Bayou Reference

Finding the Facts When Your Health Is In Question

2012-01-30T10:55:00.004-06:00

According to a Pew Research Survey, 83% of internet users have looked for health information on the internet. What that statistic doesn't tell you is how many of those 83% actually found the information they needed.

Doctors are known for keeping their cool, but the phrase, "I read on the internet that..." is almost guaranteed to make your doctor shudder. There is a lot of misinformation about health on the internet, and when your wellness is on the line it is critical that you have access to facts, not fiction.

So how can you find the health information that you need?

1. Start at http://health.nih.gov for an overview. The consumer health information provided by the National Institutes of Health is constantly reviewed to make sure it is up to date and accurate. The information you find at NIH may not answer all of your questions, but it is a good place to start, and can often give you other keywords you can use in your search that describe the medicine or medical condition you are researching.

2. Use your library databases. The Terrebonne Parish Library subscribes to several health related databases you can access from any computer with internet access and your library card number. That gives you an easy way to search thousands of trusted health journals, including many that your doctors read to keep up with the latest research.

Consumer Health Complete offers good introductory material. Like the NIH consumer material, you can find easy to understand descriptions and other useful keywords to use in your searches.
Health Source - Consumer Edition also offers health information in plain English. Here you will find nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines with information on many topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health.
Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition allows you access to 550 scholarly full text medical journals, and access to the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which includes 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets for more than 4,700 brand name prescriptions.
AltHealthWatch can help you find information on alternative and complementary therapies, with full text articles from more than 180 international, often peer-reviewed, journals and reports. In addition, there are hundreds of pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts.

3. Turn to trusted health organizations. For every aspect of health and every medical condition, there is a non-profit dedicated to finding and distributing the best health information in that field. For example, the American Cancer Society web site, www.cancer.org, has a wealth of doctor and patient reviewed material on cancer diagnosis and treatment, as well as related topics like pain management, quality of life, and nutrition.

The Cochrane Collaboration, another trustworthy source, is an independent organization that reviews the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of medical treatments, both mainstream and alternative. On the web at http://summaries.cochrane.org you can search free summaries of their reports.

For links to all fourteen of our health databases and a complete overview of some of the best health related information available to you through the Terrebonne Parish Library on the net and in print, see our subject guide at http://mytpl.org/health-and-medicine.

Your library reference team is also available to help you find trustworthy sources and information on health and any other research topic you may have. Call us at (985) 876-5861, option 2, or email reference@mytpl.org.

Image Credit: Molly Zisk. Health Hazards of Sitting. Orange County Register, Jan. 16, 2012. Copyright (c) 2012 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service.

World Religions Online: Learning About the World's Faiths

2012-01-26T15:00:00.006-06:00

World Religions Online is a great, easy-to-use database for learning about faiths from around the globe. To access this database, go to the library website, at www.mytpl.org, and click Research on the menu bar. In the dropdown menu, pick Databases by Subject.

Now go to Religion and Philosophy. Notice that we have a wide range of other electronic resources on this topic. For now, click on World Religions Online (if you are asked for a username and password, email the Reference Department at reference@mytpl.org, or call us at 876-5861).

As the image below shows, World Religions Online has articles, videos, and images about all the major religious traditions.

To begin exploring, click on one of the Topic Centers, as shown above. Each Topic Center is a gateway to all kinds of information about the religion covered. There is a a multimedia introduction with videos, as well as a timeline, fact file, image and video galleries, and a list of holidays observed in that tradition. Toward the bottom of the page, you can find hyperlinked lists of deities, key topics, schools of thought, festivals, and more.

Whatever religion you want to explore, World Religions Online is a great place to start!

How To Find Good Diet and Nutrition Advice

2012-01-14T11:05:00.002-06:00

With the New Year underway, many of us are resolving to start eating healthier foods (some of us will even keep our resolutions). But just what is a healthy diet? Everybody knows there are a million diet books out there, and many of them give terrible advice. Who should we listen to? How do we know which ones are providing us with the proper information? One thing we can do is get the opinions of people with formal training in diet and nutrition, called registered dieticians. These are people with extensive training and certification in scientific principles of human physiology and nutrition.

The professional organization for registered dieticians, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, has an excellent website with good information on nutrition and diet: www.eatright.org/Public/

Here you can find professional advice on dieting, eating right, preparing healthy meals for your family, and more. One of the most valuable sections of this website is its Popular Diet Reviews, which evaluates the merits (or lack thereof) of popular diets and diet books. Each review is broken down into four different sections: Claims, Synopsis of the Diet Plan, Nutritional Pros and Cons, and Bottom Line. This feature can help guide you in the right direction to get the most knowledgeable science-based information regarding diets.

Another thing to keep in mind when evaluating diet and nutrition information is the distinction between registered dieticians and nutritionists. Some registered dieticians may refer to themselves as nutritionists, but not everyone who claims to be a nutritionist is a registered dietician. In many states, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. These self-proclaimed "experts" may have no training, or they may have gotten their degree from a “degree mill” that required nothing from them but a fee. To show how dubious this is, some doctors and dieticians have obtained bogus degrees in “Nutrition” for dogs, cats, and even hamsters. If a school is giving diplomas to hamsters, you probably don’t want to trust the advice of anyone with that diploma on their wall. For more information about telling registered dieticians from untrained “nutritionists”, see the FAQ section of www.eatright.org.

Have healthy and nutritious 2012!

Jardon Thomassie and Ross Mays

___________________________________________________________

Other Recommended Resources:

Where to Get Professional Nutrition Advice

Louisiana Dietetic Association

American Dietetic Association complete food and nutrition guide / Roberta Larson Duyff

Science Online: Our Newest Science Database

2011-12-11T16:59:00.011-06:00

Whether you're looking for science project ideas, or just like to keep up with the latest discoveries in science, we have a great online resource for you. Science Online is an all-purpose resource for learning about every branch of science, from physics to biology. As the image above shows, you can search for a particular topic by entering keywords in the search box. If you would rather browse different topics, you can click Explore Subjects. This opens a dropdown menu, that lets you click on the branch of science you're interested in.

For example, clicking on "Biology" opens a page with sub-topics related to biology. Searching this way is a great way to discover new topics you may not have known about.

You can also search based on the kind of resource you want. In addition to encyclopedia-type articles, Science Online has biographies of scientists, and news articles. If you prefer to learn with diagrams, images, and videos, there are also plenty of those.

Finally, if you are trying to think of a science project idea, Science Online has a wide range of suggested science experiments, each with detailed instructions. Want to amaze your classmates by setting a ten dollar bill on fire without burning it up? Science Online has the instructions. To look for particular kinds of resources, click "Browse Science Resources", and then click on one of the options in the dropdown menu.

To get to Science Online, go to "Reference" on the right side the Terrebonne Parish Library website, at www.mytpl.org. Then click "Databases by Name", and look in the "S" section, or "Databases by Subject", and look in the Science and Technology section. This database requires a username and password, which you can get by calling the Reference Department at 876-5891, option 2, or emailing us at reference@mytpl.org.

And if you decide to light that ten dollar bill on fire, make sure to read all the instructions. We librarians can't be responsible for experiments gone wrong!

The First Thanksgiving: Separating Fact from Legend

2011-11-23T16:38:00.009-06:00

Chances are, what you learned in grade school about the first Thanksgiving resembled the painting above: a group of very religious people called Pilgrims have a communal meal to celebrate their bountiful harvest, and share it with a few Indians* in feathered headdresses. The fact is, if you dig into the real history of the first Thanksgiving, it wasn't quite like that. First of all, the "First Thanksgiving" wasn't really the first observance of thanksgiving. There were probably earlier thanksgiving observances in the Virginia colonies, as well as French and Spanish colonies. However, the celebration by the Pilgrims of Plymouth was a primary inspiration for the modern Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, so it is interesting to look at what really happened then. It turns out that the real occasion didn't resemble the traditional images of Thanksgiving very much at all.

The people now known as Pilgrims actually called themselves Separatists, because they believed in separating completely from the Church of England (unlike Puritans, who wanted to purify it from within). They weren't commonly called Pilgrims until the 1700's. They had fled persecution in England, and spent several years in Holland before sailing for the New World. Arriving in November 1620, they were surprised to find cleared fields among the forests. They settled in one of them, and named it Plymouth. In fact, the site was cleared because just a few years earlier it had been a Wampanoag village called Patuxet; abandoned after a plague killed most of its residents. In the winter of 1620-21, it became the site of another tragedy, when nearly half the Pilgrims died of sickness and starvation.

This bleak story began to brighten the next March, when the Pilgrims were visited by English-speaking Wampanoags named Samoset and Tisquantum. Tisquantum-better known as Squanto-was an amazing man. He had grown up in the village of Patuxet, but he had been captured years before by English fisherman. Brought to Spain as a slave, he escaped to England, and-in hopes of returning home-befriended Englishmen who planned to colonize the New World. Eventually, he joined an expedition and returned to New England. Arriving at Patuxet the year before the Pilgrims landed, he found it inhabited only by skeletons. Though he must have been devastated, he made his way to another Wampanoag village, the home of the powerful chief Massasoit. After the pilgrims settled in Patuxet, Squanto went to live with them. He showed them how to grow corn and catch fish, and arranged an alliance between the Pilgrims and Massasoit. Massasoit's people were badly weakened by disease, and needed the Pilgrim's guns and cannons to help defend against the Narraganset tribe to the west.

With Squanto's help, the Pilgrims had an excellent harvest, and as the next winter approached, they had plenty to eat. Overjoyed at their change of fortune, they decided to celebrate in the fall of 1621. One of the only descriptions of this celebration was written by a Pilgrim named Edward Winslow:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

This wasn't just a meal--it was a three day festival. And there were almost twice as many Wampanoag as Pilgrims. Some historians think the Wampanoag heard the Pilgrims' guns, and came with warriors in case they needed to help their new allies. Others think the Pilgrims fired their guns after the Wampanoag showed up, to show they could defend themselves if the uneasy alliance fell through. In any case, the festival stayed peaceful, if not necessarily warm, and the Indians contributed to the feast with five deer.

This festival was very different from the traditional images of the first Thanksgiving. First, nobody knows if turkey was even on the menu. Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie certainly weren't, because these recipes hadn't been invented yet. The Wampanoag didn't wear feathered headdresses, like in the painting above. Those were worn by plains Indians, not northeastern Indians. The Pilgrims didn't dress in black. That was dreamed up by later artists. Finally, the Pilgrims didn't think of the event as a traditional thanksgiving observance (though they were very religious, and would have given thanks). Both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags probably thought of the event as a harvest festival, a tradition with a long history in both cultures. The pilgrims did observe days called thanksgiving (with a small t), but these were unscheduled days of prayer and fasting that were declared after fortunate events. Two years later, Governor William Bradford declared a thanksgiving for the end of a drought, and it was a solemn affair, not like the earlier festival.

Unfortunately, the brief moment of peace at the first Thanksgiving didn't last. Squanto had his own agenda, and he became a source of tension between the Pilgrims and Massasoit. He died of a fever in 1622. The relationship between Pilgrims and natives soured by the late 1630's, and turned into all out war in the 1670's. When the colonists won, they declared a day of thanksgiving that certainly didn't include any feasting with the Wampanoag.

In later years, Pilgrims and Puritans in New England continued to observe solemn, unscheduled thanksgivings, although they grew less stern as attitudes loosened in the 1700's. Eventually, the custom spread beyond New England, and the first few presidents sometimes declared national days of thanksgiving. As this practice dwindled, many states began to have official days of thanksgiving. In 1863, Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a magazine called Godey's Lady's Book, convinced Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. He hoped the new holiday would help unify a country torn apart by the Civil War. Many of Ms. Godey's recipes became standard Thanksgiving dishes. During the same time, some of the original Pilgrims' writings were rediscovered, sparking a great deal of popular interest. By the late 1800's, people were associating Thanksgiving with the pilgrims, and the story of the Pilgrims and Indians sitting down for a communal meal of turkey began to take hold. During a time when immigrants were coming from many different countries, the story of Thanksgiving became a way of assimilating many cultures into a distinctly American tradition (other countries have Thanksgiving holidays, but they are based on different traditions). In 1941, Congress established Thanksgiving as a national holiday, to be observed on the 4th Thursday of November.

As much as the traditional image of the first Thanksgiving differs from the real thing, there's no doubt that the Pilgrims had a great deal to be thankful for. Massosoit had provided them with food, and Squanto had helped them feed themselves. They could expect their second winter to be far better than that deadly first one. For the first time, the Pilgrims could reasonably expect to survive, and perhaps even prosper, in the New World. Things didn't turn out so well for the Wampanoag, many of whom still observe a day of mourning on Thanksgiving. Like many other holidays, Thanksgiving can be controversial, even today.

Of course, we librarians try not to take sides in controversies. We help people look past spin and legend to find facts, and we carry materials on all sides of controversial issues. We're here to help our patrons exercise their freedom to decide for themselves what to think. As for this librarian, I am thankful for that freedom, and for the privilege of helping preserve it.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Recommended Resources:

1621 : a new look at Thanksgiving / Catherine O'Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac with Plimoth Plantation ; photographs by Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson. This young adult book is an excellent source-for adults as well as teenagers-for learning about the first Thanksgiving.

Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower. An A&E video, available for streaming through Access Video on Demand. Call the Reference Department at 876-5861 for login information

Mayflower : the Pilgrims and their legacy / Nathaniel Philbrick.

The Thanksgiving ceremony : new traditions for America's family feast / Edward Bleier.

The First Thanksgiving. Elizabeth Armstrong. Christian Science Monitor. 2002

Plimoth Plantation Website: Article about Thanksgiving

Pilgrim Hall Museum

* I'm using the term Indians instead of Native Americans, because that seems to be the way most of them refer to themselves.

Honoring our Veterans

2011-11-11T15:23:00.001-06:00

This Veterans Day, we would like to honor those who served by highlighting some good resources for and about veterans. Terrebonne Parish Library has a wide range of books about veterans and their experiences at war and coming home. We also have books for veterans; covering topics such as applying for veteran's benefits, adjusting to life back home, and finding careers after the military. For a list of books for and about veterans, click here.

We also have many videos on the veteran experience. These are available for online streaming through our video database, Access Video on Demand. To sign in and view the videos, you will need a password and user id. You can get these by calling the reference department at 876-5861, option 2. Simply log on and search for "veterans".

We have also put together a list of great online resources for veterans and their families:

The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs is dedicated to providing quality care and service for America's former servicemen.

VA Home Loan Guaranty Services provides home loan and mortgage information to veterans.

Housing and Urban Development has many housing programs for veterans worth looking into.

Mental health resources for returning veterans can be found at the website of SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.

The Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs tries its best to help veterans--especially those returning from service overseas--find the help and services they need.

The National World War Two Memorial has message boards, a registry and an e-store for veterans of the watershed conflagration.

The Korean War Memorial homepage has information about the monument and the war it commemorates.

The Vietnam Memorial Wall page has information about the memorial and a tool to search for names on the face of the monument.

With honor and respect to all our veterans. Thank you!

Dancing at the Werewolf Ball: The Loup Garou/Rougarou

2011-10-31T15:17:00.002-05:00

Louisiana has more than its fair share of creepy places and legends. The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville is billed as "One of America's Most Haunted Homes," and in the cemeteries of New Orleans, you can still go and see the grave of Marie Lavau, the famous "Voodooo Queen." There are legends of Jean Lafitte's treasure, guarded by ghostly pirates. If you want to scare yourself, Louisiana is a good place to do it. And if you want to learn more about our state's scary traditions, the library is a good place to do that.

One of the most distinctive Louisiana legends is the loup garou or rougarou, a werewolf-like creature said to inhabit the swamps. For generations, Cajun parents told their children to behave, or the loup garou would come get them. But lots of the grownups believed it themselves; looking over their shoulder nervously while walking home on dark nights.

Where did this legend come from? For Cajuns, it can be traced to Nova Scotia, and then to France. Stories about werewolves actually have a long history throughout Europe. One of the oldest is a Greek legend in which Zeus turns a man named Lycaon into a wolf. The name "Lycaon" comes from the Greek word lykos, or wolf, and Lycanthropy is the fancy name for werewolfism. The were in werewolf comes from an Old English word meaning "man."

In the old European legends, people didn't usually become werewolves after being bitten by another werewolf. Some were thought to be were transformed against their will by sorcerers. These reluctant werewolves were filled with regret when they woke up and remembered the savage things they had done the night before. Sometimes the sorcerers turned themselves into wolves using spells and charms, and then terrorized the countryside at night.

One method of becoming a werewolf was to wear a cloak or belt made of wolf skin. This story may have some basis in fact. Some vikings and other marauders really did wear the skins of fierce animals, not just to stay warm, but also because they believed they could absorb the animal's ferocity. The crazed viking warriors called berserkers (from whom we get the word "berserk") wore bear skins (the word actually means "bear shirt"). Other vikings wore wolf skins, for similar reasons. During the Middle Ages, European forests were home to many wolves, but they were also home to bands of dangerous outlaws. Some were said to wear animal skins, and groups of them sometimes even howled like wolves to terrify their victims. Lone killers may have also given rise to werewolf legends. The psychologist Stephen Pinker points out that serial killers like Jack the Ripper have existed throughout history. A few monsters certainly exist, whether you believe in the supernatural or not.

Of course, at the time the werewolf legends originated, most people didn't consider them legends. They believed in werewolves, along with witches, fairies, and a whole host of other supernatural creatures. Fear of werewolves reached its peak during the Inquisition. As many as 30,000 suspected werewolves were executed in Europe between the 1520's and the 1630's, sometimes by mobs, and often by the authorities. During this time werewolves, like witches, were usually thought to be in league with the devil.

In France, the werewolf was known as loup garou. Loup means wolf (the scientific name for wolves is Canis lupus), while garou may actually come from an older phrase that meant "werewolf." If this is true, than loup garou actually means "wolf werewolf". Some have suggested that garou may come from gardez-vous, which means "Be careful!" This is an appealing theory, but alas, it probably isn't true.

In the French tradition, people became loup garous after missing too many masses or confessions, skipping Lent for seven years in a row, or being cursed by a witch. French loup garous were said to be like vampires, in that they could turn others into loup garous by biting them or sucking their blood. In both France and Louisiana, people with long nails, red eyes, or a single eyebrow were suspected of being loup garous.

In Louisiana, the loup garou is sometimes called a rougarou, or roux-ga-roux (this is what they are usually called in Terrebonne Parish). Louisiana loup garous have some especially interesting habits. They are said to ride enormous bats, for one thing, and they gather along Bayou Goula and--in true Louisiana style--have a rowdy werewolf ball. According to the book Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales, "Loup-garous have bats as big as airplanes to carry them where they want to go. They make these bats drop them down the chimney, and they stand by your bed and say 'I got you now, me!' Then they bit you and suck your blood and that makes you a loup-garou, and soon you find yourself dancing at their balls at Bayou Goula and carrying on just as they do. You're a lost soul." Of course, it could be worse... you may be a werewolf, but you still get to go to parties.

While bullets (even silver ones) are useless, loup garou can easily be scared away by frogs. This is odd, since they live in swamps full of frogs. They must be nervous monsters. They also seem to be a little bit obsessive. Some say a screen door will stop a loup garou, because it will will stop to try to count all the holes. Even hanging a colander on the outside of a door can stop them, because they will count the holes in that. (Other Louisiana monsters can be stopped in the same way. The cauchemar, a witch who jumps on people's backs while they are sleeping--and may ride them around the room or even down the stairs--is often said to be obsessed with counting things.)

However, this is all secondhand knowledge for this librarian. I'm from Arkansas, so I never heard stories of the loup garou growing up. The people who really know Louisiana legends like the loup garou and the cauchemar are the ones who listened as children, wide-eyed, as the grownups told scary stories... wondering if they were true or not. Did you grow up hearing stories of the loup garou or other creatures of the night? If so, let us know in the comments!

Recommended Reading

The Better Angels of our Nature : Why Violence has Declined / Steven Pinker.

Contemporary Cauchemar: Experience, Belief, Prevention

The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained

Gumbo Ya-Ya : A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales

He Creeps, He Crawls, He Conquers: The Rougarou--A Louisiana Folklore Legend

Wondering How To Pay For College? Come to Our Financial Aid Workshop!

2011-10-20T09:25:00.001-05:00

To help students and parents learn about college financial aid opportunities, the Terrebonne Parish Main Library is hosting a Financial Aid Workshop on Tuesday, October 25th from 6 pm to 8 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

According to a recent report by the College Board, average tuition and fees for the 2010-2011 school year at a four-year public university was $7,605 for state residents and $19,595 for out-of-state residents. The tuition increased 7.9% increase from last year. If you add room and board, the average tuition and fees for state residents totals $16,140. Room and board for out of state residents totals $28,130. The average tuition at a four year private university for the academic year 2010-2011 is $27,293 and if one adds room and board to this figure, the total increases to $36,993.

Tuition fees are steep and getting steeper. But help is available. Louisiana high school students who attend college in Louisiana can be exempt from tuition if they meet certain academic standards at graduation from high school. This program is called the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, commonly referred to as TOPS.

The Financial Aid Workshop at the library will feature representatives from the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance and Nicholls State University. They will speak about state scholastic programs, and offer instruction on completing out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. Staff will speak about private scholarships given by local organizations for students who meet certain academic standards.

To sign up, just call the Reference Department at 876-5861, option 2. Walk-ins are also welcome. Hope to see you there!

-Carlos Crockett, Reference Associate

Geaux Vote with Geauxvote.com

2011-10-13T19:56:00.016-05:00

It’s that time of year again: voting season. If you’re trying to find out where to vote, what’s on the ballot, or even whether you are registered to vote, the state of Louisiana has a new website designed to help, called geauxvote.com.

To find your voting information on geauxvote.com, click the “Are You a Voter” link in the middle of the home page.

This will bring you to a page offering several links with useful election information. To find personal or local voting information, click “Am I a Voter?”

Click “By Voter” from the choices on the right, and then enter your first name, last name and either your birth month plus year or your zip code.

You should now see a page that displays your name, political party, voting parish, ward, precinct and voting status.

To view a sample election ballot, click the Ballot Information tab located on the same page just above your voter information. Click “What’s on My Ballot” on the next page, and a sample ballot should soon load.

Geaux Vote is also offered as a mobile application for both Apple and Android smart phones.

Additionally, a guide to the proposed state constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot can be found here, courtesy of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.

If you need additional help finding your voter information, stop by the Main Library across from the Civic Center or call the Reference Department at 876-5861, option 2.

Geaux Vote!

Robert Jenkins

Reference Associate

New Streaming Video Database: Access Video on Demand

2011-10-06T15:10:00.005-05:00

Are you a fan of documentaries? Were you the kind of kid who couldn't wait for the teacher to show a film in class? Maybe you're still that kind of kid? If so, we have a great new database for you. Access Video on Demand offers over 8,300 informative videos and documentaries, and over 96,000 video clips. You can watch videos from the BBC, the History Channel, PBS, Scientific American Frontiers, and many more.

To explore the videos, go to bit.ly/videomytpl. This database requires a username and a password. We can't post these here, but if you call or email the reference department, we will be happy to give them to you. Our phone number is 876-5861, option 2, and our email address is reference@mytpl.org.

Once you login to Access Video on Demand, we recommend that you create a user account. This allows you bookmark your favorite videos, and even make video playlists. To browse videos by subject, you can scroll down the home page to view thumbnail images of popular videos, or click Subjects, as in the image below. You can use the search box to search for videos by keyword. Each video is divided into labeled segments, and you can search for segments about a certain topic by selecting "By Segments" in the search box. If you want to find entire videos on a topic, change this to "By Title". Whatever your interests, you are sure to find a video you enjoy in Access Video on Demand!

Kindle Library Books Are Here! How to Check Them Out.

2011-09-26T20:16:00.005-05:00

Hey Kindle users, have you been wishing you could check out e-books from the library? Well, now you can, and it's really easy! Amazon.com has put together a brief introduction to checking out library books, which is available here. For more detailed information, see below.

Registering Your Kindle

The Kindle library book checkout process works in cooperation with Amazon.com. The first thing you will need is an Amazon account, so you can register your Kindle. If you have already been downloading books from Amazon.com onto a Kindle, then you are registered. You can skip ahead to the next section. If you just bought a Kindle, or you're thinking about getting one, this webpage shows you how to connect to the internet (using Wi-Fi or 3G, depending on your device) and register directly from your Kindle.

During this process, you will be asked to enter your email address, choose a password, and enter your payment information (credit card or gift card number). Of course, the great thing about checking out library books on a Kindle is that you don't need payment information. If you don't plan to buy books from Amazon, you can skip entering your payment information -- just use your computer to sign up for your Amazon account instead of creating the account from your Kindle device. This method may also be easier for people who would rather use a full-sized keyboard. Go to www.amazon.com on your computer, and click on "Sign In." This will take you to a page that looks like this:

Simply enter your email address and click "I am a new customer." Follow the steps to set up an account. If you plan on purchasing books, enter your payment information. Otherwise, leave that part blank. Then, on your Kindle, hit the "Menu" button, choose "Settings," and then "Register." Now enter the email address and password you entered on the Amazon website.

Checking Out Books to Your Kindle

Now you're ready to check out books. Go to our webpage, at www.mytpl.org, and click "Online Catalogs." From the dropdown menu, choose "Download eBooks and Audiobooks).

This will take you to a page that looks like this:

Most of our eBooks are now available for Kindle. You can search for particular genres, but the fastest way to find Kindle books is to click on the box that says "Now Available: Library Books for Kindle." If you have a particular book you are looking for, simply enter the author or title in in the search box. When you find a book you want to check out, click "Add to Cart." This brings you to a screen like this:

Now click "Proceed to Checkout." Then you will see this page:

Choose Terrebonne Parish Library, then enter your library card number and your PIN. Your PIN is a 6 digit version of your birthday. For example, if you were born on June 15, 1970, your PIN would be 061570. If you have any trouble signing in, give us a call at 985-876-5861, option 2, and we can help. The next page you see looks like this:

On this page, you can choose your checkout period; either 7 or 14 days. Then click "Confirm Checkout." Now you come to this page:

Click "Get for Kindle." This will open a new web page on Amazon.com. Enter your Amazon login information, and you will be come to a page with a box similar to this:

When you click "Get Library Book," the book will be transmitted to your Kindle via Wi-Fi.

Please note that Kindle library books can't be transmitted through 3G, so if you have a newer Kindle with both Wi-Fi and 3G, make sure it's connected to a wireless network. If you don't have access to a wireless network, or if you have an older Kindle that only has 3G, you can download the book to your computer, and then transfer it to your Kindle with its USB cable. This link has instructions for USB transfers.

This process may seem a little complicated at first, but it gets very easy once you've done it a couple of times. If you're a Kindle user with a library card, you now have nearly 2,000 Kindle library books to choose from.

We also take requests! If there are books you'd like to see us add to the library's e-book collection, please let us know. You can submit a purchase request at mytpl.org/catalogs/purchase-request. Under "Format" one of your many options is e-book. Or give us a call at 876-5861, option 2, and tell us what you'd like to read!

Eyes of an Eagle: A New Book about Early Houma/Terrebonne History

2011-09-22T15:35:00.001-05:00

EYES OF AN EAGLE: JEAN-PIERRE CENAC, PATRIARCH
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF EARLY HOUMA-TERREBONNE

Christopher Cenac, Sr., M.D., with Claire Domangue Joller, has just released a well-researched and heavily-documented history of the Cenac family, the Louisiana oyster industry, and Terrebonne Parish. Well over 1,200 photographs illustrate the chapters, which alternate between historical fiction and straightforward narrative, and cover approximately 100 years of Terrebonne Parish history. Carl A. Brasseaux, Ph.D., writes in a forward to the book that it fills a void in the history of this area for the periods of Civil War and its aftermath.

Jean-Pierre Cenac, one of 8 children, was born in a small town in the south of France. As a young man, he sailed from Bordeaux, France, to New Orleans. It took his ship bearing 88 passengers two months to cross the Atlantic. After coming through South Pass, the ship traveled for 3 days up the Mississippi to New Orleans, finally offloading in Algiers.

Jean-Pierre’s arrival in 1860 took place just a few months before Louisiana joined the Confederacy. Perhaps because of war talk in New Orleans, perhaps because of his friendship with Jean Marie Dupont, who came from a neighboring village in France and at the time lived in Houma, Jean-Pierre joined him there.

Jean-Pierre began to prosper in Houma as a baker, marrying Victorine Fanguy after the war and with her, raising his fourteen children in Dulac. Jean-Pierre was successful in various businesses, firmly establishing himself and his sons as oyster harvesters and, ultimately, as packers and shippers. The Cenac family was instrumental in establishing the oyster industry as we know it today.

The book contains many well-reproduced pictures which would be of great interest to the general reader, including one of Houma’s first telephone book, which was only one page long; paper money printed in Houma and surrounding areas at the time of the Civil War; and vividly-colored labels of some of the first cans of oysters. As you read through this book, odds are you will learn many facts about early Terrebonne that you didn’t know before. And as you turn the pages, you will see this area as Jean-Pierre Cenac and your local ancestors once saw it. The book is available for checkout through the Terrebonne Parish Library System.

The Main Library will be hosting a book launch and first signing for Dr. Cenac's book, on Sunday, September 25th, from 2-4 PM. Come and meet the author of this fabulous new book about our local history!

Judith Soniat

Shiver me timbers, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

2011-09-19T15:50:00.013-05:00

Avast ye maties! 'Tis September 19th, 2011, which be International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

If ye be shivering in ye boots because ye pirate speech be rusty, fear not. Ye Terrebonne Parish Public Liberry have just what ye need to be speakin like a pirate in the wink of ye parrot's eye. There a be a whole course just for the asking in how to talk like a pirate, and it be free as the wind in yer sails.

Hoist ye mainsails and head to www.mytpl.org/databases.html and see if ye spy "Languages" in the list of all the many databases ye liberry be offering ye. Click on the word "Languages" and ye will see the very first option is "Mango Languages." Click on that there mango. If ye are not in yer liberry, ye will next need to enter yer liberry card number to reach yer destination. No liberry card? Walk the plank!

Once ye are in Mango, ye can set up an account that won't cost ye a penny if ye wish to keep track of yer progress. Or ye can skip to the chase and just click on the "Start Learning" button.

Next ye will see a list of the many languages ye can learn, and nary a language be spoken that might not come in handy fer a pirate circling the globe. Fer yer pirate speech ye want to click this here "Pirate" link pictured here off ye port bow.

Arrr, me hearty! Ye be hauling wind smartly now, and well on ye way to speakin' pirate like the scurvy knaves ye be!

- Jen Hamilton, Cap'n of Yer Reference Services Crew

Come Learn about our Career Cruising Database!

2011-09-08T20:18:00.001-05:00

Thinking of changing careers? Perhaps you're still in school, and trying to decide with career is right for you? The Career Cruising database at Terrebonne Parish Library can help you plan a career path and move forward in your new career. We are offering an introduction to this great resource Monday, September 12th, at 7 pm. If you're interested in attending, please give us a call to register, at 876-1733, ex. 2. To start using Career Cruising now, read on!

First, go to the the library website at www.mytpl.org. Select "Online Databases", then "Careers", and then Career Cruising. If you're outside of the library, you will be prompted to select the parish you live in, and enter your library card number. This brings you to the main page:

As the links at the top of the page show, Career Cruising helps you do five things:

Learn more about your interests, and get career suggestions
Get in-depth information about particular careers
Explore schools and training programs
Find jobs and learn job-seeking skills
Create a custom portfolio

The last item is important, because creating a portfolio allows you to bookmark careers and schools, save career assessments, and create a customized resume. We recommend that you start by creating an account, so you can start your portfolio. Simply click on "Create a Portfolio" in the Portfolio Login box, and enter your information.

When you've created your account, you are ready to get started. Simply click on the heading that interests you (as shown in the image to the left). If you are trying to decide on a career, we recommend doing these in order, starting with "Explore Assessments", and then "Explore Careers". If you already know your career interests, you can go to "Education and Training" to look for schools. If you're ready to start job searching, you can go straight to "Employment".

Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we will go into more detail about each of these features. For face to face instruction on Career Cruising, we encourage you to come to our talk. Once again, it's on Monday, September 12, at 7 pm. Registration is required, so give us a call, and we will sign you up! 876-1733, ex. 2.

Carlos B. Crockett, Reference Associate
Ross Mays, Reference Librarian

Keeping an Eye on the Weather

2011-09-01T14:45:00.007-05:00

A tropical storm appears to be brewing in the Gulf, and Terrebonne Parish may see some rain this weekend.

If you are concerned about flooding and possible evacuation orders, the Terrebonne Parish Government keeps a running list of any such alerts, which you can find by clicking here.

If you just want to keep an eye on the weather, this is a great time to check out the many features of the Weather Underground web site. At the Weather Underground main page, tap in your zip code where it says "Enter your location."

Click this link to check out the current forcast for Houma 70360.

As the image to the right shows, we have a flash flood watch alert for our area at the time of this post.

A click on the "Flash Flood Watch" link to the right of the orange triangle brings up the most recent details released by the National Weather Service about that alert.

One of my favorite features of Weather Underground is the ability to see where the weather information is collected, and to choose the data collection station closest to you. You can even choose stations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Click on the "Station Select" button just under the blue Weather at a Glance bar. A map will appear that shows you the locations of nearby weather stations. The currently chosen station is in orange, and the rest are blue.

A click on any of the stations will reset the page to give you the weather and forecast for that spot.

For a broader choice of stations in your region, look below the radar image for a link to the WunderMap®

The WunderMap® can give you all sorts of information, including currently projected storm paths, using the many options listed to the right of the map. The weather stations are shown as colored circles with the current temperature listed inside. Mouse over any station for the name. Click on a station to see a pop-up window that provides current weather and forecast.

More to come on cool Weather Underground features in future posts!

- Jen Hamilton, Reference Services Supervisor

How to Find Free Public Domain E-books

2011-08-17T14:16:00.002-05:00

Terrebonne Parish Library offers a wide range of e-books you can download to your computer or electronic device. Because most of these books are copyrighted, we purchase them, just like print books; and you check them out for a limited amount of time, just like print books. But not all books are copyrighted. In fact, most of the world's great classics are now in the public domain.

Generally speaking, any book published before 1923 is in the public domain in the United States. This means the works of Plato, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and thousands of other authors can be obtained online--legally and for free. Terrebonne Parish Library's E-Library page offers access to thousands of free public domain books, in partnership with Project Gutenberg, one of the largest repositories of public domain books. Just click the link on the the left side of the page that looks like this:

This will take you to a page that lets you search for books by keyword. If you want to search by title or author, you may want to go to Project Gutenberg itself. Simply search for the author or title you want to read. For example, if you searched for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you would find several different versions of the book. Clicking on the top one takes you to a page that looks like this:

This shows all the different file formats the book is available in. You can click on HTML to read the book on your computer, but most e-book readers are more compatible with PDF and EPUB ebooks. EPUB is usually the best choice for readers such as the Nook and Sony Reader, because it is designed specifically for e-readers. If you have a Kindle, there is usually a Kindle-formatted version available. Each e-reader works a little differently, and there are so many of them that it is impossible to explain how to download free e-books in a blog post. However, it is usually easy to find instructions online for each device.

Of course, Project Gutenberg is just one of the most famous providers of free e-books. There are many others, of varying quality, which can be found online. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the Sony Reader store also have sections devoted to free ebooks. These include public domain books, as well as copyrighted works that are being given away, usually by new authors who are trying to get their work noticed. These also vary in quality, but there is always the possibility of discovering a great new author.

If you need help downloading public domain ebooks, just give the Reference Department a call at 876-1733, option 2.

Happy free e-reading!

South Louisiana Vital Family Records v. 14 Released

2011-08-11T16:32:00.001-05:00

SOUTH LOUISIANA VITAL FAMILY RECORDS: 1942-1943

The 14th volume of the South Louisiana Vital Family Records series compiled and published by the Terrebonne Genealogical Society has just arrived! This most recent book covers the years 1942-1943 and contains abstractions of marriage bonds and licenses held by the offices of the Clerks of Court for Assumption, Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes.

The book is cross-indexed by the family names of the bride and the groom. If parents are named are in the original documents, their names are noted in parentheses. A complete citation follows each record so the researcher can easily find a copy of the original in the relevant courthouse.

The series, which begins with records from 1902-1905, is available from the Terrebonne Parish Genealogical Society; P. O. Box 20295; Houma LA 70360, at a cost of $30 a volume plus $3 postage. Terrebonne Parish Library’s genealogy collection holds multiple copies of each volume. Library staff will happily show you where they’re shelved and how to use them.

Lafourche Heritage Society Seminar, August 6, Schedule of Events

2011-08-05T10:05:00.004-05:00

LAFOURCHE HERITAGE SOCIETY’S ANNUAL HISTORY & GENEALOGY SEMINAR
Envie Banquet Facility, Thibodaux, Louisiana
Saturday, August 6, 2011
$28, payable at the door, but lunch will not be included.

8:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.:
Registration, coffee,
Visit with book vendors & displays.

MORNING PROGRAM

9:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.:
CALL TO ORDER,
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE,
WELCOME.

9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.:
First session:
Neil Guilbeau
U.S. Veterans of Southeast Louisiana: An Oral History

10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.:
Half hour coffee break,
Visit with book vendors & displays.

10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.:
Second session:
Jay M. Schexnaydre
Old Creole Families of River Road

11:30 a.m. to noon;
Break to allow Envie staff
to set up buffet tables.
Visit with book vendors & displays.

Noon to 1:15 p.m.:
Buffet Lunch
(For pre-registrants)

AFTERNOON PROGRAM

1:15 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.:
CALL TO ORDER,
Third session:
Emilie “Lee” Gagnet Leumas, PhD
Catholicism and French in Louisiana

2:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.:
Coffee break & visit with displays.

2:15 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.:
Fourth session:
Christopher E. Cenac, Sr., M.D.
The History of the Cenac Family and the Early Oyster Industry in Terrebonne Parish

3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.:
Conclusion

2011-08-03T17:27:00.002-05:00

Lafouche Heritage Society Seminar

The 35th Annual History and Genealogy Seminar presented by the Lafourche Heritage Society will take place this Saturday, August 6th, at Envie Restaurant, 203 North Canal Boulevard, Thibodaux, Louisiana. Coffee and registration begin at 8:30 a.m.; the seminar will end at approximately 4:30 p.m. The restaurant is located next to the Howard Johnson motel, near the intersection of Canal Boulevard and Bayou Lafourche.

The cost of the seminar is $28, which can be paid at the door. Those who register and pay their fees before the end of the day, August 3rd, will be entitled to a buffet lunch. Email clifton.theriot@nicholls.edu or pattywhitney@hotmail.com.

The four speakers will be Dr. Christopher E. Cenac, Sr., local physician and author; Emilie Gagnet Leumas, Ph.D., Director of Archives and Records for the Archdiocese of New Orleans; Jay M. Schexnaydre, president of the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans; and Neil J. Guilbeau, Assistant Archivist at Nicholls State University.

Organizers have not announced the order of speakers, but the presentations will begin at approximately 9 and 10: 30 a.m., 1:30 and 3 p.m. When you come, bring your charts and other displays; there will be space to show and share.

Finding Popular Magazines in Our Online Databases

2011-07-28T18:18:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, if you wanted to read a magazine, you would need to find it in the library, subscribe to it, or buy the latest issue in a store. These days, you can read many articles just by going to the magazine's website. But you can't read everything. Time Magazine, for example, has recently started requiring payment for selected articles. Many other magazines do the same, and different ones allow different levels of online access. A few magazines that rely mainly on advertisements give you access to just about everything. Some give you recent articles free, but charge for access to back issues. Others don't offer online back issues at all. It's hard to know how much access a particular magazine allows. Generally, you just have to go to the website and see if it lets you keep reading the articles. But what if it doesn't?

Let's say you're looking for a magazine article from five years ago. You go to the magazine's website, but they don't have online access going that far back, or they are charging more than you want to pay. Here's where the library may be able to help. There's a good chance you can find that article in one of our online databases. We have databases with articles from a wide range of popular magazines: Rolling Stone, Field & Stream, US News & World Report, Ebony, Louisiana Life, and thousands more. As with many of our online resources, you don't even need to come to the library to read them. All you all you need is an internet connection and a library card.

In this post, we will highlight some of the magazines available through MasterFILE Premier; a general-purpose database for public libraries. To access this database, go the library's website, at www.mytpl.org. Then go to "Online Databases", on the left side of the page, and then click "All-Purpose Databases and Encyclopedias", at the top of the database categories. This will bring you to a screen that looks like this:

To find a particular magazine, click on "Publications", at the top right. This will open a page like this:

In the lower search box, you can search by title, or you can check the "By Subject and Description" button, and search for magazines and other publications about particular subjects. If you find the magazine you are looking for, and it is available in full text, it may come in two different formats. Some are available in HTML full text, which means the text of articles is available, but not the images. The ones available in PDF full text, however, contain images of pages scanned from the print version of magazine. This means they include all the pictures and other graphics. For a list of just a few of the popular magazines in MasterFILE Premier, see the end of this post.

Looking up particular magazines is good if you want to stick to just one title. But what if you're simply looking for a good article, and don't care which magazine you find it in? Here's where databases like MasterFILE Premier really shine, because they allow you to search many sources at once. MasterfileFILE Premier has full-text articles from thousands of magazines and journals, so you're very likely to find an article on the topic you are looking for. You can search for keywords simply by entering them in the main search box, or you can click on "Advanced Search", and specify that you are searching for a particular author or subject.

If you don't find the article you need in Masterfile Premier, you may be able to find it in one of our other databases. One good thing to know about MasterFILE Premier is that it's just one of many databases offered through EBSCOhost, most of which have the same interface. You can switch to another database or search more than one database at a time, by clicking on "Choose Databases", just above the search box. This displays the pop-up window shown below. Simply click the databases you want to search.

If you want to find out more about any of the databases listed, hover your mouse over the icon to the right of each title, and a description of the database will pop up. Each database has a very different range of articles. Some, such as Academic Search Complete, are aimed at college researchers, while others, such as Primary Search, are aimed at grade school children. Others, such as Bibliography of Native North Americans, focus on one particular topic. Whatever information you're looking for, chances are your library has a database that can help you!

POPULAR MAGAZINES AVAILABLE IN MASTERFILE PREMIER

General Interest and News

Economist (HTML 1990 - Present)
Harper's Magazine (HTML 1992 - 2007)
Newsweek (HTML 1990 - Present)
New Yorker (HTML 2004 - Present)
Time (HTML 1990 - Present)
US News & World Report (PDF and HTML1990 - Present)
Vanity Fair (HTML 2005 - Present)

African American Interest

Black Enterprise (PDF and HTML 2001 - Present)
Ebony (PDF and HTML 1945 - Present)
Essence (HTML 1992 - Present, PDF 1992 - 2002)

Business and Finance

Fast Company (HTML 2000 - Present)
Forbes (HTML 1990 - Present)
Inc. (PDF and HTML 1990 to Present)
Kiplinger's Personal Finance (PDF and HTML 1991 - Present)
Money (HTML 1990 - Present)

Consumer Information

Consumer Reports (PDF and HTML 1991 - Present)
Consumer Reports Buying Guide (PDF and HTML 1999 - Present)

Culture and Natural History

National Geographic (HTML, 1995 - Present, minus 3 month delay)
Natural History (PDF and HTML 1990 - Present)
Smithsonian (HTML 1990 - Present)

Entertainment/Celebrities

Entertainment Weekly (HTML 1993 - Present)
People (HTML 1994 - Present)

Family Health

Consumer Reports on Health (PDF and HTML1992 - Present)
Prevention (HTML 1990 - Present)

Home and Garden

Country Living (HTML 1996 - Present)
House Beautiful (HTML 1999 - Present)
Horticulture (PDF and HTML 1995 - Present)

Louisiana-Related

Louisiana Life (PDF and HTML 1996 - Present)
New Orleans CityBusiness (PDF and HTML 1994 - 2008)
New Orleans Homes and Lifestyles (PDF and HTML 1996 - Present)
New Orleans Magazine (PDF and HTML 1996 - Present

Men's Lifestyle and Health

Esquire (HTML Full Text)
Men's Fitness (HTML 2002 - Present)
Men's Health (HTML 1990 - Present)

Music

Billboard (HTML 1994 to Present)
Rolling Stone (PDF and HTML, 1990 to Present)

Parenting

Mothering (PDF and HTML, 1990 - 2011)
Parenting (PDF and HTML, 1997 - 2009)

Religion

Commonweal (PDF and HTML, 1990 to Present)
Guideposts (HTML 2006 - Present)
U.S. Catholic (PDF and HTML 1992 - Present)

Science and Technology

Discover (HTML 2001 - Present)
Popular Mechanics (HTML 1996 - Present)
Popular Science (PDF and HTML, 2002 - Present)
Scientific American (HTML 2005 - Present)

Sports and Outdoors

Boating World (PDF 2003 to Present)
Field & Stream (PDF and HTML, 2001 - Present)
Golf Digest (PDF and HTML, 1993 - Present)
Motorboating (PDF 2001 - Present)
Outdoor Life (PDF and HTML 2001 - Present)
Professional Fisherman (PDF 2001 - Present)
Sports Illustrated (HTML 1992 - Present)
Salt Water Sportsman (PDF and HTML 2001 - Present)

Women's Fashion and Lifestyle

Cosmopolitan (HTML 1996 - Present)
Harper's Bizarre (HTML 1999 - Present)
InStyle (HTML 1996 - Present)
Redbook (HTML 1996 - Present)
Real Simple (HTML 2000 - Present)

Looking Beyond the Rhetoric: Finding Nonpartisan Political Information

2011-07-20T08:49:00.000-05:00

As a librarian, one of the most important parts of my job is helping people find accurate, unbiased information. Needless to say, this is a real challenge when it comes to politics. Any time an issue is politically charged, people start trying their best to convince everyone their stance is the right one. The more opposing interests there are, the more spin there will be, which makes it harder and harder to get a clear view of the real facts and issues. We're seeing this with the current debate over the debt ceiling, which has gotten so heated it's hard to see past the rhetoric.

In a situation like this, it's very important to find information sources that strive to be nonpartisan and fact-based. It's doubtful that any observer can be completely unbiased, but there are some sources that do a very good job of walking the tightrope between one side and the other. One of these is a website called FactCheck.org, which is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center; a non-partisan organization dedicated to providing voters with accurate information about politics and politicians. FactCheck investigates claims by politicians on both sides of the aisles, and points it out when they have their facts wrong. FactCheck just released an excellent overview of the budget and debt ceiling situation, focusing on the basics: where the money in the federal budget comes from, where it goes, the history of the current debt load, and the options for dealing with it.

Another excellent fact-checking site is PolitiFact.com. Run by the St. Petersburg Times, PolitiFact.com won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for its fact-checking coverage of the 2008 elections. PolitiFact rates the truthfulness (or lack thereof) of political statements by showing a reading on their "Truth-O-Meter". Statements are rated True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, and False. Statements judged outrageously false are slapped with a rating of "Pants on Fire". PolitiFact.com also gives the sources they used in researching claims, and explains their rationale for the rating they gave.

These websites are very good for up-to-the-minute coverage of issues in the news. For more in-depth coverage of controversial issues, Terrebonne Parish Library has two very good resources. One is a database called Issues & Controversies. This database, which can be found under the Social Sciences heading on our database page, has a wide range of articles giving a balanced overview of controversial issues. Most articles start with a short summary of the arguments on each side, and then go into a more detailed explanation of the history of the controversy, and the points of view of the opposing sides. This database is excellent for high school and college students studying politics or debate, but it is also a good way for adults to get some balanced background on today's overheated quarrels. Access Issues & Controversies directly from within the library, or call the reference desk (985.876.5861, option 2) for the username and password to use it from home or work.

Another excellent source for understanding both sides of various issues is a series of books called Opposing Viewpoints, published by Greenhaven Press. These books have the following motto: "Those who do not know their opponent's arguments do not completely understand their own". Each book includes several essays, both historical and current, arguing on either side of the debate. They also provide lists of articles, books, and even organizations that address the issue. Terrebonne Parish Library has a wide range of Opposing Viewpoints titles. If you want to try to understand the arguments on all sides of today's big controversies, this series is a great place to start.

- Ross Mays, Reference Librarian

How to Check Out E-Books from Terrebonne Parish Library

2011-07-14T16:29:00.003-05:00

Do you have an e-book reader, or are you thinking about getting one? If so, you're not alone. E-books have finally hit the big time. Earlier this year, e-book sales surpassed print book sales--both paperback and hardback--for the first time ever. This doesn't mean print books are going away, but it does mean people have more options for reading their favorite authors. Some people assume that e-books and libraries are incompatible, but the truth is, Terrebonne Parish Library has a large and growing collection of e-books. If you have a computer, an internet connection, and a library card, you can check them out without ever leaving your house.

So what exactly does it mean to "check out" an e-book? Basically, it means you download an electronic version of the book to a computer, e-reader, or other mobile device. You can choose whether to check the book out for one week or two. At the end of this period, the book "returns" itself, by expiring and becoming unreadable. Then you can simply delete it from your device.

To see our selection of e-books, go to the library's website at www.mytpl.org, and click on e-library, as shown below.

This link takes you to our e-library page, which is powered by a company called Overdrive. The e-library page offers more than just e-books; you can also download audiobooks, music, and videos. We'll focus on e-books in this post. To browse e-books, you can either click on the e-books pictured, or go to the links on the left side of the page, labeled "eBook Fiction" and "eBook Nonfiction". Clicking on either one will open a menu with several categories:

If you don't yet have an e-reader, and you're trying to decide which one to buy, this link has a list of compatible devices (the Amazon Kindle doesn't work with library e-books right now, but Amazon has announced that it will sometime later this year). If you already have an e-book reader, the process of downloading books depends on which reader you have. This is where it gets a little complicated. Luckily, the library's e-book page has a new tool called MyHelp, which will get you started. Just look near the top left side of the page for the icon shown below. Clicking this link opens an interactive tutorial that will guide you through the steps of downloading your first library e-book.

There are several steps required to set up your device the first time. You will need to download software to your computer, or download an app to your Apple or Android mobile device. This can be a little confusing at first, but the MyHelp tool will tell you exactly what you need to do. During the setup process, you will be prompted to register your computer or portable device with Adobe. This is required, because Adobe handles the rights-management technology that allows e-books to be checked out and returned.

If you are downloading to a computer, or to most e-readers, you will need to download a program called Adobe Digital Editions. The MyHelp tool provides a link to the download, and some basic instructions. If you need more help with Adobe Digital Editions, the Terrebonne Parish Library IT staff has developed a handy guide, available here. The first part of the guide explains how to install Adobe Digital Editions, and the second part explains how to browse for e-books, add them to your cart, and download them.

If you have any questions, or run into any problems, just give the library reference staff a call at 876-1733. We'll be glad to help get you started reading your first library e-book!

Voices of Terrebonne's Past

2011-07-08T11:15:00.005-05:00

Memories of Terrebonne, 1890-1945 was an oral history program commissioned by the Terrebonne Parish Police Jury and recorded by Glen Pitre’s Côte Blanche Productions in the early 1980s. The object of the project was to capture life at the turn of the century as parish residents remembered it.

Seventy people representing different lifestyles described their earlier lives in either English or their native French to interviewers, who recorded the sessions on 226 single-sided cassette tapes. A few of the interviewees were Merlin Bascle, Marie Dugas, Wilson Domingue, Warren Bourgeois, Effie Breau, Tommy Cobb, Ralph Bisland, Mable Champagne, Laïse Ledet, Father Roch Naquin, Eula Crochet, Neva Blanchard, Louise Boquet Arceneaux, and Doris Marie Cuneo.

The latest issue of Terrebonne Life Lines, a quarterly publication of the Terrebonne Genealogy Society, contains an annotated transcription by Phil Chauvin of an 1983 interview of Henry J. Hebert. Mr. Hebert was born in October 1889 and lived “right in front of the Lafayette (Street) bridge”, which at that time was a drawbridge. He stated, “I have seen Houma when there was dirt road on the streets, no shell even. The street had big holes in it. They used to have horses, mules and wagons to haul the freight from the depot to the stores.”

Mr. Hebert worked shucking oysters in the winter and doing carpentry in the summer. “You would shuck one thousand oysters for seventy-five cents. I would make two and a half to three dollars a day. That was plenty money in that time” (1912).

Mr. Hebert’s memory was that the first bathroom in Houma was in a barber’s shop. People who worked on the rigs would come in and “stop at the barber shop, to take a bath, they would charge him a quarter for the water and the soap and towel.” He said that customers would “take a bath, get a shave and haircut; some every week or ten days.”

The oral histories go beyond the purely factual information we learn in traditional genealogy research, giving us a more personal viewpoint. By reading or listening to the interviews, we are able to experience vicariously what peoples' lives were like in this parish in the early 1900s.

Duplicates of the original tapes are housed in the genealogy collection of the Terrebonne Parish Main Branch Library. Terrebonne Genealogical Society members are in the process of making the audio recordings, which you can find at http://bit.ly/historytapes. Did one of your ancestors record their experiences for this project? Check the website to find out!

Need Genealogy Pointers? Just Ask Us!

2011-06-20T20:03:00.012-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library has one of south Louisiana's most extensive collections of genealogy materials. We also have another resource to help you get started researching your genealogy: our knowledgeable staff! There's no substitute for experience, and we have people here with a lot of it. We are always ready to aid you in your search of the library’s extensive genealogical records as you assemble your family tree.

You're most likely to find what you want for if you can explain precisely what it is you’re looking for. When you come to the library ready to research, bring with you as many details as you have managed to identify so far, such as when and where your ancestor lived, his or her full name (including any known nicknames), as well as the names of his or her family members.

Unfortunately, our staff can't perform extended research into your family history for you, but we are always happy to advise you on the use of the materials in our collection and help you to brainstorm additional avenues of inquiry. If you are new to genealogy, and need help getting started, the best thing to do is call to set up an appointment for us to show you the basics. Our number is 876-1733, extension 2.

The Genealogy Collection is open whenever the Main Library is open: Monday – Thursday, 9 a. m. – 9 p.m; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 2 – 4 p.m

- Judith Soniat and Ross Mays

Flood Control vs. Coastal Erosion: Finding A Balance

2011-06-14T16:52:00.016-05:00

As most of the people in Terrebonne Parish know very well, managing the Mississippi River can be a big problem. Levees and other flood control structures have made catastrophic floods less common than they once were, but there is a downside to keeping the river on a tight leash: as disastrous as floods can be, they are what created southeast Louisiana.

Before the levees and spillways were built, land here was created when the Mississippi and its tributaries and distributaries (offshoots) overflowed their banks every year, depositing layer after layer of sediment. While land was perpetually created in this way, it was also perpetually destroyed by subsidence and erosion. For thousands of years, these two opposing forces maintained a dynamic balance. The pattern of dry land and wet land shifted with the changing river channels, but the total amount of land stayed roughly the same.

This balance was destroyed when people began to prevent the Mississippi River from flooding, by building levees and other flood control systems. Since we learned to prevent most floods, the river almost has stopped depositing sediment. Subsidence and erosion keep destroying land, as they have for millennia, but the Mississippi isn't allowed to build it back again.

The amount of land lost in the last hundred years is truly mind-boggling. Since 1932, Louisiana has lost over 1,800 square miles of land--an area about the size Terrebonne Parish. Currently, our coast loses about a football field of land every 45 minutes. It's obvious that this is a huge problem, but it's not obvious what to do about it. We can't just knock down the levees and let the Mississippi go back to its old ways. Its method of creation is just too destructive. The challenge is to find ways to allow the river to create new land, but in a controlled way.

Because this is such a complex issue, the Terrebonne Parish Library Reference Department will be present a series of blog posts about it, discussing the best places to find reliable information. For now, we would like to mention three excellent introductory resources:

To get a sense of just how much the Louisiana wetlands have changed in the last few decades, take a look at the "before and after" image that appears in this article in the Huffington Post. Moving your mouse across this image will show how much the landscape has changed from 1973 to 2010.

If you want a more detailed view of wetlands loss, the US Geological Survey has just published a new map showing where and when land has been lost since 1932. Red, orange, and yellow areas of the map show land lost before 1980, while blue and purple areas show land lost since then. A couple of small green areas show how the Atchafalaya River has begun to create new wetlands and deltas in Atchafalaya Bay.

For an excellent overview of the geologic processes that created southeast Louisiana, and the processes that are now threatening to destroy it, check out this excellent animated tutorial from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

If you would like to find out more about this topic, please contact the Terrebonne Parish Library's Reference Department. We can show you a wide range of books, videos, articles, and websites to help you understand the issues. We'll also be focusing on some of these great resources in future blog posts, so stay tuned!

FROM CENSUS DATA TO FAMILY TREE

2011-05-26T09:22:00.005-05:00

The United States censuses are an important genealogical tool. Since the census has been taken every tenth year since 1790, we are often able to get snapshots of a person’s life at ten-year intervals by following his/her census records.

From a census, we may learn ancestors’ birth dates, states and countries of origin, parishes/counties/states of residence, and occupations, as well as names and ages of parents, spouses and children. Census schedules vary in the information collected. Early censuses asked only for the name of the head of the family and for very little about the people in the household. Later ones are much more comprehensive.

However, some problems arise when relying only on the census for genealogical information: census records are not made public for 72 years after they were taken; the 1790 United States census was almost completely destroyed by fire; and married women are listed with only their husbands’ last names. Census takers sometimes misspelled names, the ages of household members are not always exact, and the handwriting can sometimes be difficult to decipher. Still, census schedules remain one of the most valuable tools for genealogy researchers.

Parish census records are available in indexed books published by the Terrebonne Genealogical Society and are housed in the Genealogy Collection located on the second floor of the Main Library. These books are very useful, because local genealogists have pored over copies of the handwritten censuses and annotated them with the probable correct spelling of the names listed. The same census records are also available to you free of charge through our library's Ancestry subscription (available only within the library) and through HeritageQuest (available to you both in the library and from home with a library card). The advantage of the locally indexed books is that our unique regional names are more accurately interpreted by folks who recognize a Boudreaux, Arcenaux, or a Pitre when they see them, even in a flowery script.

Genealogists are waiting anxiously for the release of the 1940 schedule in April 2012. In spite of their limitations, the U. S. census records provide genealogical data of impressive scope and breadth. If you have ever wanted to trace your family tree, a census is a great way to get started.

- Judy Soniat

A little bird told me... Instant Morganza Spillway updates

2011-05-19T12:28:00.006-05:00

Want instant updates on additional Morganza Spillway gate openings? Curious about wildlife fleeing the flood water? The New Orleans US Army Corps of Engineers has an active Twitter account that is a great source of information and spill related links. Recent posts include the announcement of the opening of the 17th gate on the Morganza Spillway and links to photos of flooding and fleeing wildlife spotted by Wildlife Enforcement agents.

You can access the TeamNewOrleans feed on Twitter or receive the updates on your mobile phone as text messages by texting "follow TeamNewOrleans" to 40404.

- Jennifer Hamilton, Reference Services Supervisor

Look out below! Watching for Displaced Wildlife

2011-05-17T16:08:00.007-05:00

As the Morganza Spillway continues to pour water into the Atchafalaya basin, critters in the path of the unexpected inundation will be on the move in search of higher, drier ground. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has issued a press release urging all of us living in regions affected by the flood to stay alert for evacuating wildlife.

Displaced critters you may encounter include Louisiana black bears (still an endangered species), alligators, snakes, deer, and feral hogs.

If you need assistance with a black bear that has wandered into your area, call 1-800-442-2511.

For all other wildlife, including alligators, snakes, deer, and feral hogs, residents are encouraged to a nearby LDWF field offices if assistance is required.

Baton Rouge 225-765-2800
Hammond 985-543-4777
New Iberia 337-373-0032
Opelousas 337-948-0255

In general, the LDWF asks that we avoid interaction with fleeing wildlife as much as possible, leaving them to follow their own evacuation plan without interference or extra road side snacks. Feeding displaced wildlife can apparently disrupt their natural inclination to return to their usual home territory as soon as it is safe to do so.

Click here for a photo lineup of poisonous snakes best avoided if possible. The LDWF maintains a very user-friendly Snakes of Louisiana web page that can be sorted by various characteristics and likely habitats. Clicking on the name of any snake on the page reveals more detailed information, including identifying characteristics, habits, and where that snake is most likely to be found.

For a list of rare animals, rare plants, and natural communities indigenous to Terrebonne Parish, see the Species by Parish List. This handy guide includes fact sheets, and can be limited to Terrebonne or any other parish of your choice. Let us know if you see some interesting animals in the ongoing Morganza Spillway Migration of 2011!

Local Job Fair Next Wednesday

2011-05-17T15:45:00.010-05:00

Need extra money? Looking for a career change? The Houma Courier and Daily Comet newspapers are teaming up with Monster.com to host Job Fair 2011. This event takes place on Wednesday, May 25th from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Evergreen Cajun Center located at 4694 W. Main Street, Gray, Louisiana.

Anyone over the age of eighteen is invited. Over twenty companies will be participating in the job fair representing industrial, health care, schools, and staffing companies. Job seekers should bring a resume and dress for job interviews.

For a list of participating companies, look for the Job Fair 2011 flyer in Sunday's Houma Courier and the Monday edition of the Daily Comet. For more information call the Courier at 985-850-1102.

Tracking progress and depth of flooding

2011-05-14T09:57:00.011-05:00

The Army Corps of Engineers will begin gradually opening the Morganza Spillway today. Where will the water go? When will it reach Terrebonne Parish? How deep is the water ultimately expected to get?

To answer these questions, or at least share their best guesses, the Corps of Engineers released updated versions yesterday of two types of maps: a Travel Time map and an Innundation map.

The Travel Time map provides the approximate time the water will take to initially travel from the Morganza Spillway to all of the parishes in the water's path. According to a map released by the Corps, the waters from the spillway will be visible in Terrebonne Parish between 144 and 192 hours after the spillway is opened. The Times-Picayune has published a simplified version of the flooding time map (above), in which the estimated number of hours the water will take to be visible at each stage are marked in square white boxes.

A revised inundation map, Scenario 1a, was also released yesterday by the Corps. This map reflects the new plans to open the Morganza spillway no more than 25%, less than half of the original planned release. Click here to see a large, very readable version of the Scenario 1a flooding estimated by the corps. The excerpt below shows that Terrebonne Parish is still expected to see flood depths of 0-5 feet, but there are many ridges of higher land, including the highly populated areas around Houma, that may see very little to no flooding at all.

- Jen Hamilton and Ross Mays, TPL Reference Staff

Louisiana Taxes Due May 16th

2011-05-14T09:30:00.003-05:00

While our attention is on the Mississippi waters heading in our direction, it would be easy to forget that Louisiana state taxes are due this Monday, May 16, 2011. It's not too late to drop by the library and pick up a state tax booklet, which contains both the instructions and all of the papers you need for filing.

Louisiana state taxes can also be filed online at www.ldr.la.gov

If you need a little more time, individuals can request a 6 month extension to file (though any money owed is still due May 16th). Simply mail state Form 2868, or a copy of your federal extension (IRS Form 4868) to Return Extensions, PO Box 751, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0751.

To file for an extension online, complete the short form at https://esweb.revenue.louisiana.gov/OnlineTaxExtensions

- Jen Hamilton, Reference Services Supervisor

Morganza Spillway to open within 24 hours

2011-05-13T22:32:00.000-05:00

The National Weather Service has released the following civil alert:

New Orleans/Baton Rouge, LA

Fri, May 13, 2011, 9:02 PM CDT

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE GOVERNORS OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS.

... EMERGENCY MESSAGE FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA...

AVOYELLES... POINT COUPEE... ST LANDRY... ST MARTIN... IBERVILLE... IBERIA... ASSUMPTION... ST MARY... TERREBONNE... LAFOURCHE

DUE TO THE HIGH WATER IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER... THE U S ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS HAS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED THEY WILL OPEN THE MORGANZA SPILLWAY WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. FLOODING WILL OCCUR IN THE SPILLWAY AND LOW LYING AREAS IN AND AROUND THE ATCHAFALAYA RIVER BASIN IN SOUTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA. CITIZENS SHOULD PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO INFORMATION FROM LOCAL OFFICIALS AND THE MEDIA FOR UPDATES AND FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

Pre-apply now for Disaster Food Assistance

2011-05-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

If you live in an area that is threatened by rising water and are concerned about possible loss of income related to the Morganza Spillway flooding, you may want to consider applying early for Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (DSNAP), formerly known as Disaster Food Stamps. You don't have to wait until the water reaches your door to pre-apply.

DSNAP provides food assistance for eligible households who do not receive regular SNAP benefits, but who need help buying groceries due to lost income or damages following a disaster.

There is no risk to filling out the application now. It is designed to save time, prevent long waits, and make it easier for applicants to collect the required income information before circumstances change. Filling out an application doesn't guarantee you will receive assistance, but will make receiving benefits a lot easier for those who qualify.

Visit www.dcfs.louisiana.gov and click on the Disaster Food Stamp Program Logo (look for the picture below on the DCFS web site) or call 1-888-LA HELP U (1-888-524-3578) to pre-apply.

If a disaster is declared and the DSNAP program is launched, those who have pre-applied only need to visit a DSNAP site to verify their information and identity, determine final eligibility, and receive their benefit cards. Exact eligibility requirements and a list of places you can go to activate DSNAP benefits will be announced as soon as a disaster is declared.

Current SNAP recipients do not need to pre-apply, since they would receive disaster benefits automatically.

- Kristen Sinclair and Jen Hamilton, TPL Reference Staff

Finding Your Flood Risk: How High is Your Property?

2011-05-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

As the Mississippi River continues to rise, the Corps of Engineers is predicting that much of Terrebonne Parish could be flooded. The flooding will be worse if the Morganza Spillway is opened, but there is likely to be flooding even if it stays closed. Officials are urging everyone to prepare for rising waters. One of the most important things to find out is the elevation of your home, apartment, or business. Flood waters are predicted to reach up to five feet above sea level across the parish. Anyone who lives or owns property below five feet is being encouraged to prepare for rising water.

How do you find your elevation? The easiest way to do so is to go to the Wind Speed and Elevation Map webpage maintained by the LSU AgCenter. When you click on this page, you will see a map of Louisiana, showing different wind speed predictions for hurricanes. Since wind speed not applicable in this situation, you can click the Basic Wind Speed button on the left side of the page to "Off". The map will now show a basic, zoomable road map of the state. Buttons above the map let you switch to a satellite, or "aerial" view, or a hybrid road/aerial view.

While you can simply click on the approximate location of your property, a more accurate method is to enter your address into the search box at the top of your page. Enter the street, city, state, and zip code; each separated by a comma. If the page recognizes your address, the elevation at that point will appear on the left side of the page. The lower the elevation of your property, the more critical it is to prepare for flooding.

You may also encounter other flood maps online. FEMA produces detailed flood maps used to map flood risks for particular locations. The older style of flood maps, called a Flood Insurance Rate Map, or FIRM, were originally print maps, although they can often be found online as zoomable, scanned images. The newer style of FEMA flood map is called a Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map, or DFIRM. FIRM's and DFIRM's are excellent for finding detailed flood risk information, but understanding them requires a good deal of background information. The LSU AgCenter has an excellent interactive flood mapping website, but people using it should be sure they understand how to read FIRM and DFIRM maps. The site links to important special instructions for using these maps when flood waters are rising. Also, this site seems to work in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox. LSU AgCenter's blog also has instructions for using both of its mapping services.

If you have any difficulty finding the elevation for your property, call or visit our reference desk at the Main Library. Our friendly reference staff can be reached at (985) 876-5861, option 2.

Keeping An Eye on the Mighty Mississippi

2011-05-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

If you have been following the news, you know that the Mississippi River is higher than it has been in decades, due to heavy rain and snowmelt in the upper reaches of its watershed. This has already caused flooding along the upper Mississippi and its tributaries. As all this water flows downstream toward Louisiana, the downriver portions are getting more and more swollen. The river is expected to crest in Baton Rouge on May 22, and in New Orleans on May 23.

To prevent the river from breaking or spilling over levees, the Army Corps of Engineers has diverted some of the flow into other areas. The Bonnet Carré Spillway, just upriver from New Orleans, was opened on Monday, May 9, to divert water from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain. Also on Monday, the Corps of Engineers put in a request to open the Morganza Spillway, upriver of Baton Rouge. This would divert water from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya River, resulting in widespread flooding along the Atchafalaya's course. The Corps has released an inundation map showing expected flood levels in this area. As of Monday evening, officials have not decided whether to open the Morganza, but if they do, it could happen as early as Thursday, May 12.

If it is opened, the worst flooding is expected to occur in parishes around the spillway, especially West Feliciana and St. Martin. However, flood waters of up to five feet are expected across much of Terrebonne Parish. This is serious, but not as serious as it sounds, because most of the land area of Terrebonne Parish consists of low-lying, unpopulated wetlands. Most populated areas are higher, and should not see this much flooding, if any. Also, the water will rise slowly, over a span of several days. Still, officials are urging parish residents to prepare for flooding, especially in communities in the western part of the parish, such as Gibson, Donner, and Chacahoula.

Parish residents are strongly encouraged to start planning now, in case they need to evacuate or take measures to protect their property. All residents should check to see if their houses and businesses are less than five feet above sea level. Anyone with property below this level should take measures to protect it. The Houma Courier reports that residents can get sandbags at the following locations:

Gibson Fire, 110 Merry Moss St.
East Gibson Fire, 5218 N. Bayou Black Drive.
Devon Keller Memorial Gym, 5575 Bayou Black Drive.
Donner-Chacahoula Fire, 1805 La. 20.
Bayou Black Fire, 2820 Savanne Road.
Schriever Fire, 1529 W. Park Ave.

All residents, even those who live above five feet, should prepare for possible disruptions associated with flooding. The links below have more information about following and preparing for this situation. Please check the Terrebonne Parish Library's website, and this blog, for more information. As we receive updates, we will post them here.

Local Resources

State Resources

Federal Resources

Tax form WIGS... just the thing for spring!

2011-04-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

Need a craft to do with kids this summer? Or just the perfect spring fashion accessory? Your friendly library is here to help.

Just ask at our main library for some tax booklets (don't worry, we have plenty left over from tax season!). With two tax booklets, one pair of scissors and two pieces of tape, you'll soon be having a lot more fun than you ever expected to have with anything from the IRS. Except, perhaps, that refund!

To view the step by step illustrated instructions at your own speed, go to http://bit.ly/taxformwigs

Jennifer Hamilton
Reference Services Supervisor

eLibrary: A Great All-Purpose Database

2011-04-25T11:58:00.000-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library System offers dozens of research databases that are available through any computer that can access the internet. Full-text databases are virtual libraries that contain thousands of additional materials such as books, magazines, newspaper articles, and images that would never fit within the walls of a public library.

A great first stop for your database search is eLibrary. This full text database offers basic and advanced search options covering resources in the following categories (a few examples are given):

· Newspapers (Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe)

· Magazines (National Geographic and Newsweek)

· Books (World Almanac, Compton's Encyclopedia)

· Maps (political, historical, and demographic)

· Websites (Federal Government websites)

· Pictures (Getty Images, Library of Congress photos)

· Audio/Video (CBS Evening News)

· Transcripts (network and cable news, National Public Radio)

By checking or unchecking the boxes next to the various sources, you can search for materials in one or more of these categories. This feature can be helpful when your teacher requests that you use multiple kinds of sources. Many teachers, for example, require students to find a information from a newspaper, a magazine, and a website.

ProQuest Essentials

The editorial team at eLibrary has created thousands of topic-specific Essential Pages on numerous popular subjects. These custom collections contain classroom and research ready content such as articles, images, video, and more. This is a one-stop-shop for finding numerous resources on a particular subject.

To access the ProQuest Essentials collection, go to the Publications tab and look in the top right corner to “Browse the ProQuest Essentials Collection”

A similar feature is the eLibrary Topic search, located between the main Search tab and the Publications tab. You can search the Topic list as well as browse through various topics grouped by category.

Publication Search

If you are interested in searching a specific publication (like National Geographic), or would like to browse at a list of publications contained in this database, visit the Publications tab. You will be able to browse by Name, Type, and Subject; and see what back issues are available for those publications. For example, you can browse National Geographic from the most recent issue back to 2001.

To search within a particular publication, visit the Advanced Search page located under the Search tab. Simply type in the publication name at the bottom of the screen before you click the search button.

Reference Search

Finally, the Reference tab offers an easy way to use a Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Almanac and Atlas all from one location.

If you haven’t looked at eLibrary yet, check it out. It’s a great way to start your research, and you don’t even need to come to the library to use it. If you have a valid library card and an internet connection, you’re ready to go!

- Kristen Sinclair

Reference Department

The Terrebonne Genealogical Society

2011-04-15T11:12:00.000-05:00

One of the library's most valuable partners is the Terrebonne Genealogical Society. Formed in 1972, the TGS been working in close partnership with Terrebonne Parish Library ever since. Without the generosity and encouragement of the Society, the library would never have been able to develop its extensive genealogy collection.

The group’s focus is the area of the original Lafourche Interior, which was been divided into Terrebonne, Lafourche, and Assumption Parishes. TGS publishes a monthly newsletter, and a quarterly journal called Terrebonne Life Lines. Members have produced books on a large variety of topics, including censuses, indexes to newspaper deaths, and annual collections of obituaries. All publications are completely indexed, making it easy to find where a topic has been covered.

The Society meets at 1 p.m. on the last Saturday of every month (except for November and December), usually in the large meeting room of the Main Library. The public is enthusiastically urged to attend. Annual dues, which include the newsletter and journal, are $25 for an individual and $30 for families. For information on membership, and the many projects the Terrebonne Genealogical Society works on, see their website: http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~laterreb/tgs/

Teen Job Fair Tomorrow!

2011-04-08T15:42:00.000-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library System will be hosting their 5th annual Teen Job Fair this Saturday, April 9th. It will be held in the large meeting room of the main library from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. The purpose of the program is to provide teenagers in our community with valuable work experience, and the opportunity to earn money while developing their leadership skills.

Many local employers will be attending, including:

Lowe’s
Rouses
Target
Wal-Mart
Raising Cane’s
Buffalo Wild Wings
McDonald’s
Burger King,
Howard Johnson Hotel
Cannata’s
Bayou Black Recreational Center

Company representatives will be available to take applications, interview and answer questions. Applicants are encouraged to dress in appropriate attire and be on time.

The job fair is free and open to anyone 16 years old and above. For more information please contact the Reference Department at (985) 876-1733.

Carlos Crockett
Reference Associate

Terrebonne Life Lines: Our Own History and Genealogy Journal

2011-03-28T09:20:00.000-05:00

Did you know there are great local genealogy resources published right here in Terrebonne Parish? One is Terrebonne Life Lines, a journal published quarterly by the Terrebonne Genealogical Society. A complete set, from 1982 to the present, is available at the Main Library.

If you're wondering how to find out if Terrebonne Life Lines includes articles you're interested in, just look in the index. Articles in the journal are indexed by subject, area, article title, and surname; and each reference in the index specifies the volume, issue and page. The journal covers a wide range of topics, including family histories, censuses, courthouse records, conveyances, burials, and more. The indexes are available in the print at the Main Library, but they are also available online; this means you can find interesting articles from home, and then come to the library to read them. Here are the links to the online indexes:

Examples of articles are “Early Settlers of Lafourche & Terrebonne” and “Yellow Fever Deaths, 1853.” There are others on local plantations, such as Ducros, Belle Grove, Augeron, Crescent Farms and Magnolia. Recent issues have included transcripts of oral histories recorded in the 1980s.

If you see something in the indexes that strikes your fancy, come to the genealogy room at Terrebonne Parish Library’s Main Branch and take a look!

Facebook Privacy Slideshow

2011-03-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

If you missed last night's presentation on Facebook privacy, or if you would just like to review what we discussed, here is the slideshow presentation. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Taming Facebook

View more presentations from tplref

Privacy Please! Facebook Workshop

2011-03-23T17:20:00.000-05:00

This evening at 6:30pm (Wednesday, March 23rd) on the second floor of the main library in the DE room, Ross Mays will be giving a workshop on preserving your privacy in Facebook. His presentation will cover the basic things you should know how to do to control who can see your posts and personal information.

Can't make the workshop but still want to know what Ross has to say? Fear not! He will be posting a link to his presentation right here, so you too can be a Facebook privacy pro.

Stay tuned!

Looking Up Mardi Gras

2011-03-04T13:48:00.000-06:00

Mardi Gras is upon us, and you know what that means... it's time to use the library to learn more about Mardi Gras! OK, maybe you're a little more excited about catching beads and watching parades, but Mardi Gras is pretty interesting to read about, too. Here at Terrebonne Parish Library, we have what you need to find out all about it.

When you are trying to learn about a topic--Mardi Gras or anything else--it's usually a good idea to find a basic introduction. General purpose encyclopedias are perfect for this. Some good choices are World Book and Compton's by Britannica. We have print copies of these in the library, but we also have them available online. All you need to access them is a library card and and an internet connection. To get to our online encyclopedias, simply go to the library's webpage, at www.mytpl.org, and click on Online Databases. Now click All-Purpose Databases and Encyclopedias. This brings up a list of some of the online resources that people use the most, because they cover a wide range of topics.

World Book is on the list, under World Book Online Reference Center. Compton's is included in the eLibrary database. This encyclopedia has an excellent overview of Mardi Gras, so let's start there. Just click on eLibrary. Select the Reference tab at the top. Type "Mardi Gras" into the search box, and un-check everything but the Encyclopedias box under the search box. This brings up 6 articles about Mardi Gras, from six different sources. The Compton's article is number two, so click there.

This article is a nice overview of Mardi Gras, around one page long. It has some fascinating tidbits of information: For example, you probably know that the Mardi Gras celebration is known worldwide as Carnival, but did you know the word Carnival comes from a Latin phrase for "leaving meat"? Of course, that's because many people cut back on red meat during Lent, which starts the day after Mardi Gras. They are less CARNivorous after CARNival. You probably also knew that Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, but did you know that this term comes from an old tradition of using up all the fat in the house before Lent?

This is fascinating stuff, but let's say you want to delve deeper. Perhaps you are writing a paper on some specialized aspect of Mardi Gras. A good way to examine a topic from a particular point of view is to look at more specialized encyclopedias. A history encyclopedia would approach a topic like Mardi Gras differently than a sociology encyclopedia. The reference department at the Main Library has rows and rows of specialized reference books, and many of them discuss Mardi Gras. Just come up and ask a reference librarian to help you find them.

Let's say you're interested in the tradition of wearing masks on Mardi Gras, and how it got started. Our reference staff could guide you to a resource like The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, which has an article on "Masquerade and Masked Balls." In this article, we learn that all European masquerade balls originated with Carnival, and Carnival itself began as a pagan springtime festival. Later, it became part of the Feast of Fools, in which junior clergy would wear masks and hold a mock mass. This was followed by general debauchery, and the election of the Abbot of Misrule--the ancestor of Mardi Gras kings and queens, who preside over masquerade balls to this day.

Interested in finding out more about Mardi Gras traditions? Just get in touch with the reference staff. We can help you dig up all kinds of fun facts for the festival season.

New Ancestry Resources

2011-02-25T09:47:00.000-06:00

At the reference desk, we often hear "I already checked that" from search savvy patrons who did some information tracking of their own before turning to the reference staff for help. With a print resource, like a book, you may not need to check more than once to see if the information you're after is in there. It's either in there, or it's not.

Digital resources are a whole different ballgame. Most of our databases are continually updated, with thousands of new records added monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily. So even if you've "already checked that" database, it may be worth another look.

Ancestry is one of these continually updated sources worth checking on a regular basis. Our library invests in an annual Ancestry Library Edition subscription, so that you can access most of their records for free as long as you are in one of our branches.

In 2011, Ancestry has already added significant new African American records, as well as additional resources for folks with English, German, Australian, Canadian, or New Zealand ancestry. The new African American resources include:

New Orleans Slave Manifests 1807-1860

D.C. Slave Owner Petitions, 1862-1863

D.C. Emancipation Records 1851-1863

Freedmen Bureau Records from Field Offices 1865-1878

U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records 1861-1865

Newspaper slave ads from Wilkinson County, MS, 1823-1849

Interviews with former U.S. Slaves 1936-1938

Slave Manifests from Savannah, GA, 1811-1860

Slave Certificates from Adams County, MS, 1858-1861

Notable Louisiana resources in Ancestry for people tracing African American roots before 1820 include the Louisiana Slave Records 1719-1820 and the Louisiana Freed Slave Records 1719-1820. Louisiana Freedmen's Bureau Records are also available online at www.freedmensbureau.com, organized by parish.

To receive monthly updates as new records are added, go to www.ancestry.com and enter your email address in the "Get the Free Newsletter" box in the lower right hand corner of the page. To learn more about tracing your ancestry at Terrebonne Parish Library, drop by the main library, and stay tuned to our blog!

-Jennifer Hamilton

Louisiana Roots: Some Great Local Sources for Genealogy

2011-02-18T15:31:00.000-06:00

When you bring your family tree chart to the library to fill in the blanks, one way to begin is to consult records which may contain records of an important event in a known ancestor’s life, such as a birth, marriage or death. Then work backward in time to find connected events. For instance, if you find a record of a direct ancestor’s birth which includes the names of his/her parents, in earlier records you may find those parents’ marriage record, which may contain the name of their parents.

If your family is from the Terrebonne or Lafourche Parish area, the series South Louisiana Records may become your new best friend. These volumes, nicknamed the “Father Hebert books” for their compiler, contain records from local churches and courthouses for the years 1794 through 1920. Another series, South Louisiana Vital Family Records compiled by the Terrebonne Genealogical Society, contain Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish courthouse records from 1902-1941.

Southwest Louisiana Records (which are also sometimes called Father Hebert Books) cover Acadia, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion Parishes (1756-1915.) Ecclesiastic records for the Archdiocese of New Orleans (1718-1831) and the Diocese of Baton Rouge (1707-1900) are in the genealogy collection as well.

Once again, find a record of a life event (birth, marriage, death) of an ancestor in one of these books and work backward from that point. With a little work and some luck, you’ll be able to fill in many unknowns in your family tree!

Credo Reference: A Virtual Reference Shelf You Can Access Online

2011-02-07T14:43:00.001-06:00

Do you have a question, and need to find a more reliable answer than whatever pops up on Google? Perhaps you have a paper to write, and you need to cite reliable sources by trusted authors and publishers. Wikipedia is fine for starters, but your teacher won't accept it as a source. Maybe you would just like to have a whole wall full of reference books you can access from home? This week’s featured database, Credo Reference, may make your wishes come true. All you need is a library card and an internet connection.

Credo Reference is an electronic collection of full-text articles from over 500 classic reference books. The content is the same as you would find on the library’s reference shelves, but even more convenient, because Credo Reference is like a search engine for reference books. You can search for keywords, get a list of relevant articles, and read them instantly. While reference books can only be used inside the library, Credo Reference can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection, whether the library is open or not.

Credo Reference also has ready-made Topic Pages for a wide variety of commonly researched topics. In the topic page on pirates shown below, the page has an overview article, images, definitions, suggestions for further reading, web links, and even suggestions for articles in other databases!

You can also use Credo to search for images. Credo has over 200,000 keyword-searchable images. How about audio files? If you need a sound clip of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, you can find it in Credo reference. Credo also allows you to explore links between topics by exploring interactive Concept Maps.

If you need fast access to reliable information, Credo Reference is a great place to start your search. Just go to the library's database page, look under "All Purpose Databases and Encyclopedias", and the search is on!

-Ross Mays
Reference Librarian

Genealogy Research: The Next Steps

2011-02-01T20:07:00.000-06:00

To begin your search for your ancestors, fill out a family tree (pedigree chart) - or simply write down the information you know about your family. Start with yourself and go back in time, entering dates of births, marriages, and deaths for your parents, your grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.

Be sure to use full names, including middle names and nicknames. Use maiden names for women. Ask your relatives to help fill in missing information.

When you have entered all the information you know or can learn about your family, decide which branch of your family you’re most interested in researching. Start with one person. In what state, parish or county, did that person live? Approximately when was the person alive?
Bring your information to the reference desk on the second floor of the Main Library and ask for help. Library staff members will teach you what to do next. The search and the fun begin...

- Judith Soniat
Terrebonne Parish Reference Department

Genealogy at Terrebonne Parish Library

2011-01-20T16:35:00.000-06:00

This is the first of a weekly blog post about doing your genealogy at Terrebonne Parish Library. The genealogy collection is located on the second floor of the Main Library. The collection focuses on Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, but other Louisiana parishes and other states are represented.

Ancestry.com, Library Edition, can be accessed free of charge to any patron from the computers in the genealogy room – as well as from any public use computer in any Terrebonne Parish Library branch.

To begin your genealogy, write down what you already know about your family, preferably on a family tree chart like the ones provided in the library or offered at this web address: http://genealogy.about.com/library/free_charts/pedigree.pdf

Genealogy has become one of the most popular hobbies in the United States. Come and see why so many people find the quest for their family histories very interesting. Is it learning who your ancestors were, or is it the fun of looking for them? Or both?! Come and find out! More to come….

New Year, New Database Page!

2011-01-12T14:39:00.000-06:00

It's a new year, and we've made some big changes to the database page on the library website! Library patrons have access to over 91 databases, containing a world of information that can't be found on the open internet. If you have a library card and an internet connection, you can get thousands of full-text articles from encyclopedias, magazines, and newspapers--as well as maps, photographs, computer tutorials, practice tests, genealogy resources, and even live tutors!

To make all these resources easier to use, we have reorganized the page in three ways:

We've revised and expanded the database categories, to better reflect different kinds of research questions.
We've expanded the number of links, so that all the databases available to Terrebonne Parish patrons are can be found right on that page. The links are more direct, so it's no longer necessary to go to the State Library website to log on to state-sponsored databases--just click the link, and it takes you directly there.
Finally, we've added detailed descriptions of each database, to help you decide which one can best help you find the information you need.

To see the new database page, simply go to the Terrebonne Parish Library website, at http://www.mytpl.org/, and click on the "Online Databases" tab on the left side of the page. This brings you to the new database page:

If you click on one of the headings, the menu expands to show a list of databases in each one, with descriptions. For example, clicking on Biography reveals four databases and their descriptions.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks, because we'll be blogging about some of the great databases in our collection. For more information about our new database page, please check out this video:

Database of the Month: Career Cruising

2010-06-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

Searching for a career? The library has a new database that can help you. Career Cruising is a brand new database offered by the Louisiana State Library that offers all the information you need to start on a new career path. Career Cruising features information on just about any career you can imagine from a waste collector to an aerospace engineer.

This database is a comprehensive career guide designed for individual, self-directed use, suitable for people from age 11 to adulthood. You can use it to:

Find careers that match your interests with Career Matchmaker

Get the inside scoop on any career with in-depth profiles, multimedia interviews and an on-the-job PhotoFile

Learn about the education and training options available

Create a Portfolio to save career exploration progress and build a professional-looking resume

Find work search hints and tips in the Career Cruising employment guide and thousands of job postings using the Career Cruising job search tool

To get started with Career Cruising now, click the link below to go to our online database page and click “Career Resources.”

http://mytpl.org/databases.html

2010-06-07T08:48:00.001-05:00

If you're interested in learning about Acadian culture, either because you share the same heritage or want to learn more about the rich culture of the area, the library has a presentation on this interesting subject. On June 24th at 6pm, Mr. Leryes Usie will be giving a presentation at the Main branch library titled Acadian History, Culture, and Deportation: From Acadia to Louisiana. The program will include a slide presentation by Mr. Usie. For more information, call our reference department at 985-876-1733.

Teen Movie Showing

2010-05-06T17:38:00.001-05:00

Attention Teens! Looking for something to do this summer that’s fun and free? The Main branch library has just the thing for you: 7 free movie showings with free refreshments! All the movies are shown in the second floor D.E. room at 2pm and free popcorn and drinks will be given to all those in attendance. All you have to do is show up! Check out the schedule below.

1. The Blind Side - Saturday, June 5th @ 2pm

2. This Is It - Saturday, June 12th @ 2pm

3. (500) Days of Summer - Saturday, June 19th @ 2pm

4. Avatar - Saturday, June 26th @ 2pm

5. Invictus - Saturday, July 10th @ 2pm

6. Advantureland - Saturday, July 17th @ 2pm

7. Sugar - Saturday, July 24th @ 2pm

Go High-Tech at Your Library!

2010-05-06T14:27:00.000-05:00

For anyone who still views their local library as a dusty room full of outdated books, here is a wake-up call about how your library’s connection to technology can help you access your reading material.

Place Books on Hold

Want to place a book on hold without coming into the library? Here’s how!

If you’re looking for something to read, the library has made it even easier for you to get what you’re looking for. Just find what you want to read on our website via our online catalog and place the item on hold online by clicking either the “REQUEST” or “HOLD REQUEST” button. Once the book is ready, the library will call you and all you have to do is pick it up! It’s that easy. At the main branch, you can even go through our drive-thru to check-out your book. Of course, for those of you who still prefer to place holds over the phone, you can always call any of our branches and ask that a book be put on hold for you.

http://aqua.terrebonne.lib.la.us%228080/#bookriver
http://tess.terrebonne.lib.la.us/pac.opac

E-Books

If you really can’t get out, the library can get books to you via our website. By going to our E-Library webpage, you can search our titles of audiobooks, e-books, music, and videos, find the title you’re interested in, and download it. For free! All you need is a library card and a computer, IPod, or MP3 player. Visit the link below and start browsing now!

http://terrebonne.lib.overdrive.com/8578EC73-4C88-4007-8EB6-C1D3BDC1DE97/10/397/en/Default.htm

2010-04-12T10:07:00.000-05:00

April 24, 2010 is our annual Teen Job Fair here at the Main branch library. From 9 a.m. to Noon, teens can speak with representatives from businesses about summer employment. Remember, no shorts of flip flops; you may be interviewed on the spot.

To register or for more information, call 876-1733.

Jubilee Jambalaya Writers’ Conference

2010-04-06T13:27:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again! Time for the annual Jubilee Jambalaya Writers' Conference!

The 2010 Jubilee Jambalaya Writers’ Conference & Book Fair will be held on Saturday, April 10th at the Main Library. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. for registration. It will feature discussion sessions on writing and publishing poetry and prose by professional authors, agents, editors, and publishing company representatives.

For more information or to register, call Lauren Bordelon at 876-5158, email jubileewritersconference@yahoo.com, or visit the website at http://www.jubileewritersconference.org/

See below for a breakdown of the Conference Schedule.

Time/Description

8:00-8:30 Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:20 Presentations

Meet the Editor and Agents
Writing a Cinematic and Poetic Novel: Cookie and Me
"Writing and Marketing Christian Nonfiction"

9:30-10:20 Presentations

The No Bull**** Bio: You're Good Enough, You're Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like You!
Ready, Aim, Fire: Creating a Career Plan That Will Shoot You to the Next Level
Let Your Mind Fly: How to skew pieces toward different genres (Be prepared to write!)
Two Poets/One Project: A REading from Call and Response
"Marketing via the Internet"
10 minute Agent Appointments

10:30-11:20 Presentations

Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experience (non-fiction)Excavating your Personal Life: Embracing Pitfalls and Pleasures of Life as Married Writers
"Jubilee Presents LA Poet Laureate"
Talk to Me! Narrative and Dialogue: Balancing the Two
Keeping It Real: True-to-Life Teen Characters in Make-Believe Settings
A Baseball Novel made for Hollywood

11:30-1:00 Lunch and Keynote
1:00-1:50 Book Fair/Author Signing & Contest Winner announced
2:00-2:50 Presentations

Bite Me! Vampires, werewolves, leprachauns-creatures of the night (except now they wear Ray Bans, Prada, and walk around at all hours!)
"Panel: Ekphrastic Poetry: Writing for the Eyes"
Creating Three Dimensional characters (2 hours)
CSI and Police Procedures for Writers (2 hours)
My Virtual Experience with e-Books
Reserved 10 minute Editior Appointments

3:00-3:50 Presentations

The More Things change, the More They Stay the Same: Why Word of Mouth Is the Core of Your Promotional Plan
Spark to Polish: Tips o Writing's Art and Craft
From the Other Palette: A Workshop on Ekphrastic Poetry Writing
Creating Three Dimensional Characters- Continued
CSI and Police Procedures for Writers- Continued
Plotting for proposal
10 minute Agent Appointments

4:00-4:50 First Page Workshop
4:50-5:30 Last Call for Book Fair/Author Signings
5:00-6:00 Sunset/Wine and Cheese Social

Learning Express

2010-03-16T10:08:00.000-05:00

Learning Express is a database offered by your library that features preparation for just about any exam or skill you want to master. You can use this database to review basic skills, prepare for exams, and take practice standardized tests. All for free! Plus, your practice tests are scored immediately so there’s no waiting involved. Learning Express offers preparation in the following categories:

Elementary School
Middle School
High School
College Preparation
College Students
GED Preparation
Job Search & Workplace Skills
Jobs & Careers
Skill Building for Adults
U.S. Citizenship
Recursos para Hisanohablantes (Resources for Spanish-Speakers)

Learning Express also features preparation for popular exams like ACT, SAT, GED, Civil Service, CDL, EMS, Nursing, and Teaching, just to name a few. To find out more about Learning Express, visit our website (www.mytpl.org), click on “online databases” to the left, and choose “Learning Express.” You can create an account, track your progress, and before you know it you’ll be on your way to learning the skills you need now! If you need assistance using Learning Express, feel free to call us at 985-876-5861 and we will be happy to walk you through the database over the phone! Or, you can text any question on any topic to 66746, start the message with "mytpl" and we will answer your questions via text message.

Women's History Month

2010-03-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

“In a world where there is so much to be done,

I felt strongly impressed that there must be something

for me to do.”

Dorothea Dix (1802-1887)
Social reformer

March is Women’s History month! It’s a time of year for us to celebrate women’s accomplishments in history and how they have affected our lives today. The National Women’s History Project has named this year’s theme: “Writing Women Back into History.” For more information about women’s history, take a look at some of the links below and learn how women’s achievements have shaped your life.

More information:

National Women’s History Project

womenshistorymonth.gov

Library Books about Women’s History

Find your Family Tree at the library!

2010-02-22T15:27:00.000-06:00

Here at the main branch, we have a whole room dedicated to genealogy research. Our collection focuses on the local area, especially Terrebonne Parish, but we have plenty of books on almost every other state. Some of our most popular resources include South Louisiana Vital Family Records (nicknamed the “Father Hebert books”) which are fabulous for looking up early birth, marriage, and death records. Also, we have Terrebonne Parish census records, indexed obituaries, cemetery records, and microfilm images of Terrebonne Parish newspapers back to 1855.

You should also take advantage of two very useful online databases: Ancestry.com Library Edition and Heritage Quest Online. Ancestry.com can only be used in the library and features searchable marriage, death, military enlistment, and census records from all U.S. states as well as other countries. Heritage Quest Online consists of U.S. census records, local histories, and book searches. It can be used in the library or at home using your library card number.

Once you begin your research, the library provides several charts to use. In particular, we have 3 Generation Pedigree Charts, 6 Generation Pedigree Charts, and Family Group Record Sheets (which includes siblings). So, if you’ve ever considered mapping out your family tree, the library has everything you need to get started!

Need a place to study?

2010-02-17T16:48:00.001-06:00

With the holiday season over for a while, many of us are looking ahead to midterm exams and of course those dreaded cram sessions. Fortunately, the library can help you get on the right track by providing the perfect setting. The main library has several study rooms where you can meet to study with a group. You can book a room for up to 6 people for free. All you need is a library card. To do this you can come in and ask to reserve a study room at the reference desk or you can call and reserve one over the phone at 985-876-5861 ext. 201 or 202. Our study rooms are equipped with tables, chairs, dry erase boards, wireless internet, and electrical outlets for your laptop.

For those who prefer to study alone, the library has a Quiet Study room. Quiet Study is perfect for any individual who needs a quiet place to read or write. You don’t need a reservation to use the Quiet Study room; you can walk in anytime. The room is full of tables, comfy chairs, and a lot of windows. Like the study rooms, it has wireless internet access and laptop plug-ins.

Happy Birthday Thomas Edison!

2010-02-11T13:08:00.000-06:00

February 11th is Thomas Alva Edison’s birthday! This American inventor and scientist is most famous for his invention of the incandescent light bulb. However, he also invented the phonograph, motion pictures, and created one of the first research laboratories in modern science. In his lifetime, he was issued over 1,000 U.S. patents, the most the U.S. patent office has ever issued to any individual. He also received patents in over two dozen other countries. All while struggling with hearing loss since he was 15 years old. To read more about Edison’s accomplishments, check out the sites below or visit your library for some enlightening reading material.

More information:

Thomasedison.com

Timeline of Thomas Edison's life

Books about Thomas Edison at your library

Houma Parade Schedule 2010

2010-02-01T10:20:00.000-06:00

You asked for it, and now here it is! This is the schedule of Mardi Gras Parades that will roll in Terrebonne Parish. The Main Library will close at FIVE O'CLOCK for those parades highlighted in red. The entire library system will be CLOSED completely on Mardi Gras Day.

Friday, February 5th
6:00 pm, Krewe of Hercules (Houma)

Saturday, February 6th
Noon, Bayou Tee Callou (Chauvin)
6:30 pm, Krewe of Aquiruis (Houma)

Sunday, February 7th
12:30 pm, Krewe of Hyacinthians (Houma)

Friday, February 12th
6:30 pm, Krewe of Aphrodite (Houma)

Saturday, February 13th
6:30 pm, Krewe of Mardi Gras (Houma)

Sunday, February 14th
12:30 pm, Krewe Terreanians (Houma)
Following Terreanians, Krewe of Tut (Houma)
2:00pm , Krewe of Montegut (Montegut)

Monday, February 15th, Lundi Gras Day
6:30 pm, Krewe of Cleopatra (Houma)

Tuesday, February 16th, Mardi Gras Day
11:00 am, Krewe of Houmas (Houma)
Following Houmas, Krewe of Kajuns (Houma)
4:00 pm, Bonne Terre (Montegut)

This Day In History: The Challenger Explodes on Liftoff

2010-01-28T09:30:00.000-06:00

"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."--Ronald Reagan

Twenty-four years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded on liftoff high over the Atlantic Ocean off of Cape Kennedy. All crew members on board, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, were killed in the accident. It was the first time American astronauts had been killed in flight, and it effectively shut down the space program for two years while its safety was investigated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The space program continues today in spite of and because of the sacrifices of the Challenger crew.

More Information:

Books About the Challenger Accident That Can Be Found in the Terrebonne Parish Library

President Reagan's Speech to the Nation Regarding the Challenger Accident

The Challenger Crew: Official NASA Biographies

Exciting Upcoming Programs

2010-01-19T20:19:00.000-06:00

This week, the library is having two programs at the main branch which come at the perfect time of year. Wednesday at 6:30pm in the Large Meeting Room of the Main Library, there will be an identity theft program titled “Protect Your Identity: Be Yourself …Or Someone Else Will!” The program will teach you how to protect yourself from identity theft, which can be especially useful information to many of us during tax season. This hour-long presentation will be given by Margaret Burlew of the LSU Ag Center.

On Thursday at 6:00pm, the library will hold its 2010 Financial Aid Workshop. Presenters include the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance and the U.S. Military. Representatives of the Terrebonne Parish Library will discuss TOPS, private & military scholarships, filling out FAFSA, and test preparation strategies. As the end of the school year draws near, this program can help high school students get ready for the years to come. You can register for the program in advance by contacting the reference department at 985-876-1733, ext. 202.

For even more information on the topics mentioned above, feel free to explore some of these links:

FTC’s Identity Theft Website

The U.S. Dept. of Justice Identity Theft Website

Federal Student Aid

Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance

Haitian Relief: Don't Be Scammed

2010-01-15T08:30:00.001-06:00

If it falls upon your conscience to donate money to help out in Haiti--Haiti, after all, has some complex and fascinating historical ties to Louisiana--below are some links that might make giving a bit easier without having your money end up in the pockets of some huckster:

Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante--donate here.

American Red Cross--just click the "radio button" next to "Haiti relief."

It's possible to donate to the Red Cross via text; to donate to the Red Cross, text the word "Haiti" to the number 90999.

The International Committee of the Red Cross

United Nations World Food Programme

Yele Haiti--Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean's organization.

To send $5, donors can text "Yele" to the number 501501.

Catholic Relief Services

If you or someone you know has family members in Haiti, you may be able to find out more by calling the U.S. State Department's Haiti Hotline at (888) 407-4747. Call volume has been heavy, so callers may hear a recorded message or end up on hold for a while.

VITA 2010

2010-01-12T19:58:00.000-06:00

FREE TAX HELP FROM VOLUNTEERS

The Volunteer Income Tax Association will be at the Terrebonne Parish Main Library from Tuesday, February 2nd, through Tuesday, April 13th, to help you file your tax form at the following times:

Tuesdays: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Saturdays: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

(NOTE: VITA will NOT be at the library on Saturday, April 10th or Tuesday, February 16th.)

This service is primarily for the elderly and low-income filers.

Those Wanting VITA Assistance Must Have:

- All W-2 and 1099 forms for 2009.

- Driver's license or other photo ID.

- Social Security cards for everyone in the household.

- Birth dates for everyone in the household.

- 1099-INT forms showing interest earned on bank accounts.

- The name, address and tax ID or Social Security number of child-care providers for child-care credits.

- 1099-G forms that show unemployment payments.

- SSA-1099 forms showing Social Security payments.

- Pay records from jury duty.

- W-2G forms for gambling or lottery winnings.

- Those who wish to have their tax refunds directly deposited into their checking accounts or payments to the IRS drawn directly from their accounts must bring a voided check that includes a routing number and bank-account number.

For more information about VITA, contact Jennifer Gaudet of Catholic Social Services at 985-876-0490.

Tax Forms 2009 Online...And At The Library

2010-01-06T18:33:00.001-06:00

The IRS is kind enough to send out tax forms and instructions this time of year, guaranteeing that the merry highs of the holiday season are tempered somewhat by some sober reality.

You can pick up forms at any of our branches, or you can download and print PDFs of the forms from the IRS website. To make it easier, here is a link to the IRS Tax Form Index. Remember, "f" stands for "form", "i" stands for "instructions" and "p" stands for "publication."

And by the way, if you need any help from the IRS regarding ordering forms or filling your forms out, you can contact them by telephone at 1-800-829-1040.

Winds and Words of War

2010-01-04T16:15:00.000-06:00

From now until March, the Terrebonne Parish Library's Main Branch at 151 Library Drive in Houma will host a travelling collection of 40 authentic World War One recruitment and propaganda posters. The collection, titled "The Winds and Words of War" will be housed on the first floor and features posters urging Americans of all stripes to "do their bit" to win the war. Included is the famous "I Want You" poster with Uncle Sam pointing directly at the viewer.

The Winds and Words of War, which premiered at the San Antonio Public Library, is made possible by the Stumberg Foundation, The Tobin Endowment, the City of San Antonio Veteran’s Affairs Commission, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Also, on Febrary 24th at 6:30 PM Trisha Dubina, a graphic design instructor at Nicholls State University will give a talk on "Early American Graphic Design." Ms. Dubina will give her presentation in the distance education classroom on the second floor of the Main Library.

Call Lauren Bordelon at 985-876-5158 ext. 234 for more information.

Christmas 2009: Fun Links

2009-12-17T16:49:00.001-06:00

Here's a great site if someone is tough to buy for...Try Gift Finder, a nifty online service that offers suggestions based on gender, age, interests, etc. Try it! It seems to work pretty good.

Hosting a party and want to offer something season-appropriate at the bar? Drinknation.com has a healthy selection, including the "Mistletoe Martini" & "Fog Log Nog."

The Library of Congress' "Modern History: Christmas" page.

The History Channel's History of Christmas

Louisiana Links

Where y'at? How about spending Christmas in New Orleans, maybe?

Celebration in the Oaks is the big light show that fills New Orleans' City Park with Christmas wonder every year. And, of course, the neat little train. Great for families with young kids!

If you want a few days a bit further away (without going TOO far away), The Natchitoches Christmas Festival is something to think about. It gets bigger every year until it now draws in tourists from all over the mid-south.

Louisiana Greetings lets you send a Saints or LSU greeting card.

The Chabad-Lubavitch of Louisiana has some great information about Jewish Holidays.

Anyway, we hope you have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Terrebonne Parish Library System.

Happy Birthday, Melvil Dewey!

2009-12-10T11:11:00.000-06:00

1851-1931

158 years ago today (Dec. 10, 1851), the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System was born in Adams Center, NY.

Did you know?

>The Dewey Decimal System is proprietary, meaning that somebody--the Online Computer Library Center of Dublin, Ohio--OWNS it. And, yes, they will SUE you if you use it for profit-making purposes without their permission. No kidding.

>Before Dewey came up with and standardized his system, library collection organization varied widely from place to place...and even within the SAME place! Under "location," a catalog might say something like "Third Floor, Norton Hall, Shelf Nearest the Stairs, Shelf No. 118A." Some libraries even arranged books by size and color, regardless of content. Not very efficient.

>Dewey was obsessed with efficiency, and came up with a system that allowed library users to find a book within fields and subfields of knowledge relative to one another, rather than in relation to a fixed location or shelf number.

>The "decimal" part of the Dewey Decimal System allows the system to be infinitely expandable...there is always room for something else. For instance, the system was first formally codified in 1876, before, say, airplanes. But now we find airplanes in at 629.13 or thereabouts. 629, when it was thought up, was "Other Engineering," which is exactly what aerodynamics would have been considered in Dewey's day.

Now, none of this might sound like a really big deal, but it revolutionized library organization and made your life (and mine) a lot easier when visiting your local public library.

Get to know the Dewey Decimals System...and put it to use soon!

Pearl Harbor Day 2009

2009-12-07T15:17:00.000-06:00

Today is the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. That day, 2400 American servicemen died in one of the most infamous sneak attacks in all of military history.

Below are some links with some information about Pearl Harbor and American involvement in the Second World War.

The National Park Service's Pearl Harbor Attack Page

The USS Arizona Monument

The Library of Congress' Pearl Harbor Page

The National D-Day Museum's Lesson Plan "A Day of Infamy: Analyzing FDR’s Pearl Harbor Speech"

Radio Days: The Bombing of Pearl Harbor--Includes captivating, authentic radio bulletins from the Day of Infamy.

Historical Photos of the Attack, Archived by the U.S. Navy

World War Two Photos in the US Archives

When Fear Was Stronger Than Justice: Executive Order 9066

Chase Giving on Facebook

2009-12-04T09:39:00.000-06:00

Attention Facebook users:

Please vote for the Friends of the Terrebonne Parish Public Library on the Chase Giving Facebook page. Type in "Friends of the Terrebonne Public Library" in the search box and then click “GO”.

When the page comes up, click on "Vote."

You have to become a Facebook user and a fan to vote, and you're allowed to vote 20 times!

All the money raised goes to the Friends, and then back to us at the library!

PS. Please pass this along to your Facebook friends. Post it on your page in your status update, and let everyone know!

National Write a Business Plan Month 2009

2009-12-02T15:03:00.000-06:00

December is National Write a Business Plan Month and users of the Terrebonne Parish Library System are in luck!

Among our many amazing and useful databases is the Gale Small Business Resource Center which includes "Sample Business Plans" for various types of businesses.

Also, in our Gale Virtual Reference Library , we offer the Business Plans Handbook, which, in the appendix, has a blank business plan one can cut, paste, and fill in.

The quick links at the bottom of this page are searchable; just enter terms, click, and start using Gale!

Also, don't forget the many business plan books we have in the library's collection...click here to see what our online card catalog has to offer.

Remember: writing a business plan might be your first step to financial independence.

A Public Service Message: Tell a Teen

2009-11-21T16:43:00.000-06:00

"The study showed that drivers who text and drive become more than one third slower than if they were coherent and not texting – this was compared to a person at the DUI limit or under the influence of illegal drugs. Text messaging lowered reaction time by 35 percent, while people high on marijuana slowed down 21 percent and those who were drunk slowed down by 12 percent."--Transport Research Laboratory, UK

Workplace Safety Information

2009-11-17T18:09:00.000-06:00

Every day in America, according to the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration, sixteen people die while doing their jobs. Of course, some are firefighters or police killed in the line of duty while doing jobs that are by nature somewhat dangerous. But others are just regular folks who become the victims of inattention, ill-training, recklessness or, worst of all, a co-worker or customer's criminal intent or mental illness.

Below are some links that you or someone you know might find informative (or life saving). Pass the information along.

OSHA--The Occupational Safety Hazard Administration--The Federal agency charged with making sure that American workplaces know what being safe means...and with making sure that workers can blow the whistle on those which aren't.

Centers for Disease Control's Workplace Safety--A well-organized and comprehensive resource on occupational and workplace safety, complete with easy-to-understand publications.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety Hazards (NIOSH)--Has a great website that helps you answer the question: "Is my workplace safe?"

The National Safety Council--This hotlink will take you to the website of the Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas chapter of the National Safety Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to safer products and workplaces.

The Louisiana Department of Labor's Workplace Safety FAQ--Questions and answers about running a safe workplace.

Fatal Facts--OSHA Reports about specific situations in which workers died on the job. Includes investigator opinions as to how the accidents might have been avoided.

Louisiana's Worker's Compensation Page--Links for if the unthinkable happens.

Safety and Health Topics: Workplace Violence (OSHA)--Dealing with co-workers who may be unstable and potentially violent.

Workplace Violence--An excellent handbook, written by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, about the danger of workplace violence and how it can be dealt with by co-workers, supervisors and law enforcement.

The USDA Handbook on Workplace Violence Prevention and Response

Workplace Safety Education

The Terrebonne Parish Library has a wide selection of industrial and workplace safety videos and books available.

Terrebonne Parish Catalog Search: "Industrial Safety."

Louisiana Legal Resources

2009-11-12T10:28:00.000-06:00

Louisiana Constitution of 1974--Searchable by article number, not keyword.

Louisiana Revised Statutes--Search Louisiana's legal code by citation and keyword.

Terrebonne Parish Code of Ordnances

Louisiana Administrative Code--Subject Index

Legal Public Notices--Legal and public notices from around the state of Louisiana.

Lawhelp.org--Louisiana's guide to free online legal help.

Louisiana Boards and Commissions Database

Thomson-Gale Legal Forms Database

Louisiana Advocacy Center--Free legal help for the elderly and disabled.

Louisiana State Bar Association Opinion Service--Registration required. The LSBA Opinion Service allows the public to obtain the latest opinions released from Louisiana appellate courts.

Veterans' Day: Repost

2009-11-11T12:16:00.000-06:00

Today is Veterans' Day, when America honors all those who have served the country in the military. The Terrebonne Parish Library Reference Department has put together some links to information that veterans and their families might find useful.

The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs is dedicated to providing quality care and service for America's former servicemen.

VA Home Loan Guaranty Services provides home loan and mortgage information to veterans.

Housing and Urban Development has many housing programs for veterans worth looking into.

Mental health resources for returning veterans can be found at the website of SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.

The Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs tries its best to help veterans--especially those returning from service overseas--find the help and services they need.

The National World War Two Memorial has message boards, a registry and an e-store for veterans of the watershed conflagration.

The Korean War Memorial homepage has information about the monument and the war it commemorates.

The Vietnam Memorial Wall page has information about the memorial and a tool to search for names on the face of the monument.

November: National Diabetes Month

2009-11-04T10:03:00.000-06:00

Here in South Louisiana, we know the dangers of diabetes. Good food in lagniappe quantities and heat indexes that drive any sane person inside contribute to the prevalence of the disease and the lifestyle that can lead to it. Because it is a manageable disease, many people forget that diabetes can lead to amputation, blindness, heart disease, nerve damage and even death. So below are some links about preventing and managing diabetes.

Preventing Diabetes

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals' Diabetes Prevention and Control Program

American Diabetes Association: Preventing Diabetes

Mayo Clinic's Diabetes Prevention: Five Steps for Taking Control

National Institutes of Health's Diabetes Prevention Program

Detection and Management

Centers for Disease Control: Frequently Asked Diabetes Questions

National Diabetes Education Program: I Have Diabetes

NIH: Keep Your Diabetes Under Control

Centers for Disease Control: Diabetes Prevention and Control

Diabetic Cooking Magazine: Diabetic Recipe Finder

EndocrineWeb's Diabetes Information Center

What Does the Library Have?

Catalog Search: "Diabetes"

Catalog Search: "Diabetic Cooking"

Halloween: More Than Just Costumes

2009-10-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

Brief History of the Holiday

From The Dictionary of Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World by Omnigraphics Press, Inc.:

"Halloween has its ultimate origins in the ancient Celtic harvest festival, SAMHAIN, a time when people believed that the spirits of the dead roamed the earth. Irish settlers brought their Halloween customs—which included bobbing for apples and lighting jack-o’-lanterns—to America in the 1840s.

"In the United States children go from house to house in costume—often dressed as ghosts, skeletons, or vampires—on Halloween saying, 'Trick or treat!' Though for the most part the threat is in jest, the 'trick' part of the children’s cry carries the implication that if they don’t receive a treat, the children will subject that house to some kind of prank, such as marking its windows with a bar of soap or throwing eggs at it. Most receive treats in the form of candy or money. But Halloween parties and parades are popular with adults as well.

"Because nuts were a favorite means of foretelling the future on this night, All Hallows’ Eve in England became known as Nutcrack Night. Other British names for the day include Bob Apple Night, Duck (or Dookie) Apple Night, Crab Apple Night, Thump-the-door Night, and, in Wales, APPLE AND CANDLE NIGHT. In the United States it is sometimes referred to as Trick or Treat Night."

Safe Halloween Links

The National Safety Council's Halloween Safety Fact Sheet

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission's Excellent Halloween Safety Alert

Safe Halloween Tips from the Centers for Disease Control...A handy, printable PDF of SAFE HALLOWEEN tips is also available from the CDC.

E-How Video Link: How To Inspect Halloween Candy

Halloween Activities For Kids & Teens

2009-10-21T09:33:00.001-05:00

The rest of October will be busy for the Terrebonne Parish Library System, with many Halloween-themed events and craft times for kids and teens. Here's what's happening from now until Halloween.

For Kids

Thursday, 10/22 at 5 p.m.
Haunted Library Storytime for
pre-k – 3rd graders.
Chauvin Branch

Saturday, 10/24 at 2 p.m.
Halloween Craft Workshop for
pre-k – 3rd graders.
Main Library

Monday, 10/26, Wednesday,
10/28, and Thursday, 10/29
from 3-5:30 p.m.
Halloween Pumpkin Painting
Craft. Bring a clean pumpkin.
Montegut Branch

Monday, 10/26 at 4 p.m.
Halloween Story Time and Candy
Workshop for k – 4th graders.
Dularge Branch

For Teens

Friday, 10/23 at 4 p.m.
Wii Games and
Halloween Craft
Dularge Branch

Tuesday, 10/27 from 4-5:30 p.m.
Pumpkin Painting Workshop.
Bring a clean pumpkin.
Montegut Branch

Wednesday, 10/28
from 4-5:30 p.m.
Playstation 2 “Buzz
Quiz” Game.
Registration is required--call 985-575-2639
Gibson Branch

Saturday, 10/31 at 2 p.m.
Michael Jackson
“Extravaganza”
featuring his Live
in Bucharest –
The Dangerous
Tour and a
Michael Jackson
“Look-a-Like”
Contest.
East Houma Branch

Fire Prevention Month

2009-10-13T13:54:00.000-05:00

October is Fire Prevention Month! October is traditionally the time of year when people start firing up heaters and fireplaces (soon, we hope!), so this is also the time people need to be mindful of what it takes to keep fires from happening.

Louisiana State Fire Marshall Information Page

National Fire Protection Association Fire Safety Page--Great information for teachers and kids!

Firesafety.gov--The Centers for Disease Control's guide to preventing fire-related injuries and deaths.

JUST FOR KIDS--The U.S. Fire Administration--Kid-friendly information from the Department of Homeland Security.

And Remember! You can get a free smoke detector from any office of the Houma Fire Department in Terrebonne Parish! Just call Fire Chief Todd Dufrene's office at (985) 873-6391 for more information.

October is Workplace Politics Awareness Month

2009-10-07T09:56:00.001-05:00

Every workplace has its share of political intrigue. For many of us, office politics seems a huge waste of time and damaging to productivity, but we end up unavoidably drawn in anyway. Below are some links for workers and managers trying to do a good job without being mired in rivalry, backbiting, gossip and the other cardinal sins of workplace management.

Articles

Workplace Politics Awareness Month

Tips For Surviving Workplace Politics

Dysfunctional Organizations, Dysfunctional Leadership

Functioning in a Dysfunctional Workplace

Handle Workplace Politics With Grace

Top 25 Signs of a Dysfunctional Workplace

Micromanagement: Learn How to Avoid It!

What to Do About Office Gossip

Gossip--A Form of Workplace Violence

What Constitutes a Hostile Work Environment?

Workplace Bullying Institute

What to do About Workplace Bullies

Links

Louisiana Commission on Human Rights

National Labor Relations Board

TEXT A LIBRARIAN! FREE SERVICE!

2009-09-29T16:04:00.000-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library can now answer TEXT QUESTIONS.
(standard message rates apply)

Here’s how you do it:

Text us at 66746 and start your question with mytpl

Like this:

mytpl What time do you close on Sundays?

We'll get back to you as fast as possible.

Call 876-1733 with any questions.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009

2009-09-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

It's already been a year. As you may know, October is BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH, when women are asked to think about breast self-examinations, mammograms and general breast-friendly living, including diet and exercise.

Here are some links--many the same as last year's--to help you find more information about breast cancer.

Breastcancer.org

Susan G. Komen Foundation

Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Information

What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer (National Cancer Institute)

Breast Cancer (National Cancer Institute)

Breast Cancer (Centers for Disease Control)

MedLinePlus: Breast Cancer (National Library of Medicine)

Frequently Asked Questions - Breast Cancer (Dept. of Health and Human
Services)

Breast Cancer (National Institutes of Health - Senior Health)

Terrebonne Parish Library Book Discussions: Fall and Winter 2009

2009-09-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library System hosts monthly book discussions at various branches. It's a great chance to come and share insights on interesting books.

The schedule for the remainder of 2009 shapes up like this:

Main Library--Thinking Out Loud

NOTE: All Thinking Out Loud discussion groups hosted by Jackie Jackson.

Tuesday, October 6th, 6:30 PM
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Tuesday, November 3rd, 6:30 PM
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Tuesday, December 1st, 6:30 PM
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows

East Branch Library--Second Thoughts

Saturday, October 24th, 11:00 AM
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Saturday, November 21st, 11:00 AM
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

Saturday, December 19th, 11:00 AM
Marley & Me by John Grogan

Dularge Branch Library--Eager Readers

Monday, October 19th, 1:30 PM
The Killing Tree by Rachel Keener

Monday, November 9th, 1:30 PM
My Sisters by Ann Roth

Monday, December 7th, 1:30 PM
Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright

For more information, contact Adult Services Coordinator Lauren Ledet at
985-876-5158, ext. 234.

Project Recovery

2009-09-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

The Terrebonne Parish Library System announces its partnership with LSU's School of Library and Information Science (LSU SLIS) for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program “Project Recovery.”

LSU SLIS was awarded a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to recruit and educate 30 students for professional employment in southern Louisiana libraries. Students eligible and selected to participate will receive IMLS-funded scholarships to earn master’s degrees in librarianship focusing primarily on academic, public, and school libraries.

Following completion of their coursework, students will be required to find employment in an academic, public, or school library in Southern Louisiana affected by hurricane disasters. On September 23, at 1p.m., Dr. Robert Ward will provide an information session for individuals interested in taking part in Project Recovery. This session will take place in the DISTANCE EDUCATION CLASSROOM, located on the second floor of the Main Library at 151 Library Drive in Houma, near the Civic Center.

Dr. Ward will be available throughout the day beginning at 10am to talk with individuals one-on-one and answer any questions they may have. Contact Lauren Ledet at 876-5158, ext. 234 for more information.

Monster Movie Madness 2009

2009-09-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

It's coming soon. The seventh annual Monster Movie Madness film series begins October 5th, 2009. This year's selections:

>October 5th--Devil Girl From Mars-See a giant robot with porch-light head! Don't miss it!

>October 12th--The Giant Claw-A ridiculous-looking giant bird eating ridiculous-looking model planes and just generally doing ridiculous-looking things while looking ridiculous.

>October 19th--King Dinosaur-BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

>October 26th--Plan 9 From Outer Space-Our traditional closing movie. So bad you can't believe it...or look away.

All movies will be shown at the MAIN LIBRARY at 151 Library Drive in Houma. MOVIES WILL BE SHOWN FROM 6PM--8:30PM.

If you came last year, you might have been disappointed because of equipment failures (we were still recovering from Gustav). But THIS year, we'll do all we can to assure that all goes off without a hitch.

Of course, we will have free drinks and popcorn at each movie, and the audience is encouraged (if not required) to make snarky comments pointing out the many, many flaws in each film.

Contact Darryl Eschete at 985-876-1733 ext. 202 for more information.

Library Card Sign-Up Month

2009-09-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

Did you know that studies have shown that kids who have library cards make better grades than kids who don't have library cards? Did you know studies have also shown that adults who get library cards lose, on average, ten pounds within a year of getting it?

Just kidding about that last part, but the first part is true.

So, if you have a library card already, encourage a friend--especially a young friend--who doesn't have one to get one. And if you don't have one, GET ONE! They're free if you've never had one before and are available at any branch. If you had a library card and lost it at some point, the replacement fee is five dollars.

For a child to get a library card, they need a parent or guardian's signature and must be able to write their first and last name.

If you can, help a child get a library card and introduce him or her to the library. You'll be opening the door to a bigger, brighter, more successful world for that child...and for all of us.

Meet Bud Johnson!

2009-09-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

Bud Who?

Bud Johnson is the one-time sports information director at Louisiana State University and current director of LSU's Jack & Priscilla Andonie Museum.

He is the author of The Perfect Season: LSU's Magic Year , a book telling the story of the LSU football team's 1958 season, during which the LSU Tigers went undefeated all the way through.

Mr. Johnson will be at the MAIN LIBRARY this coming Saturday, September 5th from 1:30pm--5:00pm.

Copies of the book will be available and the author will be answering questions and signing copies!

For more information, call 985-876-1733, ext. 234.

September Project 2009: Spiritual Freedom

2009-08-31T10:22:00.001-05:00

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

2009-08-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

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

2009-08-25T19:12:00.000-05:00

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?

2009-08-24T17:01:00.001-05:00

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."