The “New” NC LIVE eBooks Portal Page

NC LIVE is pleased to announce a new eBooks Portal webpage available now from the NC LIVE website.

The portal replaces a previous eBooks page that simply linked to each of NC LIVE’s eBook Collections. This new eBooks Portal makes it easier for users of the NC LIVE website to browse and search all of NC LIVE’s eBook content.

The “New” NC LIVE eBooks Portal Page

The new eBooks Portal page can be accessed by clicking on this link : http://nclive.org/browse/ebooks or by copying and pasting it into your browser’s address bar.

With over 20,000 eBooks spread across six different vendor collections, it can sometimes be difficult for users to explore all of the eBooks NC LIVE has to offer. The new NC LIVE eBooks Portal makes it easier for users to search across the eBook collections, and to explore individual collections that might interest them.

The eBooks Portal gives users easy access to:

• eBooks on EBSCOhost (24,600 titles): includes titles in Literature, Technology, Career & Self Help, how-to books, and more.
• ABC-CLIO (200 titles): includes titles in History, Literature, and more.
• MyiLibrary eBooks (370 titles, approximately 100 are downloadable): includes titles in History, the Social Sciences, Criminal Justice, and more.
• Learning Express Library (194 titles): eBooks on career development topics, test prep, and personal development.
• Open Library: NC LIVE has partnered with the Open Library to offer access to over 200,000 books published between 1924 and 1999. These eBooks cover many subjuects and include fiction, young adult, and children’s titles.

There’s also a new FAQ information that explains how to download eBooks from the collections that contain downloadable content and answers questions such as:

• What kind of eBooks are available through NC LIVE?
• Can I see a list of all of the titles that are downloadable to ePub-compatible devices?
• Are there any other downloadable eBook providers that offer content for free?

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact NC LIVE support.

The Voynich Manuscript

Voynich Manuscript

I love a good mystery – but not the kind written by Agatha Christie.  I prefer the kinds that exist in the world, many of them defying explanation.  And there are lots of them.  Sometime ago, I stumbled on one I hadn’t heard mentioned before, the Voynich Manuscript.  Of course, the first thing I did was ask Tracy, our ILL librarian, to please get me a book.  And, naturally, she found one!  (The Voynich Manuscipt : an Elegant Enigma by M. E. D’Imperio.) It was a facsimile edition, too, which meant I was looking at the document exactly as it had been written, which added a lot to the enjoyment for me.

I have always loved old manuscripts, not usually for the messages they contain, because I can’t speak Latin or any of the other manuscript languages.  For me, it’s more the idea that the thoughts and philosophies of an ancient time came down to us intact –  because the scribes felt honor-bound to do their work well.  I also love the “illuminations.”  For instance, the Insular Manuscripts, produced in monasteries in Great Britain during the Dark Ages (7^th and 8^th centuries) were lavishly decorated in a mixture of early Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. An example is this page from the Book of Kells.   Exacting work, in my view.

I can’t help thinking about the monks who created these manuscripts and the conditions under which they were produced.  Can you imagine what it was like to sit in a small scriptorium, if you were lucky, or in a small cell in the cloister or, more likely, in your own tiny cell and painstakingly copy word-for-word and illuminate an entire book?  And they did it time after time, through deprivation, cold, heat, damp, without electric lights, without pre-packaged paints, probably without even a comfortable place to sit.  If not for them, many of the books of western literature would not have survived.  (For more on this story, read Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization, part of his Hinges of History series.)

But that aside, the Voynich Manuscript is in a league of its own.  Named for the bookseller who bought it in 1912 (Wilfrid Voynich), experts agree it was created sometime in the mid-1400s.  But they don’t know where.  It contains 240 pages of plant drawings and writings, the like of which have never been seen.  Many, many attempts have been made to decipher the writing and identify the plants, but so far no one has succeeded very well with either.

The proof that it isn’t a recent fake comes from the line of owners:  Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (ca. 1600-1610), Rudolf II’s “Imperial Distiller,” Jacobus z Tepenecz (ca. 1610-1620), Bohemian alchemist Georg Baresch (ca. 1630-1645), and Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland (ca. 1645-1665).  For the next few centuries, it moved around Europe in the possession of the Jesuits, until it was purchased by Wilfrid Voynich in 1912.  Voynich bequeathed it to his wife, Edith, who bequeathed it to Anne Nill, who sold it to H. P. Kraus in 1961.  In 1969 H. P. Kraus donated it to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

So we know where it has been for the last four hundred years, but no one knows where it came from.  This web site offers as much as is known about its history and provenance, along with the drawings and writings.   Maybe you would like to try your hand at deciphering it.  I would recommend going to the nearest monastery, finding a small rock-lined room, lighting the tiny brazier in the wall recess (it is always damp in a rock-lined room), and settling back in your uncomfortable chair by an uncovered window with a cup of cold water.  That should be inspiration enough…  

That Sinking Feeling!

Recently, when my wife and I were driving through Pidgeon Forge, we passed a relatively new attraction “The Titanic.”   Off hand, I said, without really thinking about it,  ”I don’t think I would like to go on that because I would a get a sinking feeling.”

The tragedy of  ”Titanic” has always been of interest since the tragedy took place a century ago.   Movies about the famous liner have been produced from a few weeks after she sank unto the re-release of the latest movie in three D last month.  Documentaries, released in the last few years, have featured footage taken from submersibles diving on the wreck, proving once and for all that the ship split before sinking.

The  branches of the Fontana  Regional Library system are the place to come to research the sinking of the great liner, whether you want books, motion pictures, or other resources about the tragedy.   Walter Lord’s  A Night to Remember is the classic,  a revised edition is available in the catalog.

Two recent events have sparked more interest in the great ship’s tragic maiden voyage:  the release of the movie “Titanic” in 1997 and 100th anniversary of the sinking this year.  The Titanic:  the Extraordinary Story of the “Unsinkable”  Ship  was published to coincide with James Cameron’s film.   So was The Last Days of the Titanic:  Photographic and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage.  The latter book is filled with photographs taken by one of the survivors.

More recent offerings about the Titanic  include:  Anton Gill’s Titanic:  Building the World’s Most Famous Ship;  John Chatterton and Richie Kohler’s  Titanic’s Last  Secrets;  Nick Barratt’s Lost Voices from the Titanic:  the Definitive Oral History,  Barrett used a number sources, including the transcripts of the hearings on both sides of the Atlantic into what the liner to sink, and other eyewitness accounts of the tragedy.  The middle book, by the authors of the “Shadow Divers,”  traces the history of the ship while      diving the wreck to examine the structure of the vessel. Gill examines the building the ship.

Another source for information about this famous ship is NCLive.  This collection of databases and other information sources can be accessed either at home or in the library by going the Fontana website and clicking the link to NCLive.  Your library card number will get you in.

As well as the books in the Fontana Regional Library branches, there a number of websites dedicated to the Titanic and the tragedy.  The quickest way to get to them is Google Titanic.  The sites you will be linked to includes the news report of an Australian billionaire’s plan to build a replica of the Titanic, to be named Titanic II.

That’s RUDE!

“If your mother didn’t tell you, then I will: that’s RUDE!” screamed the little boy as the boy next door grabbed the shovel out of his hands.

This scene remains one of my most vivid lessons about manners. We were burying a squirrel in the woods near our house, and all the neighbor kids were there, supervised by my mother.

Fast forward to my former life as a traveling executive. I went to many conferences across the state, most of which included bad hotel meals paired with boring after-dinner speakers. The best one had nothing to do with the food, and everything to do with the keynote speaker, a retired public school superintendent. He spoke eloquently  about the importance of manners. In fact, he said, “having good manners will get you further than a good education or lots of money.”

And so, throughout the rest of my working life, I have found that to be mostly true. It even works better than the old adage, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

Even now, in my work at the library, we get questions about manners: books for children, books on etiquette, books on how to handle different situations…all of which just goes to show that manners are still important.

If you still need training, or just a refresher course, here are a few of my favorites:

It’s a spoon, not a shovel! As you can tell by the title, this is a humorous picture book for preschoolers, and also for adults who like picture books.

Suppose you meet a dinosaur : a first book of manners Perhaps a companion book for the picture book listed above!

Children’s tea and etiquette: brewing good manners in young minds A more specific look at manners, in which two children attend a tea party and learn about the history of tea, as well as how to introduce themselves, pick up their napkins, eat a scone, and drink tea from a proper cup.

Being dead is no excuse OK–it’s not exactly a book about manners, but it does have a great title, some wonderful recipes, and proper Southern funeral etiquette!

Miss Manners’ guide to domestic tranquility: the authoritative manual for every civilized household, however harried The title says it all!

And there are plenty more for any situation in which you might find yourself:

The new etiquette : real manners for real people in real situations

Wedding etiquette for divorced families

How to be a perfect stranger : a guide to etiquette in other people’s religious ceremonies

As my mother used to say, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” So mind your manners!

It’s National Bookmobile Day! Hooray for the Reading Rover!

Fontana Regional Library's
Reading Rover

So, you might already know that it’s National Library Week.  You might even know that yesterday was National Library Workers Day (time to hug your favorite library employee – but, please ask first).  But did you know that today, April 11th,  is National Bookmobile Day?  This recognition was recently initiated (2010) to celebrate the unique role of bookmobiles and direct-delivery outreach services in fulfilling the mission of libraries.  Bookmobiles have been an integral aspect of library service for over 100 years (the first one started in 1905 by Mary Lemist Titcomb in Washington County, Maryland).  They have delivered information, technology, and resources for life-long learning to Americans of all walks of life.  In some parts of the country bookmobiles provides outreach to the entire community, but in other places the services are limited to a specific population (the elderly or home-bound, or preschoolers and their caretakers).  One thing is for sure, in all these places, the people who regularly board bookmobiles, can’t wait for the vehicle to return again and whole-heatedly appreciate the services they receive.

Fontana Regional Library’s Reading Rover has been traveling the roads of Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties (including the Qualla Boundary) since 1999.  It is a cooperative project with Smart Start/Region A  Partnership for Children and serves preschoolers and child care providers with story times, teacher and parent workshops, teaching aids and parenting and family resources.

To get an idea of what this rolling library can accomplish in one year traveling to 30 child care centers, check out these numbers:

• 547 storytime programs presented
• 6086 children received a Rover storytime
• 10,526 library materials checked out
  

  Peggy Gibby reads a story to children.

So who is providing all these services?  Well, all this is done by mainly three library employees:  Peggy Gibby, Carol Grise and Joan Lackey.  In most cases, Peggy reads stories to preschoolers and leads them in learning songs/rhymes and Joan, the Rover driver, assists teachers in selecting library materials for their classrooms.   Meanwhile, Carol offers training classes to childcare teachers, giving tips on selecting age-appropriate books for the classroom and offering assistance in using the variety of Rover puppets, storytelling kits and books for teaching pre-reading skills.

While the services to these preschoolers, caretakers and parents are seen as vital to our community, they is costly.   Fontana Regional Library budgets approximately $95,000 per fiscal year to keep the Rover on the road.  Unfortunately, many of the grants that have helped sustain the Rover in past have either lowered their funding or completely dried up during these hard economic times.

Joan Lackey assists in checking out books.

As I mentioned above, the services offered by the Reading Rover are vital to preschoolers and their parents, but in truth, these services are vital to everyone.  A child who enters the school with preliteracy skills, is a child prepared to succeed in school and, eventually, in life.

If you’re wondering what you can do to help, well there a couple things you can do.  First of all, please be a vocal advocate for the Reading Rover.  That’s right, just talk to your friends, neighbors, family members, maybe even an elected official, about the importance of the Reading Rover and its services to our community.  Maybe a few of your friends will, in turn, also advocate for the Rover, and then a couple their friends, and then…you get the picture.  Secondly, of course, you can figuratively “feed Rover”  with a financial contribution.  If this is an option for you, please download  this brochure/donation form and send in your tax deductible contribution to this worthy cause.

New NC-Cardinal Catalog is Up and Running!

As of today, March 29^th, Fontana Regional Library is a member library of the NC-Cardinal consortium.  That means that we now have a new catalog system.
For the last few days the catalog has been inaccessible while we changed over to the new system, but as of today you can access the new catalog through our webpage just as you did before.  The “search the catalog” links in the right corner of our home page will take you to it.  You don’t need to have a library card to search the catalog, but if you do, you can still do the same things as in the old catalog – search for books and other items, check your account, renew items, and place holds to name a few.

From the main page of the new catalog you can do a basic search using keyword, title, author, subject or series.  You can search the local library system (Fontana Regional Library), the entire consortium, or narrow down to an individual library branch.  However, right now you can only place holds on items in our local system – just like before.  If you really want an item from one of the other consortium partners the staff in our libraries will be glad to request an inter-library loan for you.

You can do an advanced search from this same page, or you can access your account.

To check your account or place a hold you need to enter your username (which currently is your library card number) and password.  Your password is the same as it was in the old system. 

Once you have logged in the first time, you can change your password and/or your username.  You can review your account, check your holds, renew items, and select your account preferences.

If you want to place a hold on an item once you have logged in,you can search for the item from the Home screen or the advanced search.  There are links to them on the left side of every page.  Search for the item and click the “place hold” link beneath it.

This will take you to the hold screen.  Your name and contact information are already filled in.  The “pick-up library” where you want to pick up the item when it is available is automatically filled in as your home library.  If you want to change it, you can click on the dropdown box.  Be careful, because the list it gives is every library in the consortium.  You need to choose one of the ones in the Fontana Regional Library system. 

Then click the “place hold” button at the bottom of the screen and you are done.  The system will automatically send you an email notice as soon as your item is available for you.

Welcome to NC-Cardinal.

NC Cardinal about to land!

In just one week we will be up and running on the new NC-Cardinal system. Starting Saturday evening (March 24^th) the old catalog will be shutdown while the data is moved to the new system.  The libraries will all be open for business as usual on Monday, the 26^th, but from the 26^th through Wednesday the 28^th the libraries will not have access to the catalog and will be using an offline system for checking books out.  The computers and eBooks will still be available for use.

On Thursday, March 29th the libraries will be closed while we make the switch over to the new system. Depending on how quickly the migration goes, The Macon County Public Library in Franklin and the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva may be able to open in the afternoon.Also on the 29th, the library will switch to the new online public catalog OPAC). This new catalog does not have our data in it yet, but here is a sneak peak.

 

As part of joining this new North Carolina library consortium, Fontana Regional Library is changing some of our circulation rules to match the consortium. These new rules will go into effect on March 29th when we officially “go live” on the new system.

• Books, magazines, audiobooks, books of CD, and most other items can now be checked out for three (3) weeks and can be renewed once for an additional 3 weeks.
• New books, Friends rental books, and seasonal books can be checked out for two (2) weeks.
• New books can be renewed once.
• Up to five (5) DVDs and videos can be checked out at a time, for one (1) week.

Our daily overdue fine will stay twenty-five (25) cents a day for most items. However, the maximum fine will increase to $10.00 per item. Of course, if you bring the items back on time, there is never a fine. DVDs and videos will stay at $1.00 per day overdue.

The maximum amount that can be owed to the library is $5.00 before a patron’s privilege is blocked. At that point, fines (if any) will continue to accrue, but patrons won’t be allowed to check out any other items, including e-books, or to use the computers.

For more information on these or any other circulation rules please contact the library directly.