Local poet Phil Metres

Poet and teacher Phil Metres will present a Master Poets’ Class at the Library on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. Adults and high school students interested in listening to, writing and reading poetry are welcome to participate.

Phil is a much-published poet and associate professor of English at John Carroll University.  His teaching interests include creative writing, poetry, American poetry and the poetry of war and peace.

Phil writes poetry about poetry:

If you are sitting in an exit row & you cannot understand
this poem, or cannot see well enough to follow
these instructions, please tell a literary critic. Poems are
heavy, awkward to lift, push, pull, and maneuver.
Because of this, and for the safety of all
Harold Bloom requires that we seat qualified readers
next to poems. If a poem loses pressure, an idea
will be released from the overhead compartment.
Make sure to write down the idea before
you attempt to assist others with their ideas. Once again,
thank you for reading this poem. I know you have
many choices and appreciate your choosing this one.

(used by permission of the poet)

More of Phil’s poetry can be enjoyed at http://www.philipmetres.com/content/view/16/44/ or by coming to the Nov. 4  Master Class.

Back to School: Help With Writing Papers

In my last Back to School post,  I described some electronic databases useful for research.  After the research comes the writing.  Need some help with the writing process?  Can’t remember what is supposed to be part of the outline? Trying to create a good thesis statement or do you not remember whether it should be to, too or two in that sentence?

Purdue University has a top-notch online website called the Online Writing Lab (OWL) with writing resources and instruction available to everyone.  There’s a significant, and really useful, section devoted to grades 7 through 12 and another substantial section on professional writing (job-related) as well as the college-level materials one would expect.  It’s almost like having a writing tutor on your desktop!

Next in the series: Writing the Bibliography.

Back to School: Help with Research

Earlier this week, I wrote about an online tool for student assignment management.  Today, I’m continuing the theme of online back to school resources with a description of the electronic databases available to library patrons throughout state.   These databases are incredibly useful for research.

They hold a mother lode of magazine and newspaper articles, online encyclopedia and other reference articles, photographs, primary sources and lots more.  Almost every kind of source your teacher demands, all available to you from your home, school or  library internet connection.  Start at OhioWebLibrary.org. Unless you’re using a library computer, you’ll need to use your library card (from any public library in Ohio) to make use of these databases.

While the first page looks a lot like Google, I’d suggest skipping that search box and picking out one or more specific databases to search in order to get more accurate and useful results.  Just click on the word “Resources” next to the search box.

For junior high students doing general research,  I’d suggest Kids Search or Student Research Center.  Searchasaurus looks a bit juvenile but returns very useful results for this age group.

For high school students, Student Research Center and Masterfile Premier are useful.  College students will find Academic Search Premier useful though their college or university library website will offer them a lot more options.

In addition, Ohio Web Library includes online encyclopedias and other reference works.  World Book Online and Oxford Reference Online are rich resources.  Check out the list for subject- specific databases too.

Most of the databases give you an option of searching Full-text articles only.  In most cases, you’ll want to check that box which you’ll find under “Limit your results”.  (You probably don’t want just a citation, you want the article itself).  Then just click “Search” and you’ll find a list of articles from lots of sources on your topic.  You may need to refine your search to locate exactly what you need.

If you have any questions about using any of these databases, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 440.933.7710.  We’ll be glad to help you find what you need.

Back to School: Assignment Management

As students and teachers head back to school, I’ll be posting a few handy online tools.

For keeping track of assignments, Soshiku is a great little tool useful to high school and college students.  It’s a calendar, a homework alarm clock and electronic three-ring binder all in one!  And it’s free.  Keep track of assignments, get email or text message alerts when assignments are due, save notes and files, manage tasks and work collaboratively with partners, all from this website.

I wish this had been available when I was in school.  It would have kept me much more organized and, maybe, prevented some all-nighters when I finally remembered what was due the next day.  Or maybe not.  There’s no changing (lazy) human nature.  But I hope it helps you.

Last Son / Cleveland and Superman

Tuesday, June 16 at 7 p.m.  we will have a pre-release short showing of Clevelander Brad Ricca’s film Last Son about the Cleveland origins of Superman.  Seems the Man of Steel was created right here in our fair city, back in the 1930s, by Glenville High graduates Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

This film played at Ingenuity Fest last summer and at the Akron Film Festival.  It’s not yet in general release, so there are few opportunities to see it.  And along with the film itself (this version is about an hour long), Brad will be here to answer questions and talk about the research and filming of this Cleveland original movie.

This film is more than suitable for all ages of Superman fans.

Teen Read Week 2008

Area teens will be reading for the fun of it as Avon Lake Public Library celebrates the eleventh annual Teen Read Week(TM), October 12 – 18, 2008. They join thousands of other libraries, schools and bookstores across the country who are encouraging teens to celebrate this year’s theme, “Books with Bite @ your library®.” Teen Read Week(TM) is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association. This year’s theme encourages teens to read a wide variety of books and graphic novels, from animals to vampires to cooking, just “for the fun of it.”

Stop by the Young Adult Department and check out our “Books with Bite” display, featuring novels about vampires.  Be sure to tell us about your favorite book for a chance to win a prize.  Entry forms are available at the YA Desk.  Happy Reading!!

Judy Blume for Banned Books Week

Chicago TV did an excellent interview with author Judy Blume on Banned Books Week.  Blume’s book Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret was one of my very favorite books back in sixth grade.  It was a revelation at age eleven that a book could truly speak to my experience.

Unfortunately, organized censorship groups have targeted this lovely coming-of-age novel, sometimes successfully getting it removed from libraries or placed behind a desk where young girls who could really treasure and benefit from this realistic novel won’t find it.  But Blume, among other courageous writers and librarians, are fighting back, demanding the freedom to write and read what we please!

The video of Blume’s interview is not embeddable, but you will find it here.  And it’s well worth the click.

Would you like to join a Teen Advisory Board?

What exactly is a Teen Advisory Board, or TAB for short?  It is a group just for teens that are interested in planning young adult programs.  It is your chance to have your say in what you would like to see at the library!  We will be holding our first TAB meetings this fall; our quick-off meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 30 at 4:00 p.m.  If you can’t make that meeting, don’t worry!  We will be having a second informational meeting on Saturday, November 1 at 1:00 p.m.  If you provided us with your email address this summer, we will be contacting you soon with details.  If you are interested in joining the Teen Advisory Board and we did not receive your information during our summer reading program, please stop by the YA Desk.  We look forward to working with you and getting your input!  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to stop at the YA Desk.  Karen or Nicole would be happy to assist you!

Learwood Eighth Graders Are the Best!

Once again this year, we had a great time with the eighth grade class from Learwood Middle School! Over three hundred of Avon Lake’s finest young people came through the Library on August 28 to learn about Library resources and services.  They are immediately putting to work much of what they learned on their Washington D.C. Monuments project.

We put them through ten stations to learn about using the catalog, electronic resources, the Reference department, etc.  They seemed to soak it up!  We sure learned a lot and had a blast with them.  We look forward to seeing more of these sharp young people in the Library.

Movies On The Lawn FRIDAYS

As the summer winds down, we have a fun option for the whole family ready to roll!

Enjoy 1. a movie 2.  on our lawn/patio 3. on a giant screen 4. after hours.

Movies start at 9 pm.  Hey, it has to be dark out!  Bring blankets or lawn chairs if desired (we’ll have a few chairs and benches as well), as well as refreshments.

Tomorrow, August 8th:

August (get it?) Rush

Freddie Highmore, Liv Tyer,
Keri Russell, Robin Williams
Warner Bros.; Directed by Kirsten Sheridan
Rated PG; 100 minutes; 2007

Two young musicians have a chance encounter but when they are torn apart they leave an infant in their wake. Young August Rush, orphaned by circumstance, uses his unique inherited musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.

Friday, August 15th:

Finding Nemo

Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneris

Walt DIsney Pictures; Directed by Andrew Stanton

Rated G; 100 minutes; 2003

A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, stolen from his coral reef home. His timid father must then travel to Sydney, and search Sydney Harbour find Nemo