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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do Nora Roberts, Simon Fuller, Tony Dungy, Rosie O'Donnell, Warren Buffett, Brian Williams, Queen Elizabeth II, Osama bin Laden, John Roberts, Justin Timberlake, Condoleezza Rice, Rhonda Byrne, Raul Castro, Pope Benedict XVI, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Chien-Ming Wang, Richard Dawkins, Nancy Pelosi, and Steve Jobs have in common?

They are among the members of The TIME 100, an annual list of the world's most influential people. TIME breaks the list into five categories: Artists & Entertainers; Leaders & Revolutionaries; Heroes & Pioneers: Scientists & Thinkers; and Builders & Titans. Each group includes between 18 and 22 people. Some appear in categories that you might not expect. Recognized for making A Journey to Darfur, George Clooney is featured in the Heroes & Pioneers list along with fellow actor Michael J. Fox, whose foundation is working to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Former Vice President Al Gore, no longer in public office, is considered a Scientist & Thinker for bringing attention to global warming. It is an intriguing feature, not only because of those included, but also because of an omission. Some are surprised that George W. Bush is not on the list. Politics aside, it is interesting that TIME does not consider the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the American military, one of the people who shapes our world. Unfortunately, the magazine does not explain how the list was compiled. Readers don't know if the choices were made by the editorial staff or if a diverse group of people from various fields was surveyed. We do not know if the magazine had criteria for selection, either.

You can find TIME, along with our other magazines and newspapers, in the Stearns room (past the new fiction). Because the TIME 100 is in the most recent issue, you need to read it in the library. It will be available for checkout next week. In the meantime, you can take a look at TIME.com.

Are these truly the 100 most influential people, or can you think of others who shape our world? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave." I remembered that from somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain when I saw that Wednesday, May 9 would be the 207th anniversary of the birth of John Brown. That is the first line of what was a famous marching song sung by the Union Army during the Civil War. There are apparently claims that the John Brown of the song is the abolitionist John Brown best remembered for his raid on Harper's Ferry. There are also claims that the John Brown of the song was a Union soldier from Boston, a member of a military glee club. When the song was sung, the John Brown who came to mind was apparently the more famous one, and the song took off from there. The lyrics of the entire song are available at Wikipedia.

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Connecticut and died by hanging December 2,1859 in Charles Town, West Virginia. Son of an abolitionist and an abolitionist himself, he was, at one point in his life, a conductor on the underground railroad in Ohio. Brown had very strong religious beliefs and very strong opinions on the evils of slavery. He also came from a family where insanity was fairly common. His religious beliefs fueled his antislavery opinions and he became convinced that he was representing the hand of God in his dealings with pro-slavery individuals. He became a well-known representative of the antislavery cause in Kansas when, under his command, five pro-slavery individuals were hacked to death with machetes.

His attempt to arm slaves and help them to rise up against slave owners was the defining moment of his life. He was aided and abetted by six prominent Northern abolitionists referred to as the "Secret Six". With a small band of men both black and white, he attacked a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry VA. He was not joined by vast numbers of slaves wanting to be free. Instead, he ended up surrounded and refused to surrender. When he was finally captured, he was tried for murder and treason among other things, found guilty, and hung. At that time, and in that place, he became a legend to some, a hero to others, and a nutjob to the rest.

The library has a number of resources which will help you to form your own opinion regarding John Brown. Biography Resource Center and World Book Online have informative articles about John Brown. The library also has a number of books in different categories which offer views of John Brown. If you are a fiction reader, you may be interested in Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks or Mine eyes have seen by Ann Rinaldi, or if you like poetry, Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's body, although an oldie, could still prove interesting.

The library also has some new biographies of John Brown. Patriotic treason : John Brown and the soul of America by Evan Carton was published in 2006. John Brown, abolitionist : the man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights by David Reynolds was published in 2005.

Much as I love to discuss books, today's a film day. It's the 100th anniversary of acting legend Laurence Olivier's birth. Let's celebrate with a look at some of his works.

According to the Academy Awards Database, Olivier was nominated for ten Oscars for acting (he won Best Actor for Hamlet), was nominated for directing Hamlet, and was awarded two special Oscars (one in 1946 for Henry V, and one in 1978 for his lifetime's work).

Hamlet won Best Picture for 1948, and Olivier is credited with producing, as well as directing and acting in the film. You can pick up a copy of Hamlet in the Music, Art, and Media Department.

Also available in the library's film collection are several more of his films, including:

An adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights;
Shakespeare's Henry V and Richard III;
Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca;
and Spartacus.

For more information about the man and his work, we do have books by and about the legendary actor:

"Olivier: In Celebration" published two years before his 1989 death, is a collection of essays about the actor.
"On Acting" by Olivier, may deliver some insights into his work and achievements;
"Confessions of an Actor" is his autobiography. Laurence Olivier was famously married to two actresses, Vivien Leigh, immortalized as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, and Joan Plowright.

On Wednesday, May 23, the Library of Congress will be awarding a new annual prize; the Gershwin Prize for popular song. The first recipient will honored at a gala concert held at the Warner Theater in downtown Washington DC. The Library of Congress describes the Gershwin Prize as follows: "named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins".

The performer/composer who will be receiving this award is Paul Simon. Once half of the very successful performing duo of Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon is also an extremely talented solo performer/composer. He has won numerous awards both as part of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo performer. A press release from the Library of Congress gives details of Paul Simon's career and the many awards which he has received. A second press release gives the details of the concert. Those of us who are not able to attend the concert in Washington DC tonight will be able to share in the event when it is broadcast on PBS television June 27.

Paul Simon's song Graceland has been added to the National Recording Registry which was created by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. The goal of this law, Public Law 106-474, was to create "a comprehensive national program to ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America's sound recording heritage". Sound recordings preserved include music, monologues, and speeches. The Library of Congress provides a description of the National Recording Preservation Board, its members and its functions. Recordings can be nominated for preservation by anyone. The Library of Congress has published the criteria and procedure for nomination on their website.

If you are interested in listening to Graceland, the library has the CD in MAM. There are also many more Paul Simon CDs to choose from, among others : One-trick pony and Negotiations and love songs 1971-1986. If you are a Simon and Garfunkel fan, here are two good listening choices : Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits and Simon and Garfunkel : the concert in Central Park. If you are a Gershwin fan or you are wondering exactly who the Gershwins are, the library has a biography of George Gershwin, a book about George and Ira titled Fascinating rhythm and a CD of Gershwin music, By George: Gershwin"s greatest hits.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baltimore is an interesting city, and, for a variety of reasons, I have visited there a number of times. On one of my trips I visited the Babe Ruth Museum which is housed in the home in which the Babe was born. The exhibits were very interesting, and just visiting the house itself was a fun experience. Baltimore has a second sports museum, Sports Legends at Camden Yards, which has an exhibit featuring Babe Ruth including items from a trip which Babe made to Japan. I bring this subject up because, ninety-three years ago, Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut. According to his official biography, Babe Ruth was first signed by the Baltimore Orioles where he played for five months. The Orioles were at that time a minor league team and a part of the Boston Red Sox system. It only took those five months for him to be noticed by the Red Sox, and on July 11, 1914, the rest became history.

Babe Ruth's official biography is found on his official website. The website is sponsored by the family of Babe Ruth and the Babe Ruth Baseball League and is packed with all types of information about The Babe. The About Babe Ruth section contains not only his official biography, but also his baseball statistics, his achievements and awards, photos and quotes by him and about him. The Community section lists Tribute websites, like the ones put up by the Yankees and Red Sox, and provides a link to each one. It is also possible for anyone who has a tribute website to Babe Ruth to have it listed here on the Babe's official site. In the Downloads section, you can download free screen savers and computer wallpaper featuring Babe Ruth. The Shopping section will sell you everything from books and videos about Babe Ruth to life-sized cardboard figures of him!

Babe Ruth's career had amazing successes at the same time that his personal life had amazing ups and downs. He became a legend for his good qualities and a legend for his bad. In 1919, after a record-breaking pitching performance which helped the Red Sox win the 1918 World Series, Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees, apparently to assist the new Red Sox owner in establishing his career as a Broadway producer. This was the beginning of the well-known Curse of the Bambino. The Babe's career as a Yankee can be found in detail on the NY Yankees official website This was a time period when Babe Ruth developed another of his talents, acting. The internet movie database lists a number of movies that included Babe Ruth, some sports shorts in which he was the only person involved, some movies where he made a cameo appearance as himself, and one movie, Babe Comes Home, in which he played the title role of Babe Dugan.

Babe Ruth's life is too eventful to be discussed at length in this blog. The only other career highlight that I will mention is his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of the first five players to be inducted. If baseball statistics are of interest to you, baseball-reference.com has a large collection of Babe Ruth's statistics as does Baseball Almanac which even includes his salary for each year that he played in the major leagues.

The library has some new materials for those interested in the career and life of Babe Ruth:
two new DVD : Everyone's hero and Reverse of the curse of the Bambino which traces the history of the curse, and highlights the Red Sox in the 2004 World Series.
several new books : Ty and the Babe : baseball's fiercest rivals, The big bam : the life and times of Babe Ruth , Babe Ruth : launching the legend, and Sultans of swat : four great sluggers of the New York Yankees.

So, as Babe Ruth said "The only real game, I think, in the world is baseball."

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

On this date (August 4) in 1892 Lizzie Borden's father and her step-mother were murdered in the family home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie Andrew Borden, 32 years old at that time, became the central figure in these axe murders. The slayings, the trial, and the ensuing trial by media aroused widespread controversy. The incident has endured to this day in American pop culture and criminology. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever tried and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers still continues.

Those with cravings for Lizzie Borden information and paraphernalia are known as "Bordenphiles". The Nashua Public Library has several items you could begin with:

The Borden tragedy : a memoir of the infamous double murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 / adapted and illustrated by Rick Geary.

Lizzie Borden : the hands of time by Muriel Arnold.

The Fall River tragedy : a history of the Borden murders / by Edwin H. Porter
a facsimile of the 1893 book with a foreword by Robert A. Flynn .

Murder, culture, and injustice : four sensational cases in American history by Walter L. Hixson.

The ability to kill : true tales of bloody murder by Ambler, Eric.

On the Internet, you can take a look at The Lizzie Andrew Borden Virtual Museum and Library to search for information about researchers, read Lizzie's Blog, discuss the case with other Bordenphiles, and even shop for Lizzie Borden gifts and books. You can subscribe to The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies or take a look at ten years of resources in the Lizzie Borden Quarterly. Other sites of interest are Lizzie Borden Unlocked providing a good deal of infomation about the legend, trial and investigation and the Lizzie Borden Exhibit which includes a RealAudio rendition of the above nursery rhyme and a tour of the museum. And if you would like to see the entire lyrics of the Chad Mitchell satirical song popularized in the 1960's by the Chad Mitchell Trio go to the International Lyrics Playground.

Let us know of any other interesting sites you may find.

Roger Tory Peterson, famous for his field guides to birds, would have been 99 today. He is credited with making bird identification accessible to all levels of birders. There's a nice biographical article about him in the Environmental Encyclopedia, available through our Biography Resource Center database. According to the article, Peterson was born August 28, 1908, and died July 28, 1996. His passion for birds began when he was a boy. An artist by training, he studied at the National Academy of Design and the New York City Art Students' League. His two interests came together in his publication of A Field Guide to the Birds, which was published in 1934. Several newer editions were subsequently produced.

In addition to his Field Guide to the Birds, he also produced guides to wildflowers (A field guide to wildflowers of Northeastern and North-Central North America; a visual approach arranged by color, form, and detail) and plants (A field guide to edible wild plants of Eastern and Central North America). Houghton Mifflin now publishes a series of field guides in his name.

He received many awards for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. There is even a natural history institute named for him: The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

A book about Peterson's life in birding, All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures was released posthumously in 2006, and you can find it here at the library.

If you have lived in the Nashua area, or more specifically the town of Merrimack, since the early 1970s, you may be familiar with the unsolved case of the murders of Diane Compagna and Anne Psaradelis. The girls were last seen at Hampton Beach on July 12, 1973. Their bodies were found in Candia in the woods near New Boston Road on September 29th of the same year. Both girls were 15 years old and would have been beginning their sophomore year at Merrimack High School.

New interest has been generated in the case because of a recent book which has been published by Joseph Horak. Mr. Horak, a retired Merrimack police detective, was one of the law enforcement personnel who first investigated the murders in 1973. His first book, Justice denied : a detective's dilemma , published in 2004, was a discussion of the facts of the case and a detailing of where the investigation may have gone wrong. His second book, Pride and honor : behind the badge is a compilation of stories highlighting his career as a police officer. That may not be what drew so many people to the Merrimack Public Library to hear him speak on June 11, 2007 that some were turned away at the door for lack of room.

There is the small matter of what appears on page 347. Horak has had his own suspect in this case for some time. In this second book, on page 347, in an effort to generate some movement on the part of everyone involved in the case, Horak has named the person whom he believes was responsible for the murders of these two girls. The man is a Merrimack resident. Horak states that he is more interested in seeing justice done, than he is concerned about any legal consequences that may befall him for making the accusation.

If you are interested in catching up with developments in this case over the last few years, here are some links to stories which have been published in local papers.

Nashua Telegraph
Milford Cabinet and a second article in the Cabinet

The library has a wide selection of true crime reading. If you are interested in following up on a few of the other murder cases which have been in the headlines in recent years, here are some suggestions.

A death in Belmont
Safe harbor : a murder in Nantucket
A rose for Mary : the hunt for the real Boston strangler
Invisible Eden: a story of love and murder on Cape Cod

Today we celebrate a man who brought much joy, entertainment, and education to millions of children, and even adults--the late Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets. In the 1970s, before most viewers subscribed to hundreds of television channels, Sesame Street was many preschoolers' program of choice. I watched it religiously and dressed up as Big Bird one Halloween. I was also a devotee of The Muppet Show, and would probably stop to watch even today if I came across it. In fact, a friend of mine owns one of the Muppet movies.

Born on September 24, 1936, Jim Henson was fascinated by television. He realized his dream of working in the industry when his puppetry hobby earned him five-minute spots on a Maryland NBC affiliate. Henson's first network program, Sam and Friends, debuted in 1955. His Muppets also appeared in commercials and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Rowlf the Dog, the pianist you may remember from The Muppet Show, was a regular on The Jimmy Dean Show, and popularized Henson's creations.

In 1969, Jon Stone, the first head writer for Sesame Street, suggested incorporating the Muppets into the new children's show on PBS. According to Henson's biography on the Museum of Broadcast Communications website, "it has been suggested that if there were no Muppets, there would be no Sesame Street. The Muppets are largely responsible for the colossal success of this program. In skits, songs, and other performances they epitomized the social skills fundamental to Sesame Street's mission--cooperation, understanding, tolerance and respect." Despite the success of Sesame Street, Henson wanted to bring the Muppets to a wider audience. He knew their appeal was not limited to the preschool crowd. In 1976, he created The Muppet Show, a variety show that featured the charming and zany Muppets alongside the day's biggest stars--John Denver, Florence Henderson, Don Knotts, Steve Martin, Elton John, John Cleese, Brooke Shields, Sylvester Stallone, Alice Cooper, Mark Hamill, Christopher Reeve, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Lynda Carter, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, Gladys Knight, and many others. Who can forget the Great Gonzo, the Swedish Chef, Miss Piggy and her crush on Kermit the Frog, and all of the other characters and skits? Muppet movies followed, as did the Fraggle Rock series, The Muppet Babies cartoon, and a few additional projects. Henson received 18 Emmys, seven Grammys, four Peabody Awards, and five ACE Awards.

For more information about Jim Henson, take a look at his bio on The Museum of Broadcast Communcations Website or The Jim Henson Legacy site. You can learn more about his movies and television series at the Internet Movie Database. Or, if you want to revisit your past, check out some of the videos we have here.

Do you have any favorite Sesame Street of Muppet Show memories? Please share them by leaving a comment below.

Source: "Henson, Jim." The Museum of Broadcast Communications http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/hensonjim/hensonjim.htm (accessed September 24, 2007).

Nashua is not as big as Manchester, as quaint as Amherst or as cosmopolitan as Boston, but look around our city and you’ll see why people call Nashua home. There are our schools, our shopping, our restaurants, our parks, our location, our music, our art, our sports, our “quality of life,’ and behind it all, many dedicated people – both paid and volunteer – working tirelessly to make our city a better place to live.

Many of the services and opportunities that we take for granted come from the efforts of those who came before us. Take for example the Hunt family, who gave the city $50,000 – a princely sum in 1892 – for the construction of a public library, or the late Joseph Sakey, who arrived in Nashua in 1956 and served the city as library director from 1959-1971. A tireless champion of education, the arts, and the free expression of ideas, Joe had an impact on the community far beyond the library, serving on more than a dozen boards, and as a founding member of the Nashua Choral Society, Nashua Symphony Association, the Arts & Science Center, and the Gateway Family Planning Association. Joe was instrumental in bringing a new downtown library – our present facility on Court Street – from dream to fruition before he left Nashua to become director of the Cambridge (MA) Public Library. He also insisted that the former library, now the Hunt Memorial Building, be protected, preserved, and used by future Nashuans. Joe, who was well known for his "foresight, persistence and patience in the face of repeated discouragements and setbacks" according to the 1971 new library dedication program, was successful in both these endeavors.

This is why family, friends, and admirers of Joe Sakey will meet at the Hunt Building on Library Hill this evening from 5 to 7 to celebrate Joe’s life and unveil two bronze plaques: one honoring Joe and the librarians who preceded him, and the other detailing the history of the historic Hunt Building. A few of this evening’s attendees have never met Joe, who died in 2004, but can’t help to admire him for his dedication to the free exchange of ideas and to the cultural and intellectual enrichment of his adopted community.

The next time you visit the Hunt Building, stop for a moment in the main lobby to read the plaque and thank Joe for all his efforts on our behalf.

Now that the holiday season is here, we can look forward to shows such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. One of the most popular cartoons is A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was the first animated Peanuts special. It debuted in 1965 and is the second longest-running Christmas special on US television. (Who can forget that weepy little Christmas tree?) Although it may not air for a couple of weeks, A Charlie Brown Christmas is on my mind becuase today would have been Charles Schulz's 85th birthday. Born on November 26, 1922 in Minnesota, Schulz created the Peanuts comic strip. Peanuts first appeared on October 2, 1950, and was a staple in comic pages throughout the world. The last daily strip appeared on January 3, 2000, and the last Sunday strip was published on February 13, 2000, one day after Schultz passed away.

If you're a Charles Schulz or Peanuts fan, you should take a look at Schulz and Peanuts : a biography by David Michaelis, a new book in the Music/Arts/Media department. You will recognize the cover reminiscent of Charlie Brown's shirt: yellow with a brown zigzag. The book will be featured in the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, which will appear in the December 2 book review section. In the meantime, you can read a Library Journal review, summary, or even excerpts from the first chapter by clicking on the links on the left-hand side of the bibliographic record.

If you've ever tried to find a nonfiction book in the library, yo've noticed the numbers--Dewey Decimal numbers--printed on the little white spine labels on books. While we arrange fiction by the author's last name, we organize nonfiction according to the Dewey Decimal System. Each number corresponds to a certain subject. This allows for most of the books on a subject to be grouped together.

The Dewey Decimal System was invented by Melvil Dewey, who was born in Adams Center, NY, on December 10, 1851 (156 years ago today). Dewey began his career in librarianship while he was a student at Amherst College. Upon graduation, he remained an employee of the library and investigated other libraries. Dewey developed ideas about how the library should be arranged, and in 1876 published A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library. (You've got to love those 19th century titles; they're often long and descriptive.) This system became know as the Dewey Decimal System. Although many colleges and universities use the Library of Congress Classification System, public and school libraries tend to favor Dewey. In fact, the Dewey Decimal System has become the most widely used library classification in the world.

How, exactly does the Dewey Decimal System work? Dewey is divided into ten main classes of knowledge. Then, each class is broken down into ten divisions, and each division into ten sections. This creates a three-digit number. A decimal point often follows the three digits. The numbers following the decimal point get even more specific. When you look at the numbers after the decimal point, be sure to read the numbers individually, rather than as a whole (973.12 comes before 973.2).

Knowing the main classes of the Dewey Decimal System will give you a general idea of where books are located in the Nashua Public Library or any other library that uses Dewey. They are as follows:
000 Computer science, information & general works
100 Philosophy and psychology
200 Religion
300 Social Sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Arts & Recreation
800 Literature
900 History and Geography
Click here to see the divisions, sections, and a more in-depth explanation of the classification system.

Sometimes, books you may assume to be in one area will be elsewhere. Many books cover more than one subject or are about a multidisciplinary topic. I've noticed that the 900s and 300s have quite a bit of crossover. History is located in the 900s, but political science, civil rights, slavery & emancipation, and international relations are in the 300s. Some books that I assume to be in one area are actually in the other. If you can't find what you need, check the online catalog for a specific call number or ask a reference librarian for assistance.

Sources:

"Melvil Dewey." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

OCLC "Summaries, DDC Dewey Decimal Classification." Dublin, Oh.: OCLC, 2003. http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/summaries/deweysummaries.pdf

I decided to write about the NH Primary in my blog this time. I spent time researching and planning and got ready to write. What a surprise! When I went to the library's blog site, I discovered that someone else had written about the Primary already! I complained to one of my coworkers that I had certainly wasted my time. She said "go ahead and write about it anyway. It's not going to happen again for another four years, and it's here now." So I thought about it, and here goes!

Some things I will not miss when the primary is over are the constant ringing of the phone, the machine full of important messages left by representatives of one candidate or another, and all of the surveys which "will only take a minute of your time and have you considered voting for_ and why haven't you made up your mind yet" or "can we take a minute to try and change your mind".

I've spent time trying to educate myself about the various candidates and their platforms. I don't know who I want to vote for yet, but there is a lot of information out there to help me decide. Since I spend so much time in front of a computer, I turned to the internet for information. Local newspapers were well represented. The Manchester Union Leader - New Hampshire Sunday News maintains a web presence as well as publishing in print. The UnionLeader.com has a primary primer. All types of information about each candidate in both parties can be found here. The fun part is at the bottom of the webpage where two columns, pink and blue, contain links to many of the candidates online sites. There are links to the candidates' MYSPACE and YOUTUBE sites as well as official sites, political sites and personal websites.

The Nashua Telegraph is active on line as well. NH Primary.com has links to candidate pictures and information, candidate appearance schedules, and some NH Primary history. I did notice that some candidates who are no longer in the primary race are still listed on this site, and that candidate profiles seem to come from Wikipedia. Still, parts of this site are current and the primary history does make interesting reading.

The third site, The New Hampshire Primary 2008 is posted by SeaCoast Online, which features the Portsmouth, Exeter and Hampton NH newspapers. Here you can find links to political columns and blogs, updated candidate profiles, campaign appearances, photo galleries and videos.

As I read this over, I'm surprised again. This wasn't what I started out to say, but it's where I ended up. My feeling is that a lot of reading and watching and listening will help you make a much better, more informed decision than letting yourself be pressured into decisions by anonymous voices on the phone.

I recently read in Publisher's Weekly magazine from January 3, 2008 that Jon Scieszka has been named the country's first national ambassador of children's books. I have long been a fan of Mr. Scieszka since I first became familiar with his ever-so-popular book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs published in 1989. This two year appointment as ambassador is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council and is modeled after the Children's Laureate position in the U.K.

I think Scieszka is most deserving of this position and will be able to set the stage for the continuation of this august role. He is funny, smart, and articulate and most importantly, kids love to read his books. I was also pleased to read that Mr. Scieszka plans to make his platform "Reaching Reluctant Readers". His attitude of letting kids read whatever it is they want to read, regardless of whether it is considered great literature or not and to "stop demonizing TV and online as the enemy" is a step in the right direction in my humble opinion. Scieszka founded his own initiative in 2001 called "Guys Read" which is available from his website, www.guysread.com. From this site guys (and girls) can get a listing of good books recommended by Scieszka himself.

It will be interesting to see the energy that Mr. Scieszka brings to his new position and what new initiatives may develop during his appointment. The future of reading seems bleak when looking over the statistics discussed in the NEA's recently released study, "To Read or Not to Read". But I think Scieszka has his finger on the pulse of our young readers and I am optimistic when he says "I'm speaking to that knucklehead in the back of the classroom, because that knucklehead was me." Go for it, Jon!!

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

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