Author: Valerie

Give Your Doctor A Check-Up

- Valerie Leave a comment

Turn the tables on your doctors and give them an examination!  We are pleased to announce that within our ReferenceUSA product you’ll now find a new sub-database called U. S. Healthcare, which allows you to obtain information about your doctor’s vital statistics.

Search by the doctor’s name to learn primary specialty, medical school, year of graduation, hospital affiliations, and whether they are Board Certified.  Or if you are searching for a new doctor, you may enter geographic criteria and choose from a list of primary specialties.

This product provides information on over 675,00 doctors and 180,000 dentists, potentially providing their group’s name, office manager’s name, and what health plans they accept.

Take the pulse of your medical providers today.

Let Us Entertain You

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Have some spare time on your hands?  Looking for new diversions?  Look no further than your local library!

We are pleased to announce the addition of two RBdigital entertainment products to our fleet of online resources, IndieFlix and Qello Concerts.

IndieFlix provides access to over 7,000 high-quality shorts, features, documentaries, classic TV shows and Web series from 85 countries.  It includes independent films from major festivals all over the world, including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, and more.

Qello Concerts allows music lovers to view full-length performances, concert films, and music documentaries.  For example, shows by Queen, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Aerosmith, Lady Gaga, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, Bob Marley, Mumford & Sons, etc.

To get started with either product you first create an RBdigital account.  Enter your Davenport library card number, then fill out a form to provide your library, name, email, and create a password.  It’s that simple.

Your account provides you a 7-day license to stream unlimited content.  The next week, login again to check out another license.

Fair warning:  These products are addicting!

What’s New With RBdigital Magazines

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We are exited to announce the addition of HELLO! magazine to our digital magazine offering, as well as Conde Nast Traveler and  Life & Style Weekly.   These are just three of the fifty-three titles we are subscribing to this year with RBdigital Magazines.    And when we subscribe, you subscribe!

That’s right, as a Davenport cardholder you can read magazines that are cover-to-cover identical to the paper issues.   Login with your RBdigital account to check out and download issues that are yours to keep.  If you don’t have an RBdigital account yet, sign up here, by following the Create New Account link (top, right corner).

And, yes, there’s an app for that.  Best to limit use to a tablet, though; it can be challenging to view the magazine files on a smartphone.

Here’s the full list.  Which titles interest you?

AppleMagazine                                   Men’s Health

Backpacker                                         MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Bicycling                                              Motor Trend

Bon Appetit                                         National Geographic

Car and Driver                                    Newsweek

Chicago Magazine                             O, The Oprah Magazine

Clean Eating                                       OK! Magazine

Conde Nast Traveler                         Outside

Cook’s Illustrated                              PC Magazine

Cosmopolitan                                    PCWorld

Country Living                                  Popular Mechanics

Discover                                             Popular Science

Esquire                                               Prevention

Family Handyman                             Reader’s Digest

First for Women                                Rolling Stone

Food Network Magazine                 Runner’s World

Games                                                Smithsonian Magazine

Good Housekeeping                        Star Magazine

HELLO! magazine                            Taste Of Home

HGTV Magazine                               TV Guide Magazine

House Beautiful                                Us Weekly

In Touch Weekly                               WIRED

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance          Woman’s Day

Life & Style Weekly                          Women’s Health

Macworld                                           Woodworker’s Journal

Marie Claire                                       Yoga Journal

Maxim

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Truth Is Out There

- Valerie Leave a comment

Whispered Tone.

Pssst! Over here!

You’ll never guess what I found when I was using Fold3 to write an article for our newsletter. Project Blue Book Military Records! That’s right, reports of UFO Investigations as documented by men who witnessed the events and conducted the investigations. I found the official UFCS Index Cards and reports the US Government made at the time the sightings were made.

From Des Moines, Iowa, yes, Des Moines. On June 24, 1947, a United States Air Force pilot observed an object make a pass at his aircraft at 20,000 feet. The object appeared to climb to approximately 35,000 feet. This 25-second incident was reported eight days after the observation occurred and was not further investigated.

On June 28th 1947, 30 miles northwest of Lake Meade, Nevada there was a sighting of “5 or 6” circular objects at 6,000 feet, estimated speed 285 MPH, with a heading of 120°.  The investigating agent considered the man making the report, “very sincere in the explanation and was not the exaggerating type. He merely stated what he saw and drew no conclusions.”

How could this information be lurking in an unclassified, military, genealogy database in plain sight?

At 7:50 a.m. on June 27, 1950, in Texarkana, Texas a object whose shape is listed at “Flat Top & Round dishpan” of “Bright Aluminum” color was reported moving “plenty fast,” by two witnesses. The military investigator who spoke with them states, “The character and integrity of the observers is beyond reproach. Both are employed in supervisory capacities and possess above-normal intelligence.”

On February 23, 1968, in Evansville, Illinois a 14-year-old playing basketball with a friend say a white object “brighter than a star” covered half the night sky in “2 min. or less,” heading east. The letter he received from a Lt Colonel included an 8-page form to fill out to document his experience.

Want to read more? Log into the Fold3 database and “Browse All Non-military Records,” then look for “Project Blue Book – UFO Investigations.”

https://fold3library.proquest.com/login

Discover Answers With Ancestry Library Edition

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My Grandma Jean came over from Ireland on a ship named Saturnia, which made port in Montreal, Quebec in 1922.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this information in Ancestry Library Edition.  Answers to questions await everyone inside the more than 7,000 available databases of Ancestry.  You can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more.

The U.K. collection offer censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland, with nearly 200 million records: Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London, and more.

Other international collections continue to grow with more than 46 million records from German censuses, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, phone directories, and more; Chinese surnames in the large and growing Jiapu Collection of Chinese lineage books; Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia; and more.

All this data, paired with an intuitive search interface, makes Ancestry Library Edition an indispensable resource.  To use this database, come into one of the Davenport Libraries.

North Korea Journal by Michael Palin

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Michael Palin has taken us on his travels over the years.  We’ve gone with him as he’s circumnavigated the globe in 80 days, gone pole-to-pole, and explored the Himalayas.  This time he’s off to the DPRK, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, for a 15-day adventure with a small film crew and some preconceived notions of what he’ll find.

This small book is presented in journal form, his day-by-day activities documented and presented with a copious number of photographs.  Day 3:  Arrive at Pyongyang station.  Day 8:  A journey to the Demilitarized Zone.

On his travels he notes the ever-present images of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, painted in pictures or molded in bronze, always equal in size.  He hears music played in loud speakers sounding throughout a city, the soundtrack of their lives.  He sees Senior Citizen ladies in traditional dress dance “formally and carefully, as if in slow motion.”

But the places he goes are not the main message of North Korea Journal.  Palin strives to give us sense of the people he encounters along the way.  Their hesitance to engage with outsiders.  Their love for their Great Leaders.  He asks probing questions, and only sometimes embarrasses his hosts.

Announcing Acorn TV !

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The Davenport Public Library now offers Acorn TV !  Davenport library cardholders now have unlimited, streaming access to British TV and films.  Acorn TV streams world-class mysteries, dramas, and comedies from Britain and beyond. You can binge-watch a full slate of original and exclusive programming.

This digital resource can be enjoyed via the RBdigital app, accessed from the library’s    Online Resources page or you may browse available content.  To get started register for an RBdigital account or login with your existing.   When you are ready to watch a show, check out a 7-day license to enjoy unlimited, streaming content. Check out another week-long license when you are ready to watch more.

With thousands of hours of commercial-free programming and new shows added weekly, there’s always something to watch!

DPL’s 2015 Zinio Magazine Titles

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Zinio - New Titles - ImageTwo dozen new titles have been added to our Zinio magazine offerings. That brings this year’s total to over 90 great periodicals that you can download with your Davenport Public Library account.

Unfamiliar with Zinio? Now is a great time to take a look at downloading full issues of great titles.  Interested?  Then be certain to create a new account and check out a magazine during your visit.

Heads up, even after creating an account, during your first checkout you’ll be asked to create an account for your downloads.  Tip:  Use the same username and passwords for both logins.

These issues are always available; no need for reserves. Once checked out, they stay on your account indefinitely, meaning you can go on a wild checkout spree, then read them at your convenience. Once finished, simply remove the issues from your account.

You’ll find both current and past issues are available. That is, back issue availability is based upon when our subscription began.   You’ll even find older issues for magazines to which we no longer subscribe still available to you.

 

Current titles:

100 Ideas Real Rooms,   Allrecipes,   American Cowboy,   American PHOTO,   AppleMagazine,   Autoweek,   Backpacker,   Backyard & Garden Design Ideas,   Better Homes and Gardens,   Bicycling,   BirdWatching,   Bloomberg Businessweek,   Bon Appetit,   Car and Driver,   Chicago Magazine,   Cosmopolitan,   Cottage Life,   Country Gardens,   Country Living,   Discover,   Do It Yourself,   Dogs Life,   Dwell – Best Homes in America,   EatingWell,   Elle,   ESPN The Magazine,   Esquire,   Every Day with Rachael Ray,   Family Circle,   Family Handyman,   FamilyFun,   Food Network Magazine,   Forbes,   Good Housekeeping ,   Harper’s Bazaar,   HGTV Magazine,   House Beautiful,   Interweave Knits,   iPad & iPhone User,   iPhone Life,   Kiplinger’s Personal Finance,   Knit Wear,   Macworld,   Marie Claire,   Martha Stewart Living,   Martha Stewart Weddings,   Maxim,   Men’s Fitness,   Men’s Health,   mental_floss,   Midwest Living,   MOTHER EARTH NEWS,   Motor Trend,   National Geographic Interactive,   National Geographic Traveler Interactive,   Newsweek,   O, The Oprah Magazine,   OK! Magazine,   Organic Gardening,   OUT,   PC Magazine,   PCWorld,   Popular Mechanics,   Popular Science,   Prevention,   Reader’s Digest,   Redbook,   Rolling Stone,   Runner’s World,   Running Times,   Shape,   Smithsonian Magazine,   Soap Opera Digest,   Spirituality & Health Magazine,   Star Magazine,   Storage,   Taste of Home,   The Atlantic,   The Economist,   The Writer,   Town & Country,   Traditional Home,   True West,   TV Guide Magazine,   Us Weekly,   Weight Watchers,   Woman’s Day,   Women’s Health,   WOOD Magazine,   Woodcraft Magazine,   Yoga Journal

 

 

 

 

Mango Languages

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parlez-vous français ?

¿habla español?

You can!, with Mango Languages.  Mango is an online language-learning system that teaches conversation skills for 22 languages as well as 13 ESL courses.  Offerings include, but are not limited to:  Spanish, Vietnamese, German, Italian, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish to English, Vietnamese to English, etc.

By listening to and repeating material designed from native conversations, you’ll learn individual words and phrases and know how they’re used in practical situations and conversations.  You’ll not only learn grammar, vocabulary and conjugation, you’ll learn how to communicate.  Using a microphone or other audio input allows you to have your own pronunciation charted and compared to that of a native speaker.

Mango is a new product available to you in the Do Research Online portion of our website.  It may also be found in the For Students and For Adults sections of our in-house menu.  We encourage you to Create A Profile by providing an e-mail address and creating a password so that you can keep track of your learning progress.  When you first sign-up Mango will send you a confirmation e-mail to which you will need to respond to establish your account.  And remember to check your Junk Mail folder if that e-mail doesn’t quickly appear in your e-mail Inbox.

Are you currently taking a foreign language course in school?  If so, Mango may be a ticket to a better grade.

Are you planning a vacation to a foreign land?  If so, before you go – Mango!

Love, Love, Love Sonnets

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Short on time?  With just a few minutes you can sneak a little literature into your day with the fourteen-line poems offered by Garrison Keillor in 77 Love Sonnets.  The topics range wider than the title suggests.  And the writings seem to be written off the cuff, not heavily edited, expressing Keillor’s momentary thoughts and takes on places and events.  In “Obama” he conveys his experience as one of the crowd on inauguration day.  In “October” he revels in the security and joys that fiscal security allow.  Among these pages you will discover sonnets that explore each of The Four Loves:  affection, friendship, eros, and charity.

In “Long Career,” Keillor states that “The secret of a long career is simply to not fade….”  This prolific author appears to be taking his own advice by publishing this collection the same year as novels Life Among The Lutherans, Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance, and A Christmas Blizzard.