September Project 2009: Spiritual Freedom

The Terrebonne Parish Library is taking part in the September Project this year with a series of displays celebrating the protected American right to freedom of religious expression.

On the first floor of the Main Library, you'll find the Introductory Display Table, the Buddhism Table and the Minority and Alternative Faiths Table. On the second floor, you'll find Christianity, Judaism, The Freedom to Not Believe, Islam and Hinduism. Each display features a placard informing you of how many practitioners of that particular faith are in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Each display also offers a selection of books and DVDs selected to give you a well-rounded and fair view of each faith.

We selected the faiths for the displays based on the numbers of practitioners, but we did our very best to be inclusive and fair.

For more information on the library's participation in The September Project, contact Darryl Eschete at (985) 876-1733, ext. 242 or send him an email.

Senator Ted Kennedy, 1932--2009

Ted Kennedy's Senate Webpage

Ted Kennedy's Campaign Page

Official Senate Biography

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Boston Globe: Ted Kennedy, A Life in Politics

Politico.org--Remembering Ted Kennedy

History Channel: Remembering Ted Kennedy

The Speech That Made Him Famous: Ted Kennedy Eulogizes His Assassinated Brother Robert in 1968

Salem Press-History From Home

The Terrebonne Parish Library System has something students of history in school and out might appreciate:

The Salem History Database

Just click the link and enter your Knowledge Card barcode in the blank (no spaces), and you are off and running.

The content in here is so high-quality that it's almost unbelievable, and you can get it all from home. Everything from Aesop to Zoroaster, FULL TEXT. No charge, of course. It's your tax dollars at work!

Be sure to tell a friend or a student you know!

Databases+Librarians+You=Better Grades?

School has started and we wanted to go over how to get to our databases once again.

Go to this page:

Terrebonne Parish Library Databases

and check out the many useful databases we've got.

As an information professional I guarantee that, with a little practice, you or a student you know can use these databases to make finding high-quality information much, much easier. And that should make better grades easier, too.

We're especially proud to announce that we've got WORLD BOOK ONLINE up and running. That link is set to take you directly to the World book "Info Finder," and that should be a good start.

Also, be sure to check out the Louisiana State Library's Databases. Just enter your Knowledge Card (Library card) number in the blank.

And don't forget to ASK TESS! if you have a research or study question you just can't seem to answer.

The Terrebonne Parish Library's Reference Department takes its motto seriously: "Your Information is Our Mission."

Louisiana Land Loss Links & Landsat

By the time a child born this year is 41 years old, Louisiana will have lost 2600 square miles of the coastal land it had in 1932. Unless something is done and done quickly, the Gulf of Mexico will be visible from downtown Houma before many people reading this are too terribly old. Below are some links with information about land loss and coastal erosion.

National Wetlands Research Center: Louisiana Coastal Land Loss

Louisiana Department of Resources: Louisiana Coastal Facts

Animation: The Rise and Disappearance of Coastal Louisiana (Requires Flash 8)

BTNEP: The Barataria National Estuary Program

Restore or Retreat

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Blog

Len Bahr's LA Coast Post--Home to many, many more good links.

Landsat: Coastal Erosion in Real Time

Finally, take a look at the Landsat archives and the Global Visualization Viewer (GLOVIS) to see the picture from space. Landsat is a landform-cataloguing satellite that flies over us, takes digital photographs of the planet and beams them down.
To look at current images of our coastline, just enter 28.9 in the latitude box and -90.5 in the longitude box. To look at older images, click on the pulldown menu that says "Landsat 7 SLC-Off (2003->)" and pick an older mission. "Landsat 1-3 MSS" is from 1972 to 1982, "Landsat 4-5 MSS" is from 1982 to 1992 and "Landsat 7 SLC-Off" is from 1999 to 2003.

Those little abbreviations on the pulldown menu (MSS, SLC) stand for technical stuff on the Landsat Satellite. Read more about it here:

What Does "SLC OFF" Mean?

What Does MSS Stand For?

What Does TM Stand For?

Find a Loved One...Find a Business

The Terrebonne Parish Library subscribes to ReferenceUSA, a database that allows patrons to look up residences, businesses and doctors and health professionals throughout the United States.



Just enter your Knowledge Card (library card) number and select what kind of search you want to do: residential, business, new business (businesses licensed with the past 12 months), or health professionals/physicians.

If you have any questions, send email to Reference Librarian Darryl Eschete.

LSU AgCenter: Online Tools for Flood, Windspeed

The kind and dilligent folks at the LSU AgCenter have clued us in to some great online tools for getting a good idea of what storm surge and windspeed might look like during the next hurricane.

Just enter your address and city and see what mother nature could do if she were in the mood.

Windspeed & Ground Elevation--LSU AgCenter's Windspeed & Elevation Map

Flood Maps--Louisiana Flood Map Portal

LA Mapping Project--Terrebonne Parish

Beyond This Sky, Another World?

Some out-of-this-world neat stuff is coming up in the next week at the library.

A couple of reminders:

Thursday, August 20 at 6:30 pm at the MAIN LIBRARY--Mr. Cliff Fenton will give a lecture on "Human Life Out of This World: The Moon by 2020 and Mars in the Future." He'll discuss what it takes to support human life as we begin to discover further from out home planet.

Tuesday, August 25 at DUSK at the Main Library--Mr. Gene Dalton, local astronomer, will provide an evening of star gazing through telescopes until 9 p.m. (In case of bad weather or poor visibility, will be rescheduled for Wednesday the 26th or Thursday the 27th).

Accelerated Readers Made Easy

If you have a child in Terrebonne Parish Schools and you want to find books for the Accelerated Reader Program, you can make it easier on yourself by going to this website:

AR Bookfinder

Just click the button next to "Parent," then click "Submit."

You'll be taken to a search box where you can type in a particular title to see if it is on the Accelerated Reader list.

OR, you can click the "Advanced Search" tab at the top and search by Title, Author, ISBN and even topic and subtopic! There is also an option to search by ATOS Readability Level, which basically tells you what grade level (and month of that grade) for which the book is appropriate.

Finally, there is a "Collections" tab, which lets you simply pick books from lists of literary award-winners, state-specific award winners, and books picked by librarians.

For more information, contact Terrebonne Parish School District's Reading Curriculum specialist Tonya Allen at 985-876-7400.

TOPS-Friendly Databases

So. School is back in, huh? And maybe this year you or someone you know really has to start getting serious in order to meet TOPS core curriculum requirements.

Well, the Terrebonne Parish Library System has some databases that will definitely help make getting through the TOPS curriculum easier.

Click on the course side for databases that may help.

Carnegie Units Course

4 English I, II, III, and IV

1 Algebra I (or 2 units of Algebra IA and IB)

1 Algebra II

1 Geometry, Trig, Calculus or Advanced Math

1 Biology

1 Chemistry

1 Earth Science, Environmental Science,
Physical Science, Biology II, Chemistry II,
Physics I or II, or Physics for Technology

1 American History

1 World History, Western Civilization,
or World Geography

1 Civics and Free Enterprise

1 Fine Arts Survey
(or 2 units of performance, visual art,
studio art; or 1 unit from other
subjects in this curriculum)

2 A single foreign language

.5 Computer Science, Computer Literacy,
or Business Computer Applications

Old West Gunslingin' @ The Terrebonne Parish Library

If you come by the Main Branch, be sure to stop at the display cases in the lobby and on the second floor to take a look at the "Pan Handle Pete" collection, left with us by Emile Hebert.

Mr Hebert's collection includes memorabilia of the Old West, The "Hollywood West" and even models of the types of guns and rifles used by gunfighters and lawmen in the days of Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday.

Also on display are badges, whips, boots and hats as well as movie posters, pictures, lunchboxes and newspaper clippings.

Old West Links

Dakota State University's Old West Page--More resources than you can shake a Widowmaker at.

Stanford University: Exploring the West

The Library of Congress History of the Old West Collection

Legends of America: Old West Legends

Tracking Down Billy the Kid: Teacher's Lesson Plans (Library of Congress)

The American Old West Museum

"Hollywood West" Links

Old Time Radio Westerns--What was all the fuss about? Listen and see!

Stanford University: Hollywood Westerns

Images Journal's In Focus: The Western

The Next Storm Surge: How High's the Water, Mama?

The LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Sea Grant and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing will be presenting "The Next Storm Surge" at the Terrebonne Parish Main Library on Monday, August 17 from 5pm-8pm in the large meeting room.

The presentation will include:

> Historical Hurricane Impacts on Coastal Louisiana; Factors Influencing Hurricane Storm Surge in Coastal Louisiana

> “What If” Hurricane Storm Surge Impacts on Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes

> New Flood Zones: What They Mean and How They Will Impact You

This program was hosted at the Main Library last year and, since then, storm surge and wind-speed models have been updated, taking the impact of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike into account.

Lsu AgCenter staff will be available to help those in attendance access windspeed, ground level and storm surge models available online through the LSU AgCenter.

Attendance is free.

For information on other locations where this meeting will be held, follow this link:

Storm Surge Meetings, August 2009