Appomattox Regional Library System » Blog

Red Carpet Film Series in Prince George

janderson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:58 +0000

Appomattox Regional Library System productions presents:

Red Carpet Oscars^® series at the Prince George Library

February 21st through February 24th at 4:00 pm

Get ready for the 84th annual Academy Awards by watching winning films from previous years and enjoying fresh popcorn at the Prince George Library. Movies will be shown at 4:00 pm Tuesday 2/21 through Friday 2/24.

Movies may be rated PG-13 or R, except for Friday 2/4 when we will be featuring a family film from 2008 which won the “Best Animated Feature” award.

Best on the Web – Explore the World

marnold — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:52 +0000

Aerial view of the City of Hopewell and the Hopewell Library. Image courtesy of Google Earth.

Become a globetrotter without ever leaving home. How, you ask? Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that makes it possible for you to explore almost any location: Paris, Rio, Tokyo, or your own front yard. Google uses images obtained from satellites, aerial photography, and GIS 3D globes to render high resolution displays. Google Earth is useful for a variety of day-to-day and nontraditional purposes. Teachers are adopting Google Earth in the classroom to teach students geographical themes. For those with some extra time and curiosity, they can explore the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. One can also search for directions using Google Earth based on street names, cities and establishments. Google Earth can function as a travel guide for a city by plotting the locations of gas stations, restaurants, museums, and other areas of public interest. As of October 2011 Google Earth has been downloaded more than a billion times. You can download the program for your home computer or smartphone for free at www.earth.google.com, the App Store, and the Android Market.

Best on the Web – Learn How Stuff Works

marnold — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:00:02 +0000

Photo courtesy of HowStuffWorks

From car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells, and thousands of subjects in between, HowStuffWorks is the award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works. No topic is too big or too small for their expert editorial staff to unmask … or for you to understand. In addition to comprehensive articles, helpful graphics and informative videos walk you through every topic clearly, simply and objectively. The premise is simple: Demystify the world and do it in a simple, clear-cut way that anyone can understand. On HowStuffWorks, you can also find consumer opinions and exclusive access to independent expert ratings and reviews from the trusted editors at Consumer Guide—all of the information you need to make a purchasing decisions—in just a few clicks.

Best on the Web – Save Energy, Search in the Dark

marnold — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:00:48 +0000

If you’re like me, you rely on Google every day for information. The Google search engine processes millions of searches daily, and every time a user searches, they start from the iconic Google homepage with its bright white screen and colorful logo. But did you know that a bright white screen requires more power to display than a black (or dark) screen? In 2007, a blogger proposed that a black version of Google could save 750 Megawatt-hours of energy each year. (A megawatt-hour is the equivalent of ten thousand 100 watt light bulbs burning continuously for one hour.) In response to the blogger’s proposal, Heap Media created Blackle, a “lights out” version of Google that uses the same search engine so you don’t have to sacrifice the quality or comfort of your searching style. I enjoy Blackle because it not only reminds me how important it is to make greener choices, but I find the black screen and muted text to be easier on my eyes. Blackle creators acknowledge that the energy savings are small, but, in time, they all add up.

Best on the Web – Fun & Learning Activities for Families

marnold — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:00:42 +0000

Children need to be physically active for at least thirty minutes a day. DayByDayVA.org features simple games and activities to help you get active with your child and have fun doing it! Photo courtesy DayByDayVA.org.

If your New Year’s resolution is to prepare your child for success in school, the Library of Virginia has a new online tool to help. DaybyDayVA.org is an online family literacy calendar, activity guide, and resources. Each day the website suggests brief and entertaining activities to develop early reading skills, an electronic picture book from the TumbleBook Library, and a short animated video for families to watch together. The site also provides links to other great online resources. For parents and other caring adults, there is information on health and safety, craft ideas, links to free eBooks for children. Coming soon are links to your community public library and family-friendly activities.

Best on the Web – Schoolwork Made Simple

marnold — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:00:15 +0000

This is the year you’re going to turn in assignments on time. This year you’re going to know what’s due, when it’s due, and what you need to do to get the A. This year you have Soshiku, a simple but powerful tool that helps you manage your high school or college assignments online. Soshiku keeps track of when your assignments are due and can even notify you of upcoming due dates via email or on your smartphone. The best part is it’s totally free. Soshiku is very user-friendly, enabling users to categorize classes and assignments, track progress, upload files, and save notes. As a student you will often be asked to work with other students. Soshiku makes this easy as it simplifies the task of working with other people by giving you a variety of ways to connect. It’s possible to use Soshiku to chat, share files and collaborate on group projects.

“Salvage the Bones” wins National Book Award

cwiegard — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:00:31 +0000

This debut novel by Mississippi writer Jesmyn Ward deals with an African-American family living in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. The Batistes have plenty of problems. Dad is an alcoholic, suffering with the memories of his dead wife. His children, Randall, Skeeter, Esch, and Junior, are all troubled by that same event, except for Junior, who was born the day she died. They are living a life of poverty, and pinning their money making dreams on China, their special Pit Bull who is carrying pups.

Esch is the narrator. Her secret is that she is pregnant too. Ward paints a delicate picture of why Esch has made her choices and how she tries to keep her secret.

Through it all, Daddy is obsessed with the hurricane that crossed Florida and is brewing up in the Gulf. Trying to get the truck fixed up, Daddy has an accident and loses a finger. He mutters about them not having enough food, not having enough water. But there is too much going on for his kids to listen to him, too much interpersonal drama. Then Katrina becomes the biggest character of all, roaring over the land, tearing down the trees, pushing water to the door, to the window, and up to the attic where they huddle for refuge.

Think of this as sort of a smaller, less ambitious “Grapes of Wrath.” Like that classic dust-bowl novel by Steinbeck, it’s about the have-nots of the world sticking together for survival in a world that doesn’t much care about them. Like most National Book Award fiction, this novel is hard hitting and gritty and told with a literary “voice.” After returning it to the Hopewell Library, I put it on the display shelf labeled “Best Books of 2011″- because I think it belongs there.

Best on the Web – Read & Download Books for Free

marnold — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:00:20 +0000

Image courtesy of Open Library

The name says it all: Open Library is a digital library that offers free access to a collection of 1,000,000+ eBooks. The project began in 2004 with the goal of creating a web page for every book ever published, in effect establishing the most comprehensive catalog of the written word. Users can choose just how they want to read by selecting from a variety of online versions suitable for PC and Mac, Kindle, and DAISY for print-disabled readers. One of the highlights of Open Library is how easy it is to search and find just the book you want. Browse by subject, search by title and/or author, and view multiple editions of the same title. Like Google Books and Project Gutenberg, the majority of Open Library’s collection is comprised of Public Domain works. That means you won’t find new bestsellers on this site, but you will find popular classics that are standard reading in most high schools and colleges. Classics are great for browsing and research as well.

Weekly Update: Lincoln Comes to Town

reisenman — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:00:55 +0000

Spielburg’s “Lincoln” Film Transforming Petersburg

Filming began this week for Steven Spielburg’s film “Lincoln” based on the novel Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The “filming is set to run from [December] 13th through the 19th, with 14-hour filming days from very early in the morning to late at night, reported Kevin Kirby, Petersburg director of tourism. While street closures have caused some problems, many residents are excited about the prospect of Petersburg being featured in a major motion picture and believe it will generate interest and spending around the region’s rich historical past.

Progress-Index video of Lincoln film crew taking over Old Towne Petersburg

Southside Community Partners is a program of the Appomattox Regional Library System working to build a strong Southside community

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Shari’s Nonprofit Pick: A Breath of Reality Air

shenry — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:07 +0000

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

by Jim Collins

The author of the renowned worldwide bestseller Good to Great is at it again. And, again, he produces a work worth reading. Great by Choice is based on nine years of research by a team of over 20 researchers, distinguishing itself from Collins’s other books “by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.” With all the talk about vision, innovation, and risk-taking, it may surprise readers that those factors don’t seem to be as important as discipline, empiricism, and even paranoia in making great leaders. In a nonprofit world determined to be more business-like yet often equally determined to be led by many who enjoy speaking abstract gobbledygook, this book offers a lifesaver. If you, like many nonprofit leaders, are tired of navigating rough waters and fear being sucked away by a theoretical vortex, you need to read this book. Check it out.