As you probably know, the Dewey Decimal System is the classification scheme for nonfiction materials at Nashua Public Library. (For more detailed information, see Dewey Decimal Classification at OCLC.) The 600's is the area where you can find.recipes, automobile repair manuals, home electrical wiring, industrial tools, building plans for decks and bathrooms, and all about health care for the mind and body. This blog will let you know of our new special 600 books on a variety of topics:

The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately And Honestly About the Extraordinary Highs by Denise Brodey.
A magazine editor, Ms. Brodey uses her experiences as the mother of a four-year-old boy diagnosed with sensory integration dysfunction and childhood depression as a springboard to assemble a series of essays from parents of special-needs children. The children profiled have a wide range of diagnoses such as autism,selective mutism, cerebral palsy and schizophrenia. Their parents describe the roller-coaster ride of daily living, discuss whether or not to medicate and the issue of public embarrassment, and share both wonderful and horrific school experiences. Their stories are both sad and unexpectedly funny. In this collection, parents of special-needs kids will find a wise and understanding community.

American Chestnut : The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel.
This is a beautifully-written book about the demise of the American chestnut tree, which was nearly exterminated by a plague that entered the ecosystem. Susan Freinkel has done impeccable research and topnotch reporting of the impassioned work of scientists over the past century and up to today as they have attempted to bring the American chestnut back from the brink of extinction. You will read about botanists' struggles with politicians, the science of crossbreeding, "hypovirulence" (fighting disease by "infecting the infection"), and genetic engineering. As quoted from Publishers Weekly, "... this impassioned book strikes resonant emotional chords that transform dry facts into dynamic prose".

Nim Chimpsky : the Chimp who would be Human by Elizabeth Hess.
In the 1970s Nim Chimpsky was the subject of a University of Oklahoma experiment to determine if a chimp could learn American Sign Language and thus refute Noam Chomsky's influential thesis that language is inherent only in humans. The chimp Nim was sent to live with a family in New York City and was taught human language like any other child. Ms. Hess is both compassionate and accurate as she details the experiment's successes and failures, and its heroes and villains. She describes Nim's odyssey from a town house in Manhattan to a mansion in the Bronx and then back to Oklahoma, where he was bounced among various facilities as financial, personal and scientific troubles beset the study. The book shows why the Nim experiment was a crucial event in animal studies, but in addition, Hess captures Nim's "legendary charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen understanding of human beings". This is probably the only book on linguistics and primatology that will leave readers in tears.

Secret ingredients : the New Yorker Book of Food and Drink edited by David Remnick.
If you enjoy good food, good writing and New Yorker cartoons, this book is for you. It is actually a compilation of essays, fiction, and cartoons on the world of food and drink from the pages of The New Yorker, featuring contributions by such luminaries as Susan Orlean, Calvin Trillin, Joan Didion, Anthony Bourdain, John Cheever, and Roald Dahl. You can read memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems.

How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better by Charla Krupp.
According to the publisher, this book is a "boot camp for a younger, hipper makeover, packed with no-holds-barred advice on little beauty and fashion changes that pay off big time". Whether you are high or low maintenance about your beauty routine, if you are "of a certain age" and want to participate in our youth-obsessed culture, you should enjoy and learn from this book. Ms. Krupp, style expert for the Today Show and former beauty director for Glamour, offers easy-to-follow fashion advice in attractive, highly skimmable, fashion-magazine style, on how to avoid the things that scream old lady (simply "OL" in the book) and adapt to a style that is younger and hipper ("Y&H").

The Alzheimer's Answer : Reduce Your Risk and Keep Your Brain Healthy
by Marwan Noel Sabbagh; foreword by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Sabbagh strongly suggests identifying and combating risk factors decades before symptoms appear. Similar to such other conditions affected by obesity as high blood pressure and diabetes, Alzheimer's is growing at an alarming rate. Although treatment goals and expectations for those with Alzheimer's are modest, Sabbagh believes most risk factors can be offset well before retirement age through diet, physical and mental exercise, brain-specific supplements and, in some cases, medications that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, manage blood sugar and decrease inflammation. He suggests such potent weapons to counteract development of brain plaque as omega-3 fatty acids, quercetin, folic acid, huperzine A, green tea and curcumin. A guide to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment will prove helpful to patients and their families, and an overview of new drugs that could halt progression and possibly heal damaged brain cells offers hope for the future.

On December 1, 1955, a young woman took a stand by refusing to leave her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It seems appropriate that we celebrate the anniversary of Rosa Parks' birth today, during Black History Month.

Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. After marrying, she became involved in the the NAACP and served as the Montgomery chapter's secretary. She was also involved in the Montgomery Voters' League, which assisted African Americans in passing the voter registration tests. For refusing to give up her seat on the bus, Parks was arrested, fined $14, and convicted of violating segregation laws. She challenged the law, and Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Unfortunately, the notoriety hurt Parks, as she was fired from her job, threatened, and hassled. She and her husband left Montgomery and eventually settled in Detroit. Despite earlier disagreements with Civil Rights leaders in Montgomery, Parks continued to fight for equality by raising funds for the NAACP and co-founding the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999. Parks passed away on October 24, 2005.*

You can learn more about Rosa Parks from our Biography Resource Center database or from a variety of books, such as:

Rosa Parks / Douglas Brinkley
Quiet strength : the faith, the hope, and the heart of a woman who changed a nation / Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed
Great African-American women / Darryl Lyman
A wonderful life : 50 eulogies to lift the spirit / edited by Cyrus M. Copeland. This book contains President Bill Clinton's eulogy of Parks.

*Source:
"Rosa Parks." Newsmakers, Issue 1. Thomson Gale, 2007.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

If I could urge only one book on aspiring writers, it would be Constance Hale's Sin and Syntax, a witty handbook on how to break the rules of English grammar and have fun doing it. Bad writers habitually break rules out of ignorance or laziness, while mediocre writers stick to them slavishly. Good writers know exactly when to break rules, overthrow conventions, and come out on top with crisp, lively prose.

In Hale's book the many "don'ts" we cut our teeth on become "do's". Start sentences with conjunctions. End them with prepostitions. Split infinitives with a vengeance. Mark Twain cheerfully broke rules like this: "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." (p 120) Churchill ridiculed those who would insist on a statement like, "This is the sort of bad language up with which I will not put." (p 110) And George Bernard Shaw knew that "to definitely avoid" sounds better than "to avoid definitely". (p 72) Sin boldly when you can make your prose stronger. The rules taught in school, like many rules, are meant to be broken.

The sins you don't want to commit are actually those not often recognized as such. Hale presents what she considers the "seven deadly sins in writing" (pp 18-29), the capital offenses:

1. Sloth. "Grabbing the closest shopworn words without so much as a glimmer of guilt, or hastily creating inelegant nouns out of other nouns, or even verbs." (p 18) And even worse -- as I often complain about -- creating verbs out of nouns. More and more of these "verbs" are becoming acceptable, lazy reconfigurations of existing nouns: to dialogue, to advantage, to summit, etc. Then there are cliches, which should always be avoided (I would say "avoided like the plague", but that's a cliché, right?). Hale is probably right that sloth is the most common and insidious sin among writers.

2. Gluttony. "The gourmandish urge to use five words where one would do." (p 20) This often leads to the use of roundabout and redundant prepositional phrases instead of straight nouns and verbs. I had a problem with this in college, and learned slowly and painfully that less is more, more often than not. A good mantra to recite when sitting at the keyboard.

3. Fog. "Using vague and woolly words rather than concrete ones. A writer who hasn't stopped to think about what he or she is trying to say piles up abstract nouns like phenomenon, element, individual, objective." (pp 20-21) It's easy to fall into this trap when having a brain cramp, but the remedy is simple: go back, revise, and defog your writing.

4. Pretense. "Resorting to pompous, ponderous, or just imponderable nouns." (p 22) The worst sinners are academics so preoccupied with their diction that they lose sight of their goal: communicating with an audience (p 23). Insecurity and arrogance lie behind pretentious words like utilize, praxis, pericope, normalcy and colloquy. Drop them in favor of use, practice, passage, normality and conversation -- except in the very rare contexts which warrant the others.

5. Gobbledygook. An inability to keep things simple. Examples: capitalized cost reductions instead of down payments; a specialist in arms control and security issues instead of a weapons wonk. As with sin #2 (gluttony), less is more.

6. Jargon. Technical lingo. Revelling in the aforesaids, hereofs, hereinbelows, etc. Lawyers and doctors naturally excel in jargon.

7. Euphemism. Describing offensive behavior with inoffensive terms, or sensitive issues with politically-correct language. So in place of firing managers use downsizing, rightsizing, or reshaping. When referring to the bombardment of defenseless villages, the government speaks of pacification. "Euphemisms are for wimps, invented in an attempt to avoid offending others or to pussyfoot around socially prickly subjects. They conceal reality rather than reveal it -- which is, after all, what a writer should be doing." (pp 26-28)

The last (#7) is also tricky. I dislike euphemisms as much as Hale, but refusing to use them period can put you at risk. People these days are too easily offended. If you insist on using retarded instead of mentally challenged, black instead of African American, farming instead of exploiting the earth, etc, you'll find yourself under fire depending on your audience. Sometimes this is a bit sad, and I agree with Hale that writing plainly isn't the same thing as being rude. Civility and tact are important (as she emphasizes on p 26) and should certainly be cultivated in writing -- but perhaps not with euphemisms.

So by all means be sinful when crafting your prose, but be selectively sinful. Knowing what the rules are before breaking them, and why you're breaking them, is the key to becoming a good writer. Dangling prepositions and objective pronouns after the verb "to be" are often crimes to be proud of. Slang can be pretty cool too, depending. It's the more insidious sins you need to guard against -- language that makes you sound lazy, cliché, redundant, obscure, pompous, or evasive. Just because "it's in the dictionary" doesn't mean you ever want to use it. The best writers -- Twain, Shakespeare, Orwell -- understood all of this. That's what made them great.

The library has a number of books (besides Hale's) that teach you the rules of writing, the art of breaking them, and more advanced guides to getting published. The following are a sample:

The Little, Brown Handbook, by H. Ramsey Fowler. Classic overview of the basics: rules of writing, research, and grammar. Best to begin here.

ActionGrammar: Fast, No-Hassle Answers on Everyday Usage and Punctuation, by Joanne Feierman. Covers rules that are (in the author's view) etched in stone vs. those you can break more liberally.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi. Classic guide to writing research papers. Belongs on the shelf of any serious writer.

The Little English Handbook: Choices and Conventions, by Edward P.J. Corbett. A small, popular user-friendly guide to the English language.

Sin and Syntax, by Constance Hale. The best available guide to breaking rules and crafting "wickedly effective prose". Reviewed above, and see what customers have to say at amazon.

Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction -- and Get it Published, by Susan Rabiner & Alfred Fortunato. Filled with trade secrets about what it takes to impress an editor and get published.

The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life, by Noah Lukeman. How to write engaging fiction.

This Year You Write Your Novel, by Walter Mosley. A suitable guide for beginning novelists.

Ever wish there was an easy way of telling what birth, marriage, or death records the library has for Nashuans? Now there is. The library has a "pathfinder" to the vital records collection, and we recently added it to the genealogy web page.

The guide is divided up by type of event: birth, marriage, and death. Each section has a table listing the library's books, databases, and microfilm materials that contain records of those events. The listings are chronological, in order by the date range covered. For example, our earliest birth records are found in the book "Vital records of Dunstable, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849", and this book is listed first, with the date range 1673–1849 indicating what years you can expect to find in that book. So, if you have a general idea of when your relative was born, you can check the left column to see which materials cover that date, and then check the right column to get the title. The call number is also listed for each book.

"Vital Records @ Nashua Public Library" can be downloaded from our web site in PDF format. You can also grab a paper copy from the Hunt Room if you're here in the library.

On a recent trip to Maine, I took a short detour to Bucksport to drop off some 35mm films that the Nashua Public Library has been storing for some time. These films cover significant events in Nashua and throughout New Hampshire from the 1930s through the 1950s. We no longer show 35mm films, but we were concerned about preserving these films and making their content available on another format, but more about them in a later entry.

My destination was Northeast Historic Film. Excluding the state of Rhode Island, NHF is New England’s repository for motion picture films. Housed behind the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport which regularly shows old films, of course, you’ll find a state-of-the-art preservation and duplication laboratory, a video lending library for NHF members, and a small store selling DVDs and videos of one-of-a kind films about New England life long-ago. Perhaps most impressive of all is a windowless, 3-story, futuristic structure connected to the back of NHF’s offices called “The Cube.” This 13,000 cubic foot media storage vault keeps old films (and some videotapes) at a constant 45 degrees F and 25% relative humidity. These conditions slow the chemical processes by which film and tape degrades, safely storing them for duplication for up to 99 years. A separate floor with temperatures maintained below freezing is designated for films that already show signs of distress.

Here are some interesting facts about visual media and archival quality:

• Film (“safety” film, that is, developed in the 1920s) has strong archival qualities. Prior to safety film, film stock was cellulose nitrate-based which is extremely combustible. NHF will not accept nitrate films for preservation or storage.

• Videotape has a much shorter lifetime. VHS in particular can begin to experience “drop outs” within 10-20 years. Beta is a more stable format but rarely seen these days.

• Burned DVDs, if well cared for, should last 100 years or more depending on the format. Early reports of “DVD rot” have not come to pass, but DVDs require care in handling and storage in order to retain their longevity. See Fred R. Byers’ Care and handling of CDs and DVDs: A guide for librarians and archivists for more on DVD and CD life expectancy.

NHF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving films documenting New England’s past. In addition to accepting film archives from major institutions, they will also inspect, clean, and transfer home movies for a fee to the video format of your choice. Their first advice to home movie owners is to not project your films. Film gets brittle with age and running them through a projector could cause further damage. Contact their Technical Services department for help or more information.

NHF also participates in Home Movie Day an annual worldwide celebration of amateur film, occurring this year on Saturday, October 18, 2008, when participants can bring their home movies to be inspected and shown.

Want to learn more about film preservation? Visit Film Forever: The Home Film Preservation Guide sponsored by the Association of Moving Image Archivists.

Of course local film and video transfer services abound. Check your Yellow Pages for “Video – Duplication Service” or “Video Production” or just Google keywords “video (or VHS or film),” “transfer (or duplication)” and "Nashua”. There are also many options for do-it-yourselfers, where a trip to Circuit City or RadioShack might be a first step. Just remember that your 8mm films and VHS tapes aren't improving with age like fine wine, so there's no time like the present to transfer them to a newer format.

Unsure what your going to do with your child or teen during the week of February 24th - March 1st? Let the library help you out. The library has lots of activities happening that will get your child or teen out of the house and moving around.

For teens, nothing before noon...

Tuesday, February 26th, 4pm, NPL Theater
TeenScene Film Series will feature a romance that inspired Jane Austen to write her classic novels starring Anne Hathaway. After viewing this movie in the theaters, I couldn't wait to read one of her books.

Thursday, February 28th, 2:30pm, NPL Theater
Guitar Hero Challenge
Are you ready to be the next rock star supernova? Play solo or challenge a friend with this video game on the big screen.

For the younger balls of energy, something every day...

Monday @ 2pm
Great Games Day
It's a smorgesboard of board games! We'll have chess, checkers, Sorry, Trouble, cards and more. There will be something for everyone. Winners get to take home a free book.

Tuesday @ 11-2pm
Drop-in Craft
Pick out your own cool craft to create from our wide selection of kits while supplies last. The best part...you get to take home a free book!

Wednesday @ 2pm
Who's Your Baby? Doll Fashion Show
For the second year you can work our "runway" with your favorite doll decked out in a fashionable outfit. Paparazzi not included. (preregistration required)

Thursday @ 2pm
Meet the Real Emily Elizabeth
Meet Clifford the Big Red Dog's owner Emily Elizabeth, live and in person.

Friday @ 2pm
Bring the family to watch Remy the rat become a top chef in one of Paris' finest restaurants, on the big screen in our theater. I don't know if I'd want to eat what he's cooking up!

Saturday @ 11am
Watch the Peacock Players presentation of "Little Women".

With the release of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, you might be wondering if the library plans to install Vista on any of its public computers. While I have not yet used Vista myself, I have had a few interesting conversations with colleagues who have used Vista, and I have also read some insightful blog entries about this issue. So, while I reserve the right to update this entry at a future date, hear are some of my observations.

When it comes to upgrading computer operating systems throughout an organization, organizations tend to be conservative. In our library's case, many of our public workstations use Windows XP, and for the most part, XP has been stable. We like stability, so before we'd consider upgrading to Vista, we will want to be sure that Vista is widely regarded as stable.

Perhaps we will follow the suggestion of a public librarian in Texas who has blogged on this topic who recommends that libraries wait until the first Vista service pack comes out. Microsoft service packs usually include fixes to bugs in an application that Microsoft itself hadn't caught during the development phase.

Another issue we are considering is what will be the learning curve for our customers if we upgrade to a new operating system. From what I am told, Vista only runs Microsoft Office 2007 applications, and in many cases, the user interface for the 2007 apps has dramatically changed from Office 2003 apps. This poses a serious problem to many of customers who may still be learning the ins and outs of Office 2002 and 2003 applications.

While these issues are important, we do recognize that we can't turn our back on Vista for ever. Since most new Windows PC's are now being shipped out with Vista and not XP, we know that many of our customers will soon be coming to the library expecting to be able to edit their Vista-compatible documents.

So, those are some of my thoughts. Now it is your turn to join the conversation. What are your thoughts on the issue? Please leave me a comment. It would make my day!

Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow on Groundhog Day this year, thus forecasting six more weeks of winter. But how far away can spring possibly be when we read and hear about baseball and spring training in the news? As Bill Veeck once said, "that's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball".

Spring training is almost as old as baseball itself. There is some debate about spring training's origin. Some historians claim that it was in 1870 when the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Chicago White Stockings held organized baseball camps in New Orleans; others say the Washington Capitals pioneered spring training in 1888, holding a four-day camp in Jacksonville. Whatever, spring-training was firmly established as a baseball ritual by 1900 as most American and National League teams began the season in warm weather climates so players could train and managers could evaluate. Such small Florida (Grapefruit League) and Arizona (Cactus League) communities as St. Petersburg. Fort Lauderdale. Tucson. Sarasota and Bradenton were suddenly known across the nation because of the allure provided by major-league baseball. A.M. Gilliam, a writer for the Philadelphia Record in the 1880s, offered $3 a day for briefings from teams training in the south, thus introducing Spring Training to the masses. Teams provided such information as camp activities, scores and players' attitudes. Soon writers began reporting on highly regarded rookies and prospects. There would usually be a veteran claiming he was "rejuvenated". As a MLB owner wrote: "The games you play in the South mean nothing, but the score of even a five-inning practice game will be greedily scanned by enthusiasts here, and will boom your club for the coming season."

Although spring training statistics are often viewed skeptically, teams still frequently use players' spring training performances to assign starting roles and roster spots on the club. You can see a wide variety of talent and experience, from superstars, rookies and cagey veterans to guys barely 19 years old and comeback kids. And contrary to some opinions, most players are not loafing. With the exception of the major stars, most players are either trying to make a major league roster and win a starting job. The players working especially hard are those "on the bubble" between making good major league money or minor league money in Triple-A. According to Joe Connor, this is baseball’s version of the SAT for those "on the bubble". New free agents and the stars themselves also take Spring Training seriously to make sure they are ready for Opening Day given the intense media scrutiny they attract as they are making those big bucks.

Some interesting websites about baseball's spring training are:
Baseball Pages.com's From Cooperstown: A History of Spring Training
Spring Training Online History

MLB.com's Baseball blooms on Valentine's Day

BaseballGuru's Top 10 Myths of Spring Training

Boston Red Sox spring training history: from 1901 to 2003.

The Official Site of The Boston Red Sox: Spring Training

And you may wish to borrow some of our library's books about baseball spring training to read, perhaps, on your trip to Florida or Ariizona:
Broadcast rites and sites : I saw it on the radio with the Boston Red Sox by Joe Castiglione with Douglas B. Lyons.

Blackout : the untold story of Jackie Robinson's first spring training by Chris Lamb.

Game time : a baseball companion by Roger Angell

Spring training by William Zinsser.
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Go Sox!!!!!

When we conducted an online survey for the upcoming sequel to The Nashua Experience, over 30% of respondents selected population changes as the biggest change in Nashua in the past 30 years. You may wonder, then, just how many people live in Nashua and where they come from. Every ten years, the US Census Bureau conducts a census, gathering information about people across the United States. In addition to viewing the detailed results of the 2000 Census on the website, you can also take a look at the QuickFacts page, which provides frequently requested information at the national, state, county, and city levels. Examples include percentage of people under 5 and 18 years old or over 65, as well as race and household information. The American FactFinder offers information from an ongoing community survey, so you can see 2006 statistics. This provides more recent information; however, the figures are estimates. Because Nashua's population is greater than 65,000, the city is included in the survey of demographic, social, and economic characteristics of people, households and housing units. You can select the type of information you want to see and create tables and maps with demographic information.

Another fun site for population information is Social Explorer. Some of the information on this site is only available through a subscription, but you can access the 2000 Census report and census maps back to 1940 for free. Social Explorer reports give you information at the national, state, county, or census tract level. This can be a little tricky if you are looking for information about a particular city. You have to figure out which tracts are part of the city and include all in your query. To find Nashua's census tracts (101 -115), I had to look at the site's map. (It helps to be geographically inclined and know the boundaries of your city.) While this is somewhat of an inconvenience, it is cool to get very specific information about your neighborhood by narrowing your selection to the census tract of your choice. As with the American FactFinder, you can choose your demographic categories.

So, if you want to learn more about Nashua's demographics, take a look at one of these sites. Otherwise, you will have to wait until the fall when the thirtieth anniversary update to The Nashua Experience is available.

A story about satellites caught my attention this week, but it was not, in fact, the one about the Pentagon shooting down a disabled spy satellite. Instead, it was a piece by Brendan Kolbay in Reuters's science news. Apparently, archaeologists have teamed up with NASA and used images from one of its satellites to discover ancient Mayan ruins.

Archeaologist William Saturno, Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Boston University, sought out satellite images in order to find water near his work site in Guatemala. While examining the satellite images, he noticed that they showed discoloration around the ruins at his work site. He also saw similar discoloration on other areas of the images. Upon investigation of those areas, Saturno found additional Mayan ruins, long covered by jungle. The discoloration denoted differences in vegetation, the result of soil changes caused by leachate from the limestone structures hidden in the jungle.

Saturno was an assistant professor of anthropology at UNH for some time. More information about his research in Guatemala is available at www.sanbartolo.org.

But what's the library connection, you say? Well, librarians like nothing better than to help people feed an interest in information, whether it's archaeology, politics, or abstract Canadian art. What better way to find out more about Saturno's fascinating discovery than to look up magazine and journal articles about his work? You can find some in the EBSCO database, available through the library's web site.

Who knows what else you'll discover?

I spent the last month stuck at home unable to walk on one foot. A situation like that leaves a lot of time to kill. I killed it watching the television. I'm not a fan of the soap operas or game shows which make up most of daytime TV. I like news so I watched a lot of cable news shows. What I was watching surprised me. I think I probably saw more news about Roger Clemens and his trainer and Bill Belichick and his spy camera than about the war in Iraq and all of the presidential candidates combined.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm somewhat puzzled by the behavior of our elected leaders in Congress. When did Congress give itself permission to become involved in the lives of professional athletes? In Article I, Section 1, of the United States Constitution, the role of Congress is discussed and the statement is made that "the chief function of Congress is the making of laws". Shouldn't Congress be concerning itself with discussing things like national security, the economy, education, Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court - matters that directly impact the well-being of the country and all of those who live here?

I can sort of understand Congress taking an interest in the state of Bill Clinton's marriage. He was the President after all. That could have been covered under the heading of national security, I guess. I googled Congressional Hearings just out of curiosity. I found a discussion of Congressional hearings and their purpose. The only justification that seemed to be offered for these types of hearings was that "hearings may also be purely exploratory in nature, providing testimony and data about topics of current interest". In other words, if something attracts the interest of members of Congress, they can just poke around and justify it as exploratory.

Professional sports have Commissioners and rule making bodies. Shouldn't they be the ones discussing what goes on in professional sports? Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner David Stern and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman are all scheduled to speak before another Congressional committee some time soon. Wouldn't their time be better spent reviewing their own sports and discussing ways to solve a problem which concerns all professional sports?

Senator Arlen Specter defends the time he spent on Patriots spygate in a newsletter which he publishes regularly. Why is he involved in this matter? It was handled by the NFL commissioner and should perhaps continue to be a matter for the Commissioner and NFL coaches to discuss.

Just so I don't give the wrong impression. I am not in favor of steroid use by professional athletes or of videotaping your opponents so that you can beat them at their own game. For that matter, I'm not in favor of Bill Clinton's shenanigans either. I'm just bothered by the fact that some of the people who were elected to make this a better place for everyone seem to have forgotten why they are in Washington and remembered only that they are sports fans.

Since I am becoming long-winded, if you are interested in learning about steroids and sports, the library has some recent books. The first two are childrens' books which might prove helpful for parents seeking a way to discuss all of this mess with their children!
Steroids by Karla Fitzhuqh
Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by David Aretha
Juiced : wild times, rampant 'roids, smash hits, and how baseball got big by Jose Canseco
Game of shadows : Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the steroids scandal that rocked professional sports by Mark Fainaru-Wada

Can you believe she picked that to wear? That color does nothing for her skin tone. Doesn't he know this is a formal event? If you're one of the few that actually watches the Oscar's to see who wrote, produced, or starred in the top films of the year and not who was the best and worst dressed of the show then you'll want to continue reading.

For those of you that missed last night's presentation of the 80th Academy Awards, let me share a few highlights with you...

Best Motion Pictures:
No Country for Old Men

Best Foreign Film:
The Counterfeiters

Best Animated Film:
Ratatouille

Best Lead Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Best Lead Actress:
Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)

Best Director:
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)

Keep an eye out for the above films not yet in the library's collection to be added when they are released on dvd. To learn more about the history of these awards check out a few books we have on the topic....

Books:

The big show : high times and dirty dealings backstage at the Academy Awards By: Steve Pond

65 years of the Oscar : the official history of the Academy Awards By: Robert Osborne

Academy awards : an Ungar reference index Compiled and introduced by: Richard Shale

It is not uncommon to have the opportunity to meet book authors in our community. The public library and two big-chain bookstores in town and the very active Toadstool Bookstore in Milford, NH often host "meet the author" events throughout the year. But imagine being able to meet a real, live book character!!! How cool would that be?? Well, children and their families will have the opportunity to do just that on Thursday, February 28th at 2pm in the Children's Room of the Nashua Public Library. Emily Elizabeth, Clifford the Big Red Dog's owner will be here reading a story, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Clifford the Big Red Dog is the creation of author/illustrator, Norman Bridwell , and the little girl character in all of the Clifford books was based on his own daughter, Emily Elizabeth.The first 100 children to attend will receive a free "Clifford and the Big Storm" children's book. Woo-hoo!! This event is being presented courtesy of Collins Dentistry for Children in Pelham, NH and the Lowell Spinners. So come on down and join us as we welcome Emily Elizabeth to Nashua and send along a big hello and thank you to her dad for creating one of the most beloved dogs ever in the children's book world.

In days gone by, reference librarians used to keep a set of books and encyclopedias close to the reference desk because they tended to be used quite frequently. This collection of items was known as "ready reference". Nowadays, much of the information available in these items is available through the library's databases and other online resources. As a result, most of these items have been returned to the regular reference collection or even transferred to the circulating collection.

However, we do still keep a select few items behind the reference desk, but usually because we are concerned about them being stolen or damaged. What are some of these items? Here's a list:

• New Hampshire Landlord & Tenant Law Annotated
• New Hampshire Practice: Family Law
• New Hampshire Practice: Probate Law and Procedure
• The Registry Review : NH's Statewide Real Estate and Financial Newspaper
• N.A.D.A. Gudies
• Investors Business Daily (newspaper)
• Jobs/Careers Sections from the Sunday edition of the Telegraph, the Union Leader and the Boston Globe

So if you would like to use any of these resources, just ask us for them at the reference desk.

It was in the 1970’s when my grandmother started sprouting. Despite all I knew from reading Adele Davis and being a somewhat “crunchy granola” myself, I had never sprouted at the time. I was going to Grammy’s house for lunch four days a week. I only had a half hour but she would have lunch ready for me, usually piping hot. I used to say she should go to the senior center to meet people and get together with friends and she would say, “We never went out when your grandfather was alive, why should I start going out now?” I would argue that it wouldn’t be painting the town red, just to see people now and then like when she was working. She was working at Miller’s in alterations till she was almost 70 I think. She seemed to be slightly depressed. Also, I noticed she was fearful of the outside world. This I surmised stemmed from her addiction to talk radio. She would hear people from all parts of the country talking about violence in the streets and in particular what happened to some older ladies who ventured out on their own. She started listening at night when she had insomnia. Larry Glick was her favorite at the time. Then it was David Brudnoy who she called David Breadnose. We kept telling her it was Brudnoy. She used to call sideburns sideboards. This was one of few clues that her first language was not English. She had no foreign accent. There was a cord attached to her bedside radio that led to a speaker under her pillow. This helped her to take her mind off thoughts that might keep her awake so she could drift off back to sleep. Since then, my mom who is married to a snorer and I who have had bouts of insomnia when my cats wake me up for a snack have used the same method to get back to sleep. I always use my Discman and audiobooks from the library’s collection. If you turn the sound down so you can just barely hear it, you may hear only a few lines before you are asleep. Maybe it was the talk radio station that informed her about the sprouts or the newspaper. I don’t know how many large mayonnaise jars were hiding under her sink with seeds and water in them and a square of cheese cloth fastened around the top with a rubber band, but I saw at least two.

Sprouts the Miracle Food was a book request that we got back in September. In January, it still had not come in. It was backordered so we had to cancel and get it somewhere else. I found that it was our only book that covered the topic of sprouting. It was a good thing for the collection that someone asked us to buy it.

When you see a book you want but the library doesn’t have it, don’t buy it yourself unless you want to or have to have it this minute. Ask us to buy it. You can call us at 598-4600 or e-mail us by going to the "contact us" drop down menu. You’ll see purchase request is the second choice. More than nine times out of ten, we will. We like to see that it has a good review. But we are also committed to representing all points of view and serving our customers’ informational needs.

Recently someone noticed we lacked books on leather crafting. They mentioned it to someone at the circulation desk and she told me because I order craft books. I looked for leather crafts books and found few that were new. However, I was able to order some that were older and even out of print. Now we have at least 11 titles on the subject under "leather work" and not only that… We put them on request for the person who asked about it.

Sometimes you see a book in our on-line catalog and it is not yet cataloged. It has been received but it is in Tech Services. The item information says it’s in cataloging. There is often a shelf or 2 of non-fiction books that are waiting to be processed. If you ask a librarian they will call us in Technical Services and we can bring you the book. I think it’s called extreme cataloging . The idea didn’t start with us. It’s a fairly new practice and I can probably count the times we’ve done it. The book has been received so it already has a barcode attached to it. It can be checked out to anyone who has a library card. But it will not have its call number, spine label, dust cover, plastic cover or pocket and stamps. So, someone who is very anxious to get a book can have it but it must come back and be processed before it can be on display upstairs. I am assuming that this book is not on reserve for someone else. This probably would not work with a new best seller. But sometimes you hear about something and you want to find out all about it right now. You don’t want to wait.

William F.Buckley, Jr., who died this week at the age of 82, was an American author and conservative commentator. Whether or not one agrees with his political thoughts, I think one has to acknowledge the talent and complexity of the man. Buckley founded the political magazine National Review (at our library or online) in 1955, hosted over 1,000 editions of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist writing "On the Right," which was syndicated to more than 300 newspapers. His writing style was known for its profound scholarly knowledge, wit and use of uncommon words.

Buckley authored more than 50 books including spy novels, satire, sailing memoirs and collections of his own pithy (precisely meaningful) comments. He received a B.A. with honors (political science, economics, and history) from Yale University in 1950. In 1951 he burst onto the national scene with God and Man at Yale, a controversial book that attacked his alma mater for fostering atheism and stifling the academic freedom of conservative students. In 1965 he was a candidate for mayor of New York City on the Conservative party ticket, receiving13.4% of the vote. Asked what he would do if he won, he famously replies, "I'd demand a recount". He received numerous and diverse awards, including Best Columnist of the Year, 1967; Television Emmy for Outstanding Achievement, 1969; The American Book Award for Best Mystery (paperback) for Stained Glass, 1980; the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award, 1989; the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1991; the Adam Smith Award, Hillsdale College, 1996; and the Heritage Foundation's Clare Boothe Luce Award, 1999.

Buckley's primary intellectual achievement was to fuse traditional American political conservatism with libertarianism (the freedom to do as you choose with your own life and property, as long as you don't harm the person and property of others), laying the groundwork for the modern American conservatism of US Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and US President Ronald Reagan. His personal memoir of Senator Barry M. Goldwater is scheduled to be published this spring, and at his death he was working on a similar work about President Ronald Reagan. Upon Buckley's death, President George W. Bush said that Mr. Buckley “brought conservative thought into the political mainstream, and helped lay the intellectual foundation for America’s victory in the Cold War.”

You may wish to take a look at some of our library's non-fiction holdings by William Buckley including:

The lexicon - per Library Journal, "certainly more useful, and more fun, than those word-a-day calendars"

WindFall : the end of the affair - conclusion to Buckley's sextet concerning his love of the sea with an intimate and sometimes painful introspective examination of his life.

Did you ever see a dream walking? American conservative thought in the twentieth century
- edited by Buckley.

On the firing line : the public life of our public figures - scrapbook of talks on Buckley's Firing Line television show.

You may also wish to read a selection from our library's fiction holdings by William Buckley. Of special interest are:

Last call for Blackford Oakes - the final book of the Blackford Oakes series, about a dashing CIA agent-brainy, bold, and complex.

Nuremberg : the reckoning - a riveting thriller, taking the reader through unforgettable scenes of treachery and vengeance, love and hatred, and the struggle for justice found in a hangman's noose.

Elvis in the morning - a novel about friendship, celebrity, social change, and and Elvis Presley set in the turbulent '60s.

Who's on first - story of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to be the first to place a satellite in orbit. Per Kirkus Reviews, "anyone who can make conferences between Dulles and Acheson sound like vaudeville routines deserves the audience he is bound to get".

And some of our books about William F. Buckley include:

William F. Buckley, Jr., patron saint of the conservatives by John B. Judis.

The Buckleys: a family examined by Markmann, Charles Lam.