Reading Recommendations

If you don't know about our NextReads services, it's where you sign up to recieve email lists of recommended books from the library. It's easy and free, and people have commented on how useful it is.

Click Here to go to the sign up page.

Also, if you want to research books yourself, you can the resource called NoveList, which is created by the same company as NextReads.

New DVDs in the Library

Since October is winding down, here is the list of all the new DVDs the library has acquired for this month. Like September, we have a mix of the old and new along with some non-fiction.

4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days
Boy A
Bye Bye Birdie
Death Note - Vol. 7
History Channel Presents - The Universe
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Mongol
Music Man
Normal
Outsourced
Paranoid Park
Pu-239
Rebecca
Spellbound
Standard Operating Procedure
Still Life
The Edge of Heaven
The Incredible Hulk
The Note
The Strangers
The Visitor
You Don't Mess with The Zohan

Librarians Are Hiding More Things

I forgot to mention in the previous post that the library also keeps at the reference desk the Spanish language magazine TV Y Novelas.

Librarians Are Hiding Something

Magazines, or as we librarians call them, periodicals traditionally have been a large part of any library collection. We subscribe to dozens of titles and we put most of them out for people to just pickup and read. And as long as it is not the current issue, you can check out magazines. But there are some magazines that we hide away from you.

But to be fair, we're not hiding the magazines because we want to keep people from reading them. Rather, we had to hide the magazines to protect them. In the deep, dark corners of the library, sometimes our materials get vandalized. And magazines and newspapers are very susceptible. So for their safety, here is a list of magazines that are kept at the reference desk.
House Beautiful
Cuisine at Home
Scientific American
People Style Watch
And of course the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue

Also, we pull sections from the newspaper which tend to dissappear.
The Sunday classified pages from the LA Times and OC Register
The New York Times Book Review section

It's not our intent to prevent people from reading these. In fact, it's really simple to get them. All you need to do is ask at the reference desk.

Do you have a damaged book?

Here is a web site that has instructions on how to repair books.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm

LiveScan Fingerprinting Service

Beginning today, LiveScan fingerprinting services will be available at the Mission Viejo Library, which is now a certified provider of the process.

LiveScan is a digital fingerprint submission transmitted electronically to the California Department of Justice. LiveScan is an automated service for criminal history background checks that may be required as a condition of employment, licensing, certification, foreign adoptions, volunteering and such.

LiveScan fingerprinting service will be offered by appointment during library hours every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.

The fingerprint rolling fee is $20; payable to the library. Additional fees may apply depending upon the level of service the requesting agency or employer requires.

To schedule an appointment, call 949-470-8420.

Video Game Afternoon

– Saturday, October 11 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm

Come to the Saddleback Room at City Hall and play Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero on our big screens. Free refreshments will be available.

Reservations are recommended for both events. Sign up at the reference desk.

Author Talk and Book Signing with Local Young Adult Author Marlene Perez

- Saturday, October 11 from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in the Heritage Room

Stop by the Heritage Room on Saturday, October 11 for a talk by South Orange County Resident Marlene Perez. Marlene is the author of Unexpected Development and the recently released Love in the Corner Pocket and Dead is the New Black. Dead is the New Black is the first installment in a creepy, campy new mystery series.

Kate Jacobs
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chamber

Kate Jacobs’ first novel Friday Night Knitting Club became an instant bestseller and is currently on the New York Times paperback best seller list. “It reads like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan, Julia Roberts is set to star in the movie version of this story.” –USA TODAY. Her latest novel is Comfort Food.

Kate is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia. She moved to New York and broke into magazine publishing at Redbook and then became a writer and editor for Lifetime Television. After a decade of Manhattan living, Kate recently moved to Southern California and is enjoying suburban living.

Join us on October 7 for this free event. Refreshments will be served. For more information about this program, please call the Mission Viejo Library reference desk at (949) 830-7100 x5105.

Whistling in the Dark
For the library blog statistics are kept on how many people visit the site. You can see these for yourself by going to the bottom of the window and click on the little white "sitemeter" graphic. The statistics say we average about 4 visitors per day. That not really too many of you. Hopefully we'll be able to raise this number by providing more reasons to come here. We'll try to add more informative information and resources for you to look at. Also, the comments section is up and running for you to respond to anything on our blog. Or even if there is something off topic which you want express, by all mean, please leave a comment. We here at the library love hearing from our patrons and look forward to any input you might have.

Where in the library?

I know you all understand how the library works. We have books and things for people to come in and checkout. After a couple weeks, they return the item and we put it back on the shelf for the next person. It’s a great system that has been working for libraries for the past couple centuries.

But there has always been a problem with this system. From the days if index card catalogs to our modern computerized catalog, how do you know where the item is located in the building?

Well, for your benefit, I’ve labeled a map of the library with all the various areas and codes showing their location. But before we get there, let’s review some of the things we librarians take for granted.

First off, everything has a call number. So when you look at the catalog, make sure you notice the Call No. column. Abstractly, the library collection is broken up into two areas - Fiction and Non-fiction. Fiction usually has a name or title attached as a call number while non-fiction for the most part uses the good ol’ Dewey Decimal System for its call numbers. So don’t be confused when a call number doesn’t have an actual number in it.

Also, to make things still more confusing, some call numbers might be exactly the same, but the collection might be different. These areas I've labeled with blue text. If you want to know more about these, drop me a line and I’ll try and explain it to you.

Enough explanation, on to the map!