Albert Lea Public Library

Looking for information?

One place to start looking for information is the library's reference resources web page.  Whether you're looking for a phone number, the order of books in a series, legal forms or the capital of Pakistan, this page is a great place to start.  Browse around and check out the resources we have to offer.

The Children's Room at the Albert Lea Public Library will begin Fall Programming the week of September 11, 2006.  Activities will include:
Preschool Storytime-  Tuesday's at 10:30am 
L.A.F. (Library Afternoon Fun)-  Tuesday's at 3:30 pm                                                        Kindergarten through 5th grade can join us for crafts, games and lots of FUN!
Toddler Storytime-  Thursday's at 10:30am
Storytime is a time for your child to learn new words, build language skills, and get ready to read.  Enjoy 30 minutes of fun--stories, puppets, rhymes, music, movement and an occasional craft project.

New Non-Fiction

Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte (363.72 Roy)
Good, Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery(636.4 Mon)
Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids by Maia Szalavitz (362.74 Sza)
Journey of the Jihadist by Fawaz A. Gerges (322.4 Ger)
Killing Hitler: The Plots, The Assassins and the Dictator Who Cheated Death by Roger Moorhouse (943.086 Moo)
Louis Armstrong's New Orleans by Thomas David Brothers (921 Armstrong)
Parents Guide to College Life by Robin Raskin (378.198 Ras)
The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios (530 Kak)
Rumspringa: To Be or Not To Be Amish by Tom Shachtman (289.7 Sha)
The Truth About Garden Remedies by Jeff Gillman (632.96 Gil)
Unreasonable Doubt: Circumstantial Evidence and An Ordinary Murder in New Haven by Norma Thompson (345.746 Tho)
What to Eat by Marion Nestle (613.2 Nes)
You Can Get Arrested For That: 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree by Rich Smith (349.73 Smi)

The Closers by Michael Connelly

In September, on the 13th and 15th, the Fountain Lake Readers will be discussing The Closers by Michael Connelly.  Anybody who has read the book is welcome to join the discussion but, even if you can't come, I highly recommending reading it.  Though it is the middle of the series, it is a good introduction to Connelly's character Harry Bosch and, if you like it, you might try starting at the beginning of the series with Black Echo.

The Closers as reviewed by Publisher's Weekly
"LAPD detective Harry Bosch, hero of last year's The Narrows and other Connelly thrillers, is back on the force after a two-year retirement. Assigned to the Open Unsolved (cold cases) unit and teamed with former partner Kiz Rider, Harry's first case back involves the killing of a high school girl 17 years before, reopened because of a DNA match to blood found on the murder gun. Connelly meticulously leads the reader along with Bosch and Rider as they explore the [DNA] links  and along the way connect the initial investigation of the crime to a police conspiracy. Most striking of all, in developments that give this novel astonishing moral force, the pair explore the "ripples" of the long ago crime, how it has destroyed the young girl's family—leaving the mother trapped in the past and plunging the father into a nightmare of homelessness and drink—and how it drives Rider, and especially Bosch, into deeper understanding of their own purposes in life. Connelly comes as close as anyone to being today's Dostoevsky of crime literature, and this is one of his finest novels to date, a likely candidate not only for book award nominations but for major bestsellerdom."

Open Source Software

On August 25, 1991 Linus Torvalds first says in a post to the Minix operating system newsgroup that he is working on a new free computer operating system.   The operating system he eventually wrote became Linux.  Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source code evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as very large companies. Some examples of open source initiatives are Linux, Mozilla FireFox (an Internet browser), Mediawiki (the software that runs Wikipedia), and OpenOffice (a group of free programs that include spreadsheet, word processing and computer presentation software) to name a few.

Looking for someone?

When you're trying to find someone's address or phone number, the first place to look is the telephone directory.  But, what if they live in a different state?  Or, you have an address or phone number and want to know whose it is?  The first place to start looking is www.TheUltimates.com . There are a huge number of on-line directories.  TheUltimates gives you one screen that allows you to search them all without typing in the information you're looking for over and over again.  It also provides access to several reverse directories that let you look up a person or business if you know the phone number or address.  There is also an e-mail directory you can use to try and find someone's e-mail address, though this is not usually as successful as looking for a phone number or address.  The important thing to remember is that all on-line directories do is put the information in printed directories in one place.  Therefore, if someone has an unlisted number or a cell phone, you probably won't find it on-line.

The Library by Barbara A. Huff

It looks like any building
When you pass it on the street,
Made of stone & glass & marble,
Made of iron & concrete.

But once inside you can ride
A camel or a train,
Visit Rome, Siam, or Nome,
Feel a hurricane,
Meet a king, learn to sing,
How to bake a pie.
Go to sea, plant a tree,
Find how airplanes fly.
Train a horse, and of course
Have all the dogs you'd like,
See the moon, a sandy dune,
Or catch a whopping pike.

Everything that books can bring
You'll find inside those walls.
A world is there for you to share
When adventure calls.

You cannot tell it's magic
By the way the building looks,
But there's wonderment within it,
The wonderment of books.

Listen to a good book

New audiobooks at the library:

Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber (R CD MAC)
The Templar Legacy: A Novel by Steve Berry (MY CD BER)
Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith (MY CD SMI)
The Cat Who Moved a Mountain by Lilian Jackson Braun (MY CD BRA)
Coming Out by Danielle Steel (R CD STE)
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire (CD MAG)
Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson (MY CD DAV)
A Man Called Trent and Riders of the Dawn by Louis L'Amour (W CD LAM)
Stationary Bike by Stephen King (MY CD KIN)
Terrorist by John Updike (MY CD UPD)
Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers by Michael Connelly (CD 363.25 CON)
Divine by Karen Kingsbury (C CD KIN)
Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie (R CD CRU)
The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights by Faye Kellerman (MY CD KEL)
Judge and Jury by James Patterson (MY CD PAT)
Proof Positive by Phyillip Margolin (MY CD MAR)
The Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot (R CD CAB)
Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich (MY CD EVA)
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington (CD 921 Washington)
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (jCD CLE)
The River by Gary Paulsen (jCD PAU)

Searching the Internet Effectively

A huge amount of information is available on-line.  The trick is learning how to access it.  If you want a quick, self-guided course that will teach some basic searching skills, check out this website.  You can learn how to find what you're looking for more quickly and efficiently, at your own pace.

There is one more opportunity to view a movie during our Summer Movie Festival.  Our final summer movie will be on Thursday, August 24th at 1:00 pm.  Please join us at the Civic Theatre, 147 N. Broadway, for a fun entertaining film.  If you would like more information, please contact the Albert Lea Public Library at 377-4356.

Starting or going back to school this fall?  We have a new display of several books related to school.  Come in and check them out!

Why did the teacher wear sunglasses?

                                                          Because her children were so BRIGHT!

New DVDs at the Library

Here are some of the DVDs recently added to the library collection:

13 Going on 30 16 Blocks 2 fast 2 furious Annapolis Aquamarine Basic Instinct 2 The Benchwarmers Casualties of War Eight Below Failure to Launch The Fifth Element Final Destination 3 Firewall Freedomland Glory Road High School Musical	Hoodwinked The Island The Long Kiss Goodnight Madeas Family Reunion The Matador Patton The Pink Panther Pitch Black Platoon Remember the Titans She's The Man Syriana The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Transamerica Underworld Evolution When a Stranger Calls

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

"[Jeanette] Walls, who spent years trying to hide her childhood experiences, allows the story to spill out in this remarkable recollection of growing up. From her current perspective as a contributor to MSNBC online, she remembers the poverty, hunger, jokes, and bullying she and her siblings endured, and she looks back at her parents: her flighty, self-indulgent mother, a Pollyanna unwilling to assume the responsibilities of parenting, and her father, troubled, brilliant Rex, whose ability to turn his family's downward-spiraling circumstances into adventures allowed his children to excuse his imperfections until they grew old enough to understand what he had done to them--and to himself. His grand plans to build a home for the family never evolved: the hole for the foundation of the "The Glass Castle," as the dream house was called, became the family garbage dump, and, of course, a metaphor for Rex Walls' life. Shocking, sad, and occasionally bitter, this gracefully written account speaks candidly, yet with surprising affection, about parents and about the strength of family ties--for both good and ill." reviewed by Stephanie Zvirin for Booklist

The birth of "Roots"

On August 11, 1921 Alex Palmer Haley was born in Ithaca, NY though he was raised by his grandmother at Henning, TN.  In 1939 he entered the US Coast Guard and served as a cook, but eventually he became an writer and college professor.  His interview with Malcolm X for Playboy led to his first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which sold six million copies and was translated into eight languages.  Roots, the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of his family's history published in 1976, was translated into 37 languages and was made into an eighth part TV miniseries in 1977.  The story generated an enormous interest in family ancestry.  Haley died at Seattle, WA, Feb. 13, 1992.

Kim Komando: America's Digital Goddess

Kim's weekly three-hour call-in talk radio show about all things digital is heard on over 400 stations. In addition, she does a Computer Minute radio feature five days a week; has written eight books about life in the digital age; sends out 5 million e-mail newsletters weekly; and authors a widely syndicated newspaper column, which also runs in USA Today.com. Visit her website to listen to her radio show on-line and get some great hints and tips about technology.

Would you like to be a volunteer in the Children's Room at the Albert Lea Public Library this Fall?  If you have completed third grade and are at least nine years old you could volunteer.  Help us stamp books, set up displays, put away magazines, books on CD and other tasks that help the library run smoothly.  Sign up will begin on Monday, August 14th.  Stop in soon to sign up as the volunteer spots fill up quickly!!

Remember all prizes for the Summer Reading Program need to be picked up by Friday, August 11.

Feel like a movie?  Join us at the Albert Lea Civic Theatre on Thursday, August 10th at 1:00pm for a surprise movie!  Call the library at 377-4356 for more information.  See you there!