Celebrate National Poetry Month by reading some poetry or writing a poem of your own. Check out some of the books in our collection or get inspired by visiting some of the following sites.

poemflow.com
POETS.org
Poetry Foundation

Got a smart phone? Get the poetry app and discover new poems on the go!

Have you seen this YouTube video a 4th grade class in NYC made encouraging people to vote on Nov 6?  Their song, set to the tune of the pop hit "Call Me Maybe", is non-partisan and promotes voting as a civic duty.  View it here.

Overview:

Librarians are trained to locate information using a variety of techniques and are also trained to evaluate information in order to make sure that it's reliable.  Here are a few of the more basic tricks that we use to help locate items. The techniques that I'm writing about will work for a patron using our Encore library catalog, but these tricks (with some tweaking, perhaps) also apply to searching catalogs and databases in general.

Access Points:

October is National Reading Group Month.  Dedicated to promoting the joys of "shared reading", this event is an initiative of the Women's National Book Association.

 Consider joining an East Lansing Public Library (ELPL) book club and meet new friends, read great books and enjoy inspiring discussions!  ELPL offers: the Better Living Book Club  which focuses on inspirational nonfiction; Books on Tap which is dedicated to contemporary fiction and nonfiction; the International Book Club which offers titles about other cultures and countries; Out of This World which discusses fantasy and science fiction selections.

If you already belong to a book club, do you know about ELPL's adult and children's Lit Kits? Each Lit Kit book bag contains ten copies of a book along with a notebook of supplemental information.  Book reviews, the author's biographical information and  discussion questions are included. Lit Kits check out for a period of 8 weeks.  Visit the Reference or Children's Desk and ask about Lit Kits for your group!

The national fact check web sites provided in the "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!" blog have counterparts for Michigan politics.  Two web sites that can help us discern reality from illusion, especially for the upcoming multiple ballot proposals are:

 Michigan Truth Squad, a project of the Center for Michigan, which "helps blow the whistle on false and misleading Michigan political speech" by rating political statements from  "no foul" to "flagrant foul". The link will take you to their calls on the political ads for the various upcoming ballot proposals

the Citizens Research Council which provides factual, independent information on state organizational and financial issues.  The link will take you to their objective analyses of the November ballot proposals. 

Take moment and do a little reading, you may be surprised by what's behind the scenes! Or... maybe you won't be!

I don't know about you, but when I see someone out in public reading a book, I always want to know the title. When I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, I saw people reading books while standing at bus stops, sitting in parks and waiting outside the train station. The book I spotted the most was (no surprise) Fifty Shades of Grey.

Well, today on the Internet, I ran across someone in New York City who has made a photo series called Underground New York Public Library. The site features photos of people reading on NYC subways. Luckily for my sense of curiosity, the photographer also includes the book title. Not only is it fun to see what people are reading, but it is also interesting to see what the nonreaders in the shot are doing. Check it out at http://undergroundnewyorkpubliclibrary.com/ 

If you click on the first picture it will take you to a flickr account where you can view all the photos in a slide show.

East Lansing is a wonderful international community!  Parents, caregivers, and children may be interested in this great source for children's books written in other languages - the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL).  ICDL has thousands of children's books from over 60 countries written in 16 languages for ages 3-13. The great news is, you can read these for FREE on your computer with Internet access. (Apps are also available for various titles for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.)  To investigate the ICDL web site, click here.

Over the years, the East Lansing Public Library has expanded its own collection of books written for children and adults in other languages. To see books in the Community Languages Collection in our catalog, click here.  

Did you know that the Library of Congress has a Flickr account? The account includes pictures of the library itself as well as collections they have uploaded from the library.

Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

Beginning May 1, TumbleBookLibrary will be available from our website!

TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of TumbleBooks, animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love.

TumbleBooks  are created by taking existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music  and narration to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you.

To read more about the TumbleBookLibrary, click here.

Here is an exercise program that will get your mouse moving fast. Pet mice are not required!

At the East Lansing Public Library we offer one-on-one appointments covering a wide variety of computer lessons.

One lesson that comes up often is learning how to use the mouse. It can be a daunting task for your hands.

We have uploaded an online program that will serve your computer skills. Mouserobics comes to us from the Central Kansas Library System in Great Bend, Kansas. Practice with this site and master the art of efficent computer skills.

Let your eye enjoy the color and your ear the soothing sound.  Jazz, birds, and non-fiction books are featured this month in library displays.

Summer Solstice Jazz Festival fills the streets of downtown East Lansing on June 18-20, 2010.  Sounds sure to get your body and soul movin' will fill the air.  Get ready when you next visit the library and check out the display featuring jazz books and recordings.

Waking in the morning to the chitters, coos, and trills of all those birds pulls our hearts and minds into the promise of each new day.  Celebrate birds of all feathers by stopping by the birdwatching display the next time you stop in the library.  You can even catch a information-filled preview on the web at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Birding Association.

Summer is always the time to break out of your reading rut.  Take a look at our display of what can only be called "Fetching Non-Fiction."  Pick up a book that strikes your fancy -- and keep your horizons expanding!

What's the 5th book in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson?  The author's first name is Marilyn and she writes a mystery series--who could she be?  Has James Lee Burke written more than the Dave Robicheaux series?

The What's Next Books in Series database (compiled by the Kent District Library) is one of our favorite sites for answering questions about all things related to book series.  It's bound to become a favorite of yours, too.

Librarian's Recommended Pages

This page contains a long A - Z list of useful websites for everything from Automotive appraisal, to English as a second language, and even information about health and medicine. The page can also be accessed from our site under Research => Librarian's Recommended Pages, or by searching the site for "Librarian's links." To get started click here or on the globe to the left.