All Things JCPL

New Databases Available

Bonnie — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:16:05 +0000

The library is subscribing to three new databases: Career Transitions, Legal Forms Library, and Price It! Antiques and Collectibles. You can access them at the following address: http://tinyurl.com/NewDatabases. They will also appear soon on the “Database Collection” page of our website (under “Research & Homework Help” on the menu at the left-hand side of the main page).

To access the databases from home, just enter your library card number as your password.

Career Transitions provides guidance for job seekers at every stage: discovering career interests, learning about different jobs, finding schools or training programs, searching job postings, writing resumes and cover letters, interviewing, and applying previous experience to a new career.

Legal Forms Library supplies forms for common legal issues such as divorce, bankruptcy, and power of attorney. Users can also search for information in the accompanying legal dictionary and law digest.

Price It! helps estimate the value of antiques and collectibles by searching for similar items at auction houses and retail sites. For more information, users can consult the featured articles or ask an expert at one of the 6300 collecting clubs listed in the directory.

Coming in June

Carrie — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:39:38 +0000

Tour the World with TourWrist

Carrie — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:10:43 +0000

Here’s a sneak preview from our May Lunch and Learn, during which we’ll gear up for summer travel with a focus on travel apps for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.

TourWrist allows you to travel the world with 360 degree virtual tours that you view from your device–as TourWrist explains, your iOS device becomes a portal. With the gyro view, you actually move your device around to see the full 360 degree view. You can view the tours on your computer, as with this tour of the Eiffel Tower, but you’ll have more fun viewing it on a hand-held device where you control the movement.

This app requires iOS 5.0 or newer. With the newer iOS devices (iPad 3, iPhone 4 and 4s), you can create and post your own tours. If you don’t have a compatible device, you might try Photosynth, another free app for viewing or shooting panoramic scenes.

If you’d like to see this app or others in action, then sign up for the Lunch and Learn on May 17.

Find Out What to Read Next with NoveList

Carrie — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:17:20 +0000

NoveList Plus is a database that helps fiction and nonfiction readers find suggestions for what to read next. Just type in the name of your favorite book or author, and NoveList will suggest some similar books or authors that you might like. NoveList is also a great resource for finding out what book comes next in a series.

Although you can search NoveList directly from our database page, we’ve recently linked it to our catalog, making it even easier to find recommendations. For example, if you loved John Grisham’s book The Bleachers and want to read something similar, you could type the book title in our catalog and click on it to see the item’s detailed record. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a tab that says “Novelist Content,” as shown below:

Click on the “Novelist Content” tab to see book and author suggestions and more.

If a book is part of a series, the NoveList content will tell you what order you should read the books, as it does below for the Hunger Games series:

We hope you’ll enjoy this new feature. If you’d like to find out more about NoveList, come to our June Lunch and Learn, which you can register for here.

Teen 2013 KBA Nominees Announced

Kendall — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:34:53 +0000

Continuing a tradition 30 years in the making, the 2013 teen Kentucky Bluegrass Award nominees have been announced. The Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) is a student choice program. The purpose of the KBA is to encourage the students of Kentucky in grades K through 12 to read a variety of quality literature suitable for their age and reading abilities. All Kentucky public and private schools, as well as public libraries, are welcome to participate in the program. Books are divided into grade lists, and readers vote on their favorite, and the winner will be announced in the spring of 2013. In the past, West Jessamine Middle School and East Jessamine Middle School have required reading from the Grade 6-8 list. The titles from that list for 2013 are:

Addie on the Inside – James Howe.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011.

Outspoken thirteen-year-old Addie Carle learns about love, loss, and staying true to herself as she navigates seventh grade, enjoys a visit from her grandmother, fights with her boyfriend, and endures gossip and meanness from her former best friend.


The Apothecary – Maile Meloy; Ian Schoenherr, ill.: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011.; Fourteen-year-old Janie Scott, newly arrived in London from Los Angeles in 1952, becomes friends with a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows, and is drawn into a dangerous adventure with Benjamin when his father is kidnapped and Russian spies try to steal his book of secrets.
The Fourth Stall – Chris Rylander.
: Walden Pond Press, 2011.; Sixth-graders Mac and Vince operate a business charging schoolmates for protection from bullies and for help to negotiate conflicts peacefully, with amazing challenges and results. Described by the publisher as Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets The Sopranos.
Legend – Marie Lu.: Putnam’s, 2011.; In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 - Richard Paul Evans.
: Mercury Ink/Simon Pulse, 2011.; Fourteen-year-old Michael discovers he has special electrical powers and, with the help of his best friends, becomes aware that there are other teens with similar powers, but something or someone is hunting them. After Michael’s mother is kidnapped, he will need to rely on his powers and his friends to rescue his mom, protect himself, and save the others.
A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness.: Candlewick Press, 2011.; Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill–an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.
Okay for Now – Gary D. Schmidt.
: Clarion Books, 2011.; Fourteen-year-old Doug Swieteck faces many challenges, including an abusive father, a brother traumatized by Vietnam, suspicious teachers and police officers, and isolation, but when he meets a girl known as Lil Spicer, he develops a close relationship with her and finds a safe place at the local library. This novel is a companion to Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars.
Same Sun Here – Silas House and Neela Vaswani.: Candlewick Press, 2012.; A twelve-year-old Indian immigrant in New York City and a Kentucky coal miner’s son become pen pals, and eventually best friends, through a series of revealing letters exploring such topics as environmental activism, immigration, and racism.
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different: A Biography – Karen Blumenthal.
: Feiwel & Friends, 2012.; Steve Jobs’ story has become legend: a college dropout who started a wildly successful tech company in his parents’ garage. A devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate CEO, and made the world want every product he touched. Here is the complex man behind the myth.
True (…sort of) – Katherine Hannigan.: Greenwillow Books, 2011.; For most of her eleven years, Delly has been in trouble without knowing why, until her little brother, R.B., and a strange, silent new friend, Ferris, help her find a way to be good–and happy–again.; While the high schools in Jessamine county do not require students to read from the Grades 9-12 list, the titles on the list are both popular and quality fiction appropriate for high school readers. The Jessamine County Public Library has at least 10 copies of all of the Grades 6-8 titles and at least 1 of the Grades 9-12 titles. To check the catalog for all teen KBA books, click on the cover of the books below.

Coming in May

Carrie — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:37:14 +0000

Staff Pick: Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Barbara — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:55:23 +0000

What I generally look for in a book is a compelling story whose characters are sufficiently believable and sympathetic that I grow to care what happens to them. If the book also widens my view of the world, so much the better.

If that’s the kind of book you look for, you may want to check out Katherine Boo’s new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. It is available at JCPL as a hardcover book, a book on CD, and on an e-reader (JCPL NOOK Simple Touch #7).

Behind the Beautiful Forevers tells a true story: four years in the lives of residents of Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, as they strive for their share of India’s growing prosperity. The review journal Booklist called it “Sympathetic yet objective and eloquently rendered.” Publishers’ Weekly said, “Boo’s rigorous inquiry and transcendent prose leave an indelible impression of human beings behind the shibboleths of the New India,..” and Library Journal called it a “ tour de force.”

I found the book fascinating, moving, and compelling. But be warned: it is also fairly depressing. There are no easy answers here, and the hardworking slum-dwellers’ endeavors all too often come to nothing. Most disheartening was the realization that humanitarian organizations’ efforts are repeatedly thwarted by the immensity of the problems and by the corruption that appears to be endemic in Indian life.

After reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers, you may find yourself asking, “What can we in the west possibly do to help people like the Annawadians?” As the book shows, the answers are not easy. But a recent Christianity Today article by Bruce Wydick on the 10 best strategies for helping the poor, republished in slightly different form on the World Bank website, offers some insight. Here is a link the article on the World Bank site: http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/evaluating-the-best-ways-to-give-to-the-poor-guest-post-by-bruce-wydick

Books about effective humanitarian aid available at JCPL include:

The Business of Changing the World : Twenty Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy
by Benioff, Marc 361.765 BENI
“20 exceptional leaders share the untold stories of how their companies are making a real difference through corporate philanthropy…”

The Life You Can Save : Acting Now to End World Poverty
by Singer, Peter 362.5 SING
“Argues that for the first time in history the possibility of eradicating world poverty is within reach and offers a plan that combines personal philanthropy with activism and political awareness to increase the commitment to helping the world’s poorest people.”

Pulitzer Prizes Announced; No Award for Fiction

Bonnie — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:20:56 +0000

The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded, and for the first time since 1977, there is no winner in the Fiction category. The prize board failed to come to a majority vote on any of the three finalists: Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams, Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!, and the late David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King. What do you think? Check out a copy of one of the finalists, or try one of the nonfiction winners: George F. Kennan: An American Life, by John Lewis Gaddis (Biography); Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by the late Manning Marable (History); and The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt (General Nonfiction). For a complete list of winners, past and present, go to the Pulitzer website.

National Volunteer Week: April 15th-21st

Carol — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:50:05 +0000

In 1974 President Nixon instituted the first National Volunteer Week for the United States of America. Since that time we have celebrated the month of April as Volunteer Recognition month. Volunteerism is truly part of the fabric of our country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 64 million people volunteered at least once between September 2010 and September 2011. Our older Americans from the Baby Boom generation are leading the way in making volunteerism an important part of their lives. According to statistics from the Points of Light Institute, the Baby Boom generation is 40 percent more likely to volunteer than the same age group was in 1989. In fact, the total number of people who volunteer has increased by 60 percent since 1989. To see more interesting facts about volunteering, click here.

This week is a week to say thank you to the volunteers in our community. Many of you volunteer without awareness that you are doing so – for example, helping out at your church, assisting in your child’s school or sports team, or delivering meals to friends and neighbors in need. Sometimes we can make a more conscious effort at volunteerism by serving food at the local soup kitchen, cleaning up the local park, or joining the volunteer program at your local public library (hint, hint). These acts all deserve to be applauded. Thank you to all the volunteers in our community.

Be sure to show appreciation this week to the volunteers around you, and if you are looking for ways to serve, check out http://www.serve.gov/ to find opportunities in your area.

Design Your Own Nature Scavenger Hunt

Les — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:18:06 +0000

Maybe you weren’t able to join us for the Nature Scavenger Hunt this past Saturday, but you can easily design your own scavenger hunt using a few of the books in our collection and some online resources.

Try using Birds of Kentucky: Field Guide by Stan Tekiela (598.2) the Birds of Kentucky online checklist, and the Birdzilla internet birding site to compile a list of birds to find. For finding Kentucky wildflowers, I recommend Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky by Thomas G. Barnes & Wilson Francis (582.1309769) and the web site Kentucky Wildflowers. Both of these resources even divide the plants by season and color. Mammals of Kentucky by Roger Barbour and Wayne Davis (599.09769) will introduce you to our state’s most common mammals. The Kentucky AWAKE (All Wild About Kentucky Environment) web site and the Kentucky Crosswords web site have general lists that include a large variety of Kentucky plants and animals.

Compose a list, print some pictures and head out to one of the many beautiful parks. If you’re having trouble picking a place to hike, visit the Kentucky State Parks web site for a nice tour of some of the best spots.

Having trouble making a list or printing the pictures? Email Our Adult Programming Librarian, Les Lehman at llehman@jesspublib.org, and she’ll give you a copy of the list that we used for the JCPL Nature Scavenger Hunt.