I recently read an interesting article from Reuters about the hyphen. In the new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 16,000 words have lost their hyphens, due in part to designers' dislike of the way hyphens look in advertisements and on the internet. In addition, Angus Stevenson, editor of the dictionary, notes that people are not confident in their use of hyphenation. They don't really know why hyphens are used.

Is this breaking news? Will it change the way we write? I'm not so sure. While I am aware that compound adjectives require hyphens, I didn't realize that some words (ice cream, bumblebee, water bed, chickpea) had hyphens in the first place. Apparently, my good friends Ben and Jerry were not aware of the hyphen in ice cream, either.

Lack of knowledge about a grammatical rule is not enough to change it, however. The writers and editors of the Shorter OED conducted much research in making their decisions about hyphens. They analyzed the use of words in newspapers, books, websites, and blog entries from 2000 to the present. So, just becuase a few people don't really get when to use a semicolon, for example, it does not mean that the punctuation mark will go by the wayside.

For more information about the changes to hyphenated words, take a look at the article "Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on" by Simon Rabinovitch.

If you want to brush up on grammar and punctuuation, take a look at the following books:

A grammar book for you and I-- oops, me! : all the grammar you need to succeed in life / C. Edward Good
The brief Penguin handbook / Lester Faigley
The grammar bible : everything you always wanted to know about grammar but didn't know whom to ask / Michael Strumpf and Auriel Douglas
The Oxford essential guide to writing / Thomas S. Kane
Punctuation plain and simple / by Edgar C. Alward and Jean A. Alward
100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses / from the editors of the American Heritage dictionaries
Eats, shoots & leaves : the zero tolerance approach to punctuation / Lynne Truss
or others we have in the library.

Tired of overdue fines? Wouldn't it be nice to get those email notifications prior to being late for a change? Library Elf has come to the rescue, a free web-based service based in Vancouver BC, designed for library users who easily lose track of materials. It's especially useful for parents who manage library cards for children, but it's a nifty tool for any borrower.

Elf reminds you of outstanding material exactly when you want it to. This can be x number of days before your items are due (between 1 and 7), on the due date itself, or on a certain day every week (say every Tuesday) before the due date. Advance reminders are what this service is best known for.

You'll continue to receive overdue notices too (if necessary -- hopefully you won't need them anymore!), but again, you decide when: one day after the due date, or every day after the due date until the items are returned. Likewise, Elf lets you know when your holds (requested items) are ready to be picked up at the front desk. You can even choose to receive text messages instead of emails for your holds, though be aware that your cell-phone carrier will probably charge you for this.

So don't wait another minute. Create an Elf account (all you need is your email address, library card number and PIN), follow the steps as they appear, and you'll soon be on the road to a happier, fine-free library experience.

(For more details see the Library Elf FAQs.)

In Derry this weekend, a piece of literary history came crashing to earth. Although "Birches" may be Robert Frost's most famous poem about trees, it was an old sugar maple that is said to have inspired many of Frost's poems, including "Tree at My Window". That tree stood for many years on Frost's farm in Derry. However, it had become so diseased that it posed a safety hazard. Finally, this past weekend, it had to be cut down. According to the Associated Press, there was a poetry reading as part of the event. Some of the pieces of the tree were distributed to artisans for crafting; others went to a wood-fueled power plant.

There are plans for a new tree to be planted in the spring.

The Robert Frost Farm is now a National Historic Landmark, and is open to visitors. The farmhouse itself is only open for a few more days this season--the last day is Columbus Day. The grounds, however, are open year round. For more information, see the farm's web site at http://robertfrostfarm.org/visit.html.

Those of you who find most poetry too flowery may appreciate Frost's crisp, evocative style. You'll find "Tree at My Window" and many other Frost poems here in our adult nonfiction section. For a complete collection of his poems, check out "The Poetry of Robert Frost," edited by Edward Connery Lathem, found at 811 F.

Did you know that monarch butterflies migrate from southern Canada and northern USA south in the Fall to Mexico where they reproduce the young that will return north in the Spring? You can track the migration and learn more about butterflies at butterflywebsite.com

We are excited to announce that we have just added The Butterfly Place to our list of passes for museums in the Music art and Media Department. It's a great location for family fun. Our pass allows one free admission to the site.

The Butterfly Place is a man-made habitat for butterflies. It is located in a 3,100 sq. ft. building that is over 27 ft. at its peak. In this living environment are many colorful plants which provide nectar for the butterflies. The atrium may contain up to 500 butterflies representing 50 different species from around the world. Those that are native to New England are featured when possible.The Butterfly Place is located at 120 Tyngsboro Rd. Westford, MA Open 2/14 to 03/31 10-4pm. 4/1 to Columbus Day 10-5pm. Visit them on line at http://www.butterflyplace-ma.com

Come by the Music Art and Media Department to reserve your pass or reserve it on the library's web site.

This is another of those topics which should be written about. I was talking to my hairdresser about my need to find a blog topic. She told me that I really should write about bullies because bullying is such a big problem now. I started to think about it, and I realized that many of the stories in the news recently have their roots in someone's use of bullying behavior, usually taken to extremes. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines a bully as a blustering browbeating person; especially : one habitually cruel to others who are weaker.

Bullies start young. Almost everyone knows a little kid who takes toys away from others and won't give them back, or who hits or bites. When bullies get older, they don't always use the physical to pick on others. The image of a bully beating up other kids for their lunch money is common and probably does happen frequently. Bullies also spread lies and rumors about others on sites like My Space , or they use school social situations and the help of their friends to make life miserable for the students they target.

There are bullies in three-piece suits with responsible positions who bully others that they may perceive as weaker. They use off-color jokes, suggestive remarks and unwanted advances. In legal terms this is known as sexual harassment; it's just a grown-up bully at work. Maybe you've heard about some of them lately.

There are a number of good websites for both kids and their parents discussing the topic of bullying. They give thoughtful suggestions for dealing with bullies. They also explain what a bully is and offer some ideas about what makes a bully behave in a bullying way. KidsHealth has a good article about bullies and emotions and companion articles about peer-pressure, cliques and gossip, all written for kids. The website articles can also be translated into Spanish by simply clicking on a button. There is also a corresponding site for adults called KidsHealth for parents which discusses the why and how of bullying and offers suggestions for teaching kids not to bully. PBSkids is another kid-friendly site where bullying is discussed in ways that kids understand. A relatively new site is FamilyEducationNetwork which has information for parents, but also lots of advertising to dodge.

The library has some helpful materials as well:
Totally wired : what teens and tweens are really doing online
Stop bullying : las mejores estrategias para prevenir y frenar el acoso escolar
Bullying : how to deal with taunting, teasing, and tormenting
Bullies are a pain in the brain
The no asshole rule : building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn't

Bullies aren't all named Biff and they are not all intellectually challenged; they are also not all male. The more you and your kids understand about bullies, the less likely you are to become a victim of a bully or a bully yourself.

You may recognize this famous author's name if you read the goosebumps series when you were younger. Or perhaps when you were a little older and a little braver you read something from his Fear Street series. He's been entertaining readers for over 20 years.

Today the man who has spent his career making others lose sleep at night is celebrating his 64th birthday.

In researching Stine for this entry I learned he began his career not trying to scare young adults but instead make them laugh. At Scholastic he started working in magazines then eventually made into books. To find out more fun facts about popular author read a few entries in our Biography Resource Database. You can get to it by going to the library's website and clicking IBrowse Databases. From there you'll want to select Literature from the pull down menu.

For a complete list of his fiction books check out Novelist, our reader's advisory database.

The Children’s Room staff loves all things fall. Colored leaves, bright, cool days, great pumpkin and harvest stories and puppet shows, and neat, natural crafts to make. Every year in September we receive a beautiful painted pumpkin from Dr. Anne Todd, the well-known orthodontist in Hudson and that gets everything started. This year, as in the past, we are asking our kid customers to bring in a decorated pumpkin (not carved) for our annual “Read-O-Lantern” contest. The idea is to decorate your pumpkin to look like a book character of your choice. Madeline, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Skippyjon Jones, and the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz are just a few of the amazing orbs we have had on display in the past. The pumpkins are set out on top of the book stacks in the Children's Room until a few days before October 31st for all of our young customers to enjoy and vote for their favorite one. Prizes are awarded to one and all. Hope to see your creation soon!! And finally, get a little extra mileage out of all those super costumes you are preparing for the big celebration at the end of October and come to the Children’s Room Costume Party on Tuesday, October 30th at 4:00pm. It is good old-fashioned fun with spooky stories, a couple of cool puppet shows, a piñata, a creepy craft and goodies for everyone ages 3 and up. Moms and Dads are invited to dress up, too!! So don’t miss out on the fun, just come!! Any questions?? Feel free call us in the Children’s Room at 589-4631.

On the day this entry was published, the S&P 500 reached an all-time high of 1,565.42. If you had invested $10,000 in a Standard & Poor's 500 index fund a just six years ago, it would now be worth $14,348.49. That works out to a 43% rate of return over the six year period. Not bad!

So how can you get a piece of the action? Well I'm not a financial planner, but I can point you in the direction of some terrific information resources here at the library. First of all, I'd recommend a new book titled All About Index Funds : the easy way to get started by Richard A. Ferri. In the book, Ferri discusses why index funds "beat most other funds", and reviews asset allocation basics, as well as how to define your financial goals and your index fund portfolio.

Two other new books about investing that I recommend include Cocktail Economics : discovering investment truths from everyday conversations by Victor A. Canto, and The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read : the simple, stress-free way to reach your investment goals by Daniel R. Solin. In Cocktail Economics, Canto, chairman and founder, of an economic consulting firm, provides investment advice using a conversational tone and anecdotes to transform complex economic theories into "common-sense basics." In The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, Solin outlines an easy-to-follow plan that allows investors to create and monitor their portfolios in 90 minutes or less per year. Both books will undoubtedly help you understand investment concepts and get you started in the right direction.

Another invaluable investment research resource available at the library is ValueLine. To read more about our print and electronic ValueLine resources, take a look at this earlier entry.

So the World Series score is 2 games Red Sox, 0 games Rockies, and our Red Sox are headed out to Colorado. But how much do you know about these Colorado Rockies and their Coors Field?

Although there have been so many "great" baseball teams including the '27 Yankees, the '36 Yankees and the Big Red Machine (see Baseball Almanac's Determining the Best Major League Baseball Team Ever From 1902-2005), the 2007 Rockies are the only team in history to have been in the middle of any postseason riding a 19-1 streak that dates back into the regular season. So this is historic stuff! The Rockies have also become the first National League team in 30 years, and only the second in the past 44 years, to run off a 19-1 streak at any time of any year. The last to do that were the 1977 Phillies. And the Rockies are now the first major league team in 30 years, the first National League team in 72 years and the fourth team ever to win 19 of 20 after September 1. The last team to do it in the NL, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, were the 1935 Cubs. The last to do it in the major leasues were the 1977 Royals, a team that called up a prospect named Clint Hurdle in the middle of the streak. The only other team in that late-season 19-1 Club is John McGraw's 1916 New York Giants.

Creation of the Rockies
After previous failed attempts to bring major league baseball to Colorado, in the early 1990s rhe Colorado Baseball Commission successfullly persuaded Denver voters to approve a 0.1 percent sales tax to help finance a new baseball stadium. The Rockies joined the National League in 1993 along with the Florida Marlins. The Rockies' first pick in the expansion draft was pitcher David Nied from the Atlanta Braves organization. (Nied pitched four seasons for the Rockies.)

The first game in Rockies history was played on April 5, 1993 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. David Nied was the starting pitcher and the Rockies lost, 3-0. The Rockies' first home game at Mile High Stadium, and their first win ever, came four days later in an 11-4 win over the Montreal Expos.

"Rocktober"
The Rockies were behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Aarizona Diamondbacks, and the San Diego Padres for most of the season. By August, however, Colorado showed a steady series of wins while the division-leading Dodgers began to struggle. By September, the Dodgers were eliminated from playoff contention, the Diamondbacks were expected to clinch the National League West division title and the Padres looked like a sure bet for the National League wild card spot. The Diamondbacks eventually clinched the National League West division title, but the Rockies staged one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history. They were a major-league best 20-8 in September, after trailing by six games on September 1st. They won their last 13 of 14 games, including 11 in a row, the most of any team in the 2007 season. It should be noted that Colorado set the single-season major league baseball record for fielding percentage (.98925).

Thus the Rockies finished the regular season tied with the Padres for the wild card spot in the playoffs. The two teams played a regular season play-off game at Coors Field on October 1 to determine the wild card. The game lasted thirteen innings, and although the Padres got two runs off of a Scott Hairston home run in the top of the thirteenth to break a 6-6 tie, the Rockies came back in the bottom of the thirteenth by scoring three runs off of closer Trevor Hoffman to win 9-8.

So the Rockies made the playoffs for the first time since 1995, and then blew the Philadelphia Phillies out of the National League Division Series in three games. The three-game sweep was Colorado's first post-season series win in team history. Next the Rockies swept the National League Championship Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies became the first team ever to sweep both the division series and league championship series in the same postseason. But our Red Sox have stopped the Rockies' win streak, blowing them away in Wednesday's World Series opener, 13-1.

Coors Field: Home of the Rockies
On August 16, 1990, almost a year before baseball awarded Colorado an expansion team, Denver voters approved a 0.1 percent sales tax to fund a baseball-only stadium. The ballpark's total cost was $215 million. Architects originally designed the park to seat 43,800.The park currently seats 50,445 fans. Every year since it opened in 1995, Coors Fields has been a league leader in attendance. The Rocky Mountains can be seen from the first-base and right-field areas. Most of the stadium seats are green. The upper deck's 20th row is painted purple, signifying exactly one mile above sea level.

Coor Field's high altitude has several effects on the game. (See Air too thin? Save your breath/Altitude plays a much different role - It can affect the players). According to an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette, altitude can give local teams an advantage because of what it does to the body, specifically the opponent's body. At a mile high, the oxygen level per breath is about 20 percent lower than at sea level. Heart rates and breathing rates increase to make up the difference, and fatigue sets in more quickly. Over time, bodies can adjust but not fast enough, however, for teams making a quick stop along a road trip. This has a slighter effect on baseball than on basketball, for example, where the players are in constant motion.

The high altitude can also affect the distance a ball travels.The ball travels 9 percent farther at 5,280 feet than at sea level. Therefore, a home run hit 400 feet in sea-level Fenway Park would travel about 440 feet in Denver. However, you should note that the wind can easily play a much greater role than altitude in turning fly balls into home runs. The same 400-foot shot, with a 10-mph wind at the hitter's back, can turn into a 430-foot blast. Another important effect of altitude on baseball is the influence thinner air has on pitching. In general, curve balls will be a little less snappy, and fastballs will get about an extra six inches of giddy-up due to the decrease in resistance the thinner air provides.

Humidor controversy
In 2002, a humidor was installed at Coors Field to store baseballs according to the manufacturer's specifications. It ensures that the balls will not become too dry and too hard and that they do not travel farther than normal. The discovery of the humidor has cast suspicion on the Rockies talent, or lack thereof. Since the installation and discovery of the humidor in Coors Field, runs and high scoring games are less frequent. There were 13.4 runs per game scored at Coors in the year before the humidor's introduction; that number was down by nearly three runs this season. In 2001, there were a major league-high 268 homers hit out of Coors Field. This year, there were 185, which ranked 10th. The Rockies claim they are making sure they are playing with baseballs that meet Major League Baseball's specifications, and are not necessarily trying to prevent opposing teams from hitting homers. You may wish to take a look at Baseball's Expanding Issues for more information.

You may wish to read some of our factual books about baseball, including David Ortiz' s Big Papi: my story of big dreams and big hits. Or take a look at our collection of fiction books about baseball.

Let's root for a good, exciting Series and victory for "our guys". Let's Go Sox!!!

We use language in many ways each day. Any time we talk, listen to the radio, read a book, or write a note, we depend on a language to receive or convey information. I recently learned about two interesting websites about the languages spoken around the world.

If you're curious about the history of languages, how they're related, and where they're spoken, take a look at the National Virtual Translation Center's Languages of the World site. The About Language link provides information about language origins, the range of world languages, language families, endangered languages, writing systems, international languages (official languages of the United Nations), top languages used on the internet, and languages spoken in the United States. This last category provides a link to the MLA Language Map, which uses data from the 2000 US census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of numerous languages in the United States. You can even find out how many people in your zip code speak a particular language. Keep in mind that this information is from 2000, and some of the percentages may have changed since then. Nonetheless, it is a valuable demographic tool and can be a lot of fun. The World Languages link provides information about languages around the world, from Navajo to Norwegian. You can also sort the list by language family to see how different languages are connected. If you consider yourself an expert on a language, click the Test Yourself link to take a quiz.

Unfortunately, not all languages last forever. According to the National Geographic Enduring Voices Project, every two weeks a language--an integral part of a society's culture--dies. Each year, then, the world loses 26 languages. The site notes, "by 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them never yet recorded—will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works." The project aims to preserve endangered languages by identifying the places where languages are threatened and documenting the languages and cultures. The interactive map on this site shows you where the endangered languages are spoken. The United States has two endangered language hotspots--Oklahoma/Southwest and the Pacific Northwest Plateau, which includes part of Canada. Clicking on the hotspots will give you further information.

Here's an example of the MLA map. This shows the number of French speakers per county in New Hampshire:

"As in dreams, the dread precedes the deed; we know in our guts long before the devourer emerges from the darkness that he is on the way, that somebody's flesh -- perhaps our own -- will be forfeit tonight. Mingled with the dread, if we're honest, is a kind of exhilaration, for we're raised out of our trivial selves by the danger we're in. The creature that will soon unfold its story and embrace us is of course sickeningly perverse, but also, in its way, pure; and who can fail to be moved when touched by such paradox?" (Clive Barker, introduction to Stephen King's Salem's Lot, collector's edition, 1991, p ix)

In the rogue's gallery of Halloween, the vampire holds pride of place. Countless books and films have honored and reinterpreted the creature, classically an aristocrat but in other versions a mindless savage. Beast and nobleman, lord and fiend, it charms and repulses in a way the zombie or ghost can't match. Horror fans keep craving the vampire, secretly glad that it's never defeated for good -- that it will soon reappear in another story, another manifestation, to drink blood when the sun goes down.

But where to begin reading? The fiction genre is constantly being tackled by writers who want to put a new spin on the vampire, and it's hard to keep up with the literature. Here are some essential classics:

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker. The library has plenty of copies of the classic, both in hardcover and paperback. The special DVD Dracula: The Legacy Collection includes the Bela Lugosi version, but even better in my view is Nosferatu (the 70s remake of the 1922 silent version) -- which interprets Dracula devoid of charm and seductiveness (a bald spider-rat), taking more liberties with Stoker's text but working surprising wonders on screen.

2. Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I'm not a King fan but have to admit his early vampire novel is hard to beat, and probably my favorite on this list. The writing is disciplined, the horror subtle and aggressive exactly where needed. When I think of vampires, Barlow usually comes to mind before Dracula: that's how well King took control of his character.

3. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. The first novel of the popular Vampire Chronicles offers a sympathetic and erotic portrait of the vampire, set against a suitable backdrop of 18th-century New Orleans. Also check out the film adaptation.

4. I am Legend by Richard Matheson. This 50s novel (set in the futuristic 70s) is found on many "top horror" lists and has been made into a film slated for December release . One man is the lone survivor of a bacterial apocalypse which has transformed everyone else into bloodsuckers. Matheson's influence on the vampire genre shouldn't be underestimated.

5. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. Imagine Mark Twain writing a vampire novel, and you'd get something like this. A steamboat captain in 1857 partners unknowingly with a vampire, and his adventures up and down the Mississippi River are never the same again.

Finally, see our non-fiction collection to learn about vampire history and folklore. And watch out for those bloodsuckers tomorrow night.

"... As from dreams, we wake knowing that another sleep is inevitable, but also empowered, at least a little, by what we have experienced: more alert to what we hide from others and more eager to discover what we hide from ourselves. In essence, more awake; more aware that the acts of courage and imagination we perform are the only fires we have to ward off the devourers and to brighten the darkness which attends the lord they serve, whose approach begins the moment we first draw breath." (Clive Barker, ibid, p xii)

Tonight is the culmination of weeks of hype, orange squash, and horror movie mania. Whew!

Okay, I confess: I'm a horror wimp. This time of year, I try to avoid television so as not to be inundated by the Halloween horror glut--anything creepier than the X-Files and I'm out the door. But magic and sorcery (and Halloween candy) are a different story. I'm not talking about Harry Houdini's illusionist magic--though it is rather interesting that he died on Halloween!--but about the mystical, fictional magic of Harry Potter, Eragon, and others like them.

Stories about magic have been around for much longer than J.K. Rowling. I grew up loving the Oz stories, for while the Wizard was a fake, the land of Oz itself was magical. Edward Eager's books told of ordinary children encountering magic--a particular favorite was "Half Magic". These were written ages ago, though. To find something more up-to-date, the Novelist database is a great place to look for ideas. There are actually two Novelist databases--one for adults and another for the kindergarten to Grade 8 kids.

Novelist K-8 has a nice set of book lists to choose from. Click the tab along the top of the page where it says "Browse Lists". You can then choose to browse through award-winners or go to a "Grab and Go Topical Book List". These "grab and go" lists are helpfully listed in a grid: grade range across the top, then topics in alphabetical order under each grade range. Luckily for me, they have a list of fantasy books for grades 6-8. (Keep in mind, these are just guidelines. Nowhere does it say that you have to stop reading these books once you hit 9th grade.) The list includes old favorites like Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonsinger" and Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", alongside newer titles such as Cornelia Funke's Inkheart and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl.

Another way to find books about magic and sorcery is to search the Novelist database for books with a particular plot. If you click the banner tab that says "Search Our Database," you'll see an option to "Describe a Plot, Topic, or Unit." Click the link and it will allow you to search for whatever you're looking for. I plugged in the term "sorcery" and got a list of 77 books to choose from. This is also a wonderful tool when you've heard about a book but don't know the title. You can type in the plot and character details you know about, and Novelist will bring up a list of books that match your search.

Once you've located a book that looks good to you within Novelist, you can search for similar titles. For example, if you like the looks of Derek Landy's "Skulduggery Pleasant," click on the title to find out more about it. You'll see reviews of the book, plus a list of subject headings that apply to the book. Next to each subject is a checkbox. Click on the box next to each theme you're interested in, and when you hit "Subject Search," you'll get a list of other books with that combination of subjects. So, if I want other books that are about "heirs and heiresses" and "child wizards," I'll click the box next to those two subjects, click "Subject Search," and discover that there's also a book called "Snow-walker," by Catherine Fisher, with the same two subjects. (The Nashua Public Library doesn't have a copy, but we might be able to borrow it from another library through interlibrary loan.)

So, go explore! You never know what thrills await!