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A Wrinkle In Time's 50th Anniversary

Monday, March 5, 2012 - Labels: a wrinkle in time, books, madeleine l'engle - 0 Comments

I just found out from YALSA's The Hub that this year is the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite books, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time!

As one of the earliest books with a female heroine, A Wrinkle In Time is not only a classic story but kind of a ground breaker for women!

Meg Murry, our protagonist, is a regular girl... not too pretty, not too cool, and totally anxious, fussy, and short-tempered. But it's this collection of faults that (a) get her the popular boy in school and (b) ultimately save everyone she cares about.

A Wrinkle in Time, however, almost wasn't published! The publishers had a hard time determining just who this book was for. They felt it would be too difficult for children to read but with all children characters, it wouldn't interest adults. Many also didn't like how L'Engle dealt overtly with the idea of good and evil.

But eventually (luckily) A Wrinkle in Time was published and thank goodness it was! Even 50 years later, it's still going strong as a popular favorite!

Put a hold on A Wrinkle in Time if you've never read it before (and even if you have!) and, for more A Wrinkle in Time fun, check out a few book trailers below:

Happy Leap Day!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - Labels: events, fun - 0 Comments

It's Leap Day!... or, February 29th. I don't know about you, but I find having a bonus day kind of exciting!

Here are some fun facts about Leap Years:

2012, as well as all leap years, consists of 366 days, as opposed to 365. Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. However, the Gregorian calendar (ours) has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn't add a day on February 29 about every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. That means that after only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

Leap years can't just be decided at random though! In the Gregorian calendar, there are 3 criteria that must be met to be a leap year:

1. The year must be evenly divisible by 4.
2. If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless...
3. The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

Don't worry if this doesn't make sense. Someone's already done all the work for us, but did you have any idea there was so much behind it? I sure didn't!

Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years in the Roman empire over 2000 years ago, but the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by 4 would be a leap year. This lead to way too many leap years, however this issue didn't get corrected until the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar more than 1500 years later.

So, that leaves one more question...where does the word "leap" come in to play? This is another complicated explanation but in a normal sequence of years, a calendar date (say February 28th) falls on Monday one year, Tuesday the next year, then Wednesday the year after that and so on. But every fourth year, thanks to the extra day in February, we "leap" over the expected day of the week. So February 28th was a Monday last year, a Tuesday this year, and will be a Thursday in 2013. We "leaped over" Wednesday! Get it?

Happy Leap Day! Enjoy the extra 24-hours!

Teen Tech Week 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012 - Labels: technology, teen tech week - 0 Comments

March 4th starts Teen Tech Week! And this year's theme is Geek Out @ your library.

The purpose of this week is to make sure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies...especially the ones that are offered through libraries, like DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and video games, etc.

Remember that the library is a good resource for accessing information. Librarians (like me!) are the experts who can help teens (like you!) develop the skills necessary to use electronic resources effectively and efficiently. This, in turn, can help you get more out of the technology that you use.

So stop by the library during Teen Tech Week and ask us a question about ebook readers, homework help, video games, or any other technology you might be curious about. We're here to help!

Dancing Books

Monday, January 16, 2012 - Labels: books, fun, videos - 0 Comments

How about some dancing books? Watch this video and see it happen!

The video (on Yahoo) was made by Sean Ohlenkamp and his wife, who spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating. I love it!

10 of the Most Beautiful Libraries and Bookshops to Visit on Your Travels

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 - Labels: fun, libraries, travel - 0 Comments

You may or may not be a seasoned traveller, but world-wide, "libraries are often distinguished architectural landmarks and can provide deeper insights not only into a country's literature, but also its culture and history as a whole," (according to Bootsnall.com). Plus, libraries are almost always free and open to the public. So why not take a visit in your travels?

BootsNAll has compiled "10 of the Most Beautiful Libraries and Bookshops to Visit on Your Travels" to keep an eye out for as you go.

Have you been to any of these? You can start by taking a look at them online.

Vancouver Public Library (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Royal Danish Library (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Austrian National Library (Vienna, Austria)

National Library Singapore (Singapore, Singapore)

Law Library of the University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland)

Great Court and Reading Room, British Museum (London, United Kingdom)

Philological Library of the Free University (Berlin, Germany)

Lello Bookshop (Porto, Portugal)

Bibliothèque Nacionale de France (Paris, France)

Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid, Spain)

I've been to so many of the cities listed above, but only one of the libraries! I wish I could go back in time; these look so beautiful.

Happy travels!