The Horror Writers Association presented the 2008 Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement at a ceremony on June 12-14 in Burbank, California. The Horror Writers Association was started by Alabama's own Robert McCammon in 1987, and the award is named in honor of one of the first true kings of horror. As early as 1984 McCammon expressed a desire for a professional organization and support group for writers of horror. Stephen King's Misery and Robert McCammon's Swan Song tied for best novel in the award's first year.

The 2008 Stoker Winners

Novel: Duma Key by Stephen King
First Novel: The Gentling Box by Lisa Mannetti
Long Fiction: Miranda by John R. Little
Short Fiction: "The Lost" by Sarah Langan
Fiction Collection: Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Anthology: Unspeakable Horror edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder
Nonfiction: A Halloween Anthology by Lisa Morton
Poetry Collection: The Nightmare Collection by Bruce Boston
Lifetime Achievement: F. Paul Wilson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Cool site of the day (for me anyways)

Cool site of the day (for me anyways) A project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them:http://www.wordnik.com/

The 50 States Project

The 50 States Project has brought together 50 photographers from across the USA.
Each photographer lives in one of the 50 States and during the year long project each photographer will represent the State where they live. Every two months each photographer will be sent an assignment by e-mail, they then have two months to produce one image in response. The images must represent both their style and the State in which they live.

The World Digital Library will launch on April 21, 2009.

The World Digital Library will launch on April 21, 2009.

The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.

http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/docs/World_Digital_Library_Demonstration.pdf

From the Boston Globe

Here are some interesting pictures of the flooding in Fargo/Moorhead from the Boston Globe " The Big Picture"

Website about bookmarks

Features an exhibit of "outstanding bookmarks from 1850s up to now with over 150 images" (with topics such as Victorian, bookstores, religious, heroes, handmade, museum, and French advertising), history of bookmarks, bookmark quotes, and related material on interesting bookstores, libraries, and other topics. From a Swiss company that sells metal bookmarks.
From our friends at Librarians' Internet Index

Tax Season

Here are links to help you with your taxes
Federal Tax information and forms: http://www.irs.gov/
Minnesota Tax information and forms: http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/
North Dakota Tax information and forms:http://www.nd.gov/tax/
All State government Web sites :http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99021,00.html

Time, "A Rural Exodus"

Stop by the Moorhead Library and take a look at this week's (Feb 9, 2009) issue of Time. There is an article of interest called "A Rural Exodus," which focuses on the disappearance of rural churches, some over a century old, due to a lack of pastors and population. Some area towns included in the article are Crookston, MN, Warren, MN, and Buxton, ND.
It's an interesting piece of local news that has gained national attention.