Veteran's Day

Hi All,

Tomorrow is a very special day. It is November 11th - which means it is Veteran's Day. There are going to be a lot of parades in honor of all of our Veteran's. Click here for a link to parades on Long Island for veterans. Note that some of the links might possibly be a bit old...this was the best site that I found for links to Veterans Day parades.

Click on this link for various restaurants and stores on Long Island that are having specials/sales for veterans.

Click on this link for a bunch of very relevant quotes concerning Veterans Day.

Did you know that the Farmingdale Public Library is hosting the Field of Honor tribute to veterans? Click here for quick link - and a quick look at what 200 flags looks like - for more information. The flags will be displayed from November 5th to December 3rd at the Farmingdale PL. It is quite a moving and touching site to see over 200 American flags waving in the wind. Don't miss it!

I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the best veterans related websites on the web - the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Click here to go to the site. Users can click on links and get information as varied as Veterans Services, connecting to the VA via Twitter and Facebook, find information on VA benefits, get info on VA health care information and find out about pension information.

There is so much information on the site that users would be best served if they visited the site. To describe the site does not do it justice - there is so much information just a mouse click away!

Click here for a link to books and videos in the Farmingdale Public Library that deal with Veterans Day - note that there are both books and videos in the search results.

Have a good Veteran's Day!

Regards,
Stu

Google Image Search...New and Improved

Hi All,

Just when I was trying to come up with an idea for a blog post (heck, after 211 previous posts, you would expect me to at least start to run out of idea...) I saw something of interest on the Google homepage.

Simply put, users can drag an image into the search box and then Google - in all its infinite glory and wisdom - will perform a search using that very same image. How cool is that?

Give it a shot by going to Google's homepage by clicking on this link. Click on this link to find a small tutorial - and video - on how this new Google search feature works - very cool stuff.

One example of how you can use this new feature: find an image that you would like to get similar examples of...(Albert Pujols for example - baseball player fyi). Just drag - really, just drag the image! - the image to the Google search bar and paste it in. Then Google does the search - super cool and super easy!

Regards,
Stu

Calling All Readers, Calling All Readers...

Hi All,

Just want to get back to some grass roots librarianship today. So, you've been reading a really, really great book by XYZ - and you want to find books with similar themes and topics to this one.

Where you you go?

Never fear, Novelist Plus is here! Click here for a link to the database. Alternatively, you can visit the library website by clicking on this link and then clicking on the 'Reference' tab. Click on the Literature tab. Novelist Plus is the fifth entry in the list under Literature. (Just remember to have your valid Farmingdale PL library card handy since you'll need to enter the barcode to gain access to the database.)

So, what exactly is Novelist Plus? Well, Novelist Plus (hereafter denoted 'NP') is an online database that all Farmingdale Public Library patrons have free access to. Specifically Novelist Plus lets users search among hundreds of thousands of popular fiction (made up) and non-fiction (real topics) to get summaries of books. Users can retriever author read-alikes, book lists, book discussion guides and more!

Users can also search by author, title, book series title and more. Advanced searching lets users search by genre, Dewey Decimal Classification number and by review.

One very new feature that Novelist has recently added is a section of reviews by readers. These reviews come from a website called Goodreads. Note that Goodreads has thousands upon thousands of reviews of well, thousands upon thousands of books.

You can visit Goodreads.com by clicking on this link.

Hope this entry helps you find books that you really, really want to read!

Regards,
Stu

D is For...

Hi All,

Do you realize how few fruits and vegetables begin with the letter 'D'? Ugh...it took me a good few minutes to get the name of this fruit...'dates'. Yeah, that's the fruit!

Seriously, has anyone heard of durian, dragon fruit, drupe, dewberry or dyeberry? Yep - me neither. Thankfully one of the other librarians pointed me in the right direction with respect to fruit names that begin with the letter 'd'. So, I'm going to talk all about dates today.

You might remember that dates are talked about a lot in the bible - click here for a link to a brief discussion of dates and the bible.

This link comes from Purdue University and talks about the history, background, soil, food uses and more of dates - interesting, but definitely for folks who already know a bit about dates.

If this blog entry is making you hungry for dates - click here to buy them online. I'm not endorsing this site - I'm just saying that this is one of many sites where you can buy dates.

I bet you didn't think that there are many recipes with dates...you'd be wrong. Click on this link from AllRecipes.com for some date filled recipes. Some of the better sounding recipes on the site include date cookies, date rolls, sticky date pudding and date nut bread....yum!

Click here for a link where you can buy some more Medjool dates - again, it is one of many sites on the web where you can buy them!!!

Click here for a link to pictures of dates - lookin' good!

Enjoy the dates - who would have thunk it - a whole blog entry on dates? Go figure.
Enjoy,
Stu

It's For the Birds!

Hi All,

Birds - they are everywhere we look: in trees, on telephone pole wires, the roofs of houses and sitting on fences. And they come in so many different colors and shapes and sizes.

They are just so darn colorful and adorable and when they sing....and chirp. How could you do anything else other than look at photos of birds - or go birdwatching.

From time to time, I'll probably do some more entries regarding birds and birdwatching and bird related activities. Its becoming an interest of mine recently and the blog lets me write a bit about this newly found interest.

So...here are a bunch of websites related to bird watching. Note that you could type in the phrase 'bird watching' in Google and you'll find links to many, many different websites. Or...you could just use some of these excellent links:

BirdWatcher'sDigest.com - comprehensive site with info on bird identification, bird feeding, bird conservation, links to their newsletter, a really good photo gallery and a section on optics!

Birdwatching.com - a more 'sedate' website than BWD mentioned above...has birding FAQ's, birding tips, bird's stories, software and links to optics. Similar, but different than first birding site - but still worth a visit.

One of the premier website for birdwatching comes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - click here for the link. The site deals with exploring and conserving nature...in particular there is a bird guide, a link to birding basics, and links for how viewers can get involved with birding.

This is really one of the seminal - and I don't use that word often - websites for and about birding - you don't want to miss it!

Regards and happy birding!
Stu