Information, Answers & Reviews

Despite being short, Étienne St. Clair not only has amazing hair and slightly crooked-cute bottom teeth, but also is a perfect combination of French maturity and American goofiness – with a British accent! Does it get any better? Anna doesn’t think so. But it could get worse. St. Clair (as everyone calls him) is taken.

Anna and the French Kiss, a recent Rosie Award nominee, begins with Anna’s move for her senior year in high school from Atlanta to Paris. Anna’s dad thinks it would be a good experience for her to attend the School for Americans in Paris and pulls some strings to get her into this exclusive school. It is tricky at first, because the school is small and Anna is the only new student (aaaand doesn’t speak any French). Despite feeling homesick for her best friend, a new romance from her old job at the movie theater, and her little brother all back in Atlanta, Anna makes friends with her neighbor in the dormitory and starts hanging out with her and St. Clair’s circle of friends. Read more »

view in catalog

If you’ve ever seen any of Edward Curtis’s photos of Native Americans, you cannot forget them. Not only did Curtis capture members of various tribes with respect but their individuality and humanity stares at you from the page. He also recorded many spiritual ceremonies and active shots that give us some insight into what daily life was like for these people.

This excellent biography tells the story of the famous photographer’s life, how he came from utter poverty in Wisconsin, then provided for his entire family as a young teen-ager, to a hardscrabble existence fishing and crabbing near Seattle. But in his late teens, he buys something for himself—a rare occurrence. He purchases a lens for his dad’s old camera. 

Soon he manages to round up $150—a large sum for a young man supporting an entire family in those days--and buys into a photography business in downtown Seattle. In a mere two years, he becomes the most famous photographer in the Northwest, in high demand to immortalize society and business leaders. But though the work makes him rich and feted by society, it’s the Native American culture that draws him. He realizes that the country has finished expanding, that the westward migration has ended, and that the native tribes will have less and less space to call their own. Curtis understood that their way of life-- the clothing, the hunting, and especially the spiritual ceremonies--will mostly cease to exist. Read more »

Scarcely a week goes by here at the library without an inquiry from someone who has self-published a book and wants us to buy it or accept it as a gift.  Not surprising in this community, which includes many writers as well as Author Solutions, one of the world’s largest self-publishing businesses, and we know that last year, 300,000 titles were published through traditional publishers and 3,000,000 – 10 times as many – were self-published in this country.  As we struggle to find ways to evaluate and select books in this new environment with ten times more choices and without reviews, we want to support local writers in finding the best outlets for their creative endeavors.

On May 6 at 7 p.m. in the library auditorium, we’ll be hosting Kevin Gray, media manager for Author Solutions, as he describes “More Options than Ever Before for Publishing Your Book.” He’ll suggest four paths now available for authors to get their books in the hands of readers and then answer questions from the audience.  We hope you’ll join us; no registration is necessary.

If you’re considering self-publishing, you might also want to check out Jane Friedman’s blog “Writing, Reading and Publishing in a Digital Age.”  Friedman has worked in publishing since the late 1990s and has in-depth knowledge of both the editorial and business sides of book and magazine publishing, as well as online media.

Ever wonder whether you are really getting the best info when you search Google? Does your teacher tell you NOT TO USE THE INTERNET when you do research? If the answer to these questions is yes, then try our E-Reference Library!

What is it?

Your library has always been the best place to find reliable, up to date information for research papers, assignments and general interest. We choose encyclopedias and reference books that we know will do the job and we make them easy to get to online. Our E-Reference Library is a great collection of reliable resources you can use from home. If you have a school assignment that requires looking up information on a topic, you should use our E-Reference Library.

How do you get to all this great stuff?

All you need is your library card! You can pick individual books to use, or you can just search across the entire collection. Each article or topical summary provides valuable information AND will give you the appropriate citation from the source. That’s important because teachers want to know what reference books you are using and the citation will show them that you used something better than Wikipedia.

But doesn’t this count as “using the Internet”?

No. The sources in the E-Reference Library are not available on the open web. These are purchased by the library for you to use. The books included in the E-Reference Library are reliable and reputable sources that have been published regularly for many years. The only difference is that you can use them online!