Library Thing…You Make My Heart Sing!

What is Library Thing?

If you go to to the home page, here is a great snapshot of what Library Thing is and does:

• Enter what you’re reading or your whole library—it’s an easy, library-quality catalog. LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things.
• Meet the world’s largest book club. Find people with eerily similar tastes.
• Catalog with Amazon, the Library of Congress or 82 other world libraries. Import from anywhere.
• Get recommendations. Tag your books and explore others’ tags.
• Put your books on your blog.
• Enter 200 books for free!  You can enter additional books for a fee.

The Unquiet Library has created its very own Library Thing account; you can visit our Grizzly Library Thing and see what Mrs. Fleet, Mrs. Hamilton, and Mrs. Beasley are reading! 

Art Gallery: Mixed Media Figure Drawings Now on Display@Your Unquiet Library!

For those of you who enjoyed our art gallery of mixed media art inspired by Kandinsky (which is still ongoing!), you MUST come see the new mixed media art from Ms. McCloskey’s Advanced Art classes.  Students modeled for each other and drew contour lines; they then added other media, including pastels and ink. 

Please take a few minutes to come by the library and view the amazing talent we have here at Creekview!  We are proud to showcase this gallery of art for our students and teachers!

Get gamin’ @Your Unquiet Library!

Are you weary from all your schoolwork?  Stressed out from the academic load?  Have you been to the library lately to check out our great selection of puzzles and games?  Come and escape from your troubles and cares @Your Unquiet Library!  Thanks to Governor Purdue’s teacher gift card to the library, we now have puzzles, Deluxe Scrabble, chess, checkers, backgammon, and many puzzles for you to enjoy! 

Get gamin’ and have some mind candy @ Your Unquiet Library!

Poetry Club Update!

Over 20 students attended the first poetry club information meeting on Friday, August 24!  The majority of members voted that “after school” as the best time to meet, so our first meeting will be Thursday, September 13, 2007 from 3:30 until 4:30.   More details will be coming soon about what will be happening at our first meeting.  Please RSVP for the first meeting by September 6 with Mrs. Hamilton.  Thanks!

11 Ways to Search Without Google

“How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.”—Henry David Thoreau, from Walden

When you want to search the web, what is the search engine of choice?  For most of us, it is Google.  Certainly, Google features many great tools, but like anything else, it is easy to become comfortable and get stuck in a “rut”.  Why not venture out and try some lesser known but effective search engines that can give you different results? 

I came across this great article in July about alternate search engines to try besides Google!  You can visit this slideshow to learn more about these search engines and even give them a test drive!  I am still playing with the “Magnificent 11″ as of right now (in my spare time, LOL!), but Clusty is the one I particularly like—you can view results by “cluster” (which is a type of subject heading or tag system), sources, and type of web source (such as .gov, .com, .edu., etc.).

When you get a moment, play around with some of these engines and let me know what you think!

Write a book review and win a prize!

The Unquiet Library is pleased to announce a new program that rewards students for submitting book reviews!  Every student who checks out a book from the library will be given an opportunity to write a book review.  Each time a student writes and submits a book review with the return of a library book, he or she will be entered in a monthly drawing for prizes that will include books and gift certificates!  If the student submits the review to our blog at http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com/student-book-reviews-and-recommendations/, then he or she will receive an additional free entry in the monthly drawing.  Students can get a form from Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Fleet, or  Mrs. Beasley, or the form can be downloaded by clicking here.

Share your reactions and thoughts on the books from your Grizzly Library!

Poetry Club Meeting August 24, 2007

We will be hosting an informational meeting about the newly formed Poetry Club on Friday, 8:00 A.M. in the media center.  We will be discussing activities and events for our club; we will also try to determine our meeting dates for the first semester.  If you can’t come to the meeting, stop by the library and get a free membership form from Mrs. Hamilton.  The Poetry Club is sponsored by Mrs. Hamilton and The Unquiet Library.

What are YOUR reading habits?

 ”Read in order to live”—Gustave Flaubert

 An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released yesterday reports that one in four American adults say they read no books at all in the last year.   Reasons for not reading included falling asleep while reading, distractions from recreational/leisure activities, lack of energy, a preference for spending time on the Internet or other media, and economic reasons.  The poll also reported that the most avid readers were women and seniors; religious works and popular fiction were the top genres.  Other popular genres included romance novels, histories, biographies, and mysteries, but classical literature, politics, and poetry were among the least favored genres.  The poll also reflected previous findings that most male readers prefer nonfiction over fiction.

What do you think of these poll results?  Should we as Americans be alarmed?   What do you think accounts for the decline in reading habits?  What, if any, are the implications of these findings for society?  How do your reading habits stack up against the findings of this poll?

Share your thoughts and give us a shout out!

Come visit the Kandinsky inspired art exhibit!

  Come check out our art exhibit on display in the media center!  We are featuring mixed media works created by Ms. McCloskey’s Visual Art classes.  Don’t know who Kandinsky is?  You can read more about him and his impact in the world of art from our GALE Virtual Reference Library (password required—see Mrs. Hamilton or Mrs. Fleet if you need it).  The library is open from 7:30 AM until 4:00 daily—take a moment to see the stellar art created by our very own Grizzly artists!

Playing in the Database Dirt: Reflecting on Your Findings, Pickart’s 11th Honors American Literature

Think about the information sources you used today to explore resources for Hawthorne, literary criticism on The Scarlet Letter, and the Salem Witch Trials.

 

Which databases do you think you might be most likely to use for your 11th American L/C assignments during the upcoming year?  Which ones did you find most helpful?  Why?