Student: Hi, I need to find information about illegal immigrants.

Librarian: We have a couple of great databases that should have some articles. One is EBSCO, and the other is Opposing Viewpoints. Let me show you how they work.

Student: My teacher said I can't use anything from the internet.

Librarian: The articles in the databases come from published sources, such as magazines and journals.

Student: I have to have a copy from an actual magazine.

This exchange happens occasionally, and it is very frustrating. We have great resources that some students are afraid to use becuase they are left with the impression that electronic articles--even if they come from Time or Newsweek--are unacceptable. If students can use photocopies of magazine or newspaper articles, why can't they use a .pdf file, which looks exactly like the page of a print source?

I understand why teachers may communicate to students that they cannot use information from the internet. I would be leery of sources that students found on the web, especially if they have not yet learned how to evaluate websites. There is a plethora of information available, and it is not always reliable. However, searching databases is different than surfing the web. The World Wide Web is only part of the internet, and it contains both good and bad information that can be found by doing a search in Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. Depending on the topic, the number of results might be immense, although they will not include articles that appear in the databases. Those articles are part of the invisible web, which contains pages that search engines cannot find.

Whereas on the web, pretty much anyone can publish a website with information that may or may not be reliable, the information in the databases is controlled. Databases are indexes of articles that appear in print sources. Thus, the articles you find in the databases are the same ones you would find in Time, Newsweek, Consumer Reports, newspapers, scholarly journals, and even reference books. Many of the databases include full text, which is a word-for-word reproduction of an article in either .pdf or html format. In EBSCO's MasterFile Premier and Academic Search Premier (two of my “go to” databases), you can even limit the results to peer reviewed articles, which are written and reviewed by scholars in their respective fields. In addition to helping us find where and when articles about a particular topic were published (think Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature), the full text databases give us access to thousands of publications that the library does not have in print. It is a shame that informative articles sometimes go unused because of the idea that anything electronic is unacceptable.

People often ask at the reference desk, "Where do you keep the newspapers?" Sounds like a simple question, right? If you ask, expect to hear the librarian say, "That depends!"

Many people who ask this question are looking for the latest copy of the Nashua Telegraph or Manchester Union Leader. The latest paper copy of the newspapers can be found in the Stearns Room. To get there from the library entrance, bear right past the circulation desk, pass the New Fiction display, and you'll see an open doorway on your right. In the Stearns Room, you'll also find new and recent copies of our general magazine collection, including business and consumer titles such as Consumer Reports. We keep the latest month's newspapers in the Stearns Room. The newest copy will be out on display, and older papers will be hanging in folders underneath the display.

Sometimes our newspaper-seekers are actually looking for older editions of the newspaper. For this, we have a variety of options available. We have the Telegraph on microfilm going back to the 1800s, and two new microfilm-scanner machines available for viewing, printing, and e-mailing articles from these papers. These are located near the hardcover fiction at the back of the top floor. Just ask at the reference desk if you need assistance using the microfilm machines.

We also have a subscription to two electronic newspaper databases. For modern newspapers (going back about 15 years or so), there's "Newsbank." You can search Newsbank for specific words to find articles that contain those words. There are dozens of newspapers in the Newsbank collection, from local newspapers such as the Telegraph and 1590 Broadcaster to nationwide newspapers (the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Boston Globe, among others).

For those doing historical research beyond New Hampshire's borders, we also offer the "Newspaper Archives" database. This is a searchable collection of digitized newspapers dating as far back as the 1700s. It is available in the library only, and does not include New Hampshire newspapers.

You can get to both Newsbank and Newspaper Archives through the library's web site, www.nashualibrary.org. From there, click on the button that says "iBrowse Databases" and choose "Newspapers and Magazines" from the dropdown menu. Or go to the news listing directly at http://www.nashua.lib.nh.us/IbrowseAdultNews.htm.

If you're still not sure where to find what you need, do stop by the reference desk and let us know what you're looking for!

When one member of my family reads something in one of his magazines that interests him, he tears the pages out and saves them to study later. I then find them lying all over the house - little folded up pages that he doesn't even remember reading. This blog is inspired by one of those little folded up pages. U S News & World Report published this article on February 12, 2007. It involves a discussion of personal finances and retirement planning, especially for the young. It also gives a list of blogs where interested people can ask questions and participate in discussions on personal finances.
AllFinancialMatters.com
ConsumerismCommentary.com
FreeMoneyFinance.com
2MillionBlog.com
MoneyBlogNetwork.com
TiredButHappy.blogspot.com
seniorcare-dc.blogspot.com

Mellody Hobson is a financial consultant for the morning television program Good Morning America. She has a discussion regarding retirement saving which may force her listeners to face hard facts. Many people who are close to retirement age have no savings and no idea how much money they will need to save in order to just get by. A question and answer session with Mellody Hobson also addresses this issue.

In my opinion, no one should ever retire. What does anyone do when there is no job to go to anymore? Instant boredom! But, if you listen to Dennis Hopper, retirement is something the baby boomer generation should look forward to and be excited about. Retirement seems to be a popular topic with younger people as well.. Generation -Xers, who will not be retiring for years, are being urged to plan ahead and begin saving now.

There are books at the Nashua Public Library to help make retirement and retirement saving more managable. They can provide that optomistic outlook which is lacking in so much of the information about retirement.
The Number by Lee Eisenberg
Retire worry-free by Kiplinger's
Get a life : you don't need a million to retire well by Ralph Warner
The retirement catch-up guide by Ellen Hoffman
The Grangaard Strategy : invest right during retirement by Paul Grangaard

So, if you are excited about retirement, good luck. The rest of us will just keep on working!

Remember that Seinfeld episode when Kramer's new phone number was so close to the film information line (555-FILM) that he kept getting inquiries about movie showtimes that he created his own "moviefone" line?

Well here at NPL we have our own "moviefone" line with our own Kramer (aka: Bruce, the Media Services Coordinator) letting you know what times our film series will be showing. Unlike Kramer's on the fly reporting, our info line is up-to-date and accurate.

To find out what's playing in one or all of our film series** here at the library give the film information line a buzz at 589-4646. If you're not going to be near a phone, there are two other ways to find out the title and showtime of a movie. One, the next time you're at the library pick up a spring calendar of events which has a complete listing of events for all ages at the library. Two, you can subscribe to our weekly events newsletter and have it emailed directly to you.

**Library Film Series: (sponsored by the Friends of the Nashua Public Library)
Cinema Cabaret for Adults Weekly: Fridays at 7pm
World Cinema Monthly: 3rd Tuesday at 7pm
TeenScene Monthly: 4th Tuesday at 4pm
Family Films Weekly: Saturdays at 2pm

As I reviewed some recent circulation statistics for the Business Area of the library, I noticed that many of the books we have pertaining to women in the business world are checked out extensively. Accordingly, I ordered a number of new books on these subjects. Here are a few that you might like to borrow. The first four can be found in the New Business Books display, and the fifth is located in the Biographies room on the lower level of the library.

Wise women invest in real estate : achieve financial independence and live the lifestyle of your dreams / Lisa Moren Bromma.
Call Number: New Business Books, BUS 332.6324 B

Smart women and small business : how to make the leap from corporate careers to the right small enterprise / Ginny Wilmerding.
Call Number: New Business Books, BUS 658.1 W

Inside every woman : using the 10 strengths you didn't know you had to get the career and life you want now / Vickie L. Milazzo.
Call Number: New Business books, BUS 650.1082 M

Mommy millionaire : how I turned my kitchen table idea into a million dollars and how you can, too! / Kim Lavine.
Call Number: New Business books, BUS 658.11 L

The world according to Martha / edited by Bill Adler.
Call Number: Adult Biography (Lower Level), BIOG St4995

…hold me closer, Tony Danza…
…there's a bathroom on the right…
…pour some shook up ramen…
…I blow bubbles when you are not here…

Has this happened to you? You are singing along with a song and blurt out what you thought were the lyrics. Suddenly, your friends stop what they were doing and stare at you. Misunderstood song lyrics are fairly common. I remember seeing a page-a-day calendar dedicated to misheard lyrics, and The Archive of Misheard Lyrics, which dates back to the mid-nineties, has thousands of misheard lyrics. In fact, the web address, www.kissthisguy.com, was chosen in honor of a possible misunderstood lyric. The submissions come from the general public, and in the Frequently Asked Questions, the site owner points out that even some of the "correct lyrics" are incorrect; you should not use the site as a source. That being said, it is fun to browse.

If you want to confirm or learn song lyrics, check out LyricWiki.org. It was last week's ResourceShelf (a website that compiles online resources) Resource of the Week. You can read why by clicking here. While browsing this site, I found that it is more productive to search by artist than by title. For example, when I searched for "In Your Eyes," the site did not find the popular Peter Gabriel song. However, when I searched for Peter Gabriel, I saw the song listed under his 1986 album So. When browsing by song, you will have to know the name of the artist. Song titles that begin with the letter "I" are alphabetized by the artist (first name first) rather than by the song title. Despite these difficulties, LyricWiki.org is useful. Other sites offer song lyrics, but this one has a cleaner design and will not harass you with popup ads.

In case you were wondering, the misunderstood lyrics listed above are actually:
…hold me closer, tiny dancer… "Tiny Dancer” --Elton John
…there's a bad moon on the rise… “Bad Moon Rising” --Creedence Clearwater Revival
…pour some sugar on me… “Pour Some Sugar on Me” --Def Leppard
…my world crumbles when you are not near… “I Try” --Macy Gray

Feel free to add your own to the comments section.

It's the 160th birthday of Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the Pulitzer Prizes and publisher of the New York World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes will be announced this coming Monday, April 16. Part of a bequest to Columbia University for their journalism school, the Pulitzer Prizes were intended to promote excellence in journalism. They are awarded to Americans in the areas of news, literature, music composition, and photography.

Among the recent prizewinners for fiction are Marilynne Robinson's Gilead , Geraldine Brooks's March, and The Known World by Edward P. Jones.

Three people have each won four Pulitzers, the most awarded to one person: Robert Frost (for "New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes", "Collected Poems", "A Further Range", and "A Witness Tree"), Eugene O'Neill (for "Beyond the Horizon", "Anna Christie", "Strange Interlude", and "Long Day's Journey Into Night"), and Robert Sherwood (for "Idiots Delight", "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", "There Shall Be No Night", and "Roosevelt and Hopkins").

For more about the Pulitzer Prizes, take a look at the official web site, http://pulitzer.org. Here you can view the winners for each year since the first prizes were awarded in 1917, ninety years ago. Then stop by and pick up a copy!

April 11 is National D.A.R.E Day. D.A.R.E or the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program was founded in 1983 by the Los Angeles police department. The goal of the program was to help school age children develop strength of character which would enable them to resist getting involved with drugs and gangs and violence.

According to the D.A.R.E website, the program continues to be very successful. A D.A.R.E trained officer or teacher can be found in about 75% of the schools in the United States. The website claims that the program is involving youth in 43 countries around the world. The D.A.R.E program is designed to function as a partnership between local schools and local police departments. A school's D.A.R.E officer has undergone special training which will allow him or her to present an ongoing curriculum from kindergarten to grade 12. The D.A.R.E officer is someone selected to present the positive side of policing to young children and teens. That officer becomes the "face" of the police department to many children.

There are two websites that will provide information to anyone interested in doing further research about D.A.R.E. One of these is the national website for the D.A.R.E program. This site includes information on the program's mission, the executive officers, activities throughout the country, and awards and scholarships available to student participates in the program. Selecting Hometown D.A.R.E USA on the left-hand toolbar, will provide access to listings for D.A.R.E programs in New Hampshire.

The second website is for the New Hampshire D.A.R.E program. The New Hampshire website provides information specifically about the state-wide program including scholarships available to students in the program, affiliations with the Manchester semi-professional sports teams, and news and events involving D.A.R.E in New Hampshire. At this point in time, Nashua does not appear to be one of the New Hampshire towns participating in the D.A.R.E program, although several local communities do participate.

D.A.R.E was a very popular, successful program for dealing with youth and drug abuse in the 1980's and 1990's. There has been some suggestion that the program has lost the ability to connect with young people which it once had and that it may have outlived its usefulness. In answer to this, the D.A.R.E program has developed a new curriculum which it is putting into place. These new plans for D.A.R.E can be reviewed on the website. Hopefully this program will be able to successfully reinvent itself.

So you thought nothing good ever comes to the granite state? Well guess what, you were wrong.

This Sunday Tamora Pierce, fantasy author, is coming to the Concord City Auditorium. The NH Humanities Council is sponsoring her discussion on "The Reality in Fantasy" as well as a question and answer session. Oh, and don't forget to bring your books with you because a signing will follow the program.

So mark your calendars for this FREE event, Sunday April 15th at 2pm.

Get directions now so you won't be late!

Here's just a taste of the Tamora Pierce titles @ NPL

Terrier
Tricksters Queen
The Woman Who Rides Like A Man
Street Magic
Cold Fire
Dajas Book
Lioness Rampant

During the tax season, the reference desk gets a lot of tax-related questions. In addition to questions about which tax forms to use, we occasionally get asked to look up historic stock price information. As some of you may know, there are a number of websites that make some historical stock price information available for free. Two that are particularly popular are Yahoo Finance and BigCharts.com.

But sometimes when a company has been acquired by another company or merged with another computer, it can be particularly difficult to find out historical price information for the company prior to those events. Fortunately, the library can help in some of these cases. One print resource that we turn to is the Directory of Obsolete Securities. Its call number is REF 332.67 D, and we would be glad to point it out to you if you would like to look through it.

When the Directory of Obsolete Securities isn't sufficient, we sometimes are able to locate other sources of information online. For example, tonight, I helped a customer look up historical price information about the company Unocal prior to its merger with Chevron. By searching for "historic stock prices for unocal" on Google, I found a page in the Chevron Corporation investor relations website that included a downloadable Excel file with historical price information from 1980-2005. I must say it was a satisfying experience to hunt down this information and provide it to the customer right at the reference desk!

So if you are ever in need of historical stock price information, be sure to keep us in mind!!

As you probably know, each month our library sponsors several computer workshops. These classes are taught by our reference librarians and cover a wide range of topics from the elementary Computer Basics all the way through to Web Design. Most classes are presented during the day although we recently added a class on Tuesday evenings. There is a maximum of eight students per class since our Training Room houses eight computers.

This month we are offering a new class geared towards “senior citizens”. This Government Resources for Seniors workshop presents a variety of websites designed for or containing information of special interest to seniors. It covers such topics as finance, travel, consumer help, health and government benefits. For a sneak preview of the class, you may wish to take a look at the class handout. The only requirement for the workshop is a basic knowledge of Internet searching. This month the workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 18th from 2:30 to 4:00.

If you wish to reserve a spot in this class (or in any of our other classes), please stop by the Reference Desk or the MAM (Music, Art and Media) Desk, or call us at 589-4611. And please let us know should you have a suggestion for a new class.

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." --Jackie Robinson

If you're a baseball fan, you may have noticed something different yesterday. Players around the league, and the entire Dodgers' team, wore number 42. Although the number is retired throughout baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig granted Ken Griffey, Jr.'s request to wear the number in honor of Jackie Robinson, the Hall-of-Fame second baseman who broke the color barrier in 1947. After Griffey's request, Selig temporarily suspended the retirement of the number and invited players on all teams to wear number 42 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In addition to the plethora of 42s, all of the games (that weren't rained out) featured festivities that honored Jackie Robinson. Dodger Stadium was home to the national celebration of Jackie Robinson Day, with a VIP-filled reception and on-field ceremony prior to the game. Participants included Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife and founder of The Jackie Robinson Foundation; their daughter, author Sharon Robinson; several of Jackie's former teammates; baseball executives; civic and industry leaders; Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars; and winners of the Breaking Barriers Essay Contest.

Prior to Robinson, baseball, like much of American society, was segregated. If a black man wanted to play baseball, he had no choice but to join a team in the Negro Leagues. That changed in 1947 when Branch Rickey added Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers' roster. Robinson was a great athlete; at UCLA, he lettered in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1947, MVP in 1949, a six-time All-Star, and retired with a .311 career batting average. Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In addition to celebrating his on-field accomplishments, we must recognize Robinson for being a pioneer and dealing with adversity. He had to be a model ballplayer and model citizen even when others treated him poorly. Robinson endured racial slurs, and his uniform did not allow him access to the white-only hotels and restaurants that his teammates patronized. Some players did not want to play against him. Despite these difficulties, he persevered. You can learn more about Jackie Robinson by doing a subject browse for Robinson, Jackie, 1919-1972 or taking a look at his Hall of Fame page. Visit the Baseball Almanac to read some profound quotations, both by and about Robinson, which illustrate the struggles he endured, the respect he gained, and the passion with which he played.

Believe it or not, Nashua also played a role in the integration of baseball. In 1946, the New England League was reestablished. Nashua became home to a Dodgers' minor league affiliate. Although Jackie Robinson was playing Triple A baseball in Montreal, the Dodgers needed to find a place where two other African-American prospects would play. Unfortunately, all of the team's lower level affiliates were in the deep South. Nashua was the perfect team for Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. According to E.J. "Buzzie" Bavasi, business manager of the Nashua Dodgers in 1946, the city loved the players, and the players loved the city. In fact, Newcombe later said, " Roy and I talked about Nashua all the time. We always felt so comfortable there. From the start, we were treated like human beings, not two black men in town to play baseball. We felt right at home." (Daly, x, 36).

Campanella joined the Brooklyn team in 1948, and Newcombe followed a year later. They are only two of the many black players who followed Robinson into Major League Baseball. Robinson paved the way for greats such as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, and Tony Gwynn, who will be inducted in to the Hall of Fame this summer. He certainly impacted the lives of these men and millions of baseball fans across the United States. He changed both the game and society for the better, so here's to you, Mr. Robinson!

Sources:

Daly, Steve. Dem Little Bums: The Nashua Dodgers: The Story of Their Vital Role in the Racial Integration of Baseball, and Their Rapid Fall From Grace, 1946-1949. Concord, NH: Plaidswede Publishing, 2002.

"Griffey Jr., others to wear No. 42 as part of Jackie Robinson Day tribute." Official Site of the Cincinnati Reds. April 4, 2007. http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070404&content_id=1879332&vkey=pr_cin&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin (accessed April 12, 2007).

Here are some of the notable winners and finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prizes, announced yesterday:

Fiction (distinguished fiction by an American author)
Winner: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Finalist: After This by Alice McDermott
Finalist: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

History (distinguished book upon the history of the United States)
Winner: "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation” by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
Finalist: “Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005” by James T. Campbell
Finalist: “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War” by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author
Winner: “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher” by Debby Applegate
Finalist: “John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty” by Arthur H. Cash
Finalist: “Andrew Carnegie” by David Nasaw

Distinguished volume of original verse by an American author
Winner: “Native Guard” by Natasha Trethewey
Finalist: “The Republic of Poetry” by Martin Espada
Finalist: “Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004” by David Wojahn

Distinguished book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category
Winner: “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” by Lawrence Wright
Finalist: “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness” by Pete Earley
Finalist: “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq” by Thomas E. Ricks

Special Citation
"A Special Citation to Ray Bradbury for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential
career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy."

Wednesday, April 18th marks the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Clarence Seward Darrow. Clarence Darrow is perhaps best known for his involvement in the Scopes trial arguing in behalf of John Scopes. Scopes, a biology teacher, was being tried for teaching evolution in the state of Tennessee in the year 1925, in direct defiance of Tennessee's anti-evolution act. Although there is a tendency to view Darrow as the "evolution" lawyer, he was also involved in many other well-known trials.

Clarence Darrow was born April 18, 1857. After starting a career as a school teacher at a very young age, he decided to become a lawyer. At the age of twenty, he studied law for one year at a school of law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After that, his legal education took the form of on-the-job training. He was employed by the city of Chicago as an attorney and then by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway as their general attorney. It was in this position that he met Eugene V. Debs, later a Socialist Party candidate for president, and became the defender of the railroad Pullman car workers in the railroad strike between the American Railway Union and the railroad owners. From this point on, Darrow was seen as a defender of the working class and an advocate of civil liberties.

Information about Clarence Darrow is available online as well as in the library. The Clarence Darrow Homepage is a portion of a website done by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. It provides background information about Clarence Darrow as well as information about some of his most famous cases. The PBS series American Experience has information on its webpage concerning a special called Monkey Trial and biographical information on Clarence Darrow. For those interested in unusual information, the FBI has made available 11 pages of its file on Clarence Darrow under the Freedom of Information Act. Most unusual of all is Findagrave, a website where you can look at the gravesite of a famous person, or in this case, see the site where the ashes of Clarence Darrow were scattered.

The library has some biographies of Clarence Darrow, as well as some books discussing his most notable trials: The people v. Clarence Darrow: the bribery trial of America's greatest lawyer; Arc of justice: a saga of race, civil rights and murder in the Jazz age; The crime of the century : the Leopold and Loeb case; Big Bill Haywood and the radical union movement; Summer for the gods : the Scopes trial and America's continuing debate over science and religion and The great Tennessee monkey trial, a downloadable audiobook available through the state library. The database Biography Resource Center, which is available on the library's website, is an excellent source of information on Clarence Darrow. It can be accessed from home using your library card barcode.

Until recently, our Live Homework Help service bringing library customers free tutors for students in grades 4 through introductory college has only been compatible with PCs. Well, Mac users, you made this inequality heard loud and clear. Besides, here at the Nashua Public Library we don't believe in discriminating on the basis of your computer platform preferences. We believe in equal access for all, so we are proud to share this press release with you....

"Tutor.com is happy to announce that Live Homework Help, the leading after-school service that connects a student with a professional tutor for live, online homework help is now available to Mac users. Students using Safari of Firefox (2.0 or higher) browsers on Mac OS X can now connect to an expert tutor seven days a week for the help they need."

"Students using Macs connect to tutors the same way PC users do and the experience in the online classroom is identical."

Now that there's tutors available to everyone, looks like you might have to resort back to the old faithful "the dog ate my homework" excuse if you don't get your homework done.

Hours of tutor availability:
Sunday through Friday: 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday: 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Ayuda con tareas en Espanol
Sunday through Thursday: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Don't forget to download a brochure to put by your computer or to share with a friend.

Earlier today, I received a phone call from a customer wanting to know the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in our diet. Not being terribly well versed in nutrition, I certainly didn't know the answer. But where to turn to for this information?

The library has two outstanding encyclopedias on nutrition, (The Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Good Health by Robert Ronzio and Nutrition and Well-Being A to Z, Delores C.S. James, editor in chief,) and both offered valuable information on the role omega 6 and omega 3 play in our diet, but unfortunately, they didn't list a recommended ratio.

I next turned to the library's Consumer Health Complete database, (available both at the library and from offsite!) The first result from a search for "omega 6 omega 3 ratio" brought me to an article in the August 2006 issue of American Chiropractor titled "Omega-6 Mobile -- only diesel vehicles should eat n-6's." Mentioned within the article was the following, "The biochemistry of human body needs to consume at least 4:1 ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids. When the consumption exceeds the 4:1 ratio, the human vehicle begins to show pro-inflammatory conditions." So, it appeared I had found an authoritative source. But is one authoritative source sufficient when it comes to health or medical information? I decided to continue my research.

I next turned to PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that provides free access to MEDLINE, its database of indexed citations and abstracts to medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, health care, and preclinical sciences journal articles. There I learned in the October 2002 issue or Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy that ratios ranging from 2:1 up to 5:1 had beneficial impacts depending on the disease in question. For example, "in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, a ratio of 4/1 was associated with a 70% decrease in total mortality." And, "a ratio of 2.5/1 reduced rectal cell proliferation in patients with colorectal cancer."

At this point, I shared the results of my research with the library customer, and she was pleased! Nevertheless, I decided to see what the Wikipedia had to say. As many of you hopefully know, Wikipedia is an enticing option for online researchers, but the information found there isn't always trustworthy. In an entry on omega-3 fatty acids, I learned that "the ideal ratio of omega-6:omega-3 [ranged] from 3:1 to 5:1." But what was the source of this information? Fortunately, in this case, the information was backed up by a citation to an article in World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, specifically "Omega-6/omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid Ratio: The Scientific Evidence" by AP Simopoulos.

At last, this reference question was complete.

Sources:
Seaman, David (2006). "Omega-6 Mobile -- only diesel vehicles should eat n-6's." American Chiropractor, 28(9), 66-68.

Simopoulos AP (2002). "The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids."
Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy, 56(8), 365-79.

Simopoulos AP, Cleland LG (eds) (2003). "Omega-6/omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid Ratio: The Scientific Evidence." World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, 92, 1-22.

Whether out of my love for my birthplace (Brooklyn, NY) or my passion for competitive sports and games, I read a review of the book The Kings of New York: a year among the geeks, oddballs and geniuses who make up America's top high school chess team and decided that I must read this book.The author Michael Weinreb, a sportswriter who has contributed articles to The New York Times and Newsday, tells the story of a chess team from Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School as it pursues a national championship.

Weinrub tells the story of how some "Brooklynese" unconventional underprivileged boys of various nationalities, races, personalities and aspirations form a team. He covers their adventures through public park tournaments to city and state tournaments to a national championship and a meeting with President Bush. Weinrub touches on adolescent life - its problems, thrills, frustrations and disappointments. And as is quoted from the London Chess Center, "Above all, it's the story of a handful of gifted misfits searching for the silence and order and strange beauty that can be found within those sixty-four squares on a chess board."

Weinrub also delves into the background of chess including interesting information about such famous players as Bobby Fisher, Boris Spassky.and Garry Kasparov. He relates how many Eastern European and Russian immigrants popularized the game. You can find some fascinating information about the history of chess at the About: Chess website.

Admittedly I do not play chess although I am fascinated as I watch other players. If you care to play (or watch) in Nashua, a Chess Club meets in our library's East Wing at 7 pm on Fridays (except that on April 20th they will be in MAM because of the book sale). Walk-ins are welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult. The MeetUp website has a Cambridge, Massachusetts site for chess, or perhaps you would like to start a site in Nashua.

You may wish to check out our library's many resources about chess. A recent arrival is Chess openings for white, explained : winning with 1. e4 by Lev Alburt, Roman Dzindzichashvili, and Eugene Perelshteyn; with Al Lawrence. Or perhaps take a look at:
Chess tactics for champions : a step-by step guide to using tactics and combinations by Susan Polgar and Paul Truong
or
Chess for zebras : making the most of white and black by Jonathan Rowson.

And, of course The kings of New York : a year among the geeks, oddballs, and geniuses who make up America's top high school chess team.

In the process of helping people find the information they need, I often come across interesting sources. This occurred on Friday night when someone asked a question about the number of words in the English language. I struggled a bit to find the answer, but eventually found a great site: AskOxford.com. Brought to you from Oxford Dictionaries, this site has a word of the day and quote of the week on its home page. If that is not entertaining enough, you can take a look at the Ask the Experts Frequently Asked Questions. Here you can learn if any English words contain the same letter three times in a row, the longest one-syllable word in the English language, the origin of the dollar sign, and other fun facts. The site also offers writing tips, the most common English words, information about names, and five events that shaped the history of English. So, if you are interested in learning more about English or you have a question about the language, be sure to check out AskOxford.com.

PS Today's word of the day is
dogger
noun; historical a two-masted bluff-bowed Dutch sailing boat, used for fishing. — origin Middle English: from Middle Dutch.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of English

The tempestuous life of Boris Yeltsin came to an end yesterday. Yeltsin, the former president of Russia, was 76. Articles about the leader's life and legacy have been flowing following word of his death.

He is in the spotlight today in the Biography Resource Center database, which provides biographical and other articles about the late president. For a more international view, try the Newsbank database (scroll down the list of databases to "Newsbank" and be sure to select "remote access" if you are reading this outside the library). Go to "America's Newspapers and International News," and then click "Expand to: The World" and search on "Yeltsin." This will bring up the full text of news articles from around the world.

Other good sources of news articles include the Facts.com and EBSCO databases. In particular, EBSCO provides access to more scholarly journal articles in addition to major magazines such as Time and Newsweek. Facts.com has a narrower focus, primarily covering major world events.

To take an in-depth look at Boris Yeltsin's life and times, check out "Yeltsin : a revolutionary life" by Leon Aron. For a more general book about Russian history, including the end of the Soviet Union and the Chechnya conflict, try "Russia and the Russians : a history" by Geoffrey Hosking.

David Halberstam, well-known author, and Pulitzer Prize winner for his reporting for the New York Times during the Vietnam War, died Monday at the age of 73. He died in a car crash in California while on his way from a speaking engagement at Berkeley to an interview during which he had planned to research the subject of a new book.

America's obituaries and death notices, a database available on the library's website, currently has obituaries from ten different newspapers for David Halberstam. These can be accessed by entering his first and last name in the box marked Name of the Deceased. His career as a writer began in 1955, when, after his graduation from Harvard, he traveled to the South to write about race relations there. He went on to report from the Vietnam war, where his goal was to keep the American people informed of the truth about the Vietnam war. In addition to his reporting, he has also written 21 books ranging in topic from history through sports. Regardless of what he was writing, he was first and foremost a reporter.

Biography Resource Center, another database on the library's website, has not yet updated their database information to reflect his death, but only about 24 hours has passed. The database does have considerable information about his writing career and his life, including three narrative biographies .

Nashua Public Library currently has a special display of his writings on the counter to the right of the circulation desk. As a sports fan, Halberstam wrote about people and memorable games. His 2005 book The education of a coach is about Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots. His 2003 book The teammates deals with the bond of friendship formed by four Red Sox team members which still endured sixty years later. After 9/11, David Halberstam wrote a book called Firehouse which told the story of one of the engine and ladder companies in New York most affected by the tragedy of that day. Although this book is currently available only as a downloadable audiobook from the state library, a print copy has been ordered for NPL.

Whether he was writing about war, politics, current events or sports, David Halberstam researched everything thoroughly. All the facts were always there; the reader could believe in what Halberstam wrote as strongly as he did. He will be greatly missed.

As I sat on my porch this past weekend in shorts and a t-shirt watching flowers bloom before my eyes I got a craving for some fresh, New Hampshire grown, fruits and veggies. I can probably attribute this to the fact that one of my favorite summer pastimes is visiting farmers markets for both good food and flowers.

I started to do a little research to remind myself of when and where the local markets are in New Hampshire. I found a few good sites I wanted to share. I also wanted to make a plug for the Nashua farmers' market because right now it is relatively small, but I'm sure the more community members that shop it, the more vendors will want to participate. They've almost made it too easy to miss. It's now on Sunday mornings right on Main Street in downtown Nashua, NH.

Okay, back to business, here's some sites you'll want to check out to find the closest farmers market to your home.

New Hampshire Farmers' Market Association
Harvest In New Hampshire
Download a New Hampshire Farmers' Market Directory

For you year around market enthusiasts check out the indoor Amherst, NH market.

Terrorism, terrorists and "The War on Terror" in local, national and international news on a daily basis. Yet to what degree do we really understand what terrorism is and what terrorists really want? Well, the library's print and electronic collections