Category: Reference

Home Decorating Help At Your Library

- Ann Leave a comment

I recently decided to paint a couple of rooms in my house, but I have the hardest time choosing colors.  It’s just too hard to look at those little square samples and imagine what that color will look like in a whole room!  And as it turns out, the library can help with that.  We have lots of home decorating books that include painting ideas and tips.  I checked out a few, and lo and behold I found the perfect colors for my bathroom and guest bedroom.  My favorite ideas came from Home Rules: Transform The Place You Live Into A Place You Love by Nate Berkus, and Robin Strangis’s Color Idea Book.  I hate constantly using “boring” neutral colors, but I’m never sure how to add color without making the house look schizophrenic.  Luckily, both of these books helped me figure out how to make it work.

Here are a few more books we have that might help you with your latest painting project.  For more, stop in at any of our three locations and browse under the call number 747.

Design on a Dime by Amy Tincher-Durik and HGTV

Paint Can! Techniques, Patterns, and Projects for Bringing Color Into Every Room by Sunny Stack Goode

Paint Style: The New Approach to Decorative Paint Finishes by Lesley Riva

Perfect Palettes: Inspirational Color Schemes for the Home Decorator by Stephanie Hoppen and Joanna Copestick

Easy Paint Makeovers: Crackling, Leafing, Sponging, Antiquing, and More by Kass Wilson

Living in a Terrarium World

- Ann Leave a comment

Did you know about air plants?! Sounds kinda sci-fi, doesn’t it! Also known as an epiphyte, air plants get their nutrients from the surrounding air and thus do not need roots. Cool! They kind of remind me of a miniature, land-dwelling octopus or Thing from the Addams Family. Now here did I learn about these awesome plants? From Terrarium Craft: Create 50 Magical, Miniature Worlds by Amy Bryant Aiello, Kate Bryant, & Kate Baldwin!

I always thought that Terrariums were very difficult to upkeep and required intense calculations to maintain their delicate ecosystems, but Terrarium Craft has since convinced me that Terrariums are my new super laid-back, always stylish best friends. In fact, according to Amy, Kate & Kate, I don’t even have to put living plants in my terrariums if I don’t want to–I could use pretty sands, rocks, crystals, and dried flowers to make super lovely displays. However, they make even the plant terrariums seem easy by using moss balls, air plants, succulents and other easy care plants and arranging them with sweet figurines, geodes, books and costume jewelry to create little whimsical, fairytale-like scenes. I want to live in their terrariums, but, until I find a shrinking raygun, I will just check out Terrarium Craft from the library and make one of my own. It will totally have a geode and an air plant and will be based on that classic Ringo Starr hit, Octopus’s Garden.

Excuse me, you’ve got some Type on your Face

- Ann 1 Comment

The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin contains over 1.5 million pieces, and is the only museum dedicated to the preservation, study, production and printing of wood type. That in itself is pretty cool, but there is something even more amazing about this particular museum: a visitor can actually feel, hold, and USE most of the historic collection!

Typeface, a documentary by filmmaker Justine Nagan, takes the viewer into the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum and shows the difficulties surrounding the need of preserving tools that are both part of a dying craft and an increasingly popular artform, as well as the hardships facing museums and similar institutions in the current economic climate. This film really shines when it shows the relationships between the volunteers who are mostly divided into two categories: townsfolk retired from the former Hamilton factory and artists visiting from the big Midwestern cities. The artists are all eager students attempting to learn the endangered-of-being-lost skills of cutting wood type and maintaining letterpress machines, while also trying to use their time to produce pieces of art with the largest collection of wood type they may ever have access to. My absolute favorite part of the film is when one of the elderly, former Hamilton employees displays the artwork given to him over the years by the artists he has helped. Although he seems rather bewildered by the art at first, his brief descriptions of the pieces begin to reveal an increased understanding of the artist’s intentions. Typeface frequently aims to blur the lines between artists and craftsmen, while still highlighting the expertise they provide for the museum.

Unfortunately, the movie ends on a bit of a downer, but a quick visit to the website for the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum shows that things must be looking sunnier (for example, maybe you’ve see the new clothing line at Target made using Hamilton wood type). I know that, thanks to Typeface, I sure am planning a visit!

While we wait for George R.R. Martin to continue writing….

- Ann Leave a comment

After a six year wait, George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons was finally released earlier this month.  Knowing the pace at which Mr. Martin tends to write, we’re in for a long wait until the sixth installment in this epic fantasy series is published.  While you’re waiting, here are some other series you might be interested in:

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time is the first series that is always suggested to me when I’m looking for A Song of Ice and Fire read-alikes.  Starting with the first book, called The Eye of the World, the story involves magic, an epic quest, battles, and adventure.

Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, starting with Assassin’s Apprentice, is a medieval political saga much like A Song of Ice and Fire, and it even includes an illegitimate son character a la Jon Snow.

Gregory Keyes’ new series, Kingdom of Thorn and Bone, starts with The Briar King.  Like A Song of Ice and Fire, it also has multiple character viewpoints and struggles for the throne.

And if you’re up for something a little less gritty but still tells an epic fantasy tale with fantastic world building, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series is always enjoyable no matter how many times you’ve read it.  If you’ve never read them before, start with The Fellowship of the Ring, then The Two Towers (my personal favorite), and finally The Return of the King.  It’s next on my re-read list!

EBSCO Mobile App – Info on the Go!

- Michelle 1 Comment

With the new EBSCO mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch and for Blackberry, you can access the Davenport Public Library’s EBSCO electronic resources straight from your smart phone 24 hours a day!

Begin by visiting any EBSCO database through the Davenport Public Library’s website and follow the link at the bottom of the screen to get started.  Then, after downloading the free app from the app store, you are all ready!

Listed below are a few of the cool things you will be able to do with the app:

*Choose which databases to search

*Email results to yourself of others

*Retrieve the full text of articles

EBSCO just announced that an Android app is coming soon – stay tuned!

A Fond Farewell

- Ann 7 Comments

We want to take a minute to say a giant “thanks!” to one of our favorite blog post contributors here at Info Cafe – Tana will be leaving the Davenport library at the end of this week in pursuit of new adventures and we will miss her. She’s an excellent writer with a wide range of reading interests that has helped to make our blog diverse and dynamic. With over 120 posts to her credit Tana wrote, among other things, about “literary” fiction, non-fiction covering contemporary issues and many of the themed displays at the library. I particularly liked Tana’s series of RAGBRAI posts, written in 2008 starting with the July 22 post. They showcase Tana’s wit and good humor and are just plain fun to read.

If you’re lucky enough to know Tana personally, you know she’s smart and funny and cheerful and generous, all of which are excellent qualities in a reference librarian. And in a friend.

Good luck and best wishes always Tana!

 

Geeky Craftsters Will Take Over the World.

- Ann 1 Comment

The World of Geekcraft: Step-by-Step Instructions for 25 Super-Cool Craft Projects by Susan Beal and Jay B. Sauceda is one of my favorite new craftbooks. What really sets this book apart from the other zillion hip craft books on the shelf is the wide variety of crafts (it’s about time a craft book included fuse beads!) and the cool extras such as the craft designer’s own websites and inserted text explaining the stories behind the geekiness.

Have I made anything from this craftbook? Nope.
Have I still checked it out from the library multiple times? Yes.
And do I really really hope that someday I will make something from it? YES!

Here are a few of the things I wish to make:

•Coraline Mystery Sewing Box by Susan Beal
•Oregon Trail Cross-stitch by John Lohman
•Buffy Fuse Bead Portrait by Shayne Rioux

Super cool.

Some of my other favorite geeky craft books are the The Star Wars Craft Book by Bonnie Burton and The Muppets Big Book of Crafts by the Muppet Workshop

Frugal Librarian #38: Late-night lettuce

- Bill Leave a comment

In another month, every break room and front porch is going to be loaded with well-intentioned zucchinis, cucumbers, and tomatoes from benevolent friends and neighbors.

But in the interim, take this recent advice from Lifehacker.  According to them, it’s practically a standard equation at the supermarket level regarding deep price markdowns to salvage some return on the product before the freshness date expires.

To compound it, Wednesday may enable you to harness overlap between the the two-week span’s advertising circulars.

It makes sense, and it’s actually true.  I figure whatever they aren’t going to be able to work into the next day’s salad bar gets the big red sticker.

Frequently I get seven bagged salad mixes that were $3 once they become $1.    That’s the only time to buy.  If you pay more than $1, you paid too much.  If there’s nothing there for $1, select another style of mix that they are unloading.

Congratulations, you paid $7 instead of $21 for your week’s lunches, you genius.

Apparently the leafy greens in there turn into a pumpkin coach after midnight as opposed to something that is completely edible and delicious we all can safely consume for an additional 7 to 10 days.

Bless you freshness date.

The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town

- Ann Leave a comment

The Kids are back in the Hall! Or at least they returned to the hall long enough to make a new 8 episode mini-series in 2008 called Death Comes to Town which is super duper funny and, of course, very Canadian.

It used to be impossible to go a day without seeing an episode of The Kids in the Hall, the Canadian Sketch Comedy show that originally aired on CBS and HBO from 1989 to 1995, and then appeared in constant reruns on Comedy Central and other cable channels. But it has been awhile since I have seen the gang altogether (comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thomson) since they have all been off making other TV shows, voicing characters in Disney movies, and hosting reality shows in their home country, so I was thrilled to discover this new series sitting on our new DVD shelf.

Instead of The Kids in the Hall‘s usual short comedic sketches, Death Comes to Town is a murder mystery ala Agatha Christie meets Monty Python featuring a huge cast of characters/suspects all played by the five comedians. The story takes place in the small town of Shuckton, Ontario, when the town’s beloved mayor is killed in his home just after informing the town that they did not win the bid to host the 2028 Winter Olympics. One of the mayor’s old hockey prodigies, an recluse who hasn’t left his home in decades, decides to solve the mystery with help from the local news team and a bunch of quirky townspeople, all while a Demon repeatedly tries to kill him.

I highly recommend Death Comes to Town for all Kids in the Hall fans and for anyone who likes their humor both a little dark and very silly. And although fans may be sad not to see most of their favorite KITH characters, there is a brief cameo by the beloved Chicken Lady.

My Father said “Marry a Wally”

- Ann 1 Comment

During my childhood, my father worked hard to educate my brother and me on all the classic family sitcoms of the 1960’s: The Andy Griffith Show, F Troop, Mr. Ed, My Three Sons, etc, but all of his references of the Cleaver family fell on ignorant ears until a fateful Father’s Day weekend when TVLand finally introduced reruns of Leave it to Beaver by airing a whole-weekend-long marathon. I was hooked after the first episode and even popped in a VHS tape to record as many episodes as I could (just in case TVLand decided to be cruel and revoke my Cleaver family privileges after the weekend marathon wrapped up. Luckily they did not, and I have had about 15 blissful years of Leave it to Beaver reruns.)

So I finally understood why my Dad always told me that he wanted me to marry “a Wally,” and I quite agreed for a long time (Tony Dow was super cute). Until I met my husband and realized that hanging out with “a Theodore” was a little bit more fun. I think my Dad is just content that I didn’t fall in love with “a Lumpy” or “an Eddie Haskall” (who, by the way, was the inspiration for the name of my brother’s high school punk band).

My father will be out of town this Father’s Day, but I’m going to have to rent some Leave it to Beaver DVDs (from the library, of course!) to celebrate in spirit. I think I will be starting with Season Three so I can watch a specific episode where the Beave loses a copy of Treasure Island and lives in fear of a visit from the LIBRARY COPS!