets at the the idea of self-censorship and how it worked in the Soviet Union in a rare and clear manner.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for information about what really happened in the USSR.  It is fiction, so it won’t give you a timeline or a series of dry facts, but it will provide a window into the minds of the people of the Soviet Union and how they suffered under and survived Communism.

Digital Ads on the Web – Ad* Access by Duke University

The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment “Library 2000″ Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. The advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Check out all the neat ads here!  http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/

Free Storytimes Website! DaybyDayID.org

Another component of the Routes to Reading grant is the creation of a website called DayByDayID.org which was modeled on the DayByDaySC.org (South Carolina) and DayByDayVA.org  (Virginia) sites. Complete storytimes are delivered online, everyday to anyone with Internet access. Daily content includes a book of the day through TumbleBooks, rhymes, songs, videos, and more. Arts and Crafts, Around Idaho, STEM Resources, and Bilingual Resources are other sections available on this comprehensive site.

Many thanks go to Denise Lyons, Director of Library Development at the South Carolina State Library, who created the DaybyDaySC project in cooperation with several talented people and organizations. Please see a list at the DaybyDaySC.org. Artwork by Helen Correll is featured throughout DaybyDayID.org and we thank her for permission to use her artwork and illustrations.

Check out DayByDayID.org today!

Useful links for managing your online presence

You know that time you asked yourself, “Did I create an account with this website?” Or, “Did I really delete my account, because that was vague.” Or have you wondered lately what apps or websites have access to your personal data?  Well, I have, and I found these awesome sites for managing the security of your personal data and online presence.

Knowem.com

Knowem? is a great website that will search across hundreds of websites by username to tell you if that username is available or taken.  If you use the same username, as many people do, this is a GREAT way to check websites, including social networking sites, that list the username in question.  Lots of us create accounts with that brand new, hot website, but forget about it when it cools down.  This is the place to go to find the accounts you’ve forgotten about.

Account Killer

So now that you’ve made a list of websites you no longer use and want to delete the account, Account Killer will tell you exactly how to go about it.  Account Killer lists major sites’ instructions for account deletion, and grades those account for ease of use.  Some websites will keep your information for whatever reason, and this site maintains a blacklist of websites you may not feel comfortable creating an account with.  And, for those blacklisted sites, it will tell you how to try to delete your accounts, even providing email addresses for personal requests.  This is a great place to check to see if you even want to create an account in the first place.

Privacy Fix

Privacy Fix is a browser plugin that you run (and can install as a browser extension) which tells you what your privacy settings are for apps, Facebook, Google, and more.  This little goodie offers you a handy “fix” link for you to repair or delete access for these sites, and the browser extension will run and rate the privacy of websites you visit.  Privacy Fix also gives you a list of tracking cookies watching you RIGHT NOW.

My Permissions

My Permissions is a browser plugin you install and run that tells you what apps have access to your data.  It’s a pretty handy tool for seeing who monitors your stuff, and who things they ought to have access to your data.  Run the browser add on and easily remove apps you don’t need that think they’re entitled to snoop your info!  My Permissions also has a mobile app for keeping your smartphone clean.

Changes Coming!

Winter is blowing in soon….and so are changes at the Library!!!

Computer System…

On November 15th, we will be changing to a new computer system. The program we use to circulate books will be new and improved! The library website will be updated with a new search engine that is beautiful and very user-friendly. We are excited for the possibilities that come with this new system. Patrons will be able to track their reading history, receive text messages from the library, and find books more easily. We appreciate your patience as we all get used to working with this new system.

Renovation…

Beginning the week after Thanksgiving and continuing on until Christmas, we will be in the process of getting new paint and carpet in the library. The children’s room will be completely closed the week after Thanksgiving, November 26-30. The main library will be open during that week, but then the following week services will be limited as the main area is renovated. There will be limited checkouts and internet access available during this time. The amount of time the library will be in turmoil has yet to be solidified, but we anticipate 3 weeks from start to finish, until full services and programming will be available. We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time.

Volunteers…

Any individuals or group who would like to help during the renovation with moving of books and furniture are welcome to sign up at the front desk. We will contact you when we are ready to put you to work. Any eagle scout who needs a project and would like to use this as that opportunity can speak with Jeanne.

Cyberbullying Prevention/Cyber Safety Month

Bullies are everywhere—even online. And bullying in any form should be taken seriously.

In a recent survey on Cyberbullying conducted for Microsoft Corporation and published in the September issue of Teaching and Learning Magazine, youths ages 8-17 provided some interesting statistical information regarding Cyberbullying:

• 58% say they know a lot or some about online bullying
• 54% are very or somewhat worried about online bullying
• 86% report being bullied online and/or offline, although most bullying is offline
• 24% admit to bullying someone else online
• 42% admit to bullying someone else offline

Cyberbullying can occur in many forms: through instant messaging, social networks, texting, email, websites,  blogs, and other methods of digital communication. In conjunction with October’s designation as national Cyberbullying Prevention/Cyber Safety Month, Idaho Commission for Libraries has joined a statewide alliance that offers resources to provide awareness and education about the risks and prevention of “cyberbullying.” In addition to the Commission, the alliance includes Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Education Network, the Office of Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, the Idaho State Department of Education, the Idaho School Boards Association, and the Idaho Association of School Administrators.

Here are some available resources to help prevent or curtail cyberbullying:

Website: A “cyberbullying information and prevention” website, with video, articles, and specific tips for students, parents, and educators is found at http://guides.lili.org/cyberbullying.

Videos: Idaho Public Television is offering broadcast and online content throughout the month. View this guide of broadcasts and online resources available to parents, educators and students regarding the prevention of cyberbullying.

Cozy Reading Corner

One of the Portneuf Library’s dearest patrons passed away recently. Marie Christofferson was involved with the library on various levels for many years and was greatly loved by all of the staff and patrons who knew her. In memory and honor of Marie, and with many generous donations from both her family and different community members, the Library has created a “Cozy Reading Corner” full of “Cozy Mysteries” which Marie loved. This area in the back corner of our library features couches and a fireplace, as well as a bookcase which we are filling with books for the patrons to curl up and enjoy. Marie was a wonderful asset and friend to the library and we want all who come enjoy this area in the library to know to whom it is dedicated. Therefore, on the top of the bookcase there is a plaque inscribed:

In Memory Of

Marie

Christofferson

 We hope that all of our patrons can come and enjoy this reading area and the books therein. Thank you to all of those who have donated, your donations have helped to make this wonderful area take shape.

September 19 – Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Hello everybody!

Today is talk like a pirate day! Log in to Mango Languages for free lessons!

Shadow of Night

Shadow of Night
by Deborah Harkness

Shadow of Night is the second book in Harkness’ All Souls trilogy, following up after A Discovery of Witches.  Like A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night does not disappoint!  Again, Harkness wields her skill as a master writer and storyteller in this historical fiction novel.

Set in Elizabethan England, we follow Diana and Michael on an epic historical adventure chasing after the famous Ashmole 782 and to find a teacher for Diana.  Harkness is a master storyteller and weaves a potent and enjoyable story, yes, but what shines the most about the second book in this series is Harkness’ expertise as a historian.  Harkness knows the history of Elizabethan England and Europe, and weaves a rich tapestry of a story surrounding authentic facts and places for the time.  In telling the story of Diana and Michael, she also paints a vivid picture of what life was like during the 1600s of Europe.

Thrust from England to the Holy Roman Empire, Diana and Michael must fight to hide their devotion and love from others of their kind, just as they did in the present.  But to add to the danger, the two must also hide who they are during a time of witch burning and heresy trials.  Diana and Michael tangle with the key rulers of the time period, both Elizabeth I and the Holy Roman Emperor, and must struggle to stay on top of their quest while flying enough under the radar to thwart attempts on their lives.

In Shadow of Night readers will rediscover the masterful storytelling powers of Harkness, enjoying the adventures of Diana and Michael, weaving through the story discovering more of Ashmole 782’s secrets, and Diana’s, too, but the story remains unfinished.  Readers will sit poised on the edge of their seat waiting for the final book in the trilogy.

Check out Shadow of Night from the library today!

Library Fine Amnesty During the Month of September

On the Beach

On The Beach
by Nevil Shute

Two years ago, war erupted.  A horrible, terrible, nuclear war that destroyed the entire Northern Hemisphere.  Two years later, the nuclear fallout is beginning to trickle down into the Southern Hemisphere, giving the people of Australia limited time to make peace with their lives before they are destroyed by the remains of other people’s violence.

Meet Peter, Mary, and baby Jennifer, Dwight, Moria, and John, and get to know them as they live out their last days.  Shute’s On The Beach shows a picture of a society knowing its doomed, but living on and making do.  Two years is enough to adjust to live without cars, limited reserves and power, and few jobs.  Two years is enough to lead people into an optimistic outcome; many continue on with their lives as though they’ll always be the same, as though the garden bench planned this spring will be enjoyed next summer.  Others struggle to find the peace and happiness in the day to day, realizing dreams are broken and shattered.  Shute’s post war novel shocks the reader by endearing them to the rich characters, but the inevitable cannot be postponed.

Check out this classic post-apocalyptic thriller today!

Looking for a new book?

Looking for a new book to read? Goodreads.com is a great website to find new books. You can set up a free account where you can rate and track the books you read as well as make suggestions to other readers. As a member of Goodreads you can also join discussions on different books you have read and share your opinions with others who also liked or disliked the books. Along with all of this, Goodreads will track your ratings on different books and give you recommendations based on books you have enjoyed in the past. However, if you don’t want to set up an account, you do have the option to search for a book title that you have enjoyed in the past and browse through the “surprisingly insightful” suggested titles to find a book to read! If you don’t want the same kind of books you always read, you can also search for popular books by genre. Say you are in the mood for a suspense novel, simply select that genre on the Goodreads home page and you will get several recommendations for new release suspense novels that you might like along with a description of that genre. Check out Goodreads today!

Charlotte’s Garden

On June 28th, the Charlotte wildfire destroyed 66 homes and damaged many properties just south of Pocatello. It was an area of gardeners, and the Charlotte’s Garden Project, directed by two neighbors affected by the fire, asks fellow gardeners in Southeast Idaho to help make the mountainsides and canyons bloom again.

To contribute, please save seeds from your garden this summer, including biennials, self-seeding annuals, perennials, wildflowers, annuals, and vegetables (seeds should be allowed to dry on the plant before harvesting). New packets of seeds or bulbs will also be accepted. Put seeds in bag or envelope and label type and color and deposit at the Portneuf District Library’s designated drop box, or mail them to Charlotte’s Garden, ISU Mail Stop 8230, Pocatello, Id 83209. Everyone affected by the fire will be invited to choose what they would like to plant.

For more details and some ideas on what to save, visit www.pocatello.us/se/garden.htm. Charlotte’s Garden is NOT set up to accept money or checks. Please donate only seeds.

California Digital Newspaper Collection

Learn Ancient Languages in Mango!

TumbleBooks Partners with National Geographic

TumbleBooks has just partnered with National Geographic in order to provide supplementary educational videos which will be paired with existing TumbleBooks.

We will start with the non fiction category.

Here is a link to our first video, which goes with our book Meet the Meerkat.

http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/ipadlogin.asp?U=Tumble001&P=books&category=Non-Fiction&bookid=3322

Click on the video icon on the right.

We would love to hear your feedback, thoughts and comments.

I can already answer the first question:

There will be no additional cost for these videos. They will come free as part of your TumbleBookLibrary subscription.

Let us know what you think. Do you think these will be a worthwhile addition to the collection?

Happy Tumbling!!

Bluegrass

Bluegrass
by William Van Meter

True crime novels fascinate us like little else, and many of us find the study of true crime mysteries a powerful draw.  Looking into the horrors and struggles of our fellow humans endure reminds us to be thankful and gracious in our own lives.  Typically, I read post-apocalyptic fiction, but lately I’ve picked up a few true crime thrillers.  This one is, by far, the best I’ve read so far.

Bluegrass takes place in Southern Kentucky, in a struggling rural town with a college right smack in the center of things.  Bubbly Katie grew up in a small town, bounced around the foster system, before coming to the college in Bowling Green.  There, Katie explodes her life into new dimensions, making risky choices and exploring different behaviors than what she knew from her quiet, small town life.  Katie makes new friends and pushes the boundaries her strict foster parents enforced.  Unfortunately, Katie makes some wrong choices to the detriment of her life.

But unlike most true crime books, this one reads like a novel.  Author William Van Meter begins the story of our mystery early in the lives of our characters.  He develops those characters, their surroundings, and their lives, and writes the story of Katie’s murder.   William Van Meter investigates back to fill in important details that shed light on how the crime came to happen, and how the crime laid repercussions on everyone who had Katie in their lives.  This is not a dry, exhaustive review of evidence and court proceedings; this is a story of lives that paints a clear and legible picture of the events leading up to and surrounding Katie’s horrific murder.

Check out Bluegrass to read more!

A Google A Day

Love the thrill of the information hunt?  Are you a trivia nut?  Have you heard about A Google A Day?

A Google A Day is a neat feature of Google where Google asks you a question that you must research to answer.  The questions are fairly simple, but you’ve got to put on your thinking caps to figure out how to find the answers that ultimately lead to the final result!   Questions vary across different Google search tools, like the patent search, or the image search, or the news search.  Either way, it’s great fun to hunt up the answer to each question.  So what are you waiting for?  Go give it a whirl!

A Google A Day

Noxious Weeds in Idaho

Are you aware of all of our noxious weeds?  There are many varieties of plants that have made their way to our great state that threaten Idaho’s natural plants.  It is everyone’s responsibility to remove noxious weeds or contain them on our property.  Here’s a link to Bannock County’s Noxious Weeds website, complete with pictures!  Make yourself familiar with Idaho’s noxious weeds so you know what to remove or contain, and keep an eye out for these as you walk your favorite trail!

Bannock County’s Noxious Weeds Website 

ManualsLib

Lost a manual?  Do you even keep all the manuals that come with all your stuff?  What about just grabbing a digital copy of that manual so you don’t have to worry about storing it in a junk drawer!

ManualsLib is a FREE manual library containing over 45,000 manuals for download or viewing!  The search is effective and easy, and it’s a snap to quickly find the manual you need.  Check it out today!

ManualsLib Database

Meet Maegan

Maegan  joined the Portneuf Library team in March.  She works as a clerk, and also helps process books as they come in, stamping, stickering, and generally getting them ready to be a part of the collection.  She enjoys historical fiction, and is currently reading In the Hands of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce, The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, The Passage of the Titanic by Anita Stansfield, and The Hero and the Crown by Robin Mckinley.  When she isn’t reading or working, Maegan loves watching Disney movies and Broadway musicals, Mostly anything that has music for her to sing along with.  Her current favorites are Lilo and Stitch and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but, like her favorite genre, these things change frequently.  Come in and say hello to Maegan!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent Trilogy and honestly I was a little hesitant about diving right into reading it after having not read Divergent for so long, however, I need not have worried at all. Insurgent had enough continuity and explanation to it that as long as you knew who the main characters were it was easy to just jump right in and read. This story continued right where the first book left off, and I felt like all of my major questions from the first book were either answered or continued on throughout the second book. The character development in this book was just as good as the first. I felt like I came to know the main characters even more and in different ways as they grew and continued through the challenges facing their world. One thing I love about this book is that there is a strong female lead, and yet it is still a thrilling and engaging book for both the sexes. This novel, just as Divergent, has several different themes running at once. There is action and romance, conspiracy and intrigue, along with several interesting questions raised such as: What makes someone a bad person or a good person? Does being a bad person make you a cruel person? All in all, I really loved this book and would recommend the series to anyone who is looking for something new to read!

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent was definitely one of my favorite reads so far this year. It is a piece of dystopian fiction; however, it introduces a new and unique plot with a twist! I have read and loved the Hunger Games Trilogy along with the Maze Runner Trilogy and am quickly getting into the Matched, Birthmarked, and Delirium Trilogies all of which are also dystopian literature. Divergent is different though which is what I loved so much about it! The characters are diverse and relatable. Beatrice, who feels she doesn’t quite fit in where she is at, is trying to make decisions about her life while stuck in this dystopian society which is separated into factions all based on different values. Abnegation value selflessness, Erudite value knowledge, Candor value honesty, while Amity value peace and Dauntless value courage. While some aspects of the plot may not be extremely realistic at times, the author still creates continuity within the world she has created which pulls the reader in. Of course, there are a plethora of questions raised in the first book by different situations and actions which don’t get immediately answered, but don’t despair! The second book does a marvelous job of answering, or continuing, them all! This book is a fun and intriguing read which will keep you flipping pages until the very end! I loved it!

A Message from Job Corps

My name is Dave Pena your Job Corps Admissions Counselor.  I know you are busy this time of year, but I would like to make you aware of the resource Job Corps can be for you and  young adults in your community.

Just like you, Job Corps wants all young adults to be successful.  But we both know that sometimes traditional school setting is not for everyone.  I want to remind you that Job Corps is an excellent option for students who are withdrawing from school, who won’t graduate or currently not enrolled.  Many of our graduates have commented on how Job Corps was an opportunity for them to make a fresh start – a different learning environment – a different set of friends and influencers.

Job Corps is here to help struggling young adults  find success in their lives.  Job Corps is free career training and education that helps young adults start on a new path to personal and career achievement.  Plus, students can enroll at any time.  Individual training programs are starting every week in several locations throughout the Northwest.

Job Corps offers the following benefits:

1.      Career Technical Training

2.      Basic Education Completion (GED and High School Diploma)

3.      Housing, Food and Clothing

4.      Advance Training and College Opportunities

5.      Job Placement Assistance

For more information please refer students to one of the Information Sessions listed below. Seating is limited so please have them call (208) 375-9414 to ensure a seat.

MAY 31^th @ 9;30 p.m.  Pocatello Dept of Labor Office

JUNE 1^st @ 9:30 a.m.  Twin Falls Dept of Labor Office

Tumblebooks comes to your iPad, iPod, or iPhone!

The Idaho Map Room

The University of Idaho Library would like to announce the release of its latest digital project, The Map Room.

http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/maps/

The Map Room is a Google Fusion Table powered Google Maps application that allows users to browse over 8000 photographs from our digital collections.  Users can browse all of these photos on our Map of All Items or browse items on 9 collection-specific maps (click the “About the Map Room” link on the home page to see the list).  Each map is searchable by keyword, limitable by decade, and equipped with pre-defined zooming coordinates for easier discovery. The images in the maps’ info/pop-up windows are linked from our instance of ContentDM; each provides metadata about the image, a link back to the image’s web page (for more information), and a link back to the collection from which the image is drawn.  Most of the photos cover the state of Idaho although there are also several groupings from around the Northwest and throughout the country.

The Map Room’s newest additions come from another new collection – Idaho Cities and Towns. http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/cities/

This collection makes available photographs from 134 Idaho Cities and Towns, from Aberdeen to Yellow Dog.   These can be browsed by time, location, subject, and city name (use the cities/subject tab).

Guilty as charged…

Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/MvWm0

Colorblindness effects roughly 7% of all men and 0.5% of all women. The above pie chart, while funny, is also strikingly true! Chances are you’ve asked the same of someone else before. But now you can see for yourself with the colorblindness Vision Simulator!

The Vision Simulator lets you select from a variety of images and apply a filter that simulates what a colorblind person would see. Satisfy your curiosity without annoying your colorblind friend!

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/2.html

Mango Languages Android App!

Introducing Ancestry.com!

Ancestry® Library Edition, distributed exclusively by ProQuest and powered by Ancestry.com, delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.

Ancestry Library Edition brings the world’s most popular consumer online genealogy resource to your library. It’s an unprecedented online collection of individuals from North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and more.

Answers await everyone—whether professional or hobbyist, expert or novice, genealogist, or historian—inside the more than 7,000 available databases. Here, you can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more.

And, with ongoing updates and new content always being added, you’ll keep coming back to discover more. Popular and recently added collections include:

U.S. collections deliver hundreds of millions of names from sources such as federal and U.S. censuses; birth, death, and marriage records including the Social Security Death Index; and U.S. border crossing and trans-ocean ship records.

Canadian collections provide nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada; and key vital records, such as the Drouin Collection (1621-1967), which includes nearly 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

U.K. collections offer censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland, with nearly 200 million records; Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London; and more.

Other international collections continue to grow with more than 46 million records from German census, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, phone directories, and more; Chinese surnames in the large and growing Jiapu Collection of Chinese lineage books; Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia; and more.

Military collections deliver over 150 million records containing information often not found elsewhere; and includes records from the colonial to the Vietnam era.

Multimedia collections deliver millions of files ranging from family and gravestone photos to postcards and newsreels.

All this, plus an intuitive search interface, detailed search indexes, and helpful Learning Center tools, makes Ancestry Library Edition an indispensible resource for any library serving genealogists and historians.

Come in and use Ancestry.com in the library today!  NOTE – You MUST be in the library to use this resource!

Support Your Idaho Libraries!

Support your state’s libraries now by sending your elected officials a message from your state library association’s take action page: http://capwiz.com/ala/id

Libraries continue to be busier than ever helping families, students, seniors, etc., during these tough times. But as we know, public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries are still struggling to maintain budgets, staff, and resources to serve the needs of their communities. Your state government provides much needed funding for libraries to provide public access to the Internet to everyone, critical databases for individuals and small businesses, homework help, and much more.

If you want to, include in your message a personal story about how your library makes a positive difference in your life!

Please forward this message to your friends, family, and colleagues, and ask them to take this opportunity to support libraries in your state!

Meet Penny

Penny Lefevre has worked at our library for two years, she loves working with the community. Penny mends the books when they come back to us falling apart. She also works the circulation desk, manages Interlibrary Loan, our Community Service program, and processes the magazines. Along with the rest of our staff she loves books, and her favorite book of all time is Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl. Currently, she is reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Penny is just about 5 feet tall and when she was younger wanted to work in criminal justice. She has lived in many places, such as Hawaii, Germany and England.

Happy April Fools’ Day!

So have you played a prank on someone today?  Or had one played on you?

Today is April Fools’ Day, a day when people play practical jokes and pranks on one another.  In this day and age, the Internet is great, great fun on April Fools!  There’s always some amusing prank that some company or group is doing.  For example, check out this likely April Fools joke by Google – Google Motion – which suggests that you can now use motions with your webcam to organize your emails.  Pretty funny!

April Fools’ Day is not a new day.  It’s actually pretty old, having been mentioned as far back as the 1300′s in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.  Lots of people think that April Fools’ Day came about when the calendar was switched from April 1st to January 1st, although that change didn’t occur until the 16th Century.  Either way, it’s a day of fun, and I hope you enjoy some safe and good natured pranking!

For more info:

Wikipedia

Prepping for the ACT or SAT?

Know anybody who is preparing for the ACT or SAT, or the GED or GMAT?  Did you know that Idaho provides access to preparation courses and practice tests for these, and more, exams through the Learning Express Library?  Well, they do, and it’s an easy way to practice up for those tests!

It’s the First Day of Spring!!!!

photo taken by Roger Lynn, in Moscow, Idaho.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogerlynn/470765168/

Happy first day of spring!

Today marks the first day of Spring, while marking the first day of Fall down in the Southern Hemisphere.  Today, the sun is directly over the Earth’s equator, and day and night are an equal 12 hours.  Also, from here on out it’s only going to get warmer and longer!  That means it’s time to clean up the campers and tents, and get the fishing gear out, because pretty soon we’ll all be outside a whole lot more.  Yaaay!

For More Info:

Answers.USA.gov

Wikipedia

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!  Are you wearing green?  You better hope so, or you’ll be pinched to pieces!

St Patrick’s Day is always celebrated on the 17th of March, which is the anniversary of St Patrick’s death.  St Patrick was a patron saint of Ireland, and was one of the most significant preachers who brought Christianity to Ireland.  He used the shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity to the native Irish, and worked hard for nearly thirty years to bring Christianity to the small country.

The celebration of St Patrick’s Day came to America from the Irish immigrants who settled in this country from its inception, and is now a nationally recognized holiday.  Feasting and merry making are common themes, as is wearing the color green.  But, did you know, St Patrick’s original color was blue?

What other neat facts can you learn about St Patrick’s Day?

References:

Wikipedia

History.com

Happy Pi Day!

It’s Pi Day!  You know, 3.141592653589793238492643383….

What is Pi?  Pi is probably the most famous mathematical constant, since we all learn about pi while in grade school in order to determine the circumference of a circle.  Pi never ends; the number continues forever after the decimal point.  With today’s computers, pi has been calculated to one trillion spaces after the decimal point.  It also continues indefinitely without ever repeating!

Pi day was first created and celebrated by a famous physicist in San Fransisco, and was made a real, national holiday when, on March 12, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution (HRES 224) making March 14th National Pi Day.  Why March 14th?  Why, 3/14, of course!!!!

Learn some really neat things about Pi at the official Pi Day website, linked below!

References:

Official Pi Day Website

Wikipedia

Meet Josh

THE GIRLS OF ROOM 28

Idaho Pictures Online!

I would like to announce the release of the newly redesigned Barnard Stockbridge Photograph Collection:

http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/barstock/

The digital collection contains over 1200 historical photographs of Northern Idaho towns, mines, and mills, including photographs documenting the aftermath of the Big Burn fires of 1910 (an online exhibition of these photos and related documents can be found here: http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/bigburn/). The original collection consists of over 200,000 nitrocellulose and glass plate negatives taken by Nellie Stockbridge and her predecessor, T.N. Barnard. These were given to the University of Idaho Library in 1962.

The web portal allows a user to browse these photos by timeline, subject or Google map interface, view selected photos via image gallery, and search the photographs’ metadata.

Tastekid and Decide-o-tron

Decide-o-tron is Pandora for gamer’s.  It quickly builds a library of the games you like and own, then makes a list of recommendations for you based on your library. It just launched in August for iOS devices and will be free. So grab your iphone or ipad and see what Decide-o-tron recommends for you!

Tastekid  is able to give you recommendations based on your interests in music, games, and books.  TasteKid has been around since 2008  an actual mascot called Emmy, the TasteKid. Emmy is a adorable anime  girl who will guide you along the site and provide book, music and movie recommendations for you. Tastekid is also available as an app for your phone.

Both have similar attributes as Pandora, good reads, last fm and book lamp. Both of these sites offer quick recommendations and “adapt” to your taste in order to make searching for your interests quicker and easier. Check theses fun sites out!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Made in the U.S.A

Meet Nancy

In the course of the 30 months or so that I have worked here my co-workers have shared with me their abundance of generosity and kindness and interests. One introduced me to Aunt Dimity. Another to Atticus O’Sullivan a contemporary to the students at Arizona State university, though he is 2000 some years old. And to his Irish wolfhound Oberon. Amelia Peabody was another clerk’s source of chuckles even as she, Amelia, solved her Egyptian mysteries. A co-worker defended Agatha Raisin’s crabbiness, and indirectly invited lovable Hamish Macbeth into my world of books. Frederick Bastiat knew in the 1800′s the true concept of law, what we are still endeavoring to attain. On and on.

Nana – Anna

OLD – YOUNG

ENDING – STARTING OUT

BUNDLED UP – BUNDLED DOWN

BEEN THERE – WHERE TO

KNOWING – WONDERING

HAPPY – HAPPY

and the blood of generations courses through both and the Spirit of God transforms both

Zephyr and Gentle Breeze they name Thee

And so Thou art in Thy domain

But if it please Thee Lord I pray Thee

Possess me as a Hurricane

Draw of the Library for me?

Finding the answers.

Serving others of the Greatest Generation.

Enjoying the mothers and their wee ones

Working with wonderful colleagues

A few facts about SEICAA

The Weird Sisters

 

TumbleBooks on the iPad and iPhone!

We are pleased to announce that we have begun a project which will allow your students and patrons to access your TumbleBooks picture book collection on the iPad and iPhone 4!!

As you may know, TumbleBooks are created using flash animation and Apple has been steadfast in refusing to include flash in their iPads and iPhones.

So, in the spirit of, “if you can’t beat them, join them”, and in our continued efforts to give our subscribers the best experience possible, we are making non flash videos especially for the iPad.

You can check out our first batch of iPad-compatible TumbleBooks by signing into TumbleBookLibrary on your iPad and going to the Story Books section. There are currently 44 iPad books to choose from!

Just below the “Story Books” heading, there is a link called “Click here for iPad-compatible titles”. Click on this link, and the iPad books will be sorted for you. Now, simply click on the “iPad” button to launch the book of your choice! The book will appear in a small window at first, but to expand, simply click on the “full screen” button.

In the coming months, we will be creating iPad content for the entire TumbleBooks animated picture books collection.

Maximize Your Job Search!

Looking for work?  Or maybe looking to find a new job or a new profession?

Many job search tools and resources are available from the Idaho Department of Labor, including the following recent additions:

1.       Online workshop: “Maximize Your Job Search” online workshop, a step-by-step guide to a better job search that includes video and audio tips Idaho employers, emphasizing what they expect to see in a potential employee. Find the online workshop atwww2.labor.idaho.gov/jobsearchworkbook/.

2.       24-page workbook: “Maximize Your Job Search”  workbook, a 24-page guide to getting started, identifying skills, networking, the hidden job market, using social media, and more.

• ·         A PDF of the “Maximize Your Job Search” workbook is available at http://labor.idaho.gov/publications/JobSearch_Workbook.pdf

Website Roundup

Oooooh, who doesn’t love a great FREE website?  We’ve stumbled across these and we thought we would share!

MATCHED

Meet Holly

Holly has worked at the library for about two and a half years.   She is a clerk up front  helping patrons as well as shelving books.   Her favorite part of working here is getting to work with all the different people.   Holly also loves working around books all day!   When asked who her favorite author is or favorite book she exclaimed, “I love to many books to name just one!”  Currently Holly is reading  One fun random fact about Holly is that she enjoys watching reruns of  The Cosby Show and The Nanny.

Auto Repair Reference Center

Did you know that EBSCO’s newly enhanced Auto Repair Reference Center, (ARRC), offers the most comprehensive collection of automobile repair information in the market?

Content includes:

•    Coverage of more than 37,000 vehicles from 1945 to present
•    Millions of drawings and step-by-step photographs
•    Approximately 110,000 technical service bulletins & recalls issued by the original equipment vehicle manufacturer
•    Over 180,000 enhanced wiring diagrams for easy viewing and printing
•    Specifications & maintenance schedules
•    Labor Time Guide & Estimator
•   Video overviews of auto systems with AutoIQ
•    Quick Tips (a complete guide to vehicle ownership & maintenance)
•    Diagnostic information

Interface features include:

•    Completely redesigned interface with intuitive, user-friendly navigation
•    Enhanced searching within content collections
•    Ability to print/email/save high-quality PDF records
•    Increased repair coverage – more than 37,000 vehicles covered
•    Expanded, in-depth repair information from the major original equipment manufacturers, including Ford, Honda, and GMC
•    On-Board Diagnostics (OBD II) codes with description and troubleshooting information

The Help

THE HELP BY KATHRYN STOCKETT

Kathryn Stockett’s first novel; “The Help” is considered one of the years best. This is the story of a young white woman,Skeeter Phelan growing up in Jackson Mississippi in the 1960’s and the black maids, Aibileen and Minny who work for white families in the town. Aibileen is the older, wiser maid who loves the children she cares for, Minny is a younger, sassier maid who has trouble keeping work and struggles to support her own five children.

I personally enjoyed this novel, I like the way it was written from the perspective of these three different women. Skeeter is a woman who grew up with a  maid who she faithfully stayed in touch with while studying  journalism and literature at Ole Miss. Then the letters suddenly stop.She tries to find answers when she returns from school but without avail, so she stays busy with her friends Hilly Holbrook; head socialite and Elizabeth Leefolt who jumps at Hilly’s every whim.

In the beginning of the story Minny works for Holly Holbrook and her aging mother while, Aibileen has been working for Elizabeth Holbrook . After scandal which leads to Minny being fired and having no luck finding another family to work for. A new woman, Celia Foote enters the picture who the other “proper ladies” consider no good “white trash.” Aibileen helps Minny find employment with Celia, who attempts to keep it a secret from her husband. Many different relationships get tied up and messy, Skeeter is wanting to know what happened to her old maid,Constantine as well as working on her career in journalism. She finds a position at the Jackson local paper writing advice columns on house cleaning, something she herself has no knowledge of. With permission from Elizabeth Skeeter begins asking  Aibileen’s advice for her column and a slow tentative friendship develops. Which begins the enticing idea for a tell all book from the maids perspective of working for white women in Jackson Mississippi.Thus begins a life of sneaking around and betraying trusts to bring out these women’s stories.

This  story exposes the “what people think” ideals of 1960’s Mississippi. Hilly Holbrook was a representation of the opinion machine and gossip mill that “mattered” in segregated life. With misplaced courtship, sass or sympathy;a step across the imaginary color barrier an entire life could be made or ruined.

A well written novel set in a historical time, “The Help” is a wonderful look at the radicals of times long ago and how far we have come. Life held hardships and fear along with grace and goodness. Stockett captures both in this complex reality and I believe shows the invisible barriers we have crossed and how much we could have together by crossing the lines.

Texting Makes U Stupid (Well, Sort Of)

This is a very interesting article that came across my email a few days ago.  Good food for thought, but I do think that any act of reading is a good place to start.  You dont have to begin with a heavy classic, as long as you and your loved ones are reading SOMETHING.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/11/how-will-today-s-texting-teenagers-compete.html

Texting Makes U Stupid

The U.S. is producing civilizational illiterates. How will they compete against America’s global rivals?

by Niall Ferguson | September 11, 2011

The good news is that today’s teenagers are avid readers and prolific writers. The bad news is that what they are reading and writing are text messages.

According to a survey carried out last year by Nielsen, Americans between the ages of 13 and 17 send and receive an average of 3,339 texts per month. Teenage girls send and receive more than 4,000.

It’s an unmissable trend. Even if you don’t have teenage kids, you’ll see other people’s offspring slouching around, eyes averted, tapping away, oblivious to their surroundings. Take a group of teenagers to see the seven wonders of the world. They’ll be texting all the way. Show a teenager Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi. You might get a cursory glance before a buzz signals the arrival of the latest SMS. Seconds before the earth is hit by a gigantic asteroid or engulfed by a super tsunami, millions of lithe young fingers will be typing the human race’s last inane words to itself:

C u later NOT

Now, before I am accused of throwing stones in a glass house, let me confess. I probably send about 50 emails a day, and I receive what seem like 200. But there’s a difference. I also read books. It’s a quaint old habit I picked up as a kid, in the days before cellphones began nesting, cuckoolike, in the palms of the young.

Half of today’s teenagers don’t read books—except when they’re made to. According to the most recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, the proportion of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 who read a book not required at school or at work is now 50.7 percent, the lowest for any adult age group younger than 75, and down from 59 percent 20 years ago.

Back in 2004, when the NEA last looked at younger readers’ habits, it was already the case that fewer than one in three 13-year-olds read for pleasure every day. Especially terrifying to me as a professor is the fact that two thirds of college freshmen read for pleasure for less than an hour per week. A third of seniors don’t read for pleasure at all.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. First, we are falling behind more-literate societies. According to the results of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s most recent Program for International Student Assessment, the gap in reading ability between the 15-year-olds in the Shanghai district of China and those in the United States is now as big as the gap between the U.S. and Serbia or Chile.

But the more important reason is that children who don’t read are cut off from the civilization of their ancestors.

So take a look at your bookshelves. Do you have all—better make that any—of the books on the Columbia University undergraduate core curriculum? It’s not perfect, but it’s as good a list of the canon of Western civilization as I know of. Let’s take the 11 books on the syllabus for the spring 2012 semester: (1) Virgil’s Aeneid; (2) Ovid’s Metamorphoses; (3) Saint Augustine’s Confessions; (4) Dante’s The Divine Comedy; (5) Montaigne’s Essays; (6) Shakespeare’s King Lear; (7) Cervantes’s Don Quixote; (8) Goethe’s Faust; (9) Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; (10) Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment; (11) Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.

Step one: Order the ones you haven’t got today. (And get War and Peace, Great Expectations, and Moby-Dick while you’re at it.)

Step two: When vacation time comes around, tell the teenagers in your life you are taking them to a party. Or to camp. They won’t resist.

Step three: Drive to a remote rural location where there is no cell-phone reception whatsoever.

Step four: Reveal that this is in fact a reading party and that for the next two weeks reading is all you are proposing to do—apart from eating, sleeping, and talking about the books.

Welcome to Book Camp, kids.

Cliff Notes Study Guides in Ebsco eBooks

The end of the semester is right around the corner!  Get ready with Cliff Notes Study Guides!

Did you know that our Ebsco eBooks subscription contains lots and lots of Cliff Notes study guides?  Well, it does, and through Ebsco, you can download and view tons of study guides on literature, math, science, and more!  Ebsco also offers tons of other manuals and reference books, which will help you master topics for your final tests and exams, or to just learn more about topics you’re interested in!

Log into Ebsco eBooks today!  You’ll need your 14 digit barcode to log into Ebsco from home.

Ebsco eBooks here