Happy 2008! December 31, 2007
I stumbled upon this advertisement while en route to baggage claim at O’Hare. I think librarians are much sexier than an electronic device!
Fremont Street December 31, 2007
A short trip on the Las Vegas Monorail and a nasty bus ride lead to the Fremont Street Experience. Here’s a short video that we just posted on Youtube.
Yankees and Indians December 30, 2007
I’m back from Vegas! I will not discuss my losses :(, only the books I’ve read!
I finished Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman on the ride to Vegas. It tells the story of Alice Ann Moxley’s troubles in her new Mississippi town and school during 1964. Her father works for the FBI and is reassigned from Chicago to Mississippi to protect black people registering to vote. Alice’s school is one of the first to integrate when Valerie Taylor joins Alice’s sixth grade class. The students torment and try to drive Valerie out of the school. Alice is faced with doing what is right and fitting in.
Here is a review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from Amazon.com
Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie’s first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. He says, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions about what constitutes one’s community, identity, and tribe. The daily struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths of the protagonist’s grandmother, dog, and older sister would be all but unbearable without the humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world. The many characters, on and off the rez, with whom he has dealings are portrayed with compassion and verve, particularly the adults in his extended family. Forney’s simple pencil cartoons fit perfectly within the story and reflect the burgeoning artist within Junior. Reluctant readers can even skim the pictures and construct their own story based exclusively on Forney’s illustrations. The teen’s determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a low-key manner. Alexie’s tale of self-discovery is a first purchase for all libraries.
I kept reminding myself that this book is not for elementary school, but an upper middle school and high school audience.
30 Days of Night December 25, 2007
I am not sure Barrow, Alaska would be my first place to spend Christmas but I’d love to travel there someday! 
Ground zero for cold: As winter begins, Barrow braces for brutal temperatures, food shortages and more darkness” Last December, we kicked off a wintertime series about Barrow, Alaska — the northernmost town in the United States. With a population of 4,500 (57 percent of them native Inupiat Eskimos), Barrow holds the record for the lowest average temperature in the United States. But the town won another distinction this year: It is the supposed setting for the horror movie “30 Days of Night,” in which Barrow is attacked by a gang of bloodthirsty vampires. The real town of Barrow doesn’t have a movie theater, so the film won’t be available there until the DVD release in February. But even without seeing the film, people in Barrow said they were skeptical. They complained that the title, “30 Days of Night,” was just plain wrong. Every year Barrow is plunged into darkness when the sun dips below the horizon in late November and doesn’t come back until late January. But that means — let’s count the calendar days — the darkness lasts for more than two months. Maybe “60-Some Days of Night” seemed too long for restless audiences. Then there is the setting. The movie was shot in New Zealand, where filmmakers reportedly used tons of Epsom salts, shredded paper and white blankets to re-create Barrow’s arctic landscape. “I think the movie was a bit of a non-event here. People pretty much laughed at the whole idea. It was a ridiculous concept,” said David Ongley, the director of Barrow’s library. “There aren’t too many movies that get Alaska right.” — Colleen Mastony
Retrieved from the Chicago Tribune. (Thank you, Mary Ann)
The perfect day to read… December 24, 2007
Or
I first read this short book on Christmas Eve ‘00. I’ve read it ever Eve since!
Elf or Scrooge yourself December 24, 2007
If you have not already”Elfed” yourself this holiday season, head on over to www.elfyourself.com. You can see mine at http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1745943959. If you’re not feeling the holiday cheer, head on over to www.scroogeyourself.com. Here’s mine http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1746014453
Young People’s Library December 22, 2007
A great entrance to the children’s department! I wish our school library had a more inviting entrance and big windows.
I wish our school library had a more inviting entrance and big windows. 
Get the most out of your iPod! December 22, 2007
Openculture complied a list of 10 ways to make your iPod a better learning gadget.
Put Wikipedia on Your Ipod: Encyclopodia is a free piece of software that brings Wikipedia to the iPod. Encyclopodia can be installed on iPod generations 1 through 4, as well as iPod Minis. Definitely worth a try.
2) Watch DVDs on Your iPod: This free, open source software works on MacOS X, Linux and Windows, and makes it simple to load and watch DVDs on your video iPod. Here are some helpful instructions to get you started.
3) Load YouTube Videos to Your iPod: ConvertTube allows you to take any YouTube video and convert it to a format that works on your iPod. It’s as simple as entering a url and clicking “convert and download.” If you want to give the software a test run, try converting these UC Berkeley courses that were recently launched on YouTube. Or these Nobel Prize speeches.
4) Make Other Video Formats iPod-Ready: Lifehacker recently mentioned three other pieces of software that will make a variety of other video formats iPod-ready. For Windows, see Videora; for Mac, see iSquint. Or more generally see Zamzar. In a nutshell, these items will turn a wide range of video formats into the one video format (MPEG-4) that your iPod likes.
5) Convert MP3 files into One Big iPod Audiobook File: Downloading free audiobooks can often require you to work with a series of separate mp3 files, which can make things rather cumbersome. This software does you a favor and mashes the files into one manageable file. And it has a feature that will let your Ipod remember where you stopped if you decide to take a break. (If this one appeals to you, be sure to see item # 10.)
6) Create eBooks for the iPod: This bit of software turns text files into ebooks that you can read on your iPod. After you load a text file, it will make the text readable through iPod Notes (which you can find under “Extra Setttings”). Then, voila, a portable text. Thanks to Pachecus.com for pointing this one out.
7) Record Web Audio and Move it To Your iPod: Designed for Macs, iRecordMusic enables you to easily record audio from web pages and Internet radio streams. So if you’re surfing the web and find a good piece of streamed audio, it lets you record it and then transfer the media to your iPod. The only downside is that the software isn’t free. It will run you $24.95, but it may well be worth it. You can download a trial version here.
Get a Civic Education on Your Ipod: This site allows you to download to your iPod ten important documents that any educated American should be familiar with. The texts include: The Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights, Louisiana Purchase Treaty, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Civil Rights Act, and several others. (Note: You can also download here an iPod version of Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary for $9.95.)
9) Load Maps onto Your iPod: If you travel to New York City, Paris, Berlin or Moscow, how will you find your way to the museums? iSubwayMaps is the answer. It lets you download subway maps from 24 major cities across the globe. You’ll only need an iPod with photo capability and you’ll be good to go. (By the way, if you want to load Google Maps to your iPod, here is a tutorial that will explain how.)
10) Study Foreign Languages, Take University Courses, and Listen to AudioBooks on Your iPod - All for Free: Ok, so this is a cheap but worthwhile plug for some of our richest podcast collections. Our Foreign Language Podcast Collection lets your learn over 25 different foreign languages. Our AudioBook podcast collection will give you portable access to 100+ classic works of literature and nonfiction. And this university podcast collection provides access to over 85 courses recorded at leading American universities. Not bad, if I say so myself. For our complete podcast library, click here.
Know of more software or content that will supercharge your iPod? Feel free to list them in our comments. And if they’re good, we’ll happily add them to the list.
Oak Park Public Library December 22, 2007
Map of OPPL, originally uploaded by mstephens7.
Awesome! All libraries should see this model and consider a similar graphic! CC to all libraries!35 Library Cards. Yikes! December 22, 2007
AKRON — Thirty-six-year-old Tammie Ware is facing felony charges after police found more than 1000 library items in her home worth more than $15,000
“Her house was just boxes and bookshelves full, she had her own library at her house,” says Lt. Rick Edwards of the Akron Police Department.
Police confiscated books, CDs, DVDs, even toys from the children’s play area.
“It made me feel very sad to think that someone was abusing the system and then preventing other people from getting the material and moreso involving children,” says Carla Davis of the Akron-Summit County Public Library.
Ware is accused of signing up her children repeatedly, using fake names, and checking out library materials under those names until the fines got too exorbitant.
“To the point she had listed thirty-five children,” Edwards explains. “She had fines that totaled over eight thousand dollars.”
The scheme went on for years, until an alert library worker recognized Ware signing up her children under false names…again.
“Something clicked in her mind and said, ‘Something isn’t right,’” says Davis. “Then she started searching the records and seeing that there was this convergence of all these fictitious names at one addess.”
That lead police to Ware’s house.
“It was reall shocking to watch them fill that big, that pickup truck full of that stuff,” remembers a neighbor who does not want to be identified. “It was like, ‘Wow, that’s all Summit County Library?’ It was amazing to watch, that somebody could have that many in one house.”
Davis says this appears to be an isolated incident. Still, she says the library will better enforce existing security measures and will institute some new ones to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The stolen items are now back on the shelves.
“For us to get out items back, that’s what we want so that we can get them back out there, especially the popular items,” Davis says.
Ware has one prior charge of theft at a Sears store in 2004. She now faces two felony charges.
Retrieved from here.
