Atención!  Achtung!  Announcing!   

The Library has switched foreign language products.  We have been offering Transparent Language of late (and we still do through the end of June).  But we are pleased to announce the return of Mango Languages to our fleet of online learning products.

Some previous users may recall that we offered Mango Languages in the past, and will be acquainted with the 70+ foreign language courses it offers and the 20+ ESL (English as a Second Language) courses.

The Mango learning system focuses on intuitive language construction through a conversation-based methodology that reinforces grammar, vocabulary, culture, and pronunciation, the four key elements of becoming a confident communicator.

With Mango, you may start to learn a new language or re-freshen your skills.  If you will be taking a trip to a France, learn to parle Français.   Or if you want to know what is being said around you learn to entender Español.

Mango uses a building block approach. At the beginning of each chapter, lesson material is presented in conversational context, broken up as the lesson progresses, and built back up by the learner, as they’re presented with new vocabulary, retention exercises, and cultural context that complement the learning material with a backdrop of cultural context.

With Mango you can hear the language pronounced and there’s the opportunity to record your pronunciation to compare it with that of a native speaker.

You may use Mango as a guest or you can sign up for an account.  The benefit of an account is that you’ll be able to keep track of the courses you have signed up for and your progress through them.  For example, with an account, if you just finished Japanese Lesson 5, the next time you sign on you’ll be presented with Japanese Lesson 6.  And there is an app that you can download so you can learn on-the-go.  But be aware that you must use the website to sign up for an account.  Though once created, the app can keep track of your account’s progress.

Lessons tend to be 15-20 minutes.  Sneak in a session while you are waiting in a restaurant or at an airport.  Every lesson furthers your language skills.

So, go forth and Russisch sprechen, Italian or Ukrainian.  The world awaits!

 

Love Your Library During a Reading Slump

If you just can’t read a book right now, don’t feel bad! You’re not a worse person because you can’t get yourself to read anything more than a cereal box or social media post. Whether you’re busy with schoolwork, family obligations, or just plain burnt out, you can still love and support your library and be part of our bookish lifestyle without picking up a single book.

Tip #1: Do something cool! Try the TechKnow library (featuring a digital camera, a mobile scanner, Snapchat spectacles, and MUCH more), our collection of board games (from Scrabble to Super Mario Checkers), or a community experience pass to a local museum like the Figge.

Tip #2: Go multimedia! Save some serious money by checking out a new movie (like Till or the new season of You), music CD (maybe Charlie Puth’s latest?), or video game (including PS5 games like Dying Light 2) so you can try before you buy.

Tip #3: Read without reading! Skim a heartwarming graphic novel like Moonstruck, or listen to a book on playaway or CD (pro tip: pick a short one like The Poet X, a 3.5 hour listen) for a quick lit fix. (Disclaimer: these are definitely real books and count as real reading, but since they may be easier than traditional print, I’m including them.)

Tip #4: Just show up! Come exist in our spaces – read magazines and enjoy the view at Eastern, warm up at Fairmount’s fireplace, or schedule a Makerspace tour at Main.

Tip #5: Be social with it! Engage on social media from home — repost our news and events, browse databases and digital resources, and check out challenges in the Beanstack website or app.

However you engage with the library, we appreciate you and we want to hear from you! What’s your favorite way to ride out a reading slump – or your favorite way to love the library?

Reading With TumbleBooks

Do you want help explaining the world to your children?  We have a resource that can help with that!  While TumbleBooks is primarily a source that can help your children learn to read, it includes books that explore a number of different topics.  For instance, science.

Do your kids know that Mauna Loa is currently erupting?  Introduce the idea of volcanology to beginning readers with the online picture book A Trip To The Top Of The Volcano With Mouse, by Frank Viva.  In this story book you’ll meet an adventurous human who explorers Mount Etna with his companion, a mouse, who just wants to be done so he can eat pizza.  As the pages turn, you are able to hear the story being read while seeing the words highlighted on the page.

More advanced readers can build both their reading skills and knowledge when TumbleBooks explains subjects in more detail.  For example, The Story Of Snow, by Mark Cassino (with Jon Nelson, Ph.D.) explains how snowflakes form.  Read along as each sentence is highlighted and take time to look at the illustrations that show how snow crystals develop.

Or read Faces Of the Moon, by Bob Crelin, which explains why the moon changes shape each night and introduces the concepts of waxing and waning.

TumbleBooks can grow with your child.  It contains both non-fiction and fiction titles that can be read to your pre-kindergarten child, your elementary beginning reader, and more advanced books that your child can read alone.  Sports books, poetry, all the way up to chapter books can be enjoyed in this robust resource.  All you need is your library card to being your adventure!

Now on Freegal: 2023 Grammy Nominees

The Grammy nominations are here and you can experience the contenders today on Freegal with your library card! The full list of nominees was posted on grammy.com November 15, with the 65th annual Grammy Awards scheduled to air February 5. This year new categories have been added: Songwriter of the Year, Best Video Game Soundtrack, Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Americana Performance, Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, and a special merit award for Best Song for Social Change.

Here’s a peek at the playlist on our digital music streaming platform, Freegal, with some artists you’ll probably recognize:

Unfortunately not everything is included as Freegal is a limited catalog, but if you (like me) haven’t managed to hear songs from Beyonce’s Renaissance, DJ Khaled’s God Did, or songs from Camila Cabello’s Familia, the 2023 Grammy Nominees playlist is a great place to start. The list includes all musical genres and offers a great snapshot of what’s hot in music today.

Luckily for you, if you’re looking to hear songs not included on this playlist, you can find most of them in our music CD collection, including Lizzo’s Special (About Damn Time is one of the nominees for Record of the Year), ABBA’s Voyage, Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous, Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days, and more.

Was your favorite artist or song included in this year’s Grammy’s? Let us know below!

Freegal Music Celebrates Mother’s Day

It’s the time of year when everyone starts thinking about their parents, as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, National Parents Day (4th Sunday in July), and Non-Binary Parents Day (3rd Sunday in April) help us kick off the spring and summer seasons. This May, Freegal Music, the digital music service we subscribe to as a library, has made a special playlist to help you celebrate the mothers in your life.

A refresher on Freegal: it’s available both on our website (linked under Digital Content) and as a downloadable app for your smartphone. On its website, once you log in with your Davenport library card it’s free to stream any available songs, albums, playlists, or audiobooks, but you can also download five songs per week for offline listening.

The mother’s day 46-song playlist includes a variety of artists, genres, and styles, from pop (Meghan Trainor) and country (Carrie Underwood) to R&B (Alicia Keys) and international music (Bad Bunny). So however you and the mothers you know like to jam, there’s something here to put you in a grateful, celebratory mood.

On-Demand Streaming Videos

Winter is coming.

The time to bundle up, lay down on the couch, and be entertained by your television is almost upon us.  But what to watch?

Consider Kanopy.

The library recently added this on-demand streaming video service to our offerings.  You might choose a classic movie, such as the John Wayne feature “McLinktock!”  Or the 2019 Best Picture winner “Parasite.”  Whatever your cup of tea, with its over 30,000 movies, you are sure to find something to suit your tastes.

Whether using the Kanopy desktop software or the app, you can select from feature films, classic movies, foreign films, and documentaries to while away the cold winter evenings.

Davenport Library cardholders may logon using their library card number and their password/pin for their account.  After that you’ll need to Sign Up for a Kanopy account by providing a name, an email address, and then make up a password.

Kanopy operates on Play Credits.  Each time you begin to watch a movie, a Play Credit is deducted from your account.  You may use up to four (4) Play Credits a month.  Play Credits reset at the beginning of each calendar month.

Once you Watch a video, you will have access to it for 48 or 72 hours, depending upon movie.  During that period, you may watch it as many times as you like without using another Play Credit.

There is a section of Kanopy that is designed especially for children, Kanopy Kids.  It offers educational and entertainment content for children ages two to eight.  There are parental controls that can be set up, so that you can allow your kids to browse the site.

The Great Courses are also available. Once you begin a Great Course you have 30 days to complete it.

Films can be streamed from any computer, television, mobile device or platform by downloading the Kanopy app for iOS, Android, AppleTV, Chromecast or Roku.

Grab a cup of cocoa, put on your pajamas, and stream the night way.

Hidden Database Gems: MasterFILE Premier

Our available library databases have recently changed! Unfortunately, this means we no longer have Credo Reference, Chilton’s, or some Gale databases. However, we have gained a great new resource! With your library card, you now have access to MasterFILE Premier, a database of full-text articles, primary source documents, and more! Including publications like Consumer Reports, Kiplinger’s, and Newsweek, it’s perfect for research, and the interface will be familiar to anyone who’s used an EBSCOhost database before. If you haven’t, here’s how it works:

If you click on MasterFILE Premier on our list of Online Resources, you may be asked to sign in with your library card number, and then you’ll be taken to the basic search page.

To get the most and broadest results, put a general search term in here and hit search.

If the results aren’t what you’re looking for, try a similar search term or related words in the search box on the top of the results page.

If you’re looking to narrow your results down to what’s most relevant, you’ll want to click on Advanced Search underneath the search box. Here, you can search only in one particular publication, you can choose what kind of resources you want to find, you can limit to full-text results, you can specify a range of publication dates, and more! This is also where you can use Boolean searching, where you search multiple terms at once connected by words like AND, OR, and NOT – these limit, broaden, or define your search, respectively. The strategies and tools on this page will give you the most relevant items and cut down on the time you’ll spend sifting through the results.

When you have a list of results, you can narrow down your results list using filters along the left side of the page. Here, you can pick what kinds of publications to draw from, pick specific publications, narrow it down by language, publication date, category, and more.

Once you find something interesting, you have a few options: You can click on the title or on the Full Text version from the result list, as shown.

Clicking on the title will give you a detailed record of what the resource is, as well as some tools to save or access it AND the option to find similar results.

Choosing the full-text version, meanwhile, lets you read the resource directly, access more from the publication, and access the same tools to save or share it.

And as always, if you need any help using this or our other resources, don’t hesitate to contact us for some assistance! Our Book-A-Librarian service is available again, allowing you to reserve a dedicated session for help with any number of topics, including databases and digital resources.

Hidden Database Gems: Credo Reference

Today I’d like to tell you about another database that, like Chilton Auto Repair, used to be represented in the library by shelves of big heavy books: encyclopedias. For the record, we do still have some encyclopedias in our library branches, but they’ve also gone digital. There are a number of encyclopedias online, of course, from the controversial Wikipedia, to the generic Encyclopedia.com, to Britannica.com (the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica), and all have their good points. But with your library card, you have access to Credo Reference, a database with a unique functionality and power beyond the others I’ve mentioned. It’s a great place to start if you’re working on an assignment and need some background information, or if you’re just curious and want to learn more about something!

In Credo Reference, you can search a word or name and see full-text results from a huge variety of books, encyclopedias, and websites. You can find definitions and historical accounts and contextual details from a variety of sources, as well as concept maps which link your search term to related ideas and topics. Specific articles also come with a ready-made citation of that source in APA, Chicago, Harvard, or MLA formats. Here are some screenshots to show you how it works.

First, get to Credo Reference from the library website’s Online Resources page, under Research Tools.

Then scroll down the list to the C’s to find “Credo Reference“. Click on it, and you may be asked to enter your library card number.

Enter your search term in the search box (or scroll down through popular topics and research tips).

Your search will result in a page like this one: various sources are listed on one side, and a concept map appears on the other. You can use the options at the top to view articles or images, and to filter results by type, collection, subjects, and media. Beneath the concept map, you can use links to other library resources to find even more information.

Once you select an entry to read, you can save, print, or cite that resource, or do a new search for related topics.

What Should I Read Next? Resources From Your Library (Part 2)

Continuing the theme of ways you can discover your next read, today I’m highlighting two databases the library offers — free to use with your library card.

NOVELIST

NoveList is a popular book discovery platform used by many libraries. To access it, go to our website, then under Research Tools, click on Online Resources (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

This will bring you to an alphabetized list of all our library databases. Scroll down to the “N”s, and you’ll find NoveList (Fig. 2). It may ask you to sign in with your library card.

Fig. 2

This tool is powerful because it not only lets you search titles, authors, and genres, but it also provides lists of recommended titles and an “appeal mixer” search tool that lets you look for books based on attributes like writing style, pace, storyline, characters, and more (Fig. 3). The downside of NoveList is that its lists of books aren’t always comprehensive and the appeal mixer doesn’t work with all combinations. Also, you will have to take any book title you get from NoveList and put it into the catalog to find it or put it on hold. I recommend trying NoveList as a way to discover books you might like and explore what makes books appealing.

Fig. 3

 

GALE BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Gale Books and Authors is another database you have access to with your library card, and it’s listed in the same place as NoveList  (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

In my opinion, this is a slightly more powerful and useful tool for searching for books. It provides an advanced search function, the ability to browse by genres, authors, or by book lists (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

It includes both fiction and nonfiction in several genres, and provides for a very useful set of subgenres as well. The only problem I had with the genre browsing was that it didn’t seem to provide for literary or general fiction, sticking very strongly to genres. You can’t search by subgenres either, until you’ve picked a genre from their limited list (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

In this way the advanced search function can be a useful workaround, because it lets you search for books featuring certain subjects or certain types of characters – under which is a very impressive list of many ages, occupations, and relationships (Fig. 4). However, you still can’t put items on hold directly, and the lists of books aren’t necessarily comprehensive either. I recommend this resource for a more detailed search for authors or titles you may be interested in.


Fig. 4

Hidden Database Gems: Chilton Auto Repair

Once upon a time, there were big fat books in the library with CHILTON written on the side. You could come into the library and use these books to find any information you might need about repairing or maintaining your vehicle. Sadly, due to changes in publishing and library budgets, not many of these books are still on library shelves. But never fear, that information is not gone, it’s just moved online!

Your library card gets you free access to the Chilton Auto Repair database where all that repair and maintenance information is recorded and easily accessible. Here’s how it works: first, from our website, look under Research Tools and click on Online Resources.

Scroll down this list to the “C”s, and click on Chilton Auto Repair. You may be asked to enter your library card number. Once you’ve logged in, the homepage will look like this:

Select your vehicle by year, make, and model and click Select. Then choose what category of information you’re looking for: Repair, Maintenance, Labor Estimating, or Bulletins/Recalls. From here, you can continue to narrow down the categories until you find the information you’re looking for.

This database is very useful because it includes not only downloadable and printable diagrams but also step-by-step repair procedures, a labor estimating tool, and ASE test prep quizzes for popular certification exams. If you’re looking for robust vehicle repair and maintenance information, I definitely recommend you check out this database!