Exercise Your Kid Power!

Students going into sixth, seventh and eighth grades in September are needed as volunteers this summer at the Dublin Library. Volunteers help children play the summer reading game and assist with other library tasks.

One last training for Kid Power has been scheduled for Monday, June 23, at 1:00pm. The orientation takes about half an hour.

This is an opportunity to meet new friends, gain some valuable work experience, help your community and just plain have some fun.

 

 

Water Conservation Tips during Drought

On Wednesday, June 5th, Governor Schwarzenegger officially declared that California is in a drought.  He warned that the state may be forced to ration water if conservation efforts did not improve.  The East Bay Municipal Utility District has already made water rationing mandatory.

Here are some Dublin Library books that may be useful for gardening during the drought:

Dryland gardening : plants that survive and thrive in tough conditions / by Jennifer Bennett   635.9525 BENNETT

Plants and landscapes for summer-dry climates of the San Francisco Bay region / by Nora Harlow 635.9525 HARLOW

Waterwise gardening / by Lauren Springer  635.95 SPRINGER,L

For water conservation tips, click on these Web sites:

Livermore - Amador Valley Zone 7 Water District

Bewaterwise.com

UC Davis’ California Center for Urban Horticulture

Want to Learn More? (PDF)

 

 

 

 

 

Get to Know Our Databases - Try Free Training Tours

For quick lessons on using some of the Alameda County Library’s databases, there are step-by-step tours (with audio) available for your review. These tours allow you to access training on key features of each database. Tours take approximately 15-20 minutes each to complete. Simply click on any of the links below and the tour will load in  a few minutes.

Biography Resource Center

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center

PowerSearch

Science Resource Center

What Do I Read Next?

 

Academic OneFile Added to Database Collection

Alameda County Library subscribes to many databases that replace paper indexes and allows you to access complete books, newspapers, magazine issues and articles from home.

Recently, Academic OneFile was added to our database collection.  If you would like to review scholarly research, Academic OneFile has complete articles from many leading journals and reference sources.

Make sure that you have your Alameda County Library card close by as you will need to add your name and barcode number in the prompt box. 

 

 

 

May is National Bike Month

Get your bike tuned up and ready to celebrate National Bike Month throughout May. In the Bay Area, tomorrow’s 15th annual Bike to Work Day  will honor bicycling as an alternative way to commute, get around town and reduce your carbon footprint.  Over 200 Energizer Stations will supply refreshments and support along bike routes around the Bay Area.  To find out their locations, go to ttp://www.bayareabikes.org/btwd

To be eligible to win bike-related prizes, register on http://bicycling.511.org/ and pledge to ride your bike at least once during May. 

For more information about bicycling, check out these resources at the Dublin Library:

Bicycling  - magazine

Cycle World - Young Adult magazine

The bicycling guide to complete bicycle maintenance & repair: for road & mountain bikes by Todd Downs, Rodale, c2005.

Bicycling for fitness by Gus Gedatus, LifeMatters, c2001.

 

Gene Vierra’s Retirement Update

  

Gene retired from the Dublin Library in March so a grand celebration to honor him was held at the Library.   A crossword puzzle and a Jeopardy-like game that described Gene and tables decorated like golf links (his favorite sport) set the mood for his party.  Thirty years worth of memories were recalled as he was toasted and roasted with much hilarity. Gene enjoyed visiting with party attendees who included fellow retired folk, family and current Alameda County Library employees.  Since March, Gene has been sighted at the Dublin Library on occasional Thursdays picking up holds and visiting with his favorite library staff members.

 

May 1st is RSS Awareness Day!

Today is RSS Awareness Day!  I had no idea such a day existed, but it has it’s own site at RSSday.org.  

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from Web sites and pages that get updated regularly. RSS documents (which are called feeds) contain either summaries or the full contents from Web sites.

The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite Web sites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the Web site that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content. To learn more about RSS techology, the Wikipedia entry is excellent.  For a list of Web-based feed aggregators, check out this list.  If you’d like to read more about RSS technology, Dublin Library has the following resources:

Secrets of RSS by Stephen Holzner, Berkeley, CA : Peachpit Press, c2006.  (available also as an electronic book).

How to Build an RSS 2.0 Feed [electronic book] by Mark Woodman, Sebastapool, CA: O’Reilly, c2006.

 

 

Meet Author James D. Houston

DUBLIN READS Hosts Author
You’ve read the book, now meet the author!  DUBLIN READS concludes with a visit from James D. Houston, author of the highly respected novel, Snow Mountain Passage, and seven other novels including his newest book, Bird of Another Heaven.  Date: Sunday, April 13th Time: 2:00 p.m.                         Location: Dublin Library Community Room, 200 Civic Plaza, Dublin, CA His appearance is graciously sponsored by the Dublin Historical Preservation Association. For more information, contact  Peggy Tollefson at (925) 803-7269.

 

2008 Pulitzers Announced

 

The 2008 Pulitzers were announced on Monday, April 7th.

  

Awarded by Columbia University annually since 1917, 

the Pulitzer Prize is considered to be our nation’s highest achievement

in print journalism and literature.  This year’s recipients continue a

strong tradition of excellence.

 

Former U.S. poet laureate and UC Berkeley English professor,

Robert Hass adds to his 2007 National Book Award in Poetry.  

 

He will be appearing tomorrow at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum

in Walnut Creek.

 

EVENT

WHO: Robert Hass

WHERE: Lindsay Wildlife Museum, 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek

WHEN: 7 p.m. April 10

HOW MUCH: Free

CONTACT: 925-935-5395

 

Junot Diaz collects another award to share shelf-space with his

2007 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction

.

The following Pulitzer Prize winning books are available from the

Alameda County Library. 

 

FICTION:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz)

 

 

 HISTORY:
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848

(Daniel Walker Howe)

 

POETRY:
Time and Materials (Robert Haas)

 

 GENERAL NON-FICTON:
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945

(Saul Friedlander)

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Thank You Trees

Fall is such a lovely time of the year with colorful seasonal changes and Thanksgiving is  the perfect occassion to recognize the abundance in our lives. At the Dublin Library we have a bulletin board dedicated to saying thank you.

 Don’t you want to say thank you too?