Technology Festival

On Wednesday, March 24, Sacramento Public Library staged a Digital Technology street festival on 9th Street, just outside the Central Library. Overdrive's Digital Bookmobile was the anchor, and staff from all branches set up tables showcasing all the digital and electronic materials and services the library offers.

Staff with bright orange laptops sat at tables in tents and demonstrated our array of databases, which patrons can use at home even when the library is closed. Using our newly-revised database page, it's even easier to find them and select just the right one, whether it be homework, Do-it-Yourself, business research, or browsing newspapers.

Staff also highlighted our online text and chat services: AskNow and Homework Help Now, where you can get your questions answered via the web, JobNow, where you can get help with your resume and practice for a successful interview.

Our newest service, Info Quest: Txt4Nswrs had its own table. When you're on the go and don't have access to your computer or the Internet, just text your question to 309-222-7740 and a librarian will text the answer back to your cell phone.

Digital storytelling is growing in importance as people age and less emphasis is placed on print preservation. Who writes in diaries any more? and how many of us blog regularly to tell the stories of our daily lives? And even if we did, how long will blogs last, before the Next Big Thing? (Does Twitter count?) The library is creating and preserving digitally the stories of Sacramento residents. These stories, told in their own words and enhanced by photographs, increase our appreciation for the people who helped Sacramento become the great place it is.

A Pome

A Pome

When I was small I had a book
My mom would read, called Mother Goose.
She read and sang and clapped and rhymed.
I always begged, "Just one more time!"

Well, now I'm grown, with grown-up kids;
I read them Mother Goose a bunch!
Now it's YOUR turn: pack your best pomes
To read at Central tomorrow at lunch!

Brown-bag poetry-sharing begins at noon at Central Library tomorrow, Thursday, January 21, in the West Meeting Room on the first floor. Hope to see you there!

Blue Moons

Last night as I got home from work, the moon was rising. The sky was clear, the air was cold, and the moon was THAT BIG and brilliant! If the sky is clear tonight, we'll be able to see it again. Everyone's calling it a "blue moon" - but is it, really?

Almost everyone will tell you that a "blue moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month. But it hasn't always had that meaning. An earlier agricultural definition states that a blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons instead of the usual three. ABC News and Associated Press have written similar stories explaining the different meanings of the phrase. The About.com Astronomy site also has a page of links to facts, trivia, and legends about blue moons. Infoplease provides blue moon facts and myths, including an old proverb the Oxford English Dictionary says was first recorded in 1528:

If they say the moon is blue

We must believe that it is true.

What I found missing this year is the story that "Blue Moon" actually was the name of a Dutch trading vessel that returned to port so seldom that the folks named the intervals between port visits "Blue moons". Did I imagine it? Or does that story surface only once in a blue moon?

Just for fun, here's a list of Blue moon reading from the library's catalog - both fact and fiction.

jpstanley's moon photo used with permission

Using Your Library @ Home and @ Anywhere

The Questions:

1. It's 8:30 p.m. and your teen has just informed you that she needs 5 newspaper and magazine articles discussing global warming for her 1st period research paper, which is due tomorrow. All the libraries closed at 8. What can you do?


2. Your 8th grader can't understand his algebra homework - and neither can you! What can you do?


3. You have volunteered to host an exchange student from Japan for a month in January, and need to learn basic Japanese FAST! What can you do?


4. You want to find out whether experts think your company's healthy and would make a good investment for your stock options - what can you do?


5. You've been "downsized" and want to polish your resume and your interview skills so you can NAIL the next interview. What can you do?


6. You're stopping for lunch enroute to a faraway state and want to find the nearest Macdonald's for the kids' lunch. What can you do?

The answers to all these questions, believe it or not, are the same: use your library! Your library card is the key to information access wherever you are. We make information and services available online, by phone, and by text messages even when the library is closed, so you don't have to arrange your needs around our open hours.

The Answers:

1. Use our online magazine and newspaper databases - available 24/7 - to find full-text articles you can print and cite for that research paper. We have the Sacramento Bee as well as other newspapers, and over 5,000 online magazines.
2. On the Kids' and Teens' pages, students in grades 4-college can click Homework Help Now! to get help from credentialled tutors via live chat. Tutors can help with math, writing, social studies, and more!
3. Mango Languages provides an always-available, never-needs-to-be-returned language lab at home. You'll be fluent in Japanese in no time! Click the Mango link in the General Interests section of the database page.
4. Morningstar Online, in the Business & Personal Finance section on the Database Page, is the place to go for current, expert information about stocks, mutual funds, and industry information. Morningstar also provides free online tutorials for YOU, our public, in the use of this database.
5. JobNow, a new service, gives job-seekers tools to assess their interests, revise and polish resumes, get personal coaching on effective interview techniques, and links to career resources.
6. Info Quest: Txt4Nswrs - Use your cell phone to send your question to an Info Quest librarian. You will receive an answer in just a few minutes. Include the abbreviation SPL in your text, so the librarian who answers knows which library you belong to.

See? It's entirely possible to use the great resources your library provides without even stepping through the door. All it takes is an Internet connection and a library card.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Today, the National Weather Service issued a warning for a very cold winter storm that is expected to drop snow levels as low as 52 feet (that's Sacramento's elevation.) Yes, that's 52, not 5200! The warning says there is a 100% chance of snow in downtown Sacramento! It began raining about an hour ago, and that should be changing to snow in the very early morning.

Because of the very cold temperatures on Monday, drivers will need to be extra cautious and check weather and road conditions, drive more slowly, and leave extra room between cars on the roads.

Some snow stories to share with the kids
Some books about snow for the curious

Internet Librarians

Every year during the last week of October, about 4,000 librarians gather in Monterey, CA for the Internet Librarian conference sponsored by InfoToday. Four librarians from Sacramento Public Library are wandering around in the Monterey fog this week - quite literally, check the weather report - and hobnobbing with the very best Internet Librarians in the world - also quite literally, as we've met folks from Nigeria, South Africa and Canada just in the first few hours. This year's theme is "Net initiatives for tough times," and we're expecting to come back with some exciting ideas we can put to work for Sacramento Public Library.

We are all blogging our conference sessions, and you can follow us by visiting the Conference Calls blog. We've listed our blogs in the right sidebar. Librarians @civillibrarian, @hapalibrarian and @annot8 will be tweeting as well, and photos from everyone will proliferate over the week on Flickr.

First Floor Display: Staff Picks

"You must really love your job! You get to sit there and read all day long!" We hear this every so often, and we sure wish it were true! The truth is library staff works at work, and reads at home or on the bus.

This month's book display on the first floor is "staff picks". These are titles we've read and enjoyed, and thought you might, too.

My personal "picks" this week are:

John Hamamura's "The color of the sea", a semi-autobiogaphical novel about the Japanese-American experience in Lodi during the Second World War.

Andrea Levy's "Small Island", which chronicles the experiences of two Jamaican families when they move to London, post World War II

Meve Binchy's "Whitethorn Woods", where the stories of several people tell the story of St. Anne's Well and Whitethorn Woods. The stories are like threads in a tapestry. Only when they are all woven together does the full picture appear.

Sarah Smith's "Chasing Shakespeares", a lightweight mystery involving a bequest of Shakespeare collectibles to a minor American university. One of the manuscripts seems like it might actually be valuable, and it is taken to London for examination by experts.

The Number Three - Mary Travers

Folk tales, folk songs, fables and jokes all use the number three: three pigs, three bears, three sons, three attempts, three choices, three chances. This week, yet another loss rocks America with the death of Mary Travers, the "Mary" in Peter, Paul and Mary. Affecting statements from Peter and Paul appear on their web site.

I was introduced to their music at age 15 by a cousin from Canada, and immediately began collecting their albums. Having grown up with recordings by Pete Seeger and Burl Ives, the familiar folk format in a new setting thrilled us and provided material for many sing-alongs.

The Biography Resource Center and Marquis Who's Who On the Web contain additional information about the life and career of Mary Travers.

May her music and her message be forever blowin' in the wind.

Central's National Day of Service

Tomorrow, September 11, is the first National Day of Service and Remembrance. Legislation introduced last March has inspired groups to organize volunteer service opportunities on that day across the nation. In Sacramento, Mayor Johnson is hoping to have over 500,000 hours of volunteer service logged by the end of 2009.

We're hoping you will take part in this national service activity. Central Library is hosting activities for volunteers tomorrow. Drop in anytime from 10 am to 1 pm to help us check our collection for books that need to be mended and cleaned, tour the secret spots of Central Library and reflect on what service means to you. No advance registration is needed, just come on down and serve! Stop at the volunteer table on the first floor to sign in.

If you can't make it tomorrow, there are lots of other opportunities for volunteer service in Sacramento. At Serve.gov, and at Volunteer Match, you just type in your zip code for a list of organizations that need volunteers. The Corporation for National and Community Service and Service Nation have additional information for volunteers on their web sites.

Central Has New Copiers!

We've all been frustrated over the years by the old, clunky, temperamental copiers in the building. Over the last week, Central Library has installed several new copiers with an up-to-date set of tricks! On the second and fourth floors, in addition to traditional copying where you place the original on the glass, deposit your coins and press "print", the new copiers can also read your flash drive and print directly from it - no hard copy needed. Similarly, they can scan a print original in gray-scale or color and save it to your flash drive, where you can take it away at no charge (no toner+ no paper= no charge!) The digital image can then be attached to e-mail, edited, or printed later.

The color copier resides on the third floor in the periodicals section, near the microfilm readers. (It also copies in gray-scale.) It doesn't do flash drives, but we feel the ability to print in color will make up the difference. Ask us to show you how it works!

Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009

Senator Edward Kennedy will be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery. Despite the notoriety attached to some events in his life, he is being praised by both friends and opponents for his ability to get people with diverse views moving in the same direction.

Sacramento Public Library has Books about Ted Kennedy, and provides access to Articles about Ted Kennedy in its journal databases. The Biography Resource Center has a collection of shorter biographies and articles as well. These resources are free at any branch and also at home for those with a Sacramento Public Library cards.

roberthuffstutter's image used with permission.

Getting Carded

This afternoon, Central Library sent two librarians on a field trip to the Art Institute of California's new Sacramento campus. At the request of the Institute's librarian, we brought a laptop, a few promotional materials, and library cards, stealing a move on September's Library Card Sign-Up campaign. We were delighted to find that half the students and faculty that visited the school library already had library cards, but we signed up seven people for their first card!

We mentioned our broad database coverage, downloadable collections, the services we provide, and also our new Info Quest: txt 4 answers service. With schools gearing up to start around Labor Day, now is one of the best times to get or update your key to the free resources at your library!

Add To My Contacts

What's with the abstract art in the right sidebar? It's called a QR (quick response) code. It sends information to a cell phone equipped with a code reader. The Civil Librarian and Hapalibrararian have blogged about QR codes, speculating on potential uses in a public library setting. The Dover Town Library in Massachusetts featured QR codes in its summer reading program this year.

In some cases, the code will lead you to a web site; in others, it might send a message to a contact phone number. Or it can be coded to provide business card information, or ...

The QR code on this blog will offer to add the phone number for our new My Info Quest: text 4 answers service to your cell phone contacts, so you can text us the next time you have a burning question and get an answer in minutes from a librarian. (You can add it or decline it.)

If your camera phone is equipped with a data plan, and if you have acquired a code reader, just point your phone's camera at the code and take it away!

Time Travelers

The movie made from Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife will be in theaters this week. This is one of the very few books I've read that I can truly and without hyperbole say is 'mind-bending'. Right now, because of the movie, there are many holds on it. However, there are LOTS of other time-travel titles in the library for both kids and adults! If the topic intrigues you, I can recommend Charles Dickinson's A Shortcut in Time, which has similar themes, and also Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. See you whenever!

txt4answers

On the go? Got a question?

Sacramento Public Library is now offering a text reference service through My Info Quest. Anyone with a cell phone and a text messaging plan can send in a question and get a reply from a librarian in minutes!

It's this easy: text your question to 309-222-7740, adding the library code SPL to your message. Hours of service are Monday-Friday 6am-8pm and Saturday 7am-3pm Pacific Time.

No more pushing buttons trying to get through to a live person; no more waiting in the telephone hold queue burning up your cellphone minutes. No more do you need to be logged in to your e-mail ... just text your question to the librarians at My Info Quest and the answer will be sent to your phone in minutes.

Look for the Txt4nswrs logo on the library's web site, as well as flyers and wallet cards at all our branches.

On the go? Got a question? Txt the library!

What's It Worth?

Here's a fun little Library Value Calculator demo that may put a new spin on what library services are worth in the community. How much would you have to pay for services your library provides for free? Fill in the blanks and prepare to be truly surprised! (note: the demo is not customized for Sacramento prices ...)

California's budget, and by extension, the City's, County's and your personal budget, are being dissected hourly by the press and by government employees faced with the possibility of losing their jobs. In the library, we are also facing severe budget cuts, and are seeing more people using our services to find jobs and seek aid, matching a national trend.

If you are in jobsearch mode, here are some free library resources you can use:

• Books: Career information and practice tests - Some of these titles describe occupations; others are practice tests to help you pass employment exams.


• Knowledge Center Databases: Look at the databases in the College and Careers section for help with practice tests, resume building, preparing for interviews, and much more. For example, Learning Express Library also includes math tutorials and computer skills. (If you want to use these databases at home, you will need to enter your library card number for access. A library card is not needed if you use these databases in one of our branches.)


• The library provides free computer use. With your library card you can use Microsoft Office programs to type resumes and cover letters, and also also have Internet access. Visitors can check their e-mail and fill out online job applications. A library card or e-card is required.


• All branches also have free wireless Internet access - if you bring your laptop, you can connect for free, without a library card.


• Free programs at our branches for all ages, and the Get Money Smart programs are continuing through the fall.
  

﴾͡๏̯͡๏﴿ /streetart#+_♥.tk's photo used with permission.

Sacramento Area Authors

It wouldn't be hard to deduce that libraries in, say, California might have a fairly good collection of Californiana, and that Nevada libraries might have a similar collection about that state. But what happens if the connection to the location is more tenuous – not necessarily about the state; not necessarily set in the state, but written by someone who lives in the area? Enter the Sacramento Area Authors collection! Single copies of titles in this special collection reside in the Sacramento Room, where such works are actively collected, but additional copies of the works may be borrowed from Central Library and other branches in our library system.

Who are Sacramento Area Authors? What do they write? You might recognize these luminaries who lived in Sacramento County when their books were published: Sharon Davis (wife of former Governor Gray Davis), Herb Caen, Biba Caggiano, Joan Didion, and Ernesto Galarza. There are many other authors, both old and new, represented in the collection, with titles ranging from the sublime through the everyday to the fringe, such as Historic Photos of Sacramento, Last chance for justice, Midlife Bible: a woman's survival guide, and Deluxe transitive vampire.

To find and explore this collection of over 2000 titles, go to the library's catalog and click the Subject tab, and then type Sacramento area authors. Come and visit during the Sacramento Room's service hours – prepare to be delighted!

Altered Books

There's been a thread in one of my social networks about "altered books". It sounded intriguing, but I had never heard of "altered books" before. The first thought that ran through my mind was, "Is that like altered pets? How would one alter a book?" So, being a librarian and in need of a fun research challenge, I went in search of more information. Here's what I found:

There is a large community of altered book artists, with individuals featuring their own and others' work. (Do they alter book artists, too?) Wikipedia has published an article, and images on many web sites illustrate the artists' rich imagination. There is an International Altered Book Artists Society. And they have defined an altered book as follows:

It is any book, old or new that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art. They can be ... rebound, painted, cut, burned, folded, added to, collaged in, gold-leafed, rubber stamped, drilled or otherwise adorned...

Examples from a group of altered book artists are featured on this Altered Books site, which expains thusly:

Cut the bindings off of books found at a used book store. Find poems in the pages by the process of obliteration. Put pages in the mail and send them all around the world. Lather, rinse, repeat.

A simple Google search yields even more examples at the British art e-zine Altered Books Cam, and instructions for creating your own altered book at Altered Book.com, and even a lesson plan for middle school students from Princeton Online.

Is this a book form the library might collect? Probably not. Or maybe. Depending. We do have books about altered books.

I'm still struggling with the idea because of the hard lesson delivered to my back-side as a toddler after I color-coded the table of contents in my Real Mother Goose. Times change, I guess!

TheGoingGreen's altered book image is used with permission.

World Walking Day, Friday, May 8

The weather is drying out and warming up just in time for today's World Walking Day observance. Locally, the Sacramento Walking Sticks is hosting an evening walk tonight near the State Capitol beginning 5 - 6:30 p.m. and finishing by 9 p.m. The event is free. If you love to go a-wandering, this is a friendly group that welcomes all walkers and strollers and dogs!

For those who are serious about their recreation, or who want to use walking as a way to improve their fitness, Sacramento Public Library has a good collection of videos, print and audio books to help get you started.

There's also a nice grab-bag of items in our downloadable collection. And for those who would like to keep up with the latest walking techniques, equipment and health news, look for articles in our Health and Wellness Resource Center (Sacramento library card and PIN needed if you want to view either of the above at home.)

Let's get movin'!

Mandy No Good's photo used with permission.

SPL in Second Life

As if having only one life to live isn't enough, I've been playing around in Second Life recently. I answered a request from a UCLA faculty member seeking someone from a public library to complete a panel addressing her library school class. The topic: information literacy instruction.

Information literacy instruction, or ILI, is a fancy way of saying "teaching people to find information and know whether it is appropriate or correct for their purposes." The instructor wanted a variety of viewpoints, so there were representatives from college and community college libraries, private and public schools, an art institute and a hospital library. And a public library - Sacramento Public Library! That's me in the picture, in my Second Life persona, Annot8 Greatrex. (Los Angeles Public Library was represented by a poster in the display area.)

I talked to the 21 students about our diverse users (compared to the relatively homogeneous users at schools and colleges), our web site, research guides, computer classes and other programs, and one-on-one instruction. I also mentioned that we host class visits and talk to community groups, and that the Wonder Wagon bookmobile visits community events like the recent Pacific Rim Festival. Afterwards, we gathered on the lawn next to the "open air auditorium" for the poster session.

The other seven presenters were from Florida, New Jersey, Oregon, Alaska, Minnesota, and California. There was a poster from a library in Chile. We all were able to talk to each other in real time in Second Life. Hmmm ... think of the possibilities ...