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Your Local Library Toolbox
by Mary O. Fumento
February 2010
“Thus, the standard library will serve as both a tool and as a teacher.” Bjarne Stroustrup
When you need assistance, consider the Washakie County Library System. Your local library is a treasure trove of tools and information you can use and enjoy. Here are just a few.
New Web Address
One of our most popular assets is our web site. Because of technical glitches, we have moved to a new Internet location. You can find our redesigned web site now at http://www.washakiecountylibrary.com. Visit it to renew books, search the catalog, use powerful databases, and learn about our upcoming events.
Book Club Kits
If you like to share your books with your friends, why not start a book club? The library system owns many book club kits so your group can simultaneously read the same book. Even discussion pages are included in the kits to help foster conversation about your latest read.
Here are the available titles for adults: Chasing Shakespeare; Clans of Many Nations; Crow Lake; Emotional Intelligence; Fools Crow; Founding Faith; Fruit of Stone; House on Mango Street; Human Stain; Hunt Sisters; In Sunlight; Jane Austen Book Club; L.A. Noir; Let Us Eat Cake; Memory of Old Jack; Night Open; Painted House; Rising from the Plains; She's Not There; Song Reader; Sweet Hereafter; That Old Ace in the Hole; The Egg and I; Three Cups of Tea; and Thunderstruck.
We have book kits for children as well, complete with visuals like dolls and puppets. The topics include: diversity; gardening; medicine; nutrition; and weather. Come borrow a bag of books today.
Database of the Month
While in the library, try the Ancestry database at http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/default.aspx. This is a perfect place to begin any genealogy project you may have. You can search census, birth, marriage, death and military records plus much more. It’s free, but you have to be in the library to use it.
The Sound of Music
If you enjoy music, visit DeweyMusic at http://deweymusic.org. This is a new interface for a wonderful public domain music library. You can listen to, download, remix, and share anything you see on this site legally and for free. There are over 1.1 million tracks by over 10,000 artists.
From the front page you can get the pick of the day, or you can look at the top-rated, most-played, or newest tracks.
Do you need upbeat music to help motivate you to do those difficult tasks like cleaning and exercising? Try Fit Music pod casts at http://fitmusic.com/. These are free downloads, mostly instrumental with fast beats to keep you going.
Your Dose of Daily Lit
If you have no time to come choose a book, try reading literature by email. Daily Lit at http://www.dailylit.com offers an incredible free service of delivering your favorite authors to you in installments. This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on a Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick or whatever the PDA of your choice. You can read books, ponder poetry, and even learn Spanish.
Keeping Calendar
If you have events to plan and schedules to keep straight, check out Calendar Labs at http://www.calendarlabs.com/. This site contains a wide variety of free, useful calendars in several formats. You can custom make your own calendar with an online generator. There are several paper templates for calendars in weekly, monthly, and yearly formats.
Thanks to Our Volunteers
The library system’s best resources are the many volunteers we have in Ten Sleep and Worland through the Library Board, the Friends of the Library and the Library Foundation. These groups help the library system bring you better service and a quality collection of books, magazines, music and movies. Thanks to our volunteers for the hours they give.
The Worland Friends of Library book store is open on Saturdays from 9-11 a.m. This Saturday all fitness, self-help, weight loss and inspirational books are half-off. The Friends give 50% of proceeds to the Library Foundation for the endowment challenge, 25% to library programs and 25% for Friends’ expenses. Come see what the library has for you!
