Jan 29, 2008

Friends of the Atlee Library Book Sale

Friends of the Atlee Library Book Sale
Friday February 1 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday February 2 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A super selection of hardcovers, DVDs, and CDs for only $1.00 and paperbacks for only 50 cents will be available in the library's meeting room. Come early for the best selection!
For directions or further information, please call the library at (804) 559-0654.

Jan 28, 2008

Pick of the Week

Sneaky uses for everyday things
Cy Tymony

More than a do-it-yourself guide, this quirky collection of over 80 solutions and bonus applications is a valuable resource for transforming ordinary objects such as paper clips and tape into the extraordinary. This book can be a practical tool to build useful devices or a trivia guide to impress friends and family. Find out how to turn a penny into a radio, make a flood alarm with an aspirin, change milk into plastic, extract water and electricity from thin air, turn on a tv with your ring, and more!
Science Buddies supports hands-on scientific investigations as ways to teach science literacy by providing free science fair project ideas, answers, and tools to teachers, parents, and students from all walks of life. Its programs focus on professional involvement and interaction with students, challenging projects with high science content, and saving student time and frustration. Try out Science Buddies resources, like the Science Fair Project Guide and Ask an Expert (AAE), today!

Jan 22, 2008

Mechanicsville Library is looking for a Library Aide

The Mechanicsville Branch is now accepting applications for a Library Aide position! The position is 10-12 hours per week with 2 Saturdays a month. Computer skills necessary.

Applications are available at all of our branches or see Applications for Employment. Deadline for submission is January 28, 2008.

Contact Jaime Stoops, Branch Manager, 7179 Stonewall Parkway, Mechanicsville, VA 23111, (804) 746-9615, jstoops@pamunkeylibrary.org to apply or for more information.

Mechanicsville Branch Library Bookmark Contest

The Sixth Annual
"Friends of the Mechanicsville Library"
Design a Bookmark Contest

Children in Kindergarten through fifth grade are invited to enter the sixth annual Design-a-Bookmark contest at the Mechanicsville Branch Library, sponsored by the Friends of the Mechanicsville Library. Pick up an entry form at the Mechanicsville Branch Library or print out this form (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

Complete and return the entry form to the Mechanicsville Library on or before March 26, 2008. If you have questions please contact the Mechanicsville Branch Library at (804) 746-9615. Entries will be judged in three categories based on grade level. The winners will be announced during National Library Week, April 13-19, 2008.

Jan 18, 2008

Pick of the Week

The anatomist : a true story of Gray's anatomy
by Bill Hayes
Hayes (author of Sleep Demons: An Insomniac's Memoir) explores the lives of the two men, author Henry Gray and illustrator Henry Carter, responsible for Gray's Anatomy, still the standard in medical textbooks at 150 years old. Little has been written about either man, but Hayes balances biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom in this well written examination of life, death, and the body beneath.


Web Site of the Week


HealthCare 411a series created by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The series is designed to help provide people with the latest research findings, news and consumer health care information. Click on the program or feature presentation of your choice to either hear them on your computer or to download them to a portable digital player such as an iPod. You can subscribe to the series and receive the latest features via podcast technology.

Jan 11, 2008

Pick of the Week


The Ballet Book
by Darcey Bussell

The author, a professional ballerina, introduces the art of ballet, from the basic positions, poses, jumps, and exercises to folk and character dancing, makeup, choreography, and performing on stage.

Web Site of the Week



Founded in the late 1950s by local dance enthusiasts, The Richmond Ballet, the State Ballet of Virginia, is now ranked as one of the top mid-sized ballet companies in America, producing exceptional dance programs that reach more than 100,000 people throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and the nation. The School of Richmond Ballet, a nationally recognized training institution, provides classes to more than 700 students of all ages and skill levels annually at its state-of-the-art facility in downtown Richmond.

Jan 9, 2008

Virginia Senate streaming video link


Starting today, Wednesday January 9, you can watch Virginia's Senate proceedings live on the General Assembly's web site at http://legis.state.va.us/. You can either hear or view the 2008 Senate session. The video option has a limited number of streams available, so this service is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Microsoft Media Player version 9.0 or above is required. Both services are free and no passwords are needed.

To access the 2008 proceedings:
1. Go to the GA web site: http://legis.state.va.us/.
2. Highlight "Senate" - located on the menu on left hand side of the website.
3. In the drop-down menu that appears, click "View the Senate Session"
4. On the next page, click "Session Audio" to hear the session or click "View Session" to view the session.

Jan 3, 2008

Pick of the Week

More treasures from American film archives, 1894-1931 : 50 films
by Scott Simmon



More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931 celebrates the first four decades of American film with fifty films and six previews preserved by the nation's foremost silent film archives: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. See examples of feature-length narratives, serials, cartoons, newsreels, folk life footage, avant-garde works, actuality footage, industrial films, and more. Film scholar Tom Gunning has described early cinema exhibitions as being organized around a series of wonders and sensations, or, as he calls them, attractions. Before the dominance of the narrative feature film, audiences were thrilled by the technology itself, and its ability to reproduce images from life on the screen.
(Each DVD and the book can be checked out seperately.)

Web Site of the Week

The Internet Archive is a digital library of Internet sites, movies, live music, audio, and text in digital form. Like a paper library, it provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
You can find all sorts of things at the Internet Archive, from public domain feature films to educational films shown in classrooms and workplaces, from live performances by Carbon Leaf to classic audio books and poetry, even Beeton's Book of Needlework. You can even see what web pages looked liked last year or 5 or 10 years ago with the Wayback Machine.