Trifles and Tidbits

While glancing at Arts & Letters Daily I was directed to another great site for the lifelong learner in us all: Open Culture. Open culture is an ever-growing collection of places you can get free college courses from great universities, resources to turn toys into tools, and as the tagline says, offers "the best cultural and educational media on the web". Then a patron directed me to this site that she enjoys, which offers free university courses you can listen to. You can choose from 24 subjects, including history, chemistry, literature, and philosophy to get world-class lectures from professors from the likes of Yale, Stanford, MIT, etc. I was looking for sites to direct patrons to for e-books for their various devices, and good old Project Gutenberg is still with us, and keeping up with the times. They offer e-books for smart phones, the Kindle, Sony e-reader, as well as letting you read on your computer. They also offer a Top 100 downloads list if you are having a hard time figuring out what you want to read. Here are the Top 10 books downloaded yesterday: Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (989) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (859) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (466) The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (455) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (417) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (409) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (405) A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (289) Ulysses by James Joyce (281) The Art of War by Sunzi 6th cent. B.C. (281) Technology is playing an ever-larger part in our day to day lives. How has your life changed the past year? Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, what have you tried and loved, or tried and abandoned? What were your reasons for either? I'll start: I don't get the Twitter thing. Sorry--just don't. One of the big flops of the year was TwitterPeek, which was a device dedicated to following Twitterers, twittering back, and enjoying all things Twittered. For only $99, plus a small service fee, you could follow Paris Hilton or whomever you choose who twits, and never miss a thing--except what is going on around you. Anyone out there follow anyone or thing on Twitter? If it works for you, let me know. Cheers and Happy New Year! Melody

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Walls! Halls! Ceilings!

Ok, at least we have the beginnings of walls delineating the various spaces of the addition here, as well as a roof. See for yourself!

More pictures to come!

Literary characters and pumpkins, oh my!

Ok, well it worked in my head.

Two blogs in two days!!

I thought I would help Melody out in the posting section, for once.

Since Halloween is coming up, I was wondering what you all are planning to be - if you plan to be anything. Are any of you planning to be a character from a book?

I'll share first. This year, I am going to be Alice in Wonderland!

Drum roll, please!

The winner of the Brick Guess Contest of 09 is. . . Bridget at Southwest Library! Bridget guessed 10080 bricks, and the correct answer is 10750. Now Bridget is the proud owner of these fine goodies: An APL bag and mouse pad, as well as a $15 gift card to Starbucks. Congratulations to Bridget! And thank you to all who guessed!

See? No orange wallpaper!

Here are some pics of the addition going up:






The masons have their mortar delivered to them via heavy machinery--in large tubs. The machine to the left is setting the tub on the scaffolding for the mason. Pretty cool and no one gets hurt, except possibly the librarian who may or may not get out of the way fast enough. I did, though it took me a minute to realize it wasn't chasing me. And they say libraries are quiet, possibly boring places!



Here is the framework for our roof! Rivet guns are involved, and it is a little noisy.



So there you have the progress report for the addition. Now for the fun part! Answer this question, and win a fabulous prize or two!

How many bricks were ordered for this project? The contest will be open through out the weekend. The closest guess submitted by 9 AM Monday morning will win--this will give everyone an opportunity to guess. Please share this contest with your staff who may not have access to email or the blog on a regular basis.

And no fair asking the contractor. He will tell me.

Cheers,
Melody

Famous Readers

You too can be a reading star, spreading the word about great books you have read with the community. Even if Amanda's baked delicacies have not enticed you thus far, you can now be immortalized in the fabulous new Staff Picks display in the lobby at Downtown.



So if you read or watch something you enjoyed, feel free to share with the rest of us. Your pick will lead Bookletters subscribers to titles they didn't know about.

And don't you love to see what everyone else is reading? I know I do! Plus I get to persuade people that books with talking animals are too for grown-ups! We can go on safari, see what a wombat really does all day, and see why it is hard to forget Sarah Marshall.

Of course, you are not limited to books. Your Staff Picks editor, Amanda, welcomes reviews of videos/dvds that are in our library collections as well. So whether you enjoy documentaries or nonfiction, chick flicks or chick lit, true crime or film noir, share your picks with us!

Remember, sharing is nice!

Cheers,

Melody

Earth Movers

Here at Downtown, the earth was moving! The contractors broke ground, and we are moving ahead on the addition to the building, providing much needed space for the Harrington Library Consortium, TPLS, and a meeting room and classroom.

The heavy equipment, including a blade, roller, and skid loader, were performing a motorized ballet:

And voila! The pad is ready for the next step!

This process is vital to having a good foundation. Good dirtwork makes all the difference in a building, whether it is a house or building that covers acres. The roller is a pad-foot roller, which compacts the soil better, particularly clay soil.

It was pretty loud, and the building did vibrate at times. In case you didn't see the article in the newspaper, we will be adding 3260 square feet to the building.

Progress is moving pretty quickly on the addition. The footings were poured next, after much drilling and jackhammering needed to connect the new foundation to the existing one. The giant crane was pretty cool. That is about 4 stories tall, ladies and gentlemen! The crane was connected to two concrete trucks, and the job took maybe an hour to complete. See, the right equipment does make all the difference! I guess a hammer might be better than a shoe. Hmm.

Here is the big crane truck.

Pretty impressive. What you can't see is the cement truck behind this guy, piping the cement to the crane/hose apparatus.

What is it all for? To pour the footings for the new addition.

Here are some crew members adjusting the rebar. The plan is taking shape, and you can almost visualize walls and doors, as well as windows.

NPR Listeners Choose Best Beach Books

Here we are at the end of July already. School will be starting before you know it, and then we will be oohing and ahhing over cooler temperatures and autumn leaves. So what better time to consider this list, compiled by NPR fans, of the best summer reads?

Summer reads are generally considered fluffy and light, but looking at this list makes me wonder about that! One Hundred Years of Solitude? Really?

So what book is your ideal summer read? I would have to go with a re-read of Austen or the Harry Potter series.

Blast from the Past

For those of us who may be digging in our heels at the deluge of on-demand technology, I humbly point you to this article. I was a neo-Luddite myself for awhile but happily embrace most new technologies if there is the slightest chance my life will be made a smidgen easier or more enjoyable.

This article brings back fond memories--but my memories go farther back to my Harvest Gold RCA transistor radio. I could hang it off the handlebars of my bike and pedal away with my music with me. I was cool, if only in my own mind. It was only an AM radio, but that was ok, too. It was music I could take with me. Looking back at the list in the article, what do you fondly remember enjoying or using? How would you explain missing a television show or a rotary dial telephone to a 12 year-old?

Uh-oh--check the shelf!

Actually, I don't believe any APL locations really need get too worried, but here is an entire website dedicated to demonstrating the need for timely, consistent weeding. Take a look and laugh. Then, you might want to check just to make sure . . . .

Web 2.0 continued

For those in attendance at Lee Carter's workshop on Web 2.0 technologies, read this to see what you can do when you are committed to something. I do feel a little like a slacker after this article.

For those unable to attend, there will be an encore presentation later this year, and I highly encourage you to attend. Lee covered blogging, social networks, and new technologies. There was a technology petting zoo so people could hold and look at new gadgets. As always, Linda had nutritious, tasty snacks so everyone could keep up their strength.

Cheers,
Melody

The Eastern Front

Here is the display from SW for the Amarillo Reads book.

Lots of interesting items, including a Soviet army hat, combat boots, and other gear.

It is likely that WWII could have dragged on for much longer if the Axis powers were not forced to fight on two fronts. City of Thieves brings the Siege of Leningrad to modern readers.

It is estimated that the Soviets lost close to a million people--mostly civilians--though the official count was considerably less than that, at 632,000, according to Harrison E. Salisbury, author of The 900 Days: the Siege of Leningrad. The winter of 1941-1942 was known as the Hunger Winter. Benioff cites Salisbury as his main source, along with interviews with survivors. Hitler sent invitations to a New Year's Eve party to be held in Leningrad, confident that he would hold the heart of Russia. We know how that turned out.

Bridget and Cynthia worked together on the display and SW, and it is quite moving.

The Courtyard Hound

There are so many layers to City of Thieves; we have the game of chess, the search for eggs, and the book within the book, The Courtyard Hound. Kolya and Lev discuss the merits of various Russian authors on their journey, and Northwest's display highlights the literary layer of the Amarillo Reads selection:

Love the onion domes! And the Matrushka dolls! Oh, and Anna Karenina as well.

If you have read the book, you recall the spriited discussions between Kolya and Lev regarding the great Russian authors.

North Branch Eggstravaganza

Heh heh. Get it? No? Well, look at these pictures of the fantastic display at North:

More display loveliness:

See? You couldn't resist a bad pun either.

I do apologize for not making this post by 6 for those of you going home then on Wed, but sometimes the best laid plans. . . .