For all you collectors out there, we recently received the 41st Edition of Warman's Antiques & Collectibles 2008 Price Guide. It includes the sections on ceramics, furniture, glass, jewelry, toys, depression glass reproductions, depression glass thumbnail guide, ceramics collection & care--pottery, and glass collecting & care. Not only is the guide well organized, but it is also beautiful to look through. Some items that caught my eye included the Luke Skywalker as X-Wing Pilot (one of the original 12 Star Wars figures released by Kenner in 1977-78) priced at $15, and a Civil War era American flag with 35 stars, priced at $1,405. While the 2008 edition is kept in the reference section, earlier editions of the guide are available to be checked out.

Another significant new arrival in the reference collection is the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. This 20 volume set, last updated in 2002, is intended to "provide the the widest possible range of articles that will be understandable and useful to any person of modest technical training who wants to obtain information outside his or her particular field of specialization."

Although the goal of the new edition was "a broad revision of the previous edition, much effort was concentrated in certain rapidly advancing areas, particularly in cell and molecular biology; information technology and telecommunications; nanotechnology; the environmental, earth and climate sciences; materials science; and cosmology, among others."

Written in a way to increase the reader's ability to readily access the key concepts of of the field, articles start with a definition and a concise overview of the topic. "The subject matter is developed according to a clear outline and concludes with a bibliography of generally available publications for further study." Numerous cross references to related articles are also included.

Articles that interested me included ones on aircraft propulsion, global warming, cinematography, kiwifuit and cable television systems.

My uncle is a retired Boeing sound engineer, and as a result, I have always loved jet airplanes. Recently, I bought the book Boeing Versus Airbus: the Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business for the library, and it has already been checked out twice. Apparently, I'm not the only one interested in the airline industry. (As it turns out, the library also has the 1996 book Flying High : the story of Boeing and the rise of the jetliner industry by Eugene Rodgers.)

Several new books on investing have also been ordered and/or received. These include:

The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual, a consumer's guide to intelligent investing One review at Amazon.com voted as helpful by 25 out of 25 readers writes, "The writing's charm makes the book's challenging ideas go down easier. Using academic research and his own reporting, the author demonstrates how the vast majority of investors will lose money by choosing an active investing approach (i.e. picking stocks, attempting to time the market, and so on). Not only will they will lose money by making bad calls, they will lose money by generating costs. A dollar wasted today can never compound into the future. This makes protecting one's money from the wealth-eating power of taxes and inflation very difficult. The author shows that, for those of us not named Warren Buffett, the answer lies in a disciplined passive investing approach--an approach that is simple on paper but runs counter to human nature."
Random Walk Down Wall Street : The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (2007 edition) The library's 1999 edition of this same title has circulated 43 times. Why not check out the latest edition to see what has been updated.
Pop! Why Bubbles are Great for the Economy "In this entertaining and fast-paced book -- you'll laugh as much as you cry -- Daniel Gross convincingly argues that every bubble has a golden lining. From the 19th-century mania for the telegraph to the current craze in alternative energy, from railroads to real estate, Gross takes us on a whirlwind tour of reckless investors and pie-in-the-sky promoters, detailing the maina they created -- but also the lasting good they left behind." From book cover

I can write this blog in good humor because I am heading to Aruba in two days. However, I had a rough couple of weeks, unsure if I would actually be able to go. I have not traveled extensively outside of the United States. On previous trips to the Caribbean, I only needed a birth certificate and driver's license, so I did not have a passport. Since my last visit to the Caribbean, the law has changed. As a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, travelers must have a passport to enter the United States. In 2006, Congress amended portions of the act and developed the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). According to the Department of State, "the goal of the Initiative is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for US citizens and legitimate foreign visitors by providing standardized, secure, and reliable documentation to allow the Department of Homeland Security to quickly, reliably and accurately identify a traveler." This means that as of January 23, 2007, all US citizens flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and other foreign countries, are required to present a passport, Air NEXUS card, or US Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document. As early as January 1, 2008, those document "may be required" for land and sea travel as well.

This initiative has resulted in an unprecedented number of passport applications. When I applied for my passport in early March, I was told that it would take about 8 weeks. "No problem," I thought, "I have 13 weeks." Surely my passport would arrive with time to spare. Shortly after I applied, the news reported that people should expedite their applications due to the high volume. It was too late for me, but, as I mentioned, I had plenty of time. Meanwhile, my grandmother, who is traveling in July, expedited her application and received her passport by Easter.

As the weeks passed and April turned into May, I checked the status of my application online. The website indicated that my application was being processed. In mid-May, it had been 10 weeks (now the site indicates that it may take that long), and I still had not received my passport. Panic set in. I began hearing passport horror stories; one person was leaving in three days and hadn't received his. My vacation was in jeopardy, but my hands were tied. The Department of State will only respond if your trip is within 14 days.

I cheated. I tried to call 15 days before my trip because I need to have my passport the day before my flight, and I knew I would lose a day with the holiday. I could not get through. The automated appointment line is available 24 hours a day, and the customer service line is available 6:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m. Eastern time. So, in the middle of the night (I was stressed out and not sleeping) I called and made a June 1 appointment at the regional passport agency in Boston. I also assumed that my passport was being processed there. I set my alarm for 6 a.m. (I was awake anyway) and called again to speak with a live person. I was told that my passport would be rushed, and if I didn't receive it by May 31 to call back. The representative informed me that my passport was being processed in Charleston, SC (SC!?!), and she could not guarantee that I would receive it in time for my vacation. That did not help the stress level! I asked my sister, who lives at home, to pick up an additional copy of my birth certificate so I could reapply in Boston on June 1, less than a week before my trip, if necessary.

After a week had passed, and the entire reference department and a few others in the library had heard my story of woe, I took Tina's (in circulation) advice and got some higher authorities involved. My brother formerly worked for a senator, so I asked if he could help me. He said that senators do this regularly, and let the office know I would be calling. Thanks to a staff person in the senator's office, I received my passport on May 31. I did not have to go to Boston. Unfortunately, I could not cancel the appointment because I could not get through on the phone, even at 6:30 in the morning.

So, the moral of this story (and it is abridged) is to apply for your passport early, and expedite it. Expediting costs more, but what you lose in money you will save in sanity. For information on how to apply for your passport, visit the US Department of State at http://www.travel.state.gov. You can complete an online application and bring it, along with 2 passport photos, proof of citizenship (i.e., birth certificate), a picture ID, and payment, to the Nashua Post Office, one of 8,000 passport acceptance centers throughout the country. If you have already applied and need your passport within the next two weeks, call the National Passport Information Center. If you still have no luck, contact your US Senator or Representative.

Update: On June 8 (and yes, I heard about this when I was in Aruba), the US Departments of State and Homeland Security announced that citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or countries in the Caribbean region, who have applied for, but not yet received passports, can re-enter the United States by air. Through September 30, adults may present government-issued photo identification and an official proof of application from the U.S. Department of State. You still have to apply, but if you do not receive your passport prior to travel, you will be able to re-enter the United States. Be sure to check the requirements of the country you are visiting also. For more information on this travel accommodation, please visit http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html.

It's a vast and ever-changing internet out there, and it can be tough to keep up with the changes. One of my favorite ways of finding out what's new on the internet is a great blog called Sites and Soundbytes. Published by Wisconsin library director Tasha Saecker, each entry of the blog reviews a new web site.

Don't have time to read a long entry? This blog's for you. Entries usually run about one paragraph, with a nice quick overview of the reviewed site and a link so that you can try it for yourself. The sites they have reviewed are widely varied, but usually useful, fun, or interesting. For example, recent sites they've reviewed include the Google Maps Street View tool; Lumosity, which they describe as "an online brain fitness exercise program"; and customizable music-broadcasting sites Pandora and Musicovery. The entries range from sites about gardening and produce to the latest in social software innovations. It's quite eclectic.

Have another blog that you like to read to stay up-to-date on new web sites? Let us know!

Books to read at the beach are the subject of discussion on most morning shows lately. Everyone has ideas about the qualities that create a good beach book, but most of these lists seem to rely heavily on blockbusters and chick lit. My idea of a good beach read tends more toward the dark side. I like a good scary book; horror stories are my favorite. There is nothing like a chill down your spine to keep you cool at the beach. Some of my suggestions are quite new, but others are older books. All of them are really fast reads; the kind where you are tempted to skip ahead because you can't wait to see what happens next.

One of my favorite horror story authors is Robert McCammon. He has written several really good books; two of them are favorites of mine. The first one is a vampire story. This is not a cute story where the vampires live like people who just forgot that they are dead. They thirst is a classic vampire story where an ancient vampire comes back to prey on a new generation. The story is set in California and everyone from the biggest stars and movie producers to the cleaning ladies and the homeless all suffer the same fate. My second favorite from Robert McCammon is Stinger. This is sort of a science fiction horror story set in an isolated desert community. Aliens, motocrycle gangs and one poor little girl create the suspense.

Another author who has produced some good beach reads is Stephen King. He also has some really bad beach reads, but we won't discuss those. Again, I picked two that are really my favorites. One of the two is an older book, Christine. That was a very scary book. Too bad it was such a so so movie. After reading the book, I was afraid to walk by my car in the driveway at night. I'm still kind of nervous about it now; I know my car loves me, but still... The other Stephen King book that I really liked is a newer one. Cell shows what could happen if technology were used against human beings. A simple cell phone suddenly becomes an instrument of death and destruction. But is it any better to be one of the people who never had a cell phone?

My third favorite is Dean Koontz. He really has too many good stories to discuss here. He also has those unfortunate books which involved killer monkeys, but everyone makes mistakes. Two of his best are older books. Winter moon is a story involving a former policeman, some frightening violence and an alien in a lonely, dark, winter countryside. Shadowfires is a page-turner about a woman, her dead husband who is stalking her, and the mysterious shadowfires which pursue him. Another of his good reads is The taking which begins with some strange and frightening weather and deals with an alien entity threatening the human race for a specific reason.

Two other new books deserve special mention. One of these books is Ruins by Scott Smith, guaranteed to discourage for good any interest in exploring ancient ruins in Mexico. The other book is a ghost story about a haunted suit and the surprise which comes with it. The heart-shaped box has another surprise. The author, Joe Hill, is actually Joe King, son of Stephen King.

Enjoy the beach this summer. Remember, chills down your spine will keep you cool.

The Nashua Public Library has taken Web 2.0 by storm. If you're reading this entry then you already know about the blogging we've been doing. We've also done a little experimenting with wikis and soon you'll be able to chat with reference staff live!

Other areas in the library are now following suit and bringing services to you via Web 2.0 as well. This week children's services introduced a new technology to its customers, flickr.

Flickr allows you to share photos via the web. Here at the library, children's services is using this technology to show you examples of programs they host, performers, views of the children's room, and lots of other goodies. Be sure to check it out!

I was watching the Republican presidential candidate debate the other day, and when the topic of immigration was discussed, the question came up, "With regards to illegal and legal immigration, in your opinion, what does it mean to be an American? What are the tangible and intangible attributes of an American?"

Of the numerous responses given to the question, the one that seemed the most passionate to me came from Rudolph Giuliani. Here is an excerpt from what he said, "Abraham Lincoln, who fought the know-nothing movement, said being an American is not whether you came over on the Mayflower or you came here yesterday. How much do you believe in freedom? How much do you believe in freedom of religion? How much do you believe in freedom for women? How much do you believe in the right to vote? How much do you believe in the rule of law? The person who believes in that the most is the best American, and the person who doesn’t isn’t an American."

His answer got me thinking more about the issues of legal and illegal immigration and whether or not new U.S. citizens need to somehow be assimilated. Do they need to learn English? Do they need to cut ties with their country of origin? These are all very contentious issues, and you're guaranteed to get a different answer depending on who you ask. Isn't that your experience? Click on the "Comments" link at the end of this entry to leave a comment. I'm serious. Please click on the "Comments" link at the end of this entry, and let us know your opinion. We'd really like to hear from you.

As you might guess, the library has a lot of books and electronic resources that address these issues. Two compelling books that tell the personal stories of immigrants coming to the United States are Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario and Crossing Over : a Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez.

In Enrique's Journey, the author (who is also a journalist) recounts the "epic journey" of a sixteen year old Honduran boy who overcomes "unimaginable hardship and peril" to reach his mother in the United States who had left eleven years earlier in hopes of being better able to feed her family. The focus of this book is about the danger involved in crossing the border, and the reasons why some illegal immigrants are willing to take the risk. In Crossing Over, the author tracks a migrant family from Mexico to the U.S. and discusses how migrant culture is changing America.

Two additional books that address issues of immigration from a very different point of view are State of Emergency : the third world invasion and conquest of America by Patrick J. Buchanan, and Whatever it Takes : illegal immigration, border security, and the war on terror by J. D. Hayworth with Joe Eule.

In State of Emergency, Pat Buchanan "sounds the alarm" that since September 11, 2001, millions of illegal immigrants have crossed into the U.S., and more are coming every day. In his estimation, "the Melting Pot is broken beyond repair, and the future of our nation is at stake." Ultimately, he believes that illegal immigration will lead to the end of the United States as baby boomers and their parents knew it to be.

In Whatever It Takes, Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-Arizona) shares his views on how terrorists seek ways to "exploit America's porous borders and attack the country, as well as the hypocrisy, greed, and political correctness that" prevents U.S. leaders from solving "the immigration problem."

Two additional books well worth mentioning are Latino Americans and immigration laws : crossing the border by Miranda Hunter, and Illegal Immigration : an Opposing Viewpoints Guide. The first book, which can be found in our children's room, examines the patterns of Latino immigration and the history of U.S. immigration legislation. It is part of a series of books on Hispanic heritage.

The Opposing Viewpoints Guide contains six entries drawing upon arguments ranging from across the political spectrum. Each entry includes photographs and political cartoons that add an extra dimension to the analysis. Intended for readers in 9th grade and older, the book doesn't necessarily provide the most extensive analysis of the issues. Nevertheless, it does a nice job of including multiple points of view.

For those of you who enjoy accessing information electronically, I recommend browsing the library's Opposing Viewpoints database. The database not only includes information about immigration, but also dozens of other contentious issues including stem cell research, global warming and gun control.

And finally, I'd really like to encourage you to leave us your opinions about the issues discussed in this and all other From the Reference Desk blog entries. It doesn't matter whether you are ten years old or eighty years old. Maybe you are a library cardholder. Maybe you work at a library. All you have to do is click on the "Comments" link at the end of each entry and type in your opinion and/or reaction. So what do you say? How do you feel about the issue of illegal immigration? We want to know!

(Quoted material in this entry comes from book cover descriptions and/or book reviews that are available in the library catalog.)

No, it's not Halloween, but ghosts are on my mind. I've recently started listening to book six of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." By the time July 21 rolls around, I'll be ready to read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last book in J.K. Rowling's series. (The Nashua Public Library will be having a movie festival the week of July 21 to celebrate the release of Deathly Hallows. Call our movie line, 589-4646, for the details.)

Now, no one's spotted Nearly Headless Nick or the Bloody Baron here in the library, but we've had our share of questions about Nashua's own ghosts. One of the most famous local ghosts is that of Elizabeth Ford. Some say that she haunts the Country Tavern on Amherst Street. The story goes that Elizabeth Ford's husband, a sea captain, returned home from an extended voyage to discover that she had given birth. In a jealous rage, he murdered Elizabeth and her baby. Over the years since then, people have reported spotting what they believe to be her ghost at that location. Curious? Read more about it in the Ghostly Gazetteer, by Arthur Myers (find it in Adult Nonfiction at 133.1). You can also read about Elizabeth Ford in Ghosts of the Northeast, by David J. Pitkin (located in Adult Nonfiction at 133.109 P).

For reports of ghosts beyond Nashua, you may also want to take a look at these titles:

• Norm Gauthier's guide to New Hampshire 'haunted' places you can visit! (text by Norm Gauthier, photos by Steven M. Gauthier. This title is a reference book in our Hunt Room local history collection.)


• Ghosts of New England, by Hans Holzer (call number 133.109 H). This book covers ghosts from around New England as well as New York. Among these is a story about a Plymouth, NH ghost.


• Ghosts of Nantucket, by Blue Balliett (call number 133.109 B)


• Haunted Island: True Ghost Stories from Martha's Vineyard, by Holly Mascott Nadler (call number 133.1 N)


• Nadler is also the author of Ghosts of Boston town : three centuries of true hauntings (call number 133.1 N)


• Gallery of Ghosts has ghost stories from around the world--from as far as Hungary and as near as Maine and Vermont. (call number 133.1 R)

Whether you're a believer or not, these can be interesting reading. Got a favorite Nashua or New Hampshire ghost story? Let us know!

June 13, 1884 marked the debut of an invention which people still view today with either wild enthusiasm or utter terror. Chase's Calendar of Events recognizes June 13, 1884 as the anniversary of the opening of the first roller coaster. A lot was involved in the creation of the roller coaster; it didn't just spring into being that June day at Coney Island. Eighty years before that day, a roller coaster with wheels called "the Russian Mountains"was being ridden by people in Paris. Early roller coasters were a one way ride, sort of like going downhill on a sled, and they were very dangerous.

Americans discovered the roller coaster in the late 1800s. According to The American amusement park industry by Judith Adams, "the form of early American roller coasters seems to have been inspired by the switchback railway developed to transport coal from a quarry in Mauch Chunk, PA. When the railroad was abandoned, the townspeople converted it to a tourist attraction. In 1873 they were giving rides to about 35,000 tourists a year at a charge of 5 cents a person. LaMarcus Adna Thompson used this idea, with improvements suggested by others, and built a roller coaster. His roller coaster is the one celebrated as the first American roller coaster put into operation at Coney Island in 1884." Judith Adams gives some idea of what a success this was in her book. " At a nickel a ride, Thompson's receipts exceeded $600 a day. In three weeks, he had earned back his original investment."

Roller coasters have gone on to become extremely popular. Many amusement parks like Six Flags and Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio (roller coaster capitol of the world) have established their reputations through their roller coasters. Some people, myself included, would rather watch than ride, but we seem to be in the minority. I find myself amazed and intimidated by small children, just barely able to meet the height requirement, who are laughing and screaming and waving their arms in the air. I rode a roller coaster once, jammed down in the seat as far as I could go, hanging on for my life, with my eyes closed from the time the ride started until it stopped. Laugh and scream, HA! I was too terrified to make a sound!

If you are an aficionado, the library has some interesting books on roller coasters and amusement parks:
Roller coasters of America
A century of fun : a pictorial history of New England Amusement Parks
Remembering Benson's Wild Animal Farm, Hudson, New Hampshire
There are also a couple of children's books: The World's Wildest Roller Coasters and Amusement park science
and for those people (and I know you're out there) who feel best with their feet on the ground, the library has a Play Station 2 video game called Theme Park Roller Coaster.

So, this summer while you are up there waving your arms and screaming, look for me. I'll be the one standing down on the ground waving, with a big smile on my face. I'm not crazy, just scared!

No I'm not crazy, those numbers mean something. I've recently taken up the outdoor activity geocaching and I love to talk to people about it. Those numbers are the coordinates of the Nashua Public Library. Last weekend I located my first successful cache with my own gps. It's a great summer time activity for all ages.
For those of you who have never tried it here's a brief introduction from www.geocaching.com

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

One of the great aspects of this game is learning about new locations, whether its a trail or an urban environment. I'm also learning that there are caches everywhere, including next door to the library! So if you have a gps go to www.geocaching.com create a username, download some coordinates and get started!

By the way, does anyone have a "must do" cache in the Nashua area they want to tell me about? Leave me a comment below.

If this is your first time hearing about geocaching you might want to check out some of the books below in our library collection....

Geocaching : hike and seek with your GPS / Erik Sherman

Geocaching for dummies / by Joel McNamara

The essential guide to geocaching : tracking treasure with your GPS / Mike Dyer

The geocaching handbook / Layne Cameron ; with a foreword by Dave Ulmer

Ever wanted to email a big file to a friend but decided not to because it would take forever for your friend to actually download the attached file? Or perhaps you wanted to attach a file that is a database or a program and decided not to because it might get filtered by your friend's email program? Well, I just learned of a cool solution to these problems. The service is called SendThisFile.com, and you can find it at http://www.sendthisfile.com.

To use this free service, you first have to register with them. Then, it's as easy as entering the recipient's email address, selecting the desired file to send, and clicking the SendThisFile button! The recipient receives an email containing a link to the selected file. All they have to do is click on the link to get to a webpage where they click on the Download This File link. That's all there is to it!

But are there limitations about file size, or even the number of files you can send at once? The answer is no! So enjoy using this terrific service!

Do you know of other nifty web services like this one? Tell us about it by clicking on the "Comments" link below this entry, and writing up a summary. If your recommendation is particularly excellent, we'll write an entire entry about it in our blog and mention you as the source.

When the space shuttle Atlantis lands this week, it will return to Earth with a record holder. At 12:47 CDT today, Sunita Williams broke the record for the longest duration spaceflight by a woman. At that time, Williams surpassed the previous mark of 188 days, 4 hours set in 1996. She is also the woman who has spent the most hours outside a spacecraft, having completed four spacewalks during Expedition 15 with a total time of 29 hours, 17 minutes. It is particularly interesting that the Massachusetts native made history today, as it is the anniversary of another groundbreaking space mission. Twenty-four years ago on this date, the space shuttle Challenger, equipped with a new robotic arm to deploy and retrieve satellites, launched flight STS-7. One of the operators of that device was Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

Ride is a women of many talents. She received a partial tennis scholarship to a prep school in Los Angeles and was ranked eighteenth on the junior circuit. Tennis legend Billie Jean King even told Ride that she could play professionally. Ride decided instead to focus on her studies, earning both a BS and a BA from Stanford University. She remained at Stanford for her graduate work in physics. In 1978, Ride learned that she was one of 35 people chosen from a field of 8,000 for spaceflight training. She had applied "almost on a whim" when NASA fielded applications for the first time in quite a few years and decided not to exclude women. Ride was assigned to the ground support crew for shuttle flights in 1981 and 1982. She made history in 1983 as the youngest person sent into orbit, as well as the first American woman in space, and ventured into the final frontier again in October 1984. Training for her third mission was cut short in the wake of the Challenger disaster. Ride was named to President Reagan's Rogers Commission, which investigated the explosion. She was the only astronaut on the panel.

Ride's work has extended beyond NASA. She was a member of President Bill Clinton's transition team in 1992 and has dedicated her life to educating others. Ride is a professor of physics at University of California, San Diego and also headed their California Space Institute. She has also worked for Space.com, which maintains a website about the space industry, and founded NASA's EarthKam project, which allows children to take and download photos of the Earth from space.

Ride is particularly passionate about encouraging girls and women to pursue careers in math and science. Ride's mother Joyce had also harbored an interest in science, but noted that in college, she encountered a "wall of silence." She and other women in the class were "nonpersons." Even today, girls face resistance when they show interest in math and science. Former Harvard President Lawrence Summer's comment about girls' lack of ability in those areas is case in point. In an article about Ride that I found through the Biography Resource Center database, author KC Cole notes that it is "quite an achievement" that many of the country's top mathematicians and scientists are women because well into the twentieth century, many were not allowed to receive advanced degrees in those fields. On the lecture circuit, Ride meets many children, both boys and girls, who want to be astronauts, but the college physics classes are predominantly male. According to Cole, Ride "gets the answers when she talks with women who wanted to be astronomers or archaeologists, but were told that they were dumb in math--in the third grade! Or were excluded from the engineering club in high school." Ride also says, "you see all these boys who get C's in math and say, 'I'm going to be an engineer!' And all these girls who get A's in math and say, 'I'm not good enough.'" To remedy this problem, Ride founded Imaginary Lines, which provides support for girls interested in science, math, and technology, and the Sally Ride Club, which is geared toward upper elementary and middle school girls.

Now, the next time you hear Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," you'll know a little more about the woman in the last verse sandwiched between "Wheel of Fortune" and "heavy metal."

Sources:
"Astronaut Suni Williams Sets the Record Straight, and Long." NASA http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/s_williams_record.html (accessed 6/16/07).

Cole, KC. "Sally Ride: a generation later, the first female astronaut is still on a mission." Smithsonian 36 no. 8 (Nov 2005): 64-5. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.

"Sally Ride." Notable Women Scientists. Gale Group, 2000.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.

Last weekend, with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, I returned to college for a class reunion. A little more wrinkled (or "well-seasoned" as I like to think of it), we cautiously peered at each other, checked out the name tags, and tried to figure out what we had in common. Once we'd nailed down how we'd known each other (or given up trying), the conversation moved on to "what are you up to these days?"

It was fascinating to hear what changes a few years had brought: new careers, children, home buying, weddings. I should probably disclose here that I went to a women's college, and was fortunate to graduate at a time when women were mostly free to choose their own paths. So it is not surprising that classmates have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, hedge fund partners, stay-at-home moms, librarians, voice teachers, college professors, social workers, and more. Even now, though, the issue of working mothers is still debated in some circles. In fact, we have a number of articles on both sides of the argument in an excellent database called "Opposing Viewpoints." There's even an article or two on stay-at-home dads. You can reach the database by going to our home page, www.nashualibrary.org, then looking in the banner under "Databases"-->"Most Popular"-->"Opposing Viewpoints."

You can also read more about the work-family balance in magazine articles such as "Why Moms Should Work" (Ladies Home Journal, April 2007) in the EBSCO database, again available through our web site. (For direct access to the alphabetical list of databases, go to http://www.nashua.lib.nh.us/IbrowseAdultAlpha.htm.)

If you'd rather have a book on the career/family balance, there's a collection of essays from a variety of perspectives, "Mommy wars: stay-at-home and career moms face off on their choices, their lives, their families", edited by Leslie Morgan Steiner. You'll find this on the parenting shelf in the children's department.

Some of my classmates always knew what they wanted to do; others had changed paths along the way. For those considering a change of career, a good place to start is the classic career guide, "What color is your parachute?: a practical manual for job-hunters & career changers", by Richard Nelson Bolles.

Another career book that caught my eye looks more at changing trends in how people approach their careers: "The opt-out revolt : why people are leaving companies to create kaleidoscope careers," by Lisa A. Mainiero & Sherry E. Sullivan. Library Journal describes this one as "the results of a five-year-long quantitative and qualitative research study examining how and why the career patterns of both men and women have changed from the traditional ever upward model to a path with multiple forks and rest stops."

If you're more interested in stories about others who have made life changes, there's "U-turn: what if you woke up one morning and realized you were living the wrong life?," by Bruce Grierson.

Those seeking a new career might also want to check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, online at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ or in paper at the library. This handbook gives information about what various jobs entail, what working conditions to expect, what the outlook for growth in the field is, what salaries are typical, and what training or education is required.

A lot of times finding a topic for my blog is a real struggle and I have to count on someone doing something wonderful or, sad to say, someone dying. Other times I'm forced to rely on Chase's calendar of events for something to write about. Once in a while, a blog topic comes up and hits me in the head, like now. I've been very busy focused on helping to plan my daughter's wedding. Now I suddenly find myself being pulled like a tug-of-war rope, only in several directions. My widowed mother, who is soon to be eighty-two, and my two closest aunts, eighty-five and eighty-six, would like more of my attention and, how did this happen, my father-in-law is soon to be ninety. He lives six hours away.

I'm very fortunate because they are all in good health physically, but I begin to see a time when that might not be so. My father-in-law just realized that he is now more than ten years older than his father was when he could no longer be trusted to drive. My mother lives in an area where she must drive to everything. All of these worries, which were always too far removed to think about, are now very immediate. My father-in-law is in better shape, because although my husband is the only son, he does have three sisters, all in the immediate area. My only sibling is male, and at least three hours away.

I decided to do some research so that, although I certainly wouldn't be prepared, at least I wouldn't be completely lost. I felt that I needed to do some reading, so I started with the collection at NPL. One of the first books that I found was the best. How to say it to seniors helped me to understand why sometimes the most innocuous sounding statement can be the wrong thing to say. More than that, it gave me some insight into that silly-sounding but so hard to answer question, "what are they thinking?". The rest of these books are on my reading list for the summer.

Is your parent in good hands? : protecting your aging parent from financial abuse and neglect
Taking care of Mom & Dad : The money, politics and emotions that come with supporting your parents
Caring for yourself while caring for your aging parents : How to help, how to survive
Are your parents driving you crazy? : how to resolve the most common dilemmas with aging parents
Changing places: a journey with my parents into their old age
Elder care made easier : Dr. Marion's 10 steps to help you care for an aging loved one

If you need more immediate help, the U S Department of Health and Human Services has a webpage called eldercare locator which will help with connections to services for the elderly within your community. Through two of the tabs at the top of the webpage labeled The Aging Network and Resources, you can connect to a wealth of helpful information including the website for the American Administration on Aging. The Resources tab will enable you to access links to websites providing information on aging organizations, elder rights, and general health resources among other things.

FYI:

To serve you better, the Nashua Public Library will upgrade its computer system next week.

Starting next Monday, June 25th and continuing for several days, library customers and staff will be unable to do the following:
*reserve materials
*renew materials
*view library accounts
*use NH Downloadable Audiobooks

Customers will, however, be able to check out and return materials.

Live Homework Help and the library's online research databases will only be available on library computers.

The library sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience.

Earlier this week I was flipping through the channels on cable and stumbled upon a very interesting documentary on PBS named "The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom". The show is part of a larger series of documentaries titled America at a Crossroads. In "The Case for War", Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle "travels the globe articulating, defending and debating the neoconservative case for an assertive American foreign policy."

I found the show particularly interesting because it didn't try to glorify the case for war along political lines or belittle opponents of the war. Rather, it treated the issues and the people involved with a great deal of respect. And it includes numerous conversations Perle had with those who strongly disagree with his point of view, including family members of veterans who died in the war.

Some of the more prominent individuals he speaks with include

• Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of Arabic newspaper Al Quds, one of the few journalists who has interviewed Osama Bin Laden
• Simon Jenkins, a British journalist and author who writes a column twice weekly for the Guardian and disagrees strongly with Perle's opinions
• Patrick Buchanan, a former Republican politician and current news pundit. Buchanan also disagrees with Perle's necon views.
• Natan Sharansky, one of the founders and the spokesman of Jewish and the Refusenik movement in Moscow who was arrested and in July 1978 convicted on charges of treason and spying for the United States and sentenced to 13 years of forced labor. Sharansky shares many of Perle's neoconservative views, including the belief that countries in which liberty and democracy have been seriously hampered should be "forcedly democratized".
• Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who helped broker a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia that led to the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1995. Holbrook strongly disagrees with Perle's neoconservative ideals.

The library has books written by or about many of the men listed above. Here are a few:

• An end to evil : how to win the war on terror / David Frum, Richard Perle.
• Where the right went wrong : how neoconservatives subverted the Reagan revolution and hijacked the Bush presidency / Patrick J. Buchanan.
• To end a war / Richard Holbrooke.

Sources
Sharansky quote: "Natan Sharansky, the ideologist of forced democratization", http://www.voltairenet.org/article30245.html, viewed on June 22, 2007.

In the days of colonial America, the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers was a contentious one. After the Revolutionary War, the situation grew worse. As Americans crossed the Mississippi and settled in the plains, the Native Americans were forced off the land. Treaties were signed and broken, and the American Indians were driven west. Eventually, they were forced onto reservations. Incidents between the colonists/Americans and the Indians occurred from the beginning, and some of the confrontations were especially brutal.

Today is the anniversary of one of the most famous of these confrontations: The Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand. This battle pitted Lt. Colonel George Custer against thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other Native Americans. According to Encyclopedia Americana, which you can find on a shelf to the right of the Reference Desk, white Americans were settling on lands guaranteed to the Indians in the Black Hills and the Yellowstone River region. Because the Indians failed to return to their reservations as ordered, American troops mobilized. Soldiers were sent into the area from the east, west and north, although the latter column was apprehended by Crazy Horse earlier that month. Once the remaining soldiers met at the Yellowstone River, Maj. Marcus Reno scouted the area and determined that the Indians were probably on the Little Bighorn River. Two groups were sent out, one led by Custer, who was told not to advance too quickly, but did reach his point long before the other group was ready. On June 25, 1876, he saw a camp of 12,000 to 15,000 Indians, 4,000 to 5,000 of whom were warriors. Although they were not yet scheduled to advance, the tired troops attacked the Indians; erroneous information indicated that the soldiers had been discovered. While heading toward the river, Custer's group was driven back and surrounded. Custer and his men were killed. The Indians had won this round, but the defeat of the Americans at Little Bighorn and the death of Custer, a Civil War hero, would be avenged. The Indian Wars continued until the end of 1890 with the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Of course, the Battle of Little Bighorn is much more complex than the summary above. If you want to learn more, take a look at some of the books in our collection, such as:
The Little Bighorn Campaign, March-September 1876
Soldiers Falling Into Camp: The Battles at the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn
Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life
The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull
Custer Battlefield: A History and Guide to the Battle of the Little Bighorn: Custer Battlefield National Monument, Montana

For additional reading on the Indian Wars, we have, among others:
The American Indian Wars
Black Elk Speaks; Being he Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; An Indian History of the American West
http://">In the Shadow of Wounded Knee: The Untold Final Chapter of the Indian Wars
href="http://hip.nashua.lib.nh.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=.GW&term=indian+yell&aspect=basic#focus">Indian Yell: The Heart of an American Insurgency

If you have read any of the books listed above and would like to offer your opinion, feel free to leave a comment below.

Source:
Stewart, Edgar I. "Little Bighorn, Battle of the." Encyclopedia Americana vol. 17. Danbury, CT: Scholastic Publishing 2005 p. 594-5

Like many kids, I always had an image of my parents as solid, responsible people. Then they retired, and without any forewarning, they came home one day and announced that they'd bought an RV (recreational vehicle, or motor home). Yikes! Impulse buy! I had my doubts, but they took it out for a few long trips and loved the lifestyle. Terms like "cab over," "class C," and "gray water" started to pepper their vocabulary.

They continued to camp while looking at places to spend their retirement. Then one day, these two crazy kids announced that they were selling their townhouse... despite the fact that they did not have a new home lined up! So they put some things in storage, climbed into the RV, and headed off to find somewhere to live. A few months later, they found a place they liked and settled in the southwest. But they still like to take out the RV for trips to visit friends and family.

We were curious about how they chose campgrounds, so we asked. They recommended Woodall's Campground Directory for campground ratings. According to the Woodall guide, their representatives visit and inspect the private campgrounds in their directory annually. The directory is organized alphabetically by state, and there are separate ratings for facilities and recreation. You can find the latest directory in our reference collection at REF 917.3 W. Older editions, which can be checked out, are in the adult nonfiction collection at q917.3 W.

Given the enthusiasm displayed by one of my family members, I may need to track down some information on RV camping. Here are some titles that seem likely to help a newbie RVer:

• Wheelers RV resort & campground guide. (call number q647.942 W)


• The complete idiot's guide to RVing; by Brent Peterson. (call number 796.79 P)


• Exploring America by RV; text and photographs by Shirley Slater & Harry Basch. (call number 796.79 S)


• 301 ways to make RV travel safer, easier, and more fun; Bernice Beard. (call number 796.79 B)


• At your own pace : traveling your way in your motorhome; Bernice Beard. (call number 917.3 B)