Sparky's Puppets Perform Old Favorites
Save the Date for this Children's Program
Monday
Dec. 18th, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM
Sparky's
Puppets performances include short stories,
dramatizied by hand puppets
and adapted from children's literature--folktales,
fables and familiar stories. Many of these encourage
audience participation.
The show is 45 minutes long and
is geared towards children aged 3 to 10 and their
families.
Contact: Karen Gabbert-Armand 508-238-2000
or
kids@amesfreelibrary.org
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Building Construction
Exterior Repairs to Begin Soon
Repair work on the chimney and the wall on the north
side of the library building is about to begin. Because
of this, the path along the side of the building will be
blocked and the parking lot may be limited or blocked
altogether during this project. We are sorry for this
temporary inconvenience.
We will require visitors who are able to park in
the lot to walk down the driveway and up the
walkway for safety reasons.
Making the most of our services during the
construction:
*All items may be reserved by phone and from
personal computers through the library catalog. You
may renew items online or by telephone.
*You may request items be sent to the Five
Corners Branch for pick up, and return all items at
the book drops at either library no matter where the
books were checked out. Books left in either
book drop after hours are checked in the next day
as if they were left the day before.
*Call either library for telephone reference or for help
in locating and obtaining items anywhere in a local
library or through the Virtual Catalog, which covers
libraries throughout Massachusetts.
*For research, students can use the library’s online
databases from home computers for full-text of
magazine articles, journals, and reference books
which are acceptable sources for school
assignments. These sources are provided to
Massachusetts residents through the state’s Board of
Library Commissioners.
Please visit the library’s website www.amesfree
library.org for access to the catalog
and database services or call 508-238-2000 (Main)
or 508-230-8595 (Branch).
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A Note to All Students
Bring in Your School Assignments...
The Reference Librarians and staff can help you
begin your research, or help you choose appropriate
books, databases, and search tools.
With this in mind, please try to bring your
assignment, we can be sure of providing
appropriate materials and provide good service.
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Google
Although there are some contenders, Google is still
recognized as the best general web search engine.
The verb "to google" was even entered into the
newest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary.
Google is also the leader in adding
features like image search, video search and blog
search. You might want to give these features a
try:
Google Book Search
Google Book Search allows you to search the full text
of a large number of books, from popular
titles to old, out-of-print and public domain volumes
in order to find pages that include your search terms.
Once you find a given book, you can browse
available pages, search further in that book, find
online reviews, learn where to buy the book or
check it out of a nearby library. In some cases, you
can even read the entire title online.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for
scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers,
theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical
reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google
Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of
academic publishers, professional societies, preprint
repositories and universities, as well as scholarly
articles available on the web.
Google News Archive Search
This source provides access to major newspapers
and magazines and allows you to search back over
200 years. The results
include both content which is accessible
to all users (such as BBC News and Time Magazine),
and some content which requires a fee (such as the
New York Times Archives).
Hope you will have a chance to try out some of
these advanced Google features.
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Save That Data
Understanding Today's Different Media
Different kinds of media are used in today's computer
world to store and transport data. Some are faster,
easier to use and more reliable than others.
Although their capacity increased (to 1.44 Mb),
Floppy Disks are often too small for today's
needs. Also Floppy Disks are not protected from
electromagnetic interference. Just placing your
floppy disk next to your cell phone might destroy all
data on it. The Library's computers still have
Floppy Drives which are still handy for many
users.
CD-Rs (recordable compact disk) are meant
to be recorded one time only. The information
recorded on them can not be erased. In most cases,
information can be added to the disk until the disk is
full, when basically the CD-R becomes a CD. You can
not editing existing files, but you can create and
save new versions of preexisting files.
CD-RWs (re-writable
compact disk) are CD-R's that can be completely
erased and
recorded again and again. The life of a CD-RW is
about 1,000 recordings. CD-RW can not be used like
a floppy disk or a ZIP drive. You can not erase
individual files. If you want to update information on
your CD-RW, you have to erase the entire disk and
write everything again. You can add information to
the disk (like to a CD-R) until the disk is full.
USB drives sometimes called Flash
Drives, maintain their content even if the power
is cut off. Simply
plug a USB drive into any available USB port and
start using it.
They do not require any software to run, and work
on Windows as well as on Macs. Because their ease
of
use, data transfer speed (faster than all other
portable media), ever increasing capacity (up to 4 Gb
today), small physical size, safety and dropping
prices, USB Flash Drives are becoming fast the most
popular Floppy Disk replacement.
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Cub Scouts Pack 76
Cub Scouts Pack 76 of Easton visited the Ames Free
Library on Thursday evening, Nov. 2nd. In addition to
a full tour of the library and the Children’s
room, they tested their research
skills using different functions of the library’s
computer catalog.
Their active minds, attention span and politeness
are
a tribute to Cub Scouts everywhere. Well done!
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Large Print Books
Available at the Five Corners Branch
The Story of
Chicago May by award-winning Nuala
O'Faolain is a biography of the real-life Chicago May,
an unremarkable Irish country girl until she stole her
family's earnings and ran off to America in the 1890s
The novel is a fresh and informative view of turn-of-
the-twentieth-century America, and a fascinating
testimony to the need to tell and preserve true
stories from all walks of life.
Tracie Peterson’s novels Alaska:A Light in
the Window,
Destiny's Road and Iditarod Dream
are collected in
one volume with Christmas Dream as a bonus. The
bleak wilderness of Alaska challenges three women in
different eras: Julie, a nurse during the diphtheria
epidemic of 1925; Beth, whose Canadian-born
husband is killed in World War II; and Rita, who takes
on the Iditarod, the ultimate test of
endurance.
Baker
Towers by Jennifer Haigh is set in a postwar
Pennsylvania mining town and continues Haigh's
exploration of the hardships of women's lives. In the
town of Bakerton, poor families live in ethnic
enclaves of company houses.
Second
Sight by Judith Orloff . A psychiatrist and
assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA
works with police departments by using her psychic
abilities to help locate missing persons and identify
suspects.
Whiteout
by Ken Follett is a bio-thriller taking place
over a wintry Christmas holiday in northern Scotland
and well stocked with family drama. The story opens
with the theft of an experimental drug - a potential
cure for the fatal Madoba-2 virus.
Invisible Acts of
Power: Channeling Grace in Your Everyday Life
by Caroline Myss is a wonderful
account of the chakras (or energy centers) in the
human bodymind and their special role in spiritual
grace, gifts, and empowerment. A magical and
moving handbook of “our own deepest and divine
powers."
Under
Orders by Dick Francis. After an absence of six
years, Dick Francis once again proves himself a
master of detail, seamlessly incorporating fascinating
facts about DNA technology, Internet gambling, and
even stitches.
Dance of the
Gods by Nora Roberts is another
enticing paranormal trilogy from the ever-versatile,
prolific, and much-loved queen of romance. Best-
seller Roberts' Celtic-flavored Circle trilogy features
superbly crafted characters, three passionate
romances, and a bewitching blend of magic and
myth.
Skeleton Coast:
A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive
Cussler. Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert
combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission
on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday
from a defenseless boat under fire off the African
coast. The action leads them onto the trail of a
deranged militant and his followers who plan to
unleash the devastating power of nature itself
against all who oppose them.
Short Straw
by Stuart Woods. Santa Fe defense
lawyer Ed Eagle is the epitome of worldly success. He
presides over a highly successful practice, which is
moving into showcase quarters overlooking Santa
Fe's Governor's Palace. He loves his work. He loves
his wife. But, when he wakes up on the morning of
his fiftieth birthday, he discovers his wife has left him
and taken him for a cool million, and this is just the
beginning. Woods first introduced Ed Eagle in 1992, in
Santa Fe Rules. He was then, and still is a
fascinatingly flawed character.
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