I Read Banned Books

September 29-October 6 is Banned Books Week.

Since 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) has been helping libraries maintain standards of intellectual freedom, insisting that "Free People Read Freely." To that end, most public libraries, Sacramento among them, subscribe to the Library Bill of Rights.

On this year's Banned Books Week web site, ALA says, "BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."

These are the 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-2000, according to ALA records - how many have you read?

Free Downtown Parking 101

If you thought there was no such thing as free parking downtown, read on!

Feeding the meters is never fun, even when you can use the new ones that accept ATM and credit cards, so here are some free parking options for Central Library users:

• Street parking is free after 6 p.m. Central Library is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until 8 p.m. Visit us in the evening - avoid the daytime crowd and get more personalized service!
• Street parking is free all day on Sundays and holidays. Central Library is open Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Upside: Central is open on some holidays. Downside: Sunday is our busiest day, but there is usually extra staff at the service desks.
  
• Saturday parking is free for library users at two city parking garages: at 10th & I, and at 10th & L (but not in the US Bank garage at 8th & J.) Bring your parking ticket into the library and staff will stamp it and give you a voucher to cover the $5 fee.
  
• The Jury parking lot at 8th & G is free on Saturdays and Sundays.
  

Experience the difference it makes when you don't have to worry about the time!

Book Review: The Longest Day: June 6, 1944

It was the morning of June 6, 1944, and sixty-year-old school mistress Madame Angele Levrault stood in her Normandy garden, watching the bright white, yellow and red flashes of nearby German 88s. As Levrault looked up toward the sky, she heard a strange fluttering noise and then noticed, descending through the exceptionally moonlit night, the parachute of eighteen-year-old paratrooper Robert M. Murphy, a pathfinder of the 82nd Airborne. After hitting the ground with a thud, Murphy cut himself free from his chute. Upon standing up "...he saw Madame Levrault. They stood looking at each other for a long moment. To the old Frenchwoman, the paratrooper looked weirdly frightening. He was tall and thin, his face was streaked with war paint, accentuating his cheekbones and nose. He seemed weighted down with weapons and equipment. Then, as the old lady watched in terror, unable to move, the strange apparition put a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence and swiftly disappeared."

This is one of the great scenes in Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day: June 6, 1944, a book that the author worked tirelessly on, over ten years, interviewing 700 participants and not using anything from said interviews unless an assertion could be corroborated by two other sources. After doing so, Ryan could then weave a brand of non-fiction into a seemingly fictional narrative that takes the reader from submarine to fighter plane to commando mission and alll the way the element of human interest sustains.

Sadly, the movie version of Longest Day comes nowhere close to telling Ryan's tale, but it is worth a view.

Try This @ Home: Library Event Calendar Online

A frequent question our Telephone Information Service receives concerns library programs, especially programs for children. All library programs are now conveniently entered in our online event calendar, which you can find by clicking the calendar image here or on the library's web page. Additional non-library events, like the Friends of the Library book sales, are also included.

The calendar has a few neat features:

• You can find programs by branch, by age group, and by date.
• For programs that require registration, you can register yourself online.

You don't need an e-mail address to use the calendar, but if you do have one, the following additional services are available:

• If you have registered for a program, you will receive an e-mailed confirmation.
• For programs that pique your interest, you can request automatic e-mail notification when a similar program is added to the calendar.
• You can e-mail information about a specific program to friends.
• You can request a reminder be sent to you a few days before a program you want to attend.

It's really easy to use, but if you have questions, our Telephone Reference librarians will be able to answer them. Check it out!

Topics in the Medieval World: Witchcraft

Is perception the same as reality? Certainly, over time, what we think or taught to think--right or wrong--can easily morph into conventional wisdom. Are today's perceptions of pagan and alternative beliefs to European Christianity really accurate? Has popular culture created a myth of what it meant to be an animist, Pagan, or witch, prior to the Reformation?

On the 23rd of October at 6:00 pm, roughly a week away from one of the Pagan world's most sacred holy days in Samhain or what most of us call Halloween, join the Central Library and Wendy Matlock as we explore the truth behind Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Matlock, a Medievalist and professor of English at California State University, Sacramento, will help us answer some of these question with the hopes of separating truth from fiction.

To attend, call 264-2920, or log in to http://www.saclibrary.org.

RINCON LATINO: ISABEL ALLENDE Y LA SUMA DE LOS DIAS.

LA AUTORA CHILENA ISABEL ALLENDE HA ESCRITO OTRA OBRA LITERARIA MARAVILLOSA TITULADA "LA SUMA DE LOS DIAS " , LA CUAL FUE DEVELADA AL MUNDO ENTERO HACE UNOS SEMANAS ATRAS. LA NOVELA TRATA NUEVAMENTE CON LA HIJA DE ISABELL ALLENDE , PAULA, ... CUANDO LA RELATA SU VIDA DESPUES DE MORIRSE. CUENTA CON UNA CLARIDAD ABRUMADORA SOBRE LA AMISTAD, COMPLICIDAD, AMORES NO CORESPONDIDOS Y HAZANAS SIN EXITO. ESTA OBRA, COMO SUS ANTERIORES, CUENTA LA VIDA DE UN SER HUMANO COMO SI FUESE LA HISTORIA DE UN PAIS O DEL MUNDO ENTERO. UNA HISTORIA METAFISICA , ISABEL ALLENDE TIENE TODO EL UNIVERSO EN SUS ENTRANAS Y NOSOTROS SOMOS TESTIGOS DE UNA ESTRELLA ETRENAMENTE RENACIENDOSE. EL ESCRITOR DE ESTA PEQUENA NOTA , JOSE ES-PARZA HA ORDENADO HA ORDENADO CUATRO EJEMPLARRES PARA NUESTRA BIBLIOTECA. POR ACUDAN A NUESTRAS PUERTAS!

"Sacramento's War" is Online

Unveiled on Tuesday, the 18th of September, the Sacramento Public Library's Web page, entitled "Sacramento's War," [http://www.saclibrary.org/TheWar/sacramentoswar.htm] provides patrons with a window into the state of California's capitol city during the Second World War. Like the rest the country, the conflict caught Sacramento relatively offguard, but as it had in the past, in the face of fire, disease, and flooding, the city stepped forth and made a marked contribution to the War effort.

The site contains an essay on wartime Sacramento, a number of images from the Sacramento Room Archives and the Central branch's Federal Documents collection, a list of resources available throughout the library system on the Second World War, and a section dedicated to oral history, including the testimonials of five area WWII veterans.

"Sacramento's War" will compliment both the September 23 airing on KVIE of Ken Burns' PBS epic THE WAR and the Central Library's November 14 live interview of Sacramento native and Pearl Harbor survivor Bob Addobati. The interview will be conducted by local Oral Historian Paul Ferrell. To attend the interview, register by calling 264-2920 or go to http://www.saclibrary.org/. Sacramento holds distinction vis-a-vis THE WAR as it is one of four American cities featured in the series, along with Waterbury, Connecticut, Mobile, Alabama and Luverne, Minnesota.

NyTimes.com Becomes Entirely Open

An O'Reilly Radar blog post reported yesterday that the New York Times has announced it will stop charging for access to parts of its web site, beginning today. The Times is also making available its archives from 1851-1922 and from 1987 to the present. (There will still be charges for some material from 1923-1986.) The publishers explain more in a "Letter to Readers."

This is great news for library users! The New York Times is one of the most useful sources for reading about historical and contemporary events. Now that the archives are available online for free, students, historians, genealogists, you (!) can use this remarkable resource anywhere you have Internet access.

So, what's the catch? You still need to register (free) at NYT in order to read the articles. But with your account, you can read, print, e-mail, or blog them. For free!

Civil War coverage, anyone? (Hint: select the archive from 1851-1986 and use the "advanced" search to limit the dates to 1860-1864.) Check it out!

Try This @ Home: Legal Forms Online

Our Telephone Reference Desk fields a number of requests from people looking for legal forms, from name changes to rental agreements, from sample letters to wills, and everything in between. To help them get those forms, the library subscribes to - ta dah! - Legal Forms Online!

This electronic collection includes official, California specific, federal, business, personal, real estate and general forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues. It includes forms drafted by attorneys, forms from public records and participating companies. It also includes a directory of attorneys, a legal dictionary, and tax forms.

Some forms can be filled out online and then printed; others must be printed first, and then filled out. All are free for Sacramento Public Library cardholders, because the library pays for the subscription.

To use this collection, point your browser to the library's web page, http://www.saclibrary.org/, and then click "Find articles/databases" in the Online Services section. ThomsonGale Legal Forms are in the "Reference" category. If you are at home, you will be prompted to enter your library card number and PIN. If you have questions, contact us by phone or e-mail and we'll do our best to help.

RINCON LATINO: " EL SECRETO "

" EL SECRETO " ES EL NUEVO LIBRO DE RHONDA BYRNE DEVELANDO UN ANTIGUISIMO SECRETO RECIENTEMENTE REVELADO PARA EL MUNDO ENTERO. UNA RIQUEZA INAGOTABLE PARA UN MUNDO HAMBRIENTO PARA UNA SALVACION A SU AGONIZANTE REALIDAD! TAMBIEN EXISTE UN DOCUMENTAL DEL MISMO TITULO QUE ACTUALMENTE SE ENCUENTRA ESTRENANDO EN MUCHOS TEATROS DE CINE Y PROVEEDORES DE CABLE.

CUATRO COPIAS HAN SIDO ORDENADAS PARA NUESTRA BIBLIOTECA PERO NUESTROS SOCIOS PUDEN HACER RESERVACIONES PARA ESTE MARAVILLOSOS LIBRO DESDE HOY DIA! ESO SI NO ES UN SECRETO!

RINCON LATINO: " CHILE: EL OTRO 11 DE SEPTIEMBRE "

NO CABE DUDA QUE EL ACTO TERRORISTA COMETIDO EN LA MISMA FECHA EN NUEVA YORK HACE ALGUNOS ANOS ATRAS ENLOQUECIO EL MUNDO ENTERO, PERO EN 1973 OTRO ACTO OCURRIO EN CHILE QUE MUCHOS EN EL MUNDO YA SE HAN OLVIDADO! EL GOLPE DE ESTADO COMETIDO EN LA MISMA FECHA CONTRA EL YA FALLECIDO SALVADOR ALLENDE Y SU GOBIERNO SOCIALISTA. ESTE PEQUENO LIBRO LUCE ENTRE SUS PAGINAS RELATOS PERSONALES TANTO COMO PERIODISTICOS SOBRE ESTOS ASOMBRANTES Y ( HASTA LA FECHA TODAVIA TRAUMATIZANTES ) ACONTECIMIENTOS. EL LIBRO FUE ESCRITO POR ARIEL DORFMAN, UN ARGENTINO QUE HUYO DE SU PAIS NATAL PARA ENFRENTAR NUEVAMENTE UN FENOMENO GLOBAL: EL GOLPE DE ESTADO/ GOBIERNO MILITAR AUTORITARIO. "CHILE: EL OTRO 11 DE SEPTIEMBRE" SE ENCUENTRA ACTUALMENTE EN NUESTRAS ESTANTERIAS.

Got Homework?

School is back in session for most students now, which means ... homework!

Sacramento Public Library has some nifty homework helpers for students of all ages. They make doing research easier, because you don't need to sign up for an Internet computer to use them. They are also available using your home computer even when the libraries are closed! The library pays for them, and you can use them for free! Anyone can use these e-resources in the library, but to use them at home, you will need a Sacramento library card.

• Live Homework Help - Sign on after school to work with a licensed instructor if you are having trouble with your math, English, history or social studies homework.
• World Book Online - Click through to find all the articles from the print set plus magazine articles, images, and sound files.
• More online resources for students - Find information about countries, world conflicts, current news, accelerated reading lists, biographies and more!
• Research Guides on many topics prepared by librarians, with links to books in the library's collection and to selected web sites.
• Kids' and Teens' homework help pages.
• You can also call the reference desk to speak with a librarian (916-264-2920) [hours] or send an e-mail to the library (askus@saclibrary.org) for an answer within 2 days.
  

There's something for everyone - even adult learners! Click the "Library Home Page" link in the right column on this page, and then click on "Find Articles" to see the entire list of online research sources your library provides.

You're going to get an "A" on that report, right?