Database Updates

Hi Everyone,

We have recently made some changes to our database.

1. There was a behind-the-scenes change that affected our database links. Until our official website page for the databases is updated, please use the links at this page. If you tried to get in to our databases from our official page last evening (or early this morning), we apologize for any inconvenience you may have encountered-our roll-out did not go according to our plan.

2. *New Purchases!*
We have added two new databases:
Poetry Criticism
Short Story Criticism
These two new databases offer concise bios, bibliographies, and literature criticism on authors.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact your campus library.

Have a great holiday break!

Be Winter Ready

Winter is fast approaching, complete with the usual bitter cold temperatures and dangerous driving conditions. If you haven't started to prepare yet, begin asap!

Here are a few websites to help get you started:

The American Red Cross, Winter Storm
Winter Hazard Awareness Info from the State of Minnesota
Prepare Your Home for Winter Weather from the Minnesota Safety Council
Traffic and Road conditions from the Minnesota Department of Transportation

Stay warm and stay safe!

National Gaming Day @ your library

Come join us at the Moorhead Campus Library as we play this Saturday from 9:00am-1:00pm.

Stanford's online gallery of Tobacco Company Adverstisements

Stanford University's School of Medicine launched on online gallery of historic tobacco advertisements. According to the website, "Our intention is to tell—principally through advertising images—the story of how, between the late 1920s and the early 1950s, tobacco companies used deceptive and often patently false claims in an effort to reassure the public of the safety of their products." Some of the advertisements are shocking and ridiculous, a few are even disturbing. Check it out!

Even Honeybees Vote!

Stop by the MSCTC Moorhead library and take a look at the very last page of this month's Discover magazine. It's "20 Things You Didn't Know About Elections." It's full of fun and interesting facts. For example, humans aren't the only species that vote, and rain can have a huge effect on voter turnouts!

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center trial over this weekend!!!

Hi MSCTC Students and Faculty,

This weekend, you have the opportunity to try a database that we are considering. The database is Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center by Gale/Cengage Learning. To go to this database, click here.

Please direct any comments you may have about the usefulness of this resource to Perry Werner.

For help using this resource, please contact your campus library.

Thanks~
Carrie

New Tools on the Blog!

Hi Everyone,

We've added two new things to the blog:

1) Access to the MSCTC library catalog via the MnPALS Plus search interface-just at the top of our right column
2) The MSCTC Library Follower area at the bottom of the right column-let others know you read the MSCTC Library World Blog.

If you want to bookmark/favorites/etc. the alternative library search screen, please use http://plus.mnpals.net/?library=CTC as the main address. For those of you who prefer to use the old catalog search interface, that is still available at http://msctc.mnpals.net/! As always, if you have any questions about searching with the catalog, contact your campus library-or use any of our Meebo widgets.

If you want to request a book via InterLibrary Loan (ILL), please use the old catalog search interface at http://msctc.mnpals.net/.

20 Best Websites To Download Free EBooks

From our Friends at the Librarians Internet Index:
20 Best Websites to Download Free E-books
August 2008 annotated list of websites where you can download books for free. Some sites listed focus on computer programming, Shakespeare, government texts, technology, and other subjects. Reader comments provide suggestions of additional sources. From a blog with tips for tech users, designers, and bloggers.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/

Bookshare.org Library Now Free to All U.S. Students with Qualifying Disabilities

Bookshare.org believes that people with print disabilities deserve the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy. The Bookshare.org library provides print disabled people in the United States with legal access to over 40,000 books and 150 periodicals that are converted to Braille, large print or digital formats for text to speech audio. More about Bookshare.org
From ours friends at
LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Moorhead Campus Library Information

Welcome back, students!

We hope you have had a good summer. To help you make studying plans for the upcoming semester, we have made a schedule of our hours for the next few weeks. To see it, please visit http://msctcmoorheadlibrarian.googlepages.com/msctcmoorheadlibraryhours. We are also still located in the E-hall right by the S(outh) 2 entrance.

Additionally:
-our campus library is also making fall IDs. (Yes, we now have the stickers for the Doyle's program in. For information on that program, please contact Student Government.)
-We will still be proctoring distance students, please email mhd-libproctor@minnesota.edu.

If you need anything else, please feel free to contact us.

Contact information:
-You can IM us-screenname msctcLibrarian (AOL & Yahoo)
-call us at 218/299-6530
-email mhd-libresource@minnesota.edu

See you next week!

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2008

It's that time again...
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
2008 Results

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped "Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."

Garrison Spik
Washington, D.C.

South Ossetian Separatism in Georgia

From our Friends at LII: May 2006 discussion that considers "the history of relations between the Georgians, Russians and Ossetians, the ethnic/cultural differences, the current interests/motivations of all sides, and the prospects for settling the dispute over the land," where "the South Ossetians of Georgia have been in conflict with the Georgian government since just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's." An Inventory of Conflict & Environment (ICE) study from American University.
URL: http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/ossetia.htm

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

One of my favorite authors Alexander Solzhenitsyn,died Monday, August 3rd at age 89. He was the Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system. Here are a few sites about author and his work.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

And from From Wikipedia

Campus Corner on the DL Campus

We’re on TV!

Campus Corner is a show on TV 3 that is promoting MSCTC-DL in its entirety. The audio will be heard on KDLM once a week. Hodge Podge is a talk show on KDLM that has MSCTC-DL scheduled for every 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Here is a schedule for you to catch these programs.

Hodge Podge, KDLM, 3rd Tuesday of each month, 8:30 a.m.

Campus Corner, TV 3, daily at 6:05, 10:05, 2:05 a.m. and p.m.

Campus Corner, KDLM, Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m.

Also Watch us on YouTube

100 Useful Niche Search Engines You’ve Never Heard Of:

From College@Home: Though the general Google site is often touted as the number one search engine online, college students sometimes need more specific tools to help them uncover quality information on the Web that they can use for class projects, research papers, and even job and apartment searches. This list features a huge variety of search engines that can be useful to students,faculty and staff including tools that find photos, sound effects, summer internships, health and medical information, reference guides, and a lot more.

Come play find the library!

We're not hiding on purpose! There is a construction project currently going on at MSCTC Moorhead and entry is not permitted through door S2 and we are cut off physically from the west half of the building. To get to the library, enter through door S3 by the southeast corner of the building.
We apologize for any inconvenience!
Hopefully the construction project will be wrapped up next week sometime.
We appreciate your patience!
Thank you!

Remember Magic Eye Books?

Do you remember the Magic Eye books that were really popular in the 1990s? They had the pictures in them that sometimes looked like TV static but if you stared long enough, a 3-D image would appear. I used to wonder how these images were created. At the Magic Eye website, all of the mysteries are explained! Plus they have images you can look at online. See if you still have what it takes to stare down these pictures to see the 3-D image!

Possible Delays...

Over the weekend, we will be upgrading our system. If you experience any glitches or errors, please be patient. If this continues over the weekend, please try again on Monday. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Updates & Reminders from the Moorhead campus library

Hi everyone,

We just wanted to let you know we did a bit more housecleaning and have a free table of some magazines and books outside our library.

Also, just a reminder to those of you who still have items checked out from Spring semester (or an even earlier semester)-please return your items as soon as possible! If your item is late to the point that we sent you a lost bill, we will remove the lost item charges when you return it and you will just be charged the overdue fines and processing fee. Remember, any lost item charges, late fees, and processing fees will cause a hold to be put on your student account. If you need to make any special arrangements for payment, please contact Perry Werner (218/299-6531). If you need to see if you have any items still checked out or any fines and fees on your account, feel free to contact the library circulation desk at 218/299-6530.

Thanks and have a great summer!

Summer Hours begin today at Moorhead

At the MSCTC Moorhead Library, we are offically beginning our summer schedule today. Our new hours are:
Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:00pm
So, if you need to take a proctored exam or do any type of research, please time it accordingly to our new hours.
Thank you!!!
:)

Feed Someone

Free Rice
Practice your English vocabulary skills and provide 20 grains of rice to hungry people for each vocabulary word for which you identify the correct definition. "The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen." The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Also includes a FAQ and a list of total donations by date back to October 2007.
URL: http://www.freerice.com/

Looking for something to do over summer?

For those of you who like to capture life in words, songs or images, the Library of Congress is hosting Inspiration Across the Nation. Inspiration Across the Nation is an event where you can submit your own writings, music and art to the Library of Congress and the story of what inspired you. They will then post your electronic file and the story of your inspiration to share with others. In the end, they will select some of the submissions to be retained within the Library of Congress collections.

MSCTC looking for student entrepreneurs

MSCTC looking for student entrepreneurs
Vicki Gerdes
DL-Online - 05/03/2008
The new Business and Entrepreneurial Services Center at Minnesota State Community & Technical College in Detroit Lakes is “open and ready for business,” says Patty Heath Gordon, director of the BES program.

The program is currently accepting applicants for summer and fall courses. Beginning this fall, the college will begin offering an associate of applied sciences degree program in business entrepreneurship.

“It’s a two-year degree program, intended for employment,” Gordon noted. But the credits (67 total) will also be fully transferable to a four-year college, for obtaining a bachelor’s degree, she added.

Also, starting this summer, the college is planning to begin offering business courses that students can take on either a credit or non-credit basis, said Gordon.
Read the rest at DL-Online.com


For more information, call Patty Heath Gordon at 218-846-3804 or send e-mail to Patty.Gordon@minnesota.edu

Book Buy Back!

Campus Crossing at MSCTC Moorhead will be buying back books May 5-8 9:00am-4:00pm, May 9 9:00am-Noon, May 12-14 9:00am-4:00pm.

15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever

Fun stuff from Stepcase Lifehack: 15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever

Don't Forget! Return your items before you leave for break!

Hi Everyone,

Don't forget to return your school library materials to your campus library before going on break. If your items are returned after your due date, you may be assessed overdue charges. Additionally, if you have lost your item, please stop by the library to arrange to pay your lost item fees and charges. Any library fines, fees, and charges may cause a hold to be put on your student account that will delay you in the following key areas: transcript/diplomas will not be sent out and you will not be allowed to register/change your schedules.

Thanks!

National Nurses Week is May 6-12

The Lady With the Lamp
National Nurses Week is May 6-12 ending on Florence Nightingale's birthday.

By ADVANCE staff

Test your knowledge about the founder of modern day nursing with some of these lesser known facts:

Nightingale's father was a pioneer in epidemiology and tutored Florence in mathematics/statistics, an area she excelled in later in her career.
A gifted statistician in her own right, Nightingale was fond of using pie charts when presenting her statistics.

Among many studies, Nightingale did a statistical analysis of sanitation in India.

Nightingale was the first female to be elected to Royal Statistical Society.

Florence Nightingale defied her extremely wealthy family and upper class conventions in choosing to become a nurse in 1845.

Nightingale not only fought for better medical care, but also championed social issues such as reform of the British Poor Laws.

Nightingale's first published work was on a German Lutheran religious community in 1851.

Most famous for her care of soldiers during the Crimean War, Nightingale entered Turkey in 1854 with 38 nurses she personally trained.


In Nightingale's first winter at Scutari in the Crimea, the death toll rose with more than 4,077 soldiers dying.

Nightingale's first evidence-based practice research involved collecting evidence that poor living conditions were the cause of most soldier deaths during the Crimean War.

The Times of London is widely considered responsible for labeling Nightingale "the lady with the lamp."

The U.S. government consulted Nightingale on setting up military hospitals during the Civil War.

As a woman, Nightingale could not serve on the British Royal Commission on the Health of the Army even though she played a critical role in its formation.

What is now the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, part of King's College London, was established by her to train nurses in 1860.

Notes on Nursing also sold well as a popular book in the 1860s.

In 1867, poet Henry Longfellow's poem "Santa Filomena" further ensured Nightingale's image with the lines, "Lo! In that hour of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom."

In the 1870s, Nightingale trained Linda Richards, the first formally trained American nurse.

Nightingale died in 1910, but her family declined to have her buried in Westminster Abbey with kings, queens and other English nobility. She is buried in the churchyard at St. Margaret's Church, East Wellow, Hampshire, England.

Nightingale's maternal grandfather was the British abolitionist Will Smith.

Nightingale is named after her birthplace, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Italy).

Job Postings for Students and Graduates!

Don’t forget about the MSCTC Career & Placement Services website @ http://careers.minnesota.edu/!

Scientists on their "life-changing" books

From New Scientist:

Scientists on their "life-changing" books

By David Pescovitz on Book

I always enjoy hearing about the reading habits of people who are much smarter and more interesting than me. New Scientist has a feature package where seventeen big name scientists recommend books that they considered "life-changing." Here is the list of the scientists and the books they suggest, with each title linking to Amazon. Follow the link at the bottom of the post to the New Scientist article where you can read the scientists' thoughts on their picks. From New Scientist:

1. Farthest North - Steve Jones, geneticist

2. The Art of the Soluble - V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist

3. Animal Liberation - Jane Goodall, primatologist

4. The Foundation trilogy - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist

5. Alice in Wonderland - Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist

6. One, Two, Three... Infinity - Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist

7. The Idea of a Social Science - Harry Collins, sociologist of science

8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions - Peter Atkins, chemist

9. The Mind of a Mnemonist - Oliver Sacks, neurologist

10. A Mathematician’s Apology - Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician

11. The Leopard - Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist

12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior - Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist

13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes - Lawrence Krauss, physicist

14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 - Daniel Everett, linguist

15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Chris Frith, neuroscientist

16. The Naked Ape - Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

17. King Solomon's Ring - Marion Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist

Link

Earth Day April 22

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment. Learn about the history of Earth Day and check out the ways EPA's Earth Day Web site which offers you many tips and fun ways to protect the environment and your health every day.

Historic U.S. trove goes digital

From C/NET.com Historic U.S. trove goes digital: Just in time for cherry blossom season in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress on Saturday plans to open a new exhibit, called the Library of Congress Experience, at its historic Thomas Jefferson Building--and online at a new Web site, MyLOC.gov.

At about two dozen touch-screen kiosks sprinkled throughout otherwise analog exhibits, visitors will be able to zoom in on pages from historic bibles, "flip" through books from Thomas Jefferson's vast library, learn about the ornate artwork that adorns the Library's Great Hall, and view how founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and Constitution morphed from draft to draft. (The dead-tree counterparts are on view, too, in dimly lit, protective cases.)

To be sure, interactive museum exhibits are nothing new, and the LOC has already crossed over into the digital world with efforts like uploading vintage photographs to Flickr. But Librarian of Congress James Billington told reporters this week that this exhibit is "unlike anything the Library of Congress has undertaken in the past," allowing visitors to see "stunning detail up close that we've only had a general idea of before."

April 4: 1968 : Dr. King is assassinated

From our Friends at the History Channel

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally
shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at
the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was
in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way
to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal
cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis
hospital. He was 39 years old.

In the months before his assassination, Martin Luther King became
increasingly concerned with the problem of economic inequality in
America. He organized a Poor People's Campaign to focus on the issue,
including an interracial poor people's march on Washington, and in
March 1968 traveled to Memphis in support of poorly treated
African-American sanitation workers. On March 28, a workers' protest
march led by King ended in violence and the death of an
African-American teenager. King left the city but vowed to return in
early April to lead another demonstration.

On April 3, back in Memphis, King gave his last sermon, saying, "We've
got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me
now, because I've been to the mountaintop...And He's allowed me to go
up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised
Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight
that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."
Read the rest of the story and see the video at the History Channel

To read more about Civil Rights here are couple more links
Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
Freedom Riders website chronology, extremely detailed

Search tomorrow’s web, today! A must see!!!!

About gDay™ technology

The core technology that powers gDay™ is MATE™ (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation).

Using MATE’s™ machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques developed in Google’s Sydney offices, we can construct elements of the future.

Google spiders crawl publicly available web information and our index of historic, cached web content. Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now.

We can use this technique to predict almost anything on the web – tomorrow’s share price movements, sports results or news events. Plus, using language regression analysis, Google can even predict the actual wording of blogs and newspaper columns, 24 hours before they’re written!

To rank these future pages in order of relevance, gDay™ uses a statistical extrapolation of a page’s future PageRank, called SageRank.

gDay™ and MATE™ were developed in Google’s Sydney R&D centre. Click here to apply for a job

Oh and Happy April's Fools Day

Sound recordings before Edison's

A sound recording has been discovered that predates Thomas Edison's "Mary Had a Little Lamb" recording by 17 years. The clip is from 1860 and it is now the oldest known recorded human voice. It lasts 10 seconds and it is of a woman singing "Au Clair de la Lune."

Audo historian David Giovannoni found the clip and others in the patent office of France. It was made using a phonautograph created by inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville of Paris. "Using a needle that moved in resoponse to sound, the phonautograph etched sound waves into paper coated with soot from an oil lamp"

Giovannoni said of the findings, "It was magical, so ethereal. The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke."

See the article and learn more about this amazing discovery.

Urban Legends & Myths

Since Kristen brought up the vertical egg legend, I thought it would be a good time to recommend some sites that explore the truth behind various tales and emails that you may encounter.

Snopes.com
About.com:Urban Legends
Discovery Channel's MythBusters
Hoaxes, Scams, and Urban Legends - a list of links to hoax and urban legend/myth sites (including internet/email hoaxes) prepared by the Dillon School District Two in South Carolina

Check out Wikipedia's definition of urban legends, for information on how many of these stories begin.

Verticle Eggs

Yesterday was the first day of Spring!!! It is an urban legend that on the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, one can perfectly balance an egg vertically on an even, flat surface due to the specifics of the Earth's gravitational pull. I remember when I was in the 6th grade, we put this legend to the test. Did it work? Yes!!!
Sadly, years later, I discovered that one can balance an egg vertically any other day of the year too!
So, celebrate the fact that it is officially Spring (even though we just got 5.5 inches of snow and more is expected!), but don't worry about the eggs.

Links to Historical Documents

I thought this site was pretty cool, regardless of the name: Links to Documents

Happy St Patricks Day

March 17, 1762
First St. Patrick's Day parade

In New York City, the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is held by Irish soldiers serving in the British army.

Saint Patrick, who was born in the late 4th century, was one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history. Born in Britain to a Christian family of Roman citizenship, he was taken prisoner at the age of 16 by a group of Irish raiders who attacked his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland, and he spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Believing he had been called by God to Christianize Ireland, he joined the Catholic Church and studied for 15 years before being consecrated as the church's second missionary to Ireland. Patrick began his mission to Ireland in 432, and by his death in 461, the island was almost entirely Christian.

Early Irish settlers to the American colonies, many of whom were indentured servants, brought the Irish tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's feast day to America. The first recorded St. Patrick's Day parade was held not in Ireland but in New York City in 1762, and with the dramatic increase of Irish immigrants to the United States in the mid-19th century, the March 17th celebration became widespread. Today, across the United States, millions of Americans of Irish ancestry celebrate their cultural identity and history by enjoying St. Patrick's Day parades and engaging in general revelry.
TO Learn more about St Patrick's Day check out History.com

Celebrate Pi Day 2008!

Pi, Greek letter (π), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi = 3.1415926535... Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th, along with
Albert Einstein's birthday Learn more about Pi

K-9 Corps

According to the History.com website, on March 13th, 1942, the U.S. Army began the program to train dogs for the K-9 Corps to serve in World War II. On the website, there is even a story about the German Shepherd, Chips, who "attacked an enemy machine gune nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender." Chips was wounded in the process. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart! They were eventually revoked, however, because of the Army policy which prevents commendation of animals.

Before the progam was created, dogs also served in World War I. The famous Rin Tin Tin was actually a war dog abandoned by Germans! He was found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States where he starred in many films.

www.history.com

MSCTC Moorhead Campus Library Hours

Hi Everyone,

We've had quite a few questions about our hours over Spring Break. I have made a webpage that contains the calendar Kristen made up. If you have any question, just call us at 218/299-6530.

Have a great Break!

Looking for something new to make (and eat) for St. Patrick's Day?

Try one of these sites. They showcase a mix of traditional and modified recipes to make for this holiday.

Cooking Light
Food & Wine (they made this one into a slide show, so you have to select "Next" to get through them)
Food Network-St. Patrick's Day page
History Channel
Kraft Foods
Martha Stewart

John Adams

This weekend, HBO will be kicking off its seven-part miniseries about John Adams. Even before becoming the second president of the United States of America, he was a highly influential force in helping to establish our new nation. In his personal life, he was devoted to learning and built an immense personal library during his lifetime. He also was a prolific letter writer and the letters between him and his wife Abigail have become famous as they provide readers with details about the work of the 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses (told from his perspective) and the trials and tribulation present in everyday life (told from her perspective). In addition, these letters also show a marriage between two people who considered themselves intellectual equals as John asks for advice on politics and legal matters. As a first lady, Abigail took an active role in her husband's presidency. The Adams legacy continued down through their descendants, with their eldest son, John Quincy, becoming the 6th president. Many personal artifacts can still be found at the Adams National Historical Park.

Too much mud to go birdwatching, yet?

Check out Audubon's Birds of America at the University of Pittsburgh. This digital collection has been created from the University of Pittsburgh University Library System's copies of Ornithological Biography and Birds of America. Both of these publications were created by John James Audubon and are a great example of biological art.

Leap Day

It comes only once every four years—happy Leap Day! Magnum presents images of great leaps and jumps.

Time is on my side..

Daylight Saving Time begins March 9, 2008

The official U.S. Clock

The World Clock: Time Zones

The history of Daylight saving time

The Death Clock

Interested in Foreign Languages?

The BBC has a website devoted to the study and learning of some languages. They offer four beginners' courses for French, German, Italian, and Spanish-plus have some basic phrase guides to other languages that you can use to help prepare you for a vacation.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882)

One of my favorite poems when I was a child was "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I would curl up in a chair with the volume of children's verse that it was in and read it aloud, just because I loved the rhyme and meter of the verse. In addition to this and many other well-known poems, Longfellow also translated Dante's The Divine Comedy. This translation has been paired with illustrations by Gustave Doré and is republished every few years.

Library Usage Statistics

In the recent Pew Information searches that solve problems: How people use the internet, libraries, andgovernment agencies when they need help report, it shows that nationally the Internet is edging ahead of professionals in providing answers to questions in certain areas. Even with the preference for the Internet, libraries are still used by over 1/2 of Americans and the largest group of library users are members of Generation Y. For a quick summary or to link to the questionaire used, visit Pew Reports.

Looking for a Good Book?

To see some good titles, check out the Book Industry Awards page created by the American Booksellers Association.

A website I have never even contemplated the existence of...

I heard about this website, while listening to the radio. I have to admit, I was a little shocked to see that it even seems to be visited by others. I mean, most people I know seem ambivalent about-if they do not actually dislike sauerkraut.

Check out our new online digs!

The MSCTC website has gone through a makeover. During that process, the library page became pages. To get directly to the main library page, which provides links to the other pages, click here. If you have any questions about it, just let us know.

Looking for a book in a language other than English?

I have to admit, we really do not have many books in languages other than English. We may be able to help you find some titles, though. If you go to the MnLINK Gateway, you can search all of the public and academic libraries in Minnesota (Select "All Catalogs for MnLINK Gateway [shared]" under Profile)-or even WorldCat (Select "ELM - WorldCat [shared]" under Profile), which contains many libraries from around the world. For best results, use the advanced search feature. There, you can even limit the results presented to you by language of the item (I wouldn't recommend using this option, though).

Then, you can submit a request for the item, by clicking "Get it." From there, you will need to know your library barcode (the 14-digit number from the back of your student ID) and your password (generally, your last name). Leave the pick up location as "1. My Library." On the next screen, select "Request via ILL." Finally, on the "My Requests" page, you will need to specify the pickup location of "Managed by MnPALS."

Just remember, these books aren't located at MSCTC, so it may take a week or two to arrive. Plus, some requests may not be able to be filled-even if you do find a record for the item you want.

The Story of Valentine's Day

Regardless of how we now celebrate Valentine's Day-roses, chocolates, jewelry, and fancy dinners, this holiday has gone through many changes through the years. From its early roots as a Roman celebration of fertility, through the three saints who may have contributed to the legend, to the stories of some famous romances, the History Channel has prepared a mini-website about Valentine's Day that includes it all for the romantics out there. For just a basic history, though, check out the Valentine's day entry for This Day in History.

Kapalıçarşı

Curious Expeditions has posted a gallery of photos taken at Istanbul's Kapalıçarşı, or Grand Bazaar. It has been in existence since the 1400s. With over 60 streets and more then 4400 shops, the world’s first mall is a buzzing hive of activity, catering to the shopping whims of the some 400,000 people who might visit it on a given day. It also must meet the needs of the 25,000 shopkeepers who attend to them, and a couple of small mosques can be found tucked in between the many shops.

Questions from all around

It appears it's the season for...travelling-or at least making plans to travel. I have had two people approach our reference desk with passport-related questions this week, in addition to Doreen's post from last Friday about some websites to use to get your tickets for Spring Break. To help those of you traveling outside of the country, please check out the U.S. Department of State's Passport site to see what you will need (and any deadlines you may need to follow to obtain the appropriate documents to travel, if you don't already have them).

Just remember to send me a post card from whatever sunny place you visit! You know, I'd even accept post cards from those not so sunny places, too... (Just kidding-you really don't have to send me any postcards)

Happy Travels!

:)

Spring Break and Travel for Students

Student airfare deals abound, considering the small number of student travel agencies in existence. Most student airfares are negotiated through SATA (Student Air Travel Association) and are for full time students or youth under 26.* Remember to check any student airfares against an aggregator to ensure you've found the best bargain, and check the plus plus! On to the main event: available current student airfare deals (click on the link below to see 'em all): http://studenttravel.about.com/od/studentairfare/qt/airfare_deals.htm

TV Converter Box Coupon Program

TV Converter Box Coupon Program
Details about this federal government program for households wishing to continue using their analog TV sets after February 17, 2009, when "all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting." Learn whether you need a converter box, how to obtain coupons to be applied towards the cost of the box, where to purchase one, and related information. Available in several languages.
From LII
URL: https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Columbia U. Creates Web Site to Promote Black History

From the Wired Campus:
Columbia University has created a Web site to educate elementary and secondary students about the civil-rights and black-power movements spanning 1954 through 1975. The site, called the Amistad Digital Resource, includes audio and video clips of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil-rights leaders. It also includes FBI documents and maps where civil-rights demonstrations took place.
Amistad Digital Resource

The month of Romance

During this February, we thought you might be interested in finding out about romances (as in the genre and its variants). The Romance Writers of America have compiled some information about this genre including descriptions of the differences between the subgenres and some statistics.

Library of Congress Photos+ Flickr=Fun!!!

The Library of Congress has joined forces with Flickr to create the Flickr Commons. Now some of the Library of Congress' archived pictures are available for anyone to view online, and users are able to tag the pictures. Right now they have pictures taken by the U.S. government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Office of War Information (OWI). These photographs are in color and were taken in 1939-1944. It really gives viewers a fresh look at this era.
There are also pictures from the Bain News Service from 1900-1920, documenting a wide range of events from sporting events to celebrities.

Edith Wharton, 1862-1937

On January 24, 1862, Edith Wharton was born. I have actually only read one of her novels, The House of Mirth (but I have the others on my vacation reading list, which I have to admit is usually quite long and will probably form the basis of my retirement list-my only defense is that I was an English major in college). While the Moorhead Campus does not have many of her works, you will be able to find some of the short stories she submitted to magazines within the NetLibrary database. Plus, there is always the option of looking at a website like Project Gutenberg for some of her books, which may be available in an electronic print or MP3 version.

Fiction at the Moorhead Campus Library

(Yes, we do have fiction at the Moorhead campus library-we've just been very good at hiding it, apparently. )

:)

Now, for the big announcement....We have recently made some changes at the Moorhead campus library to help you get to some of our resources. The main one is that we created an actual fiction area. Now, we've always "hidden" some fiction in our collection (you may remember being directed to a number like 813 or 823), but now it is organized by author's last name within its own section-just like at your public library. To make space for this new area, we have had to make a few other changes to where things were located. If you need help finding anything, though, just let us know.

Prepare Your Car for Winter

Prepare Your Car for Winter

You can avoid many dangerous winter travel problems by planning ahead. Have maintenance service on your vehicle as often as the manufacturer recommends. In addition, every fall:

* Have the radiator system serviced, or check the antifreeze level yourself with an antifreeze tester. Add antifreeze, as needed.
* Replace windshield-wiper fluid with a wintertime mixture.
* Replace any worn tires, and check the air pressure in the tires.

During winter, keep the gas tank near full to help avoid ice in the tank and fuel lines.

Winter Survival Kit for Your Car: Equip your car with these items:

* blankets
* first aid kit
* a can and waterproof matches (to melt snow for water)
* windshield scraper
* booster cables
* road maps
* mobile phone
* compass
* tool kit
* paper towels
* bag of sand or cat litter (to pour on ice or snow for added traction)
* tow rope
* tire chains (in areas with heavy snow)
* collapsible shovel
* container of water and high-calorie canned or dried foods and a can opener
* flashlight and extra batteries
* canned compressed air with sealant (for emergency tire repair)
* brightly colored cloth

For more great tips regarding cold weather issues please check out this web site:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/guide.asp#car
From our friends at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Tel: 404-639-3311 • CDC Contact Center: 800-CDC-INFO • 888-232-6348 (TTY)

Comfort Foods

Simply Soups: The Ultimate Comfort Food
"There's something extremely satisfying about a hot, bubbling pot of soup on the stove on a cold winter's night." Use this site to find dozens of recipes for broths and stocks, chilis, chowders, cream and cheese soups, onion soups, and vegetable and meat soups. Also includes recipes for dessert soups, fruit soups, and a listing of cold soups.
From our friends at Librarians' Internet Index

A.A. Milne

In 1882, A.A. Milne was born. Milne is probably not as well known as his literary creation, Winnie-the-Pooh, but he was more than just a children's author. For more information, we recommend you visit The Playful Antiquarian's post about Milne. In that entry, he mentions numerous biographies about Milne (and one volume of literary criticism that also contains information about J.M. Barrie/Peter Pan & Lewis Carroll/Alice in Wonderland, et. al.).

Use Caution When Researching Online

I Googled "Martin Luther King" today, just out of curiosity. I found some great websites like the Nobel Prize website and The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute from Stanford.

I also found a website that, at first glance, looks to be helpful and informative but it's actually an attack on King's ideas. The website is www.martinlutherking.org (Sorry, I'm not going to link directly to this website). When I stumbled across this website, it reminded me of how unreliable the internet can be and that one must be very careful when researching online.

If you're curious to know where certain websites come from, plug in the domain name at http://www.easywhois.com/.

Find out who's linking to a certain webiste by typing "Link:(type URL here)" at www.altavista.com.

View Rare Books Online

The 1455 edition of Johann Gutenberg's Bible, Isaac Newton's Opticks from 1704, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1600.
These are just a few of the many amazing rare books that you can view online at The Rare Book Room website.
Now you don't have to travel to London, Germany or other parts of the globe to see these books. They're just one click away!

Austen on PBS

My friends and I have been waiting anxiously for the revamped Masterpiece series on PBS, due in large part to the Austen themed kickoff. The Masterpiece: Classic season began this past Sunday night, with an adaptation of Persuasion. Now, to show my age and the fact that I grew up without cable, I remember when Masterpiece: Classic and Masterpiece: Mystery were completely separate entities-Mystery (on Thursday nights in the area I grew up in) with it's very spooky opening animation sequence and Masterpiece Theatre (on Sundays) with its distinctive theme, which then inspired the very cute Monsterpiece Theatre. Regardless of the fact that they were separated by genre, many episodes had their origins from well-known novels, short stories, and plays. . For more information on the various stories shown on Masterpiece Theatre, visit the archives. If you liked Persuasion, here are some other books you may wish to read.

Jane Austen, Emma
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Jane Austen, Northaner Abbey
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Charles Dickens, The Old Curiousity Shop
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
George Eliot, Silas Marner
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Moorhead Campus Proctoring

If you need a proctor at the Moorhead Campus, please call the library at 218-299-6530 or stop by and grab an information sheet. When you call, we can provide you with the information you need over the phone (or we can email it to you). Thanks!

Welcome Back

If you need a proctor at the Detroit Lakes campus please call us at 218-846-3772 or use the toll free number 1800-492-4836 and ask for the Library we would be more that happy to help you out.
We also have a Detriot Lakes Library toolbar which features our databases, library catalog and Websites reviewed by Librarians, (the last is a work in progress, if you look on the right hand side you'll see it is broke down by classes: Architecture Sites, Automotive....ECT, just click on what ever you are interested in and it will open up, than follow that link to the web site..

To Download Library Toolbar

* Go to this site http://detroitlakeslibrary.ourtoolbar.com
* Follow the directions on the page, if you have any question please call the Library

Edward Lear

I had forgotten how much I loved Edward Lear's work,which include the Nonsense Books and his wonderful poems among them the THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT and his great sketches and art work, Enjoy.

"The Emptied Prairie"

Have you ever driven around rural North Dakota or Minnesota and noticed that there are a lot of abandoned houses in the area? I know that I've often wondered what kind of people lived there or what could have happened to them to make them leave. There is a great article in the January 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine titled "The Emptied Prairie" that addresses this very issue.
The article starts, "In the early 20th century, railroads lured settlers into North Dakota with promises of homesteads. Towns were planted everywhere. Houses rose from the sweep of the plains, many... with a story no one can trace. People believed rain would follow the plow. But they were wrong."
Stop by our library to read this fascinating piece of local news.

The Birth of Jacob Grimm

On January 4, 1785, Jacob Grimm was born. Most people know him as one of the Grimm Brothers, but he did more than collect fairy tales. For more information, check out This Day in History by The History Channel.