Holidays

The Terrebonne Parish Library System is closed for Christmas Eve, December 24th; Christmas Day, December 25th and the day after Christmas.

We wish you a peaceful, joyful and happy time of togetherness with your families and loved ones. Perhaps this year, maybe for just a little while, there will be peace on earth.

We will re-open Saturday, December 27th at 9am.

Happy Wright Brothers Day!

December 17th is Wright Brothers Day, the anniversary of the day Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful mechanical flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

Here are some links about flying and the history of flight for both students and adults...

NASA's history of flight is a kid-friendly student page with links and games.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics History page has a linked timeline for users.

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's website has a great education section for students and teachers.

The Chanute Air Museum has a cool explanation of how a heavy, boxy airplane gets up--and stays up.

JSTOR!

The Terrebonne Parish Library System is proud to now offer JSTOR access from within any of its branches. JSTOR, in case you don't know, stands for "Journal Storage," and is a database of scholarly academic journals. If you're a high-school or college student (or just an intellectually curious person) seeking to do research from refereed, university-level journals from some pretty prestigious content providers, come in to any branch and log on to JSTOR just by going to http://www.jstor.org.

In case you're curious, the content providers include Cambridge University Press, Wiley-Blackwell, The African Studies Association, The Johns Hopkins University Press, The MIT Press, The University of Chicago Press, and too many others to mention, really.

If you or someone you know is a student at Fletcher Technical Community College, be sure to spread the word.

Cleaning Up...and Moving On

After all these hurricanes and floods we've had in the last few years around here, some of us are getting pretty good at rebuilding fences, laying new roofs and floors and maybe even doing some finishing carpentry. But there are some guidelines we have to follow to make sure we don't end up with toxic mold behind our walls or creeping around in our air ducts. Here are some resources that, even if they might be too late for this hurricane season, might help us out next year...or the next:

This was our inspiration. We just today received Creating a Healthy Home, a publication of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. It was made possible by contributions from researchers from all over the country and is rich with information about cleaning up storm and water-damaged homes.

Flood Damaged Walls, Celings and Floors: Removing Moisture, Cleaning and Repairing--a publication of the Centers for Disease Control, also available as a PDF.

Repairing Your Flooded Home--Information from the American Red Cross.

Emergency Preparedness and Response--More good information from the CDC. Now there's a government agency that's earning its keep!

Flood Cleanup and the Air in Your Home--an easy-to-follow handbook put out by the EPA.

Flood Cleanup: Avoiding Indoor Air Quality Problems--a highly informative handbook by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sending your work crew out to clean up the tool yard after the storm? Here are some tips from the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA) that could keep them from getting hurt.

The National Flood Insurance Program gives you information about how to insure your home and belongings whether you live in a flood zone or not.

Save Gas With the Fuel Economy Guide!

The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy jointly publish a yearly guide to fuel economy to let automobile consumers know which models guzzle and which models sip.

The guide is available online, and is a handy tool when you're in the market for a new or used car.

EPA Fuel Economy Guide 2009

Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month

Approximately 5 million people were victims of identity theft in the past year, according to FBI crime reports. That's more people than live in the entire state of Louisiana. Identity thieves are ruthless and shrewd and, worse, without conscience. December is National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month, and thus a very good time to learn to protect yourself. Here are some links that might help you do that:

The Louisiana High Tech Crime Investigation Association has some great links to help keep you safe online.

The US Department of Justice Identity Theft and Identity Fraud page

The AARP's Guide to Preventing Identity Theft

The Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Reference Desk


The FBI's Guide to "Protecting Your Good Name From Identity Theft"

The FTC's guide to what to do if you have already been a victim of identity crime.

Another victim's guide, from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Acadian Diaspora Event

Get Your Library Science Degree...At The Library!

LSU School of Library and Information Science Information Session @ the Main Library

PRESS RELEASE

Did you know you can complete the Master’s of Library and Information Science degree from LSU without having to travel to Baton Rouge to take classes?

Dean Beth Paskoff of LSU SLIS will be in Houma to meet with prospective students on December 5, 2008 to discuss the admissions process, degree requirements, and schedule of distance education courses. She will also meet with alumni and current students to share their experiences with the distance education program at LSU. All interested are invited.

Prospective students should remember that it is still possible for qualified applicants to be admitted for the Spring 2009 semester.

Please share this information with regular library users who are thinking about a career change, school teachers, friends, and anyone else who might be interested in earning an MLIS degree.

Friday, December 5, 10:30 am -12:00 noon
Terrebonne Parish Public Library, 151 Library Drive
Distance Education Room (upstairs)

Call LSU’s School of Library and Information Science at 225-578-1480. Or, call the library at 876-5158.

Database in Your Face #3

Over the River and Through the Woods...Or Marsh, Maybe

Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and it's a time of family and feasting. There are some pretty interesting Thanksgiving-related websites out there, however, that are a "feast for the mind," if you will. Here are some Thanksgiving links to look at between courses:

Information about The Plimouth Plantation, where the whole story started in 1620.

Pilgrim Hall Museum has everything you ever wanted to know about "The Pilgrims."

The History Channel's History of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was made an official holiday in 1863 during the war-torn presidency of Abraham Lincoln. His original "Thanksgiving Proclamation" is here.

AllReceipes.com has some great Thanksgiving recipes. Look (and cook) some up!

Next Week: National Family Week

The week of Thanksgiving 2008 is National Family Week, a chance for families of all stripes to get closer and become stronger. There are lots of good links out there about the week-long celebration of family ties, genetic and otherwise.

National Family Week was first made a reality in the United States in 1987 under Ronald Reagan.

Here are a few links that may help make your celebration more fun:

Crayola's Family Week Calendar has good ideas for events and crafts...

The American Legion publishes a great National Family Week brochure.

Twenty Ways Families can Celebrate National Family Week, by the YMCA.

Bayou Country Coin Club

Don't forget to come by the Main Branch at 151 Library Drive to see the Bayou Country Coin Club's coin display, housed in the display cases upstairs through the beginning of 2009.

Harry Hellier, club vice president (pictured above) says: "The historical import of the coins alone gives the display its educational value. Besides that, there is the artistic importance with the design elements and beauty of many of the coins. They are worth seeing."

American Indian Heritage Month

Back in 1620, the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower and tried to get a colony started in Massachusetts. It's a story we all know. And most of us know that if it hadn't been for some helpful American Indians in the area, chances are every English Pilgrim would have ended up meager rations for local wolves.

As we get closer to Thanksgiving, we celebrate the contribution of American Indians to the founding, survival and flourishing of the United States. The impact of this contribution is often overlooked, but should never be forgotten.

The Library of Congress always does it up right...take a look at their links and educational resources regarding the history and accomplishements of American Indians!

The Smithsonian Institute has a great website for American Indian Heritage Month, with links to information and updates on events nationwide. Affiliated with the National Museum of the American Indian.

The National Park Service keeps many sites of interest to those wanting to know about American Indians safe and intact.

The Louisiana Governor's Office has an Office of Indian Affairs. The office has a list of recognized tribes.

The United Houma Nation is the state-recognized (though not yet federally recognized) tribe from which the City of Houma takes her name.

NLM Product Cards

Click to Enlarge:

Gale Biography Resource Center: Database in Your Face!

Maybe you (or your child) has to do a paper about a famous person? Well, this makes it easier:

Database in Your Face!

Lung Cancer/COPD Awareness Month

Ever been around somebody smoking a cigarette? Don't they smell terrible? They don't look so hot, either. Well, November is LUNG CANCER AWARENESS MONTH and COPD AWARENESS MONTH, so you might take the opportunity to tap your friend on the shoulder and say, "Hey! You don't just look and smell bad, but you're killing yourself and possibly me!" Then, direct them to this blog so that they might explore the following links:

Lung Cancer

The National Cancer Institute's Lung Cancer Page--has so much good, solid information laid out so neatly that it makes you feel like a medical professional just to look at it. Includes an amazing Dictionary of Cancer Terms.

The American Cancer Society has chapters all over America with support and information for victims of the disease.

Medline Plus is the user-friendly interface of the National Library of Medicine.

And what if you DO get diagnosed? Cancer.net has a find an oncologist database that helps you find a doctor who can treat it.

COPD

What, exactly, IS COPD? Once again, the National Library of Medicine can help.

The American Lung Association's COPD Center has great information about the disease.

The Mayo Clinic's COPD page is very easy to use and well-organized.

About.com's COPD page is run by a registered nurse with respiratory therapy expertise...and a useful and informative blog.

This article from Medline tells us the number one cause of COPD: smoking.

Resources for Veterans

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.

American Diabetes Month

Around here, a lot of folks get diabetes and it makes many of them sick. Genetics, poor diet and lifestyle make south Louisianians of all stripes sitting ducks for the malady. Diabetes, on a personal note, lead to the death of my father. For the most part, however, the kind of diabetes that Americans get is adult-onset and is preventable. The key to knowing how to prevent it is knowledge, and the Internet is chock full of good anti-diabetes information.

The American Diabetes Association has information for laypeople, doctors and even the newly diagnosed, telling people how to avoid the disease or how to manage it if they have it.

Medline Plus, a service of the National Library of Medicine, is a top-notch source of information on all health topics, but has especially good information on diabetes.

The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC) is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a sub-group of the National Institutes of Health.

The Center for Disease Control's Diabetes Public Health Resource has up-to-the-minute information on diabetes prevention and treatment.


The Mayo Clinic Diabetes Center has a useful question-and-answer section.

Nutrition.gov is the government's website telling us what scientific research says is a good idea to eat--and not to eat.

So that could get you started. Also, be sure to check out the library's card catalog to see what we have in the system about diabetes.

I do hate to be dramatic, but it might just save your life.

November: National Adoption Month

Out there in the world are thousands of kids waiting for loving homes; in recognition of that, November has been designated "National Adoption Month."

The Terrebonne Parish Library system has a display of books on the second floor of its Main Library on Civic Center Blvd. designed to help patrons educate themselves on the issue.

The State of Louisiana also has some handy links for parents looking for information on adopting children in the Pelican State.

Here are some other resources our users may find useful (complied with the help of 100 Ready-to-Use Pathfinders for the Web by A. Paula Wilson):


Adoption.com--Contains information for parents, women who are pregnant, and those seeking reunions. Also includes directories of adoption professionals and discussion groups.

National Adoption Center--Supports all aspects of adoption, particularly for children with special needs and those from minority cultures.

National Adoption Information Clearinghouse--Sponsored by the Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, this site includes a national directory of agencies, services, state officials, and support groups.

So this should be some useful information. Of course, we encourage you to stop in and look at what else we have to offer the family looking to expand through the adoptive path.

Free Legal Help in Louisiana

You can send legal questions to the legal eagles at the Louisiana Supreme Court law library by phone at 1-800-820-3038 (toll-free in Louisiana only) or by e-mailing the library's reference desk.

The library's hours are 9am--9pm Monday through Thursday and 9am--5pm Friday & Saturday. The reference librarians are on duty 9am--5pm Monday through Friday.

This information was sent me by the very kind and intelligent librarian/lawyer super-hybrid Marie Erickson of the Law Library of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Where to Vote and Sample Ballot 11/4/2008

So you want to vote next Tuesday and you might not be sure where to go or what's going to be on the ballot here in Terrebonne Parish? Okay, let's take a look.

First, you'll need to find out what precinct you live in. The ballot will vary slightly in each. To find out exactly which precinct you live in and which polling place you should use, try going here: LOUISIANA SECRETARY OF STATE POLLING LOCATOR. Just type in your name or address, and it will tell you which precinct is yours. Be sure to follow the data entry instructions at the bottom of the form. A bit of a hassle, I know, but isn't democracy worth it?

After you have your precinct number, you can look at a sample ballot for your precinct in Terrebonne Parish here: TERREBONNE PARISH SAMPLE BALLOT PAGE. Click on your precinct number in the long list of numbers on the page. Voila'! You're an informed voter!

If you have any questions, call the Terrebonne Parish Library Information Service at 985-876-5158 ext. 201 or the Terrebonne Parish Registrar of voters at 985-873-6533.

Early Voting & The Louisiana Gumbo Project

Early Voting

I'm letting people know a day late, but a patron just let me know that early voting started yesterday in Louisiana. I confirmed it with WWL. It will run through October 28th, 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. No matter where you are, just contact your Parish registrar of voters and find out where to go--chances are it won't be your normal polling place. Early polls indicate turnout on November 4th will be heavy, so you might consider it. In Terrebonne Parish, the Registrar's office is on the first floor of the Terrebonne Parish Court House across from St. Francis. You can call them at (985) 873-6533 for more information.

The Louisiana Gumbo Project

Not long ago, Judy Smith with the Louisiana Section of the State Library came down to Terrebonne Parish to show us all the new grant-funded Louisiana Gumbo Project, which is basically a multi-subject, multimedia database of all-things Louisiana, including sound recordings, art, maps, recipes, photographs and lots of other nifty Louisiana-ania. It is all re-arrangeable, customizable, searchable, downloadable and save-able. A dream for a reference librarian with an eighth grade Louisiana history student (and her mom) standing in front of him. Even if you aren't a librarian or an eighth grader, browsing through it might make you smile. And if living here after Gustav is wearing a little thin on you, browsing through it might remind you of why it might not be so bad, after all.

The material for the Project was gleaned from a variety of places, including the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana State Museum.

Louisiana Constitutional Amendments & Genealogy Link Reminder

Part One

Every time the State of Louisiana has an election with its confusingly-worded constitutional amendments, the good folks at the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, Inc. publish nifty voter guides that put it all in plain English so that we who didn't go to law school can figure out just what it is they're asking us to vote on.

Best of all, the guides are in handy PDF form so that you can download them, print them, and even hand them out if you want to. Take a look at the 2008 amendments. And VOTE!



Part Two

Even though the website seems to have sat fallow for a good while, there are still some great links featured on the website of the State Library of Louisiana. Especially useful to Louisiana genealogists is the page with "Online Genealogy Sources." As you look through them, you'll notice many are Louisiana-specific and that even those that aren't can be useful to Louisianians who know how to "work it."

If you're interested in your family history, be sure to visit the Reference and Genealogy Department on the second floor of the Main Library in Houma.

IM Reference. You are, too.

The Terrebonne Parish Library System now has a nifty new gadget...Instant Message reference. We've installed Meebome! on our library homepage and so now patrons will be able to instantly communicate with reference staff online. For now, we've tentatively set the schedule for librarians waiting for messages at 10-11 am, 2-3 pm and 6:30-8 pm.

We'll be able to answer questions, suggest websites and even quote relevant text for information seekers. Best of all, patrons won't have to install anything. They just have to go to our library homepage and there, to the left, will be the chat box.

Of course our homepage can't be seen by the outside world right now because Gustave rearranged our E-face, but you can chat with us to the right of this very blog entry. See? ==>
Right there.

So if you want instant service and don't want to use your cell minutes, try our INSTANT LIBRARIAN IM Reference service. Keep us busy!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! You have now been made aware.

Here at Terrebonne's Main Library, we have a display of breast cancer information on the second floor...

Also, I got this great e-mail, complete with links:

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-llageneral@llaonline.org [mailto:owner-llageneral@llaonline.org]

Subject: llageneral Breast Cancer
All the pink ribbons, and other pink things, popping up around the country may have made you aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Here are some web sites from the government I'd like to make you aware of to help you improve your awareness:

What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer (National Cancer Institute) http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/wyntk/breast

Breast Cancer (National Cancer Institute) http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast

Breast Cancer (Centers for Disease Control) http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/

MedLinePlus: Breast Cancer (National Library of Medicine) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/breastcancer.html

Frequently Asked Questions - Breast Cancer (Dept. of Health and Human
Services)
http://www.4women.gov/FAQ/cbreast.cfm

Breast Cancer (National Institutes of Health - Senior Health) http://nihseniorhealth.gov/breastcancer/toc.html

L***

P.S. Today's blog is dedicated to the memory of my friend A*** Fr****. If A*** were still with us, she would want me to tell you "Get regular mammograms!!!"

*===***===***===***===***===***===***===***===***===***===***===***

Groups for Librarians

There are some pretty good online groups and list-servs out there, some of them even for librarians. Here's a great list of a few that librarians, reference and otherwise, might want to look into:

http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/4subscribe.html#lists

These lists cover everything from the complex world of library administration to the straightforward world of interlibrary loan. Some of the links, like the vaunted STUMPERS list-serv, are dead. But you may be able to find something useful in the mix.

Also, don't forget to take a look at librarian@googlegroups.com ; it's usually kind of quiet, but a handy tidbit wil come along now and then.

Google and Your Reputation

Anyone who's ever been involved with unpopular causes or who's gotten into a little trouble now and then might learn the hard way one of the perils of the information age: getting Googled.

These days, a common practice by those doing background checks on prospective employees is to type the name of the person into Google to see what comes back. Many people are surprised at how long potentially awkward information stays online.

Type your own name in some time and take a look: did you, in a fit of outrage, declare some years ago in an online petition that America's drug laws were unjust? Did you ever post a comment on a website that you might have trouble explaining to a boss doing an interview? Declaring your love of lingerie football after a beer or two might not have been the smartest thing to sign your real name to, huh?

Well, there are strategies for managing your online reputation, even if you have made some mistakes.

This blog entry clues you in on what you might do to keep the picture people have of you accurate and fair.

But one piece of advice: what you type today might still be there ten years hence. And mind who your friends are.

Bandwidth and Us

Ever since Gustav blew through town and proved once again that man is but a feeble worm compared to the might of Mother Nature, our normal, super-fast 20 meg satellite network has been down. We've been using a temporary 3 meg network that has really. Slowed. Us. Down. "From a ten-inch sewer pipe to a drinking straw," is how one patron put it. Yes, data in and out is down to a veritable trickle.

In order to make sure that everyone gets as fair and fast an experience as possible, we've been asking patrons to avoid applications that use a lot of bandwidth. Applications like Youtube, MySpace and iTunes just try to cram too much data through our storm-narrowed information arteries and make it next to impossible to get real research and work done.

So if you come by to visit and use our computers, do us a favor and wait a few weeks until our network is back to normal to view that YouTube video of a dancing cat falling into a punchbowl. It will still be there, I promise.

Monster Movie Madness 2008

Every October, the Reference Department gets to let its hair down a little and share its taste for lame B-movies with the public. Of course, the best B-movies are monster/horror/sci-fi films from the 1950s and 1960s (and maybe the 70s now and then), so we show those. This year is no different.

Starting October 13th at 6:30pm, MONSTER MOVIE MADNESS 2008 begins with the obscure non-hit 1962 film This is Not a Test. It's the paranoid, Cold War era story of some folks stuck out in the open when a nuclear war is about to begin and their having to figure out what to do. Now, you may be thinking, "Hey! That's not a monster movie!" And, technically, you're right. This year, we've expanded our horizons a bit to include more science fiction and "suspense" films, provided they still stink. But I argue that the monster in This Is Not A Test is multi-faceted: paranoia, panic and human stupidity. And, of course, stiff delivery and bad acting.

And, being a reference nerd, I couldn't help myself. This movie is a tie-in to the 46th anniversary of The Cuban Missile Crisis. Between October 8th and October 14th of the same year this movie came out, we found out that the big, bad Soviets were putting big, bad missiles is crazy little Cuba, and we had a collective national experience very similar to the one in This Is Not a Test. So there is an element of education, maybe. Maybe.

Also being shown this year will be Killers From Space, a movie so bad descriptions don't do it justice. This is a rival to Plan 9 From Outer Space, our traditional final film, considered the worst ever made by many critics. They both stink so bad that we'll call it a tie.

Anyway, the movie schedule is like this:

OCTOBER 13, 2008, 6:30-8PM--This Is Not A Test
OCTOBER 20, 2008, 6:30-8PM--Killers From Space
OCTOBER 27, 2008, 6:30-8PM--Plan 9 From Outer Space

All films will be shown in the Distance Education classroom of the second floor of the Main Library at 151 Civic Center Blvd.

To bribe those with otherwise good taste in films, we offer free drinks and fresh popcorn.

Call me, Darryl, at 985-876-1733 with any questions.

Legal Forms Database

The Terrebonne Parish Library is pretty proud of its collection of databases, both the ones we subscribe to independently and those we get in consort with the State Library of Louisiana.

One we use with a good bit of regularity is the Gale Legal Forms Database, which we subscribe to independently.

Just click here if you are a Terrebonne Parish Library cardholder:

Gale Group Databases

And enter your Knowledge Card Number.

Then, scroll down to the "Gale LegalForms" link.

It's great. If you're careful, you can find handy lawyer-designed forms that will possibly save you both time and a lot of money. Selling a car? Fill out your own Bill of Sale for everything from aircraft to animals. Youthful error of judgment? Find an expungement form. Is it just plain over? You might be able to file your own divorce papers.

Now, nobody on the staff of the reference department is a lawyer, but we might be able to offer some search suggestions if you have a problem. Call us at 985-876-1733 and just tell us the form you're looking for. We should be able to help.

Where in the Web 2.0 World Have I Been?

So yesterday I accompanied the Library Director, Assistant Director, IT Director and Head of Adult Services to New Orleans to attend a Web 2.0 for Libraries seminar, sponsored by Solinet. I went there expecting to have a sort of theoretical discussion about Web 2.0 as a movement and what it means for libraries. Like, in general.

Instead I learned about neat-o reference-nerd friendly web stuff like:

• iGoogle (special thanks to Emilie Smart of East Baton Rouge Parish Library System, my official new reference big sister and mentor). Emilie, you are so competent and "with it" that it intimidates me.
• Wikispaces.com--I had next to no idea what the heck "Wiki" meant, really, until yesterday. I learned that Wikis are basically on-line webpages about specific topics, linked internally and externally to make the user smarter. We here at Terrebonne Parish Library have already started working on a Wiki version of Helen Emmeline Wurzlow's "I Dug Up Houma-Terrebonne." I figure the core of the project (scanning, OCR-ing and posting the original text of the books) should be done by the end of December. After that, the department will keep adding information about local notables, past and present.
• pbwiki.com--Another neat, free Wiki-builder.
• 30Boxes.com--Web scheduling and calendars. As useful as it gets for free.
• LitMap.com--You like an author? Let the machine "crunch the numbers" and suggest someone else you might like with a cool word-cloud.

I hate to play favorites on this kind of thing, but Jenny Levine (of the American Library Association) had an amazing presentation that had me just vibrating with excitement by the time she was done. This blog, I would say, is a direct result of her influence, research and sales skills. If the ALA ain't paying her six figures, they should.

I also met some other great people, like Jeanne Jones, manager of the Ocean Springs Municipal Library down on the Mississippi Coast. Her dry wit and cool vibe really made the lunch break fun for me.

I have to say, Solinet does good work.

To see what has me so excited, check these links out:

http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/

http://theshiftedlibrarian.pbwiki.com/