Category Archive: Blog

Best on the Web – Fun & Learning Activities for Families

January 10, 2012

January 10, 2012

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.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2012/01/best-on-the-web-fun-learning-activities-for-families/

Best on the Web – Schoolwork Made Simple

January 3, 2012

January 3, 2012

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.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2012/01/best-on-the-web-schoolwork-made-simple/

“Salvage the Bones” wins National Book Award

December 29, 2011

December 29, 2011

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.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/salvage-the-bones-wins-national-book-award/

Best on the Web – Read & Download Books for Free

December 20, 2011

December 20, 2011

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.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/best-on-the-web-read-download-books-for-free/

Weekly Update: Lincoln Comes to Town

December 16, 2011

December 16, 2011

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

December 12, 2011

December 12, 2011

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.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/sharis-nonprofit-pick-a-breath-of-reality-air/

Weekly Update: The Holiday Spirit has Arrived

December 9, 2011

December 9, 2011

The Holiday Spirit has arrived in the Tri-Cities

Don’t want to be a scrooge this year? Looking for fun ways to ring in the holiday season with family and friends? Never fear, the Tri-Cities has you covered. In Old Towne, you won’t want to miss the 32nd Annual Trees of Christmas featuring 27 trees designed by various organizations, businesses and schools in the Southside area. The Petersburg Festival Chorus also presents Sounds of the Season this coming weekend. The Petersburg Public Library and Appomattox Regional Library System are offering family-friendly, holiday programming all month long. And finally, Prince George Regional Heritage Center celebrates the season with their vintage toy display. Find all your holiday happenings with ConnecctSouthside’s Calendar of Community Events this season.

News in the Community:

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

Want to receive daily updates of community events and news? Join our email group

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/weekly-update-the-holiday-spirit-has-arrived/

Shari’s Nonprofit Pick: Social Media Galore

December 5, 2011

December 5, 2011

Did you miss our Social Media conference last week? You may want to read one, or several, of the following books to help you shore up your social media savvy! Check them out.

30 Days to Social Media Success by Gail Z. Martin

Content Rules by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman

The Digital Handshake by Paul Chaney

The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Lynn Aaker

Flip the Funnel by Joseph Jaffe

The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko

Social Media for Social Good by Heather Mansfield

This is Social Media by Guy Clapperton

Twitter for Good by Claire Diaz-Ortiz

We First by Simon Mainwaring

 

 

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/sharis-nonprofit-pick-social-media-galore/

Weekly Community Update: Tis the Season

December 2, 2011

December 2, 2011

Tis the Season for Year-End Giving!

December is a big giving month as the holiday spirit arrives (and tax breaks for donations made before the end of the year). Many Americans think it’s important to give to charity this holiday season as proven by a  recent poll from the American Red Cross. Are you part of the 72% of the population who plans to give this year? If so, these are five tips that GuideStar suggests to help donors get the most out of their end-of the year charitable giving:

  1. Clarify values and preferences
  2. Focus on the mission
  3. Verify a charity’s legitimacy
  4. Get the cold, hard facts
  5. Trust your instincts

Looking for a charity to make your donations? Be sure to visit our database of local organizations as well as GiveSouthsideVA.

News in the Community

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

Want to receive daily updates of community events and news? Join our email group

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/12/weekly-community-update-tis-the-season/

Amnesia thriller is tense and creepy

November 30, 2011

November 30, 2011

“Before I go to sleep by S.J. Watson is one of the better debut novels of 2011. The story is told by Christine, a woman who wakes up every morning not knowing where or who she is. Her problem is a serious case of amnesia- from an accident or an attack, depending on who she talks to.

Christine lives an isolated life, heavily dependent on her husband Ben who is very selective about discussing her past. She forms a bond with a psychologist in secret, hoping to regain some of her memory, and part of the therapy consists of keeping a secret journal in which she tries to reconstruct her past. She reviews her journal every morning after he leaves for work. “Don’t trust Ben” is one of her messages to herself. Is Ben trying to save her from pain, or is there another motive at work? Or is it the psychologist himself who is the problem? Adding to the complexity is re-discovering her relationship with a woman who was her best friend- and the fact that she once had a son- is he still alive?

Watson is able to unfold the details of Christine’s past in a tense way. While her medical problem is frustrating and extreme, the author is able to keep the narrative endurable by granting her occasional glimpses of her strongest memories- so her case does have traces of hope. When a final plot twist kicks the suspense into high gear, we are firmly on her side! Despite the British setting, this novel would be hard to put down for most American readers, with the clever combination of memory science and who-can-I-trust suspense.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.arls.org/2011/11/amnesia-thriller-is-tense-and-creepy/

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