Do you feel the power?

Are there times you long to find articles without having to cull through which are good and which are just bunk? Need just an extra 10 minutes to do laundry instead of culling through your search results? Well, PowerSearch to the rescue!

This feature from Gale (one of our research database vendors) now searches all of its resources (those in which we subscribe to, anyway) at the same time and returns results in one list. So now you can just peruse your search results without having to decide if the article may be of dubious quality or whether it may be coming from second cousin Sue's neighbor who likes to write....... Besides the advantage of entering your search term only once, databases also provide quality resources.

Where can you find this awesome tool? In the dropdown next to the search box on the website! Choose All Gale Databases.

So ~ search away and do laundry, too.

Are you transformed? Transfixed?

More than just providing books and movies on the shelves, more than just the buildings which house the materials and the myriad of staff who are there to help you ~ isn't the entire experience and interaction with your library about being transformed or transfixed?

In my childhood, I was Nancy Drew in the penny loafers and skirt set (no snickering for those of you who can guess my age!). From Nancy I moved onto the high literature of Harlequin romances. To this day, my love of reading propels me from the educational (e.g. Winning Scholarships) to the fascinating (e.g. Pope Joan). I have to admit that listening to Pope Joan was like being in a time machine where I was transported to Europe in 855 and had a front row seat to daily life.

You have been seeing our front page stories which are themed "Libraries transform lives." It can happen in big ways, like literacy, but it can happen in smaller ways, too. Have you been transformed? Transfixed? Share your story here!

Your voice, your words

Yes, the new website carries reviews - your reviews! Follow these 5 easy steps to begin writing reviews on the website. Share your reviews with fellow readers/watchers/listeners!

1. Find any title you would like to review and click on the title.
2. Find the box which says REVIEWS and click on Sign in to write a review.
3. Under the Create an account button provide your email and username.
4. With the email we send you, click the link to establish your password.
5. Now, you should be logged in. Next to the cart it should say Hello + username. When you find a title to review, the link will read Write a review instead of Sign in to write a review.

Want to share your reading/watching/listening list with others? Once you've set up an account you will have a unique user number. The easiest way to find this number is to click on your username. This takes you to a page of everything you have reviewed. Share this unique url with friends and family!

Review often and spread the word!

Yellow Means......

back to school, from the #2 pencils we buy to the school buses stopping in our neighborhoods to the school crossing zones which blink yellow lights at us....it all means that our kids are back in school soaking up education.

Are you looking for additional resources to help your child with reading? Look no further than our electronic subscription product, NoveList K-8. With just your library card you have access to a ton of resources! Besides finding book recommendations for your children, you can also find books by Lexile levels or Picture Book Extenders, which can be used as discussion tools for reading comprehension.

Find the More dropdown to locate Picture Book Extenders information. Info about Lexile levels can be found on the right hand side of the page under NoveList Resources.

Happy Back To School!

I don't have time!

When we are shopping in the grocery store are we browsing? Looking for whether the split pea soup might be better than the vegetable beef? When you are online, are you browsing to see what the latest news flash is or are you headed to your favorite news website right away?

I begin to wonder at our ability or our attention span for browsing.......in light of the millions of other things on our to do lists (okay, so maybe I'm the only person who ever makes such lists). Have we lost our ability to just browse, to take a few minutes to enjoy the soup display or the book display and see what the staff have tried to put together to engage us for a few seconds and possibly a few dollars?

Even online, I feel like I don't browse any longer. I go to specific websites for specific reasons. When I need a recipe which has mushrooms and zuccini, I am not browsing and looking at the colorful photos of other recipes. When I want to find a book, I am simply typing it in the search box and off I go. Who has time to look for recommendations? Are we all just too busy? Are there websites or stores which entice you to browse? If so, how do they engage you further?

Interdependency

For the majority of you, I hope Sunday morning's non-access to the catalog was something you did not even notice. Like putting new tires on your car, you are inconvenienced but find it was worth the time and effort. Well, we had to replace the server which runs our catalog Sunday morning. This meant that you did not have access to materials for searching and placing holds. It also meant that access to many of the databases was not accessible.

We thank you for your patience during the morning while we made the switch. Our new server is running smoothly and we appreciate the time it took from your morning.

The catalog is what is running behind the scenes. What happens when you conduct a search from the website? Tt goes to the catalog and returns results. What happens when you want to check the status of holds in your account? The system is going into the catalog/user function. So you can see the interdependence between the website and the catalog and how the "right foot" doesn't dance very well without the "left foot."

Do You DVD?

Living in Colorado means not experiencing things like big rain puddles and the use of galoshes very often.....but last night it rained and rained and rained some more! My garden is so very happy.....does this mean an early winter, though?

We do not have much to report on the website side that is new from last week's post. We hope you are finding the titles you are seeking and that the cart is working for you. I have appreciated being able to search and place titles in my cart, search again and again and then check out all of my goodies with one login.

If you haven't taken the DVD survey yet, please take just 30 seconds to do so now. It's only 3 questions and your input is valuable as decisions are made about this popular collection format.