Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens - Email
NOLA Regional Library System

Libraries and election process
While it might be a bit late for elections this year, public libraries should take a look at a ALA’s recent web site concerning libraries and elections as it provides some excellent information and could be useful in future planning. 

Areas of discussion include: How to become involved as information center for the election process, how to promote library issues, with some sample questions to ask candidates, and a collection of information and links to libraries already taking an active role in the political process, congratulations to one of NOLA’s school library members – Harmon Middle School (Aurora) in Portage County for being mentioned in this list.

Read more

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/zd/zd9.htm

Stop the Spam!
Ever register for something online and start receiving undesired emails as a result?  A new solution, Spam Motel, may be just what you’re looking for.  Once you sign up for the service you can generate as many “throw away” email addresses as you’d like.  When mail is sent to any of these accounts it’s forwarded to your real email account, with a note attached indicating to whom the fake address was originally given.  This way you can track who is selling your address and how it is being used.  Also you can discontinue forwarding from any of these alias accounts at any time, effectively blocking Spammers.

Want to know more?  Check out http://www.spammotel.com/

Safe Keeping for Documents
Fleet Financial, a banking company with $181 billion in assets, announced the development of a new service to provide users with safe deposit boxes for electronic documents.  Customers will be able to access the boxes anytime over the web with an account number and password.  Targeted at small businesses and professionals the service will cost $11 per month for 40 MB of storage.  Would such a solution be useful in libraries or home users?  Just ask someone who’s had a hard drive crash and discovered that they didn’t have working backups.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/fleetbank001011.html

Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens - Email
NOLA Regional Library System

George, Jean Craighead. 
How to Talk to Your Cat. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
How to Talk to Your Dog. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

Both of these works would be great additions for pet collections. The “languages” of these two pets are explained in informative text and illustrations appropriate for elementary school children. Additionally, both texts give a brief background on the how these animals became domesticated and won places in our homes and hearts. For example, cats were not tamed, they moved in and took possession of humans. Anyone who lives with a cat, or wants to, will appreciate the insight of that statement by the author. Dogs can be one’s most faithful friend, and learning the canine language will enable the owner/pack leader to reciprocate that devotion in terms the pet may really understand The illustrations (by Paul Meisel for Cat and Sue Truesdell for Dog) are a clever mix of cartoon water colors for the pets, mixed with photos of the author demonstrating the proper “body language” etiquette.

Glass, Andrew. 
Bewildered for Three Days: as to Why Daniel Boone Never Wore His Coonskin Cap. New York: Holiday House, 2000.

A true tale told in folktale fashion of an episode from Daniel Boone’s childhood. The young teen’s interaction with the local, and friendly, Delaware Indians leads to Daniel’s explorations of the wilderness surrounding his home. These trips become more adventurous and lengthy until he finds himself lost. He finds himself surrounded by other Indians he has not met before and whose intentions may not be the most friendly. Salvation from a possibly dire end is provided by an unlikely forest resident, and becomes the source of a life-long pledge by the adventurer. The work concludes with a short biography of Daniel Boone. The author also did the illustrations and provides a map of the travels/adventures of the American hero. Appropriate for middle-school and upper elementary grade level students.

Rubin, Susan Goldman. 
Fireflies in the Dark: the Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. New York: Holiday House, 2000.

The story of the Terezin concentration camp was an especially tragic one. This concentration camp was used by the Nazi’s as a sham showcase to prove to the world that the Jews were being “relocated” to pleasant workers’ settlements, and not being slaughtered in a holocaust. Rubin’s book chronicles the story of the art teacher, Friedl Dicker-Brandies, who attempted to provide a level of stability and some hope in a site that epitomized insanity and cruelty by teaching 100+ children who were in the camp. The work is based upon recently-discovered artwork that had been created by the children, all of whom perished along with their teacher. This is a compelling story that should be included in any collection, even if some may find the subject matter too troubling for children.

Singer, Marilyn. 
On the Same Day in March. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

Singer’s book takes the reader around the world in one day to see what the weather is like outside. Alberta Canada, the Texas panhandle, central Thailand and the Patagonia in Argentina are just some of the sites that are visited. The prose is short and lends itself to story time for older children, or as an excellent lead-in for classroom use on a lesson about the weather. The simple artwork by Frane Lessac lends itself to art/craft extension activities since most children could emulate the illustrator’s style to depict their favorite season/weather activities.

Sis, Peter. Madlenka. 
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2000.

Young Madlenka lives in New York and has lost her first tooth. Her trips to the neighbors to let them know about this major life event comprises the story. Her neighbors have different ethnic backgrounds, and the pages that cover her visits take the reader to those diverse lands. The pages in between her visits as she travels from one neighbor to the next are a clever Monopoly board-like depictions of her route around the block. This reviewer found the illustrations and maps reminiscent of Robin Hirst’s My Place in Space in portraying to the reader the distances and places visited by Madlenka. Due to the small size and detail of the illustrations Madlenka would not be suitable for story telling, but would make a great independent reader for those who need to move on from the Where’s Waldo genre, or as an extension reader for lessons on maps and geography in the classroom.