The library recently acquired two historical atlases for the reference section. A historical atlas is usually a collection of maps that either shows a sequence of change, such as in an atlas of World War I which maps changing land occupation, or is a collection of many views of the same area at a particular time in history, such as a country atlas. Click on the titles below to learn more about each item.

Historical atlas of the United States : with original maps by Derek Hayes
"Using more than five hundred historical maps from collections around the world, this book is the first to tell the story of America's past from a geographical perspective. Covering more than half a millennium in U.S. history - from conception to colonization to Hurricane Katrina - this atlas documents the discoveries and explorations, the intrigue and negotiations, the technology and the will that led the United States to become what it is today. Richly detailed, visually breathtaking maps are accompanied by extended captions that elucidate the stories and personalities behind their creation."

National Geographic historical atlas of the United States text adapted by Ron Fisher.
Beginning in 1450, this atlas highlights, in chronological order, landmark events through our nation's history, from the Revolutionary War to the Pony Express, from the Civil War to Matthew Brady and daguerrotypes, from World War II to Superman's first comic, from the Vietnam War to the first test tube baby. Each moment in history is covered in two pages of text and is accompanied by a critical image, a sidebar that gives sharp focus to one aspect of the moment, and, in most cases, a map: some created by the great cartographers of history such as Lewis and Clark, many by the unparalleled cartographic staff of National Geographic Books.

Leave us a comment about these new items or any other historical atlases that you recommend!

Every two weeks, I order nonfiction books that are given a call number between 600 and 699. These books can fall into a wide range of subjects, including recipes & cooking, automobile repair manuals, home electrical wiring and industrial tools, building plans for decks and bathrooms, and health care for the mind and body. Here are three books I recently ordered that I think you'll enjoy!

Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys - and the Men They Become
Randy Newman sang a song ribbing "Short People", there is a website named Shortstuff, and there is even a Short Persons Support website. Stephen Hall, who is not quite 5'6", has written about the causes and effects of society's bias against shortness and describes how people of small stature can and do thrive. According to Kirkus Reviews, "Shortness is not a prerequisite for enjoying Hall's work, but concerned parents of short boys will find it particularly reassuring". As a "petite" person myself, I found this book both witty and very informative.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Read Stephen Johnson's thrilling historical account of the cholera outbreak in Victorian London and how a doctor's creative thinking revolutionized our approach to disease, cities, and the modern world. From the construction of the vast sewer system that continues to function in London to today's developing countries facing enormous public-health problems to our worries about terrorists armed with weaponized viruses and/or nuclear weapons, this book encourages a good deal of thinking. Thrilling and educational!

French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes and Pleasure
Discover new recipes (both French and American), read tips on entertaining and on style, shopping and exercise. Mireille Guiliano, the author of French Women Don't Get Fat offers us a second helping of French gastronomy and style. Her new book is not only useful, but charming and witty too. Read about her "50% solution" and other techniques to change your eating habits without embarking on a major diet.

Would you like to receive a monthly email informing you about newly acquired computer books at the library? How about a newsletter alerting you about newly acquired business books? If so, we've got just the solution for you. Simply visit the library's Book Newsletters webpage, click on the Signup link next to the newsletter you'd like to receive, and then enter your email address. You'll start receiving the newsletter on the 15th of each month.

Extra Credit: If you are familiar with RSS feeds, , and Feed Aggregators, you can also subscribe to the feed of most of our new book newsletters! Just copy the RSS link for that newsletter and paste it into your feed reader. (I hope to have an RSS feed up and running for the new computer books newsletter soon!)

Some of the books featured in the most recent Computer Books newsletter include:

	Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques, and Code by Peter Lavin Published 2006 by No Starch Press Paperback, English. ISBN: 1593270771
	Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites by David Mercer Published 2006 by Packt Publishing Paperback, English. ISBN: 1904811809
	Oracle Database 10g Insider Solutions by Arun Kumar Published 2006 by Sams Paperback, English. ISBN: 0672327910

The new edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica has arrived, all 22 volumes. Just in time for the end of Hanukkah! According to EncyclopediaJudaica.com, "In 1972, the Encyclopaedia Judaica fulfilled the longstanding dream of capturing the full richness of Jewish culture in a single authoritative publication, heralded in the scholarly community as one of the best reference works ever compiled. Today this treasured resource has a new second edition, updating the worldwide scope of Judaism's 5,700-year history. Thousands of new entries grace the beautiful 22-volume set, available in a leather-bound edition with custom dedication pages. Designed for ease of use, with expanded imagery portraying Judaism's worldwide scope, it's as ideal for the home as the for finest university libraries."

Where to find it in the library:
The encyclopedia is shelved in the library's reference section, and its call number is Ref 030 E. Just ask a reference librarian to point you in the right direction.

Other library books on Judaism include:
Essential Judaism : a complete guide to beliefs, customs, and rituals / George Robinson.
A Heart of Many Rooms : celebrating the many voices within Judaism / David Hartman.
A Code of Jewish Ethics, volume 1 : you shall be holy / Joseph Telushkin.
Gonzo Judaism : a bold path for renewing an ancient faith / Niles Elliot Goldstein.

One of the more famous battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge, occurred in December 1944. A new book at the Nashua Public Library, 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, chronicles the stories of the people who fought this intense, complicated battle. Historian Stanley Weintraub focuses not only on the Allied commanders, but also on the enlisted men, and even the Germans. According to Library Journal, although it is not a "major assessment of the battle...by weaving in holiday facets, Weintraub offers an appealing new way to look at a topic already covered in great historic detail."*

For those of you who are not familiar the Battle of the Bulge, it was one of the later battles between the Allies and the Germans. After the German defeat in France in 1944, Hitler wanted to launch a counteroffensive. He chose the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg because General Eisenhower was thinning his troops on that part of the front. Despite some intelligence pertaining to German concentration in the neighboring Eifel area, the 83,000 Americans were surprised when, on December 16, 1944, 200,000 German troops attacked. Eventually, 600,000 American troops participated, resulting in 81,000 casualties. Officially called the Battle of the Ardennes, it received its more familiar name as a result of the bulge that the attack caused in the American line.**

For additional books on the Battle of the Bulge, do a subject browse in the catalog for Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945.

*Tscherne, Joel. Review of 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, by Stanley Weintraub. Library Journal 131, no. 18 (November 1, 2006): 88.

**MacDonald, Charles B. and S.L.A. Marshall. "Bulge, Battle of the." In Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II, edited by Thomas Parrish and Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall, Chief Consultant Editor, 86-91. New York: Simon &Schuster, 1978.

You probably know where the New Arrivals area is for nonfiction and fiction books. But do you know where the new arrivals for business, careers and computer books are displayed? The answer is in the Business Area just behind the business computers. Let me describe it another way. If you are standing at the reference desk on the top floor and begin walking towards the business computer area, try looking in the first row of bookshelves that face the computers. Just ask for help at the reference desk, if you aren't sure.

Any new computer, business or career related book will be shelved there for 6 months, after which they will be shelved in the regular location for books of its category. Some of the new books on display right now are:

Business books
Our Iceberg is Melting/ John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
Your attention, please : how to appeal to today's distracted, disinterested, disengaged, disenchanted, and busy consumer / Paul B. Brown and Alison Davis.

Computer Books
Drupal : creating blogs, forums, portals, and community websites / David Mercer.
Fixing Access annoyances : how to fix the most annoying things about your favorite database / Phil Mitchell and Evan Callahan.

Career Books
Adams Cover Letters Almanac
Vault guide to international careers / Sally Christie and the staff of Vault.

Did you know that dozens of organizations use the library as a meeting place throughout the year. In fact, because so many organizations want to do so, we ask that they first contact Carol Eyman to check for room availability. (Carol's phone number is 603-589-4610.) One group that holds regular meetings at the library, and has always interested me, is the Nashua-Hudson Toastmasters Club. Their mission is to "provide a supportive learning environment in which to develop communication and leadership skills," and couldn't we all benefit from making improvements in those areas of our lives.

So, if you are ever interested in attending a Nashua-Hudson Toastmasters Club meeting, here is what you need to know. Meetings take place at the library on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month from 6:30-8:30pm, and visitors are welcome. For more information, contact Don at 883-9757 or Ted at 289-5693, or visit http://www.n-htm.org. Also, try exploring the Toastmasters official website, toastmasters.org.

Downloadable Audiobook on Public Speaking*:
101 secrets of highly effective speakers : controlling fear, commanding attention / Caryl Rae Krannich, Beth McDonald.

* For more information about the library's downloadable audiobook service, visit this web page.

Recently Orderd Books on Public Speaking:
Elements of Great Public Speaking by J. Lyman Macinnis
Present like a pro : the field guide to mastering the art of business, professional, and public speaking by Cyndi Maxey and Kevin E. O'Connor

In honor of Appreciate a Dragon Day (yes, really--it's January 16), Tuesday's storytime in the Children's Department will feature stories about dragons. Not the prosaic Kimodo kind, but the fantastical, magical dragons of legend. If you can't make it to storytime, never fear. We have the next best thing: downloadable audiobooks. Almost as good as a live storyteller--you can listen to a recording of a good dragon tale! The New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Books collection allows you to check out books to your computer or MP3 player with your library card. Read more about the library's downloadable audiobook service here. Among the titles for children and teens available from the collection are:

• Dealing with Dragons (the Enchanted Forest series, book 1), by Patricia C. Wrede. Princess Cimerone has adventures with the dragon Kazul. Written for children.
• Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke. A children's book featuring the exploits of the dragon Firedrake and the human boy, Ben.
• Eragon , by Christopher Paolini. Though often found in teen collections, this title and its sequel, Eldest, have been widely enjoyed by adults as well. Take a look at Jenn's blog entry about the recent movie based on these books.

There's also a great selection of dragon books for young and old here at the library. Currently in the New Arrivals is The Last Battle, the third installment of Chris Bunch's Dragonmaster trilogy. The series, with a strong military component, begins with Dragonmaster, followed by Knighthood of the Dragon.

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkein (author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) will tell you that The Hobbit pits hobbitt Bilbo Baggins against the villainous dragon Smaug, scourge of villagers.

And no list of dragon books would be complete without mention of Anne McCaffrey's classic series, The Dragonriders of Pern. Start with Dragonflight, the first in the series. The Harper Hall series is set in the same world as the Dragonriders, but can be read separately. Many of these titles are available in audiobook format, too.

Of course, there are many others. Leave us a comment to tell us your favorites!

We all know about IQ and perhaps even EQ (emotional intelligence*), but have you ever heard of AQ? AQ stands for Adversity Quotient®, and it is a measure of human resilience. People who successfully apply AQ perform optimally in the face of adversity — the challenges, big and small, that confront us each day. In fact, they not only learn from these challenges, but they also respond to them better and faster.**

I recently learned about this measurement of intelligence in a new book written by a friend of mine, Erik Weihenmayer. The book is The Adversity Advantage: Turning Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness by Erik Weihenmayer, Paul Stoltz, Stephen R. Covey (Foreward). Erik Weihenmayer was a colleague of mine in a previous job, and I have kept in touch with him off an on over the years. While Erik has accomplished numerous impressive feats in his day, perhaps his most dramatic accomplishment was being the first blind person to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest. (He writes about this accomplishment and other aspects of his life in another booked the library owns titled Touch the top of the world.)

To learn more about the Adversity Quotient®, or AQ®, visit the AQ/Peak Learning website. To learn more about human resilience, try checking out one of these books:

NPL Books about Resilience:
A resilient life : you can move ahead no matter what / Gordon MacDonald
Call Number: 248.4 M

The whispering of ghosts : trauma and resilience / Boris Cyrulnik ; translated by Susan Fairfield.
Call Number: 155.24 C

------------------------
* To learn about emotional intelligence, try looking at Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, (call number: 152.4 G) and Primal leadership : realizing the power of emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, (call number is BUS 658.4 G, located in the Business section.)

** From the Adversity Quotient® website visited on January 26, 2007.

• Pete Dunne's essential field guide companion, by Pete Dunne.
• Raptors of North America: Natural History and Conservation, by Noel and Helen Snyder. A new addition to our collection.
• Birds of North America, by Tom Wood, Sheri Williamson, and Jeffrey Glassberg.
• Birds of the world, by Colin Harrison and Alan Greensmith; Mark Robbins, editorial consultant.
• Birds of New England, by Fred J. Alsop III.
• National Audubon Society first field guide : Birds. The National Audubon Society is synonymous with birding. This title is a good starter for children.

A project we've been working on at the library for quite some time has finally come to fruition. Yesterday we put on display some forty new books all written in Hindi. Authors like Premchand, Vishnu Prabhakar, Mohan Rakesh, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Rajender Yadav and Shivani have been very popular among Hindi readers during the 20th and 21st centuries. Devaki Nandan Khatri’s classic/historical novel “Chandrakanta” has been so popular that a TV series was produced about it.

For now, these books are on display near the circulation desk on the main floor. After a while, they will be shelved along with other non-English books in the Foreign Language alcoves. I hope you enjoy them!

It was in the spring of 1841 that Edgar Allen Poe published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," often credited as the first detective story. Today, mysteries and detective stories are among the most popular books in the Nashua Public Library collection.

To make it easier for readers to find their favorite mysteries, we have a separate section just for these books. As you enter the library, look to the left. Just past the teen room, you'll see a set of bookshelves with the hardcover mysteries for adults. Right nearby are the paperback mysteries.

In this section you'll find favorite writers such as Agatha Christie, Alexander McCall Smith (under "M", not "S"), Martha Grimes, Anne Perry, and Janet Evanovich. The stories range from "cozy" mysteries like Nancy Atherton's "Aunt Dimity" series (Aunt Dimity and the Duke is a treasure), to hardboiled private eye crime stories like Sue Grafton's alphabet series (starting with A is for Alibi).

My personal favorite is Dorothy L. Sayers, whose literate and sensitive mysteries such as Gaudy Night have become classics of the genre. Other NPL staffers prefer writers such as Ruth Rendell and Elizabeth Peters (you'll find more of her books under the pseudonym "Barbara Michaels"). Of course, you'll find many different favorites depending on whom you ask.

One thing's for sure, some mystery authors are so popular that we have special "Hot Copies" of their books. (Read all about Hot Copies here if you're unfamiliar with them.) Looking for a good read? Here are some of the hot new mysteries in our collection:

• Robert Parker's High Profile comes on the heels of last year's popular Hundred Dollar Baby.
• Elizabeth George, What Came Before He Shot Her
• Martha Grimes, Dust: A Richard Jury Novel
• Janet Evanovich, Plum Lovin'

Did we miss one of your favorites? Leave us a note!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I once saw the wreck of a small pleasure boat perched on the rocks in Cape May, New Jersey. It was green, slimy, and hauntingly lonesome. Shipwrecks have always given me goosebumps, but they're fascinating nonetheless. I was reminded of this when CNN recently reported the discovery of a World War II PT boat shipwreck, revealed after the tragic April 2 earthquake in the Solomon Islands. Apparently, the quake raised the reefs above the water's surface, exposing the wreck that was lying on them.

This story reminded me of a great book I read--listened to on audiobook, actually--called Shadow Divers. Published in 2004, "Shadow Divers," by Robert Kurson, is the true story of the discovery and identification of a German U-boat that sank off the coast of New Jersey during World War II. The submarine was discovered in 1999 by deep-sea divers. Although they quickly recognized it as a U-boat, it took years of additional diving and research before the U-boat's identity, and that of its crew, could be conclusively authenticated.

Looking for more like "Shadow Divers," I browsed the catalog for books about North Atlantic shipwrecks. It turns out that we have a related book, about two men who perished diving to the U-boat:

The last dive : a father and son's fatal descent into the ocean's depths, by Bernie Chowdhury.

There are a few others that look interesting:

Miracles on the water : the heroic survivors of a World War II U-boat attack, by Tom Nagorski. A new arrival.
Simple courage : a true story of peril on the sea, by Frank Delaney.
Pride of the sea : courage, disaster, and a fight for survival, by Tom Waldron. (This one's in large print.)

On the fictional side, I enjoyed Clive Cussler's "Raise the Titanic!," which was written before Robert Ballard's discovery of the Titanic. Cussler imagined the discovery and retrieval of an intact Titanic. A diver himself, Cussler has written many other books that involve shipwrecks and nautical adventure. (And for those who want them, of course, we also have many nonfiction books about the Titanic.)

Those of you who have read the scintillating book Freakonomics know that if you have a swimming pool in your backyard and a gun in your house, the swimming pool is 100 times more likely to kill your child than your gun. Hard to believe for many who oppose having guns in the home, but apparently true. Yet with the recent massacre at Virginia Tech, debate over gun control legislation has again taken front stage.

While this blog is not really the place to voice my opinions about gun control, it is a place for me to point out some of the library's books on gun-related topics. Sure enough, we have a few new additions to the collection that I thought you might find interesting. So here they are along with excerpts from book reviews or jacket cover summaries.

Gun show nation : gun culture and American democracy / Joan Burbick.
"Tenaciously exposing the role guns play for many Americans in their national and political identity, Burbick (Rodeo Queens and the American Dream) talks to gun owners, sellers, lobbyists, grassroots organizers and policy makers as she tours gun shows, gun-rights conventions and National Rifle Association gatherings across the land. Mining the history of gun manufacturing and shooting magazine editorials, she charts how the gun industry has successfully marketed its products using the image of the patriotic, law-abiding civilian shooter. She describes Civil War–era white fears of armed blacks and shows how the Second Amendment rights movement was born of the social unrest of the 1960s." Publisher's Weekly Review

The global war on guns : inside the U.N. plan to destroy the Bill of Rights / Wayne LaPierre.
"In July 2001, the United Nations hosted a bonfire, but they weren't roasting marshmallows-they were burning piles of guns seized from the citizens of member nations. There's perhaps no better picture of what the UN thinks of private gun ownership, and in the summer of 2006, the gun-destroyers will be at it again, when the UN re-confers about regulating gun possession, pushing for an international criminal court that would usurp U.S. sovereignty and open the door for global arms-controllers to finally enforce their anti-gun agenda. In this vital book, LaPierre sounds the alarm, reveals the secrets, and shows the path back to freedom, national sovereignty, and independence." Book Summary

Her best shot : women and guns in America / Laura Browder.
Exploring "the social meanings of armed womanhood in a culture where violence is associated with masculinity...In Her Best Shot, Laura Browder examines the relationship between women and guns and the ways in which the figure of the armed woman has served as a lightning rod for cultural issues...Utilizing autobiographies, advertising, journalism, novels, and political tracts, among other sources, Browder traces appearances of the armed woman across a chronological spectrum from the American Revolution to the present and an ideological spectrum ranging from the Black Panthers to right-wing militias."

This Saturday is the 22nd New York AIDS Walk. This year is also the 20th anniversary of AZT, the first drug approved to fight HIV. (In 1987, the cost of a year's supply of AZT was $10,000, making it one of the most expensive drugs ever sold.) But what is the current state of HIV/AIDS in New Hampshire? What resources are available for those with the disease? And, what books and online resources does the library have and recommend? Here is summary of my findings. You might be surprised by what you learn.

According to the March 2007 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report issued by the NH Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health Services, there are 434 persons living in the state with HIV, and 574 persons living with AIDS. More specifically, 46% of those living with HIV and 41% of those living with AIDS reside in Hillsborough County. Of those with HIV or AIDS, about 75% are White, 14% are Black and 11% are Hispanic. Approximately 44% are men who were exposed to the disease through sex with other men (MSM) while 18% of those living with the disease were exposed through heterosexual contact, and about 17% were exposed via injecting drug use (IJU).

Source: NH STD-HIV-AIDS Surveillance Report – 2002-2006

HIV/AIDS agencies and support organizations in New Hampshire
Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force, 12 Amherst Street Nashua, NH 03064
NH Department of Health and Human Services, HIV/AIDS information
HIV/AIDS Resources in New Hampshire (Project Inform)

Other Online Resources
HIV/AIDS among youth [electronic resource]. (Center for Disease Control)
HIV/AIDS in New Hampshire (AIDS Action) [PDF]

Recommended Library Books
AIDS in the twenty-first century : disease and globalization / Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside. (2006)

The guide to living with HIV infection : developed at the Johns Hopkins AIDS Clinic / John G. Bartlett, Ann K. Finkbeiner. (2006)

Not in my family : AIDS in the African-American community / [edited by] Gil L. Robertson IV. (2006)

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

Are you a slave to your credit card company? For your sake, I hope not. We're all familiar with the temptation to buy that iPod we've always wanted or the stereo equipment that would make our stereo sound just the way we wanted, but if using the credit card to pay for these items means paying 20% interest on a sizable balance for a lengthy period of time, you're probably better off resisting. To make matters even worse, credit card companies are always sending out letters enticing us to start up a new credit card even if we already have one.

Well, if you'd like to be scared straight into never carrying a sizable balance on your credit cards again, then have I got the book for you: Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory Lenders by James D. Scurlock. Maxed Out takes the reader on a road trip that is both amusing and frightening. From Las Vegas to the Bible Belt to the backwoods of the inner cities, Scurlock takes you where the world's largest financial giants "troll for their next victims." Exposing real, potentially disastrous systems which support the flood of easy credit, Scurlock will make you think twice about slapping down some plastic when you head to the mall.

You can find the Maxed Out on display in the new business books section.

Recommended Websites on the topic:
Center for Responsible Lending, http://www.responsiblelending.org/issues/credit/
The Truth About Credit, http://www.truthaboutcredit.org/
Consumer Action (CA), http://www.consumer-action.org/

Magazine Articles available in EBSCO database for FREE!!!!
"Dragged Down by Debt" by Jane Quinn, in Newsweek, 5/7/2007, p49.

America's Best Colleges 2008 edition has arrived on the library shelves. For the uninitiated, US News gathers information about colleges from multiple sources. This information is then entered into their formula which reduces each college to a ranking number. The higher the number, the better the college. Each year high school seniors and their parents anxiously wait for this book. It is regarded in some circles as the definitive resource for college selection. In other circles, not so much.

On it's website, US News provides an explanation of the ranking process, breaking it down into three steps. The first step defines the different ranking categories. These ranking categories are based on Carnegie Classifications which have been updated this year, resulting in some schools changing from one classification to another. The second step involves accumulating information on 15 areas of academic quality from each school. Lastly, this information is converted to a weighted score, and the schools are ranked.

This year, a number of colleges have come out in opposition of this process. An Associated Press story published in USA Today sums the whole situation up very well. "It irks educators everywhere to see colleges ranked like basketball teams. But it irks educators at the top-ranked colleges a lot less." There is a campaign being conducted against this ranking process by Lloyd Thacker, a former college admissions counselor. He has enlisted over sixty colleges in this effort. Although most colleges may agree with his views, and would like to see an alternative to the rankings system, that will not happen any time soon.

The most important message in all of this? Find out more about a college than just its rank. Choosing a school because it has a high rank may not guarantee a good "fit" for you. The library has any number of college selection guides, The College Handbook published by CollegeBoard, Barron's Profiles of American colleges and Fiske guide to colleges to name a few. Read these from cover to cover and find out all you can about the colleges that you are interested in. Then turn to two new books that the library has purchased, College unranked : ending the college admissions frenzy and Harvard schmarvard : getting beyond the ivy league to the college that is best for you and use them to help you discover what you really should be looking for in a school for you.

NPL realizes that students thinking about applying to college, and their parents, need as much help as they can possibly get. Help will arrive on Wednesday, October 10, at 6:30 in the NPL Theater. A College Planning Workshop will be presented that night by the New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation. This workshop will help you to understand what colleges are looking for from you, what you should be looking for on a college tour, how to write that all important application essay, and where to turn for help in paying for it all.

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.