The Most Requested Titles - January 29, 2009

There is nothing too exciting about the top holds this list. A long time book, The Shack, has fallen off the list. And a new title Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood cracked the bottom of the list.

The Associate 61

New Moon: A Novel 43

Plum Spooky 43

Cross Country: A Novel 42

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 31

Scarpetta 30

Twilight 29

Outliers: The Story of Success 29

Run for your Life: A Novel 29

Divine Justice 26

The Gate House 24

Eclipse 22

Mounting Fears 22

Fire and Ice 21

New DVDs for January

This month has many non-fiction DVDs. Unlike the documentary films, we purchased many instructional videos, like the Brain Fitness Program, The Firm exercise programs, and some travel videos, which are always popular. Also, we have added to our television holdings by picking up the second season of The Tudors and the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica. And from the BBC we recived titles like The Moonstone and Tess of the d'Urbervilles along with Torchwood and Doctor Who.

Afganistan - Hidden Treasures
The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard
America's Hangar
Amexicano
Barack Obama
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
The Bible's Buried Secrets
The Brain Fitness Program
Babylon A.D.
Basquiat
Battle for Haditha
Blindsight
Les Boréades
Brick Lane
Brideshead Revisited
Castle
Cats - Commemorative Edition
Chris Rock - Kill the Messenger
Cook's Country: Season 1
Car of the Future: Engineering for the Environment
Carmen
Dawn Upshaw
Death Race
Dinosaur Planet
Doctor Who. The Complete First Season
Doctor Who. The Complete Second Season
Dog Whisperer. The Complete First Season
Einstein
Eagle Eye
The Firm - Cardio Party
The Firm - Hard Core Fusion
Frost/Nixon Original Watergate Interviews
Ganges
Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn
Ghost Town
Grand Canyon Adventure - River at Risk
Global Warming: What's Up with the Weather?
Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred
Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa!
Knitting Korner: How to Crochet
The Life of Birds
Living with Tigers
Mad Money
The Map: A Multimedia Event in Rural China
The Moonstone
My Best Friend's Girl
Nefertiti Resurrected
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The 1940'S House
On the Road with Judas
One True Thing
A Passage to India
Passport to Europe - England, Ireland, Scotland
Passport to Europe - France & Italy
Passport to Europe - Germany, Switzerland & Austria
Pete Seeger - The Power of Song
Pineapple Express
Il Postino
Pyramid
Reversible Errors
Righteous Kill
Shakespeare Retold
The Story of India
Sugihara - Conspiracy of Kindness
Solar Energy: Saved by the Sun
Surfer, Dude
Swing Vote
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
To Kill a Mockingbird
Torchwood. The Complete First Season
The Tudors. The Complete Second Season
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
Vitus
The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
Witch Hunt

Edgar Allan Poe at 200

Amid all the political news and celebrations the past couple days, there was a literary anniversary last Monday, January 19th. That day was Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday. He was born in Boston in 1809 and died 40 years later in 1849. As one of the most influential American writers, it seems fitting to mention that his books of poems and short stories are constantly being checked out from the library.

The Most Requested Titles - January 15, 2009

This list has been shaken up a bit. The Stephanie Meyers Twilight books are still on the list, and the Janet Evanovich title Plum Spooky has come in and is checking out. But I think the coolest thing on this list is the children's book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw. Also, there is a new James Patterson book, Run for your Life, which the library has on order.


Cross Country: A Novel 49
New Moon: A Novel 45
Plum Spooky 43
The Associate 41
Scarpetta 40
Brass Verdict: A Novel 34
Divine Justice 43
Twilight 33
The Gate House 32
Outliers: The Story of Success 28
Eclipse 27
Run for your Life: A Novel 25
Mounting Fears 23
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 21
The Shack: A Novel 20

Let the information come to you

In the early days of the Internet, before Google, people had to search and hunt for useful web sites. There were books like the Internet Yellow Pages (which in a way is the ultimate in technology ridiculousness) and people would have scores of bookmarked pages as their browser favorites. In the library world, we would memorize sites like we would reference books. Remembering the URL of a page, and knowing what was on it was just as good as knowing what was on the shelves of books.

But now there are billions of pages of information. Things are being created all the time and information is changing faster than anyone can image. To compensate a little for this quickness, there are now tools that cull information and lump it all together for users. One tool which is very useful is the simple email program. Many places (like the library) offer email newsletters, which are sent out periodically. So if its a daily cartoon, stock quotes, weather reports or whatever sent to your email, those are pages you don't need to remember or bookmark. They just arrive in your email inbox.

Some of the more fun ways of getting information sent to is by receiving emails alerts. This is different than the newsletters because as soon as the information is found, it is sent to you. Google has an alert system that will send you mail that contain any words you select. It could come from a blog, video, web page or news story. So if there is a specific thing you search for all the time, you can create a Google alert and just have the data mailed to you. Most news web sites and blogs have email alerts available, so you just need to sign up with each source individually. An email alert system that's a little closer to home is the notification systems the library uses. We have the ability to setup emails for when your holds come in and also when your checked out items come due. To set this up, you would need to talk to our Circulation Department stationed at the Checkout Desk in the library.

Another slick way to compile information from many different websites is using something called RSS. If a web page is configured to setup RSS, than a user can "subscribe" to the page using an RSS Reader. Also called Feed Readers, or Aggregators, these tools can be either web based or programs installed on your computers hard drive. Newer browsers from Internet Explorer, FireFox and Chrome have readers integrated into them. Also, email programs like Outlook have Feed Readers as features. A couple of the web based RSS Readers are called Bloglines, MyYahoo, and Google Reader. All of these tools are designed to collect data from web pages you select.

Getting Your Kids to Read, and Keeping Them Reading

Parents are invited to attend a special free workshop presented by professional educators from “Teaching with E’s”, on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, at 6:30 pm in the Mission Viejo Library Heritage Room. Parents will hear, first hand, how to keep their child interested in reading and how to help them select appropriate books for their reading level, as well as how to participate in activities to promote lifelong reading habits. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Mission Viejo Library. For more details, contact “Reading with E’s” at (949) 305-0404. The Mission Viejo Library is located at 100 Civic Center.

The Most Requested Titles - January 3, 2009

For a new year, we have a new number one requested book. Twilight is no longer top of the list. With 21 copies of Twilight circulating, that means that the holds list for that book is pretty quick. Also, for the first time, a nonfiction book made the list. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is on the list. Some titles that have fallen off the list include Brisingr and The Shack.

Cross Country: A Novel 56

New Moon: A Novel 44

Twilight 43

Brass Verdict: A Novel 42

Scarpetta 41
Divine Justice 40
The Associate 35

The Gate House 34
Eclipse 32

Plum Spooky 30

Outliers: The Story of Success 26

Salvation in Death 26

Lucky One 25
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel 25