Did you know…the Popsicle had another name? The very first “icy treat on a stick” was called the Epsicle, named in 1924 by Frank Epperson who was a powdered lemonade vendor in California. Read about how the more popular name of this beloved frozen treat came to be, and much more, in the St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. Check it out or call your rep for more information.
Helping students find the right college…and the right path to get there
By Kim Martin
Chance is a hard-working (if sometimes distracted) high school junior. Besides doing homework and working out with the team, he thinks a lot about 
applying to college – where to apply, what programs to look at, how to evaluate programs, and how to prepare for the upcoming college entrance exams. The amount of information and entry points to finding information can be boggling and overwhelming.
Chance and other students in your community are looking for information that can help them evaluate career options, examine courses of study, and find financial aid. You can provide them with easy-to-use electronic resources that give them instant access to rich information about every aspect of applying to college.
Support your community’s future college graduates now with resources that can help guide important, life-altering decisions and provide them and their families
Read moreHelping students find the right college…and the right path to get there
Our School Library is Awesome!
By Kristin M. I teach in a high school where many students do not have access to books or computers at home. Our school library is a VITAL part of our school community. Not only is it a place to get homework done, get help for tutoring or use a computer, but also a place … Read more
19th Century Nitty-Gritty: Dancing with Jane Austen
By Jennifer Albers-Smith
It’s certainly no twerk (thank goodness), but there are people all over who love to dress up and dance the way people danced in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain. What woman in love with Jane Austen’s world wouldn’t dream of going back in time and being Elizabeth Bennet at a ball, meeting Darcy (minus the rejection part)?
Read more19th Century Nitty-Gritty: Dancing with Jane Austen
Is Bento Transforming Library Menus?
By Nicholas Schultz
This delicious image portrays a traditional Japanese Bento. Bento is a single portion takeout or home-packed meal. Traditionally a Bento would hold rice, protein, and pickled or cooked veggies – usually in a box-shaped container – hence “Bento Box”.
Over the last few years, Bento has become the new hip. Culinary speaking, Bento Boxes are being offered in most upscale gastro pubs throughout North America, regardless of cuisine style. It satisfies the hipster’s need to be trendy while not having to cook. It satisfies the Michelin chef’s need to offer chic take-out lunches at a premium price point. The world’s most expensive Bento sold for $229,000.
Now Bento is influencing how we consume information as well. The word “bento” roughly translates to “convenient” or “convenience”. In an embattled library world that has seen many skirmishes between federated searching and web-scale discovery/discovery service iterations, user convenience may be the silver bullet.
Washington D.C. Land of Genealogy
By Joe Garonzik
Answer the following questions either True or False:
- No genealogical research is ever complete unless it has been authenticated by original source records.
- Salt Lake City is not the site of the greatest collection of accessible genealogical records in the U.S.
- The National Archives in Washington, D.C. is only one of many genealogy record repositories to be found in the nation’s capital.
If you answered false to any of these statements, you should read on. Why? In the first instance, it is an axiom of genealogy that all family research must ultimately be validated against original sources (or facsimiles of those sources on microfilm, etc.). How else can a researcher ever know that his data wasn’t derived from a mis-copied record, or that a lineage published in a book is simply incorrect?
The Library at the End of the State
By Kevin D. The Niagara Falls Public Library is built in the brutalist style of the Yale School of Architecture and Boston’s New City Hall: it LOOKS like a factory of knowledge and for a City of then 70k people (in 1970), now for 45,000 denizens, it is still an imposingly massive yet welcoming repository … Read more
Special Librarian
By Michelle F.
When my daughter, Sami, was about 4 years old (she’s now 18), I registered her for a weekly story time / arts and crafts program at our local library (The Prospect Library in Prospect, CT). Sami has special needs and I had been in search of an appropriate program for her. The story time program seemed perfect. On the first day of the program, the children entered a quiet room in the back of the library and were instructed to take a seat on the floor in front of Mrs. Peterson, the librarian. As Mrs. Peterson began to read the story, Sami got up from her seat, walked over to Mrs. Peterson and stood by her side. I was worried that Sami would be asked to leave the program if she couldn’t stay seated; however, Mrs. Peterson could see that Sami was interested, so she continued to read with Sami by her side. When story time ended, Mrs. Peterson began a conversation with my husband and expressed interest in learning more about Sami. He explained Sami’s special needs and mentioned how much she enjoys books and reading. He told Mrs. Peterson that he reads to Sami every night before bed. Mrs. Peterson responded by telling my husband that her father had read to her when she was a young girl, and she remembers how much she enjoyed that time together.
“Like working for AP and having access to the morgue”
Recently, we sat down with K Lee Lerner–a senior commissioning editor and advisor/contributor to news services and academic resources. Lerner’s portfolio covering science and global issues includes two RUSA Book and Media Awards, and two Outstanding Academic Titles. A former classroom teacher, Lerner holds multiple degrees in science, science education, and also a Master’s in Journalism from Harvard. We asked him to critically review our new Associated Press Collections Online archives. We hope his insights will help you to see the real value in these collections for active journalists and students alike.
Read more“Like working for AP and having access to the morgue”
Partner Interview: Anne Marie Houppert of the National Geographic Society
What makes working for National Geographic a fulfilling experience and why should you be excited to add National Geographic Virtual Library to your collection? Find out straight from the source. In a continuation of our interview with the Geographic, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Marie Houppert.
Read morePartner Interview: Anne Marie Houppert of the National Geographic Society