January 2009

  • Getting started with downloadable books – Overdrive’s Adobe format

    Welcome the wonderful world of digital books. Watch this video to learn how to use our Overdrive collection. You’ll be able to download books right to your computer. No driving around to get the books you want. As with any new technology, sometimes there can be a few glitches the first few times you use… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Three ‘book group’ books

    A Death in the Family by James Agee Other writers describe this book as a near-perfect work of art. The prose is poetic and musical, and the characterizations are so true to life that you feel you are part of the family, insular and innocent in a small Tennessee town in 1915. With incredible insight… Continue reading

  • Music at the Library

    We have a lot of programs here at The Seattle Public Library. Browse through our Calendar of Events and you’ll find very few days where there is not some kind of program happening either at the Central branch or in the many neighborhood branches. I would like to highlight three of our free, ongoing programs… Continue reading

  • Oh Sweet, Sweet, Vacation!

    In general, I would say the life of a Master’s of Library and Information Science (MLIS) student, is pretty great. We get to learn all about an institution as hallowed as the library and we get to spend our class-time with other compulsively organized and readerly people. My only complaint would be a catch-22 that… Continue reading

  • The Oscars of children’s publishing

    For some of us, early this morning was as exciting as watching the Academy Awards. Thousands of us were glued to our laptops, trying to get into the American Library Association’s webcast of Youth Media Awards (and maybe there were some, like me, who missed the bus because of this obsession). Thousands more followed on… Continue reading

  • January Question of the Month: An irregular series

    The reference librarians at Seattle Public Library are pretty darn amazing. They don’t know everything, instead they know where to find everything. As part of an irregular series of posts we salute the talented and dedicated reference staff at your local library. Names and other identifying information have been removed from the questions we showcase.… Continue reading

  • Happy New Year: The Year of the Ox

    The lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries in Asia. Not only do the Chinese communities around the world celebrate this, but the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Mongolians and others consider this festivity one of the most important celebrations of the year.  The lunar New Year starts with the New Moon on the first… Continue reading

  • Homegrown Reading

    Lately instead of just fretting over the health of local bookstores, I’ve started to fret over the local publishing scene, too. I’ve tried to laugh about it, but the bad news just keeps coming.  Will I someday be mourning the loss of Copper Canyon or Sasquatch Books the way I now miss browsing that glorious biblio-mayhem at Shorey’s… Continue reading

  • Inaugural Buzz

    Transitions of power have always had the capacity to fascinate us, and today’s inauguration is no exception.  Washington D.C. is expecting an influx of 4 to 5 million people trying to get close to the action, and many more of us (including in the Central Library’s own Microsoft Auditorium) will be watching the ceremony on… Continue reading

  • Banned Book-of-the-Month Club presents: Soul On Ice, by Eldridge Cleaver

    It begins like a spy movie. Late one night in the autumn of 1975, a group of school board members on Long Island New York asked the janitor to let them into the library, where they began rifling through the card catalog looking for titles from a leaflet in their hand. The flyer was produced… Continue reading

  • A la sombra del ángel de Kathryn Skidmore Blair

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. Antonia Rivas Mercado nació en los albores de 1900 en el seno de una acomodada familia mejicana. Desde muy tierna edad sufrió el rechazo de su madre por su color oscuro. A los 12 años su madre abandona la familia para correr a… Continue reading

  • Book review: New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear

    The year is 1899 and America is ruled by a distant king sitting on Britain’s Iron Thrown. In the colony of New Amsterdam, dissatisfied citizens spread whispers of war while Crown Investigator Abigail Irene Garrett uses sorcery to find a murderer. During her investigation into a brutal and possibly supernatural killing, Abby Irene meets amateur… Continue reading

  • Long Way Round and Down

    Do you like learning about the world? Do you like motorcycles? Do you think that Ewan McGregor is easy on the eyes? If you have answered yes to any or all of those questions, then keep reading. In 2004, actor Ewan McGregor, who some may know from Trainspotting, the Star Wars prequels, or Moulin Rouge!,… Continue reading

  • Salem Witch Trials

    As a girl growing up in Massachusetts, I was obsessed for awhile with reading anything and everything about the Salem Witch Trials.  Though my reading interests have broadened since then, I am still fascinated by the maelstrom of social, political and psychological events that led to witchcraft accusations and mass hysteria.  Recently I have been… Continue reading

  • Tiny people, big adventures

    Sometimes, especially at night when the world is dark and quiet, I hear strange noises in my house. Rhythmic little taps that fade to nothing. The squeak of a cupboard opening in an empty room. A faint sound like distant voices coming from up near the eaves, where no human ought to be. My first… Continue reading

  • Fun Things to do When You’re Stuck in the House

    What’s up with this winter weather anyway?  Just in case you are feeling a bit of cabin fever, here are some suggestions for fun things to do. The Ultimate Indoor Games Book: The 200 Best Boredom Busters Ever by Veronika Alice Gunter and Clay Meyer Looking for something to do at home with your 8 to… Continue reading

  • Mean, Rainy Streets

    Weary of the weather? And its only January? Try this: turn up your trenchcoat collar against the wind, snap down your fedora to the rain, put some moody jazz on your iPod, and pretend you’re the star of your own film noir. Seattle is a great setting for hardboiled crime. Here are some Northwest crime titles to get… Continue reading

  • New Year’s Resolutions for Readers!

    Now these we just might be able to keep! 1. I will reread a book I loved as a child. 2. I will finally read that classic from high school that I’ve been avoiding.  3. I’ll find a book of poetry and read some aloud.  4. I’ll spend an hour in aimless browsing at a library. … Continue reading