Watching TV online

YouTube is a great site to watch amateur videos online, and now they are adding professional content to their site, according to the New York Times.

This will be in direct competition with Hulu, another professional content site that is not available to viewers in Bolivia. Hulu offers NBC and Fox content, and hence shows from these networks will not be available through YouTube, but CBS and other network shows will be available.

Library career?

Have you ever thought about working in a library? Did you know that Casanova (yes, that Casanova) was a librarian, too? Here's a list of ten "Surprising Famous Librarians," from Mental Floss. Do you want to join their ranks? (And did you know that we have the paper version of Mental Floss in the library?)

Also, here's a quick look at libraries and librarians in popular culture, movies, etc., from PopWatch.

iTunes new music info

Do you use iTunes to download and buy music? Their new version came out on April 7th, and here are eight things you should know when using the DRM-free music, from PC Magazine.

Download responsibly!

Bicycle delivery?

In Ames, Iowa one library makes the environmentally conscious decision to deliver books by bicycle, instead of by vehicle. Read an article here.

Earth Day is coming up. What other innovative ideas can we come up with to lessen our impact on the environment?

Bolivian culture and bits from abroad

This weekend there is a culture and artisans' fair at the Parque Urbano. If you are interested in this topic, we have plenty of related books in the library. General books about Bolivia are in the 984 Dewey section. Travel books, which will include some information on culture and handicrafts, are at 918.4 in our library. There are also books on specific artists, like Roger Ortiz Mercado's Traces. This book is in the Spanish section, at 779, and has many beautiful portraits of Bolivian people.

If you are interested in foreign culture, you should stop by the feria to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit (if you didn't get to go on one of the field trips, that is). Then come to the library to see all the great books we have on the master's life, inventions and art. Also, take a look at the Da Vinci Code, for a good fiction read, or any of the Renaissance books for more information about the era in which he lived.

Finally, today is St. Patrick's day! If you're interested in Ireland, luck, leprechauns or other related tidbits, you'll find resources in the library.

Slumdog Millionaire was a book first!

Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire, yet? (It's playing at CineCenter right now, under the name Quisiera ser millionario?) Did you know that it was based on a book by Vikas Swarup, called Q&A (that means "question and answer")? Sadly we do not have this book in the SCCS library, but Abebooks recommends 19 Other Indian Novels, if you've been bit by the bangra bug!

We have the following from the list:
God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
In a Free State, by V.S. Naipaul
Clear Light of Day, by Anita Desai

If you're interested in reading other titles from this list, please recommend them to the librarian. If you're interested in books by Indian authors, or about India, come to the library and we can find them!

March is Women in History month

March is Women in History month. If you're interested in a female perspective, or women actors in global history, please come to the library to take a look at our display. We have a variety of non-fiction and fiction books on the subject.

If you'd like to do some deeper research on women in American History, check out this link to Discovering American Women's History Online. It's a great resource to search the web!

Never Let Me Go movie

Keira Knightley is to star in another book-to-movie production called Never Let Me Go. The original book, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is about a future in which teens are cloned for organ harvesting.

A Pale View of the Hills, another book by Kazuo Ishiguro, is in the library's fiction section. Sadly, however, we do not currently have Never Let Me Go. It has been ordered for the future.

Keira Knightly was also in a recent production of Pride and Prejudice, based on the Jane Austen novel. That book is in the library, and also has an accompanying AR quiz for high school readers.

Postcrossing

Do you like postcards and penpals? Are you interested in what the rest of the world looks like? Postcrossing is a great project where you can send and receive postcards from countries all over the world!

All you have to do is sign up with your postal address, send a postcard to the address supplied by Postcrossing, and you will receive a card in the mail in a few weeks! There aren't many Postcrossing members from Bolivia, so people around the world are always really excited to receive a card from here.

Ask Ms. Battistoni or Ms. Hanneman for more information if you're interested in the project!

movies and books, and books and movies!

Cine Center is currently showing two movies that came from great books! Twilight, a romance story with vampires, and The Tale of Despereaux, a mouse's adventures, are both showing right now. If you'd like to read the books on which the movies were based come to the library.

Also, Coraline is coming soon! The movie should be at Cine Center in a few weeks, but, sorry, the book won't be in the library until August. If you'd like to see other Neil Gaiman books, though, we have quite a few available in the library.

Facebook woes?

Do you have privacy concerns with Facebook? Has someone tagged a not-so-great picture of you? Don't want your contact information out there for everyone to see?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, check out ALLFacebook's 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know to help preserve your information.

Remember to compute safely and be aware of online predators!

Neil Gaiman talks about The Graveyard Book, etc.

Border's Media has a five minute video of Neil Gaiman talking about his Newbery winner, The Graveyard Book. (Remember, Borders is a book store, so they are trying to sell you stuff; you've been warned!)

If you're interested in Neil Gaiman, he regularly tweets on twitter under the name neilhimself.

Depression TV watching

A University of Pittsburg study finds that watching TV raises your depression levels. They also found that depression is not affected by reading, playing video games, or listening to music.

Not feeling depressed now? The study says that watching TV as a teenager raises the risk of depression when you become an adult, so invest in your own mental health and turn the tube off!

Newbery and other awards and lists!

The American Library Association recently picked this year's Newbery Award winner. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, is about a young boy, orphaned and raised by ghosts and werewolves in a graveyard. The book will be here in August with the new school year!

The ALA has many other awards and lists, check out these:
Best Books for Young Adults 2009
2009 Great Graphic Novels
2009 Quick Picks (books just for the fun of it)
2009 Fabulous Films for Young Adults

Check out these lists. If any of the titles sound interesting, please recommend them to the librarian to order for next year!

New year and new books!

We've started another year at SCCS...okay, it's still the same school year, but it's 2009!

There are a bunch of new books in the library, including Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, the third book in the Eragon series, a sad look at a leukemia patient's last wishes called Before I Die, and others. Come take a look!

Also, as we start to get our order together for the 2009-2010 school year, we look forward to your recommendations. Let us know if there are any books or magazines you'd like to see in the library next year!

As I'm sure everyone knows, I am a big fan of books. When a book is made into a movie, I more often than not prefer the book form. Every once in a while a movie comes out, however, that is as good as or better than the original book version. For example, I love both the movie and book versions of To Kill a Mockingbird, and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Here is a list from ListUniverse that has their top ten movies that are better than the book version.

I totally agree with some of them, especially The Godfather!

Check it out. What do you think, do you agree? Do you have examples of your own?

New laptop purchase?

Are you thinking of getting or asking for a new laptop for the holidays? This article from PC World has suggestions on what to look for, and a few lists of their favorites.

Do you spend a lot of time online? Do your parents and teachers think it's rotting your brain? Check out this article, which reports on a University of California study saying that online time "teaches important skills."

What do you think? Is Facebook more important than learning about, say, the causes of the Civil War?

National Book Award winners announced

The National Book Award winners were announced yesterdy in New York. The National Book Award is given to the best American book in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, young people's literature and poetry. The winners are:

Fiction: Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country
Nonfiction: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Young People's Literature: Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied
Poetry: Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems

These books will all be ordered for the library for next year!

Find your dewey number

The Dewey Decimal System is used to classify books in our library by subject. As many of you already know, those numbers on the spine of non-fiction books correspond to the most important subject in the book. Fun, eh?

Try out this quiz to find your Dewey classification number. (It's totally not scientific, just for the fun of it!)