Happy Thanksgiving!

"Over the river and through the wood, to Grandmother's house we go."  It's time to give thanks.  What a great holiday.  We set aside a day each year to give thanks for our blessings and to help those who need a little helping hand.  I hope you have plans to get together with your family or to share with other families.

This week I want to turn your attention to a couple of our electronic resources.  New technology is bringing incredible information to your doorstep or should I say, desktop? 

First I want to talk about the library's catalog.  Did you know that you can add your own reviews to any of the books in our collection?  You can!  This is a great way to share with other readers good reads and to learn about books you might want to add to your reading list.  When you look up a book, there is a REVIEWS tab.  Just click on that and on the next page click, Add a Review.  The system will ask for your library card number and PIN and then you will see a box where you can rate the book by a number of stars and type in your comments.  You can add your name or not.  These messages go to an administrative email file and after staff look them over, they are released and appear in the catalog.  For an example, check out "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury.  I added a little comment.  If you would like more information, just call any of the library branches and we can walk you through it.

 Another fabulous resource is our Virtual Reference Library.  It is a collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and yearbooks online.  You no longer have to travel to the library to find information.  To access the Virtual Reference Library, go the library's homepage www.dubcolib.lib.ia.us. On the left-hand side of the screen, click on the GVRL icon.  Next enter your library card number as your password.  Then you will see a screen with a box that says "search your library's GVRL collection."  From here you can search for a subject in hundreds of reference books.  Suppose a friend has just found out that their child is autistic and you want to find out more information about what that means.  Type in "autism" and you will get a list of encyclopedia articles that you can read with a click.  In this case, articles in the The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine or The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health. You can read the article, print it out, or send it to your email for a later time.  GVRL will even read the article to you aloud if you download it to a MP3 file or to your ereader.  Wow! GVRL is available in multiple languages as well.  If the student in your household is doing research on countries or famous scientists, it's all here.

Would you like to be automatically notified of new book releases?  Join our virtual book club.  From the library website on the left side of the page, click on Online Book Clubs.  This service will send excerpts from new titles to your email.  All you have to do is choose the genre or genres you would like to receive and add your email.  It's that simple.  If you like what you read, check the library's catalog to see if we own the book.  If not, let us know and we will order it for you.

Call your local branch if you would like help using any of these wonderful tools.  Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Dawn