Both locations of the Davenport Public Library (Main St and Fairmount) will be closed today, Wednesday February 27 for a Staff In-Service. We’ll be busy honing our skills and learning how to create the best possible library for you. Plus, we get to wear jeans, so we’re pretty excited! We’ll be open again our regular hours on Thursday (9:30am-5:30pm at Fairmount, 12pm-8pm at Main)
Category: Reference
Mental Floss Magazine
A fairly recent addition to the Fairmount Library’s magazine collection, Mental Floss is
…an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We’re the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times. And you only realize how much you learned from us after a little while…
Recent articles:
- “3 Extreme Ways to Go Green”
- “Actually, It IS Rocket Science: NASA’s Brilliant, Far-Out History”
- “Waropoly: How History’s Most Popular Board Game Helped Defend the Free World”
- “10 Songs that Changed the World”
Remember, you can check out magazines from the library, including the current issue, for one week.
6 Things to Love about Winter
Sure, it’s cold and miserable outside and it takes an extra 15 minutes to leave the house by the time you pull on hats and mittens and boots and coat and you’re beginning to think the color green is a figment of your imagination, but there are lots of reasons to love winter! Well ok, six reasons.
1. Indulge in favorite comfort foods – soups, sandwiches, casseroles. Check out the 641.5 section for cookbooks at the library.
2. Catch up on all those movies and television shows you’ve missed – the library has a huge selection and they’re free!
3. Plan your perfect garden – vegetable gardening books can be found in the 635 call number area and landscaping is in the 712s.
4. Embrace the season – try a new sport like snow shoeing or cross-country skiing. The library has sports how-to books in the 796 area that will help keep you upright.
5. Visit one of our city’s fabulous museums – the Figge, the Putnum and the River Music Experience are just the beginning.
6. Eagle watching. Cold weather brings the eagles to the open water of the Mississippi River, giving us a front row seat to one of nature’s most spectacular shows.
See? Not too shabby. Keep yourself occupied with something fun and the next thing you know – it’ll be spring!
What about you – what do you do to keep up your spirits through the last days of winter?
The President’s Table by Barry Landau
Happy President’s Day! Every third Monday in February has been set aside to observe the birth anniversaries of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22), although it is now generally used to honor all former US presidents.
Ever wonder what goes on at those lavish Presidential State Dinners? The beautifully illustrated The President’s Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy by Barry Landau gives us a unique picture of the world and work of the Presidents. Showing us history from a social rather than strictly factual viewpoint, Landau makes history fascinating and personal. Included are photographs of menus and invitations, descriptions of meals served, and details of trends in entertaining which reflect the birth, growth and dominance of the United States.
2 things are certain in life…and this one isn’t death
It turns out Uncle Sam still wants his cut, gang. Furthermore, he would appreciate the efficiency of you, Mr. or Ms Citizen, filing electronically.
DPL tries to accommodate taxpayers on both sides of the technology divide. The library is one of the few places which still distributes tax forms and publications. If the form you need is not one of the standard issue we stock in our displays at Main and Fairmount, one of the crack reference staff can help you locate it on the IRS’s labyrinthine site.
Some printing charges may apply. Seriously. Running off a few of those 90+ page tax tomes could contribute to deforestation.
Welcome to the new Reference Blog!
Welcome to the Davenport Public Library’s reference blog. The focus of this blog will be two-fold:
-reference services – websites, databases, current information you can use
-and reader’s advisory – books worth reading (as well as movies to watch and music to listen to), staff picks, what to read next.
We will be drawing on the various interests and talents of our reference staff to bring you a lively and interesting site. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the department and the diverse personalities that make it up. Comments and discussion are encouraged. Be sure to check back frequently (or subscribe to our feed) – there’s always something new happening at the library!