Carolina Christmas

The NC State Archives has put together an online exhibit of Christmas letters, photos, cards and more documenting the holiday season in North Carolina through the years.  The collection includes letters from the Civil War and photographs from World War I and II as well as images showing the changing decorations at the Executive Mansion. Visit the whole collection here.

-Reposted from NC Library Development Blog

Happiest Wishes from East

Top 10 of 2015

Top Ten WebJunction Articles & Webinars in 2015

1. Adult Coloring Explosion (article)
2. Beyond Book Groups: Fun Library Programs for Adult Readers (webinar)
3. Key Elements of a Project Plan (webinar)
4. The Pursuit of Happiness … Through Libraries (webinar)
5. Growing Through Conflict: Healthy Workplace Communication (webinar)
6. The Community Connector: Referring Social Services at the Library (webinar)
7. Great Ideas for Innovative Community Engagement (article)
8. Interesting Patron Questions (article)
9. Competency Index for the Library Field (article)
10. Health Happens in Libraries: Pathways to Guide Health Education at Your Library (webinar)

'tis the season for kindness

 

Thanks to South patron Nancy Moffit, retired from the floral department at Ben Franklin's. Nancy brought in these beautiful bows to go with South's wreaths.

counterfeit money

It has been brought to my attention that fake $20s and $100s are being passed around Rowan County.  Please look at the 2 links below.  Apparently, the counterfeit pen will show up the same on some of the fake bills because they are bleaching a $1 and making it into a higher denomination.  Please follow the suggestion when you take in a $20 or a $100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZYBiGPkq8

http://www.wikihow.com/Detect-Counterfeit-US-Money

Thanks,

Pam

Series Fiction Database

I don’t know about you, but sometimes you get someone who wants to know the order of series of books, and its hard to figure out.  This site was listed on a listerv for me, and I thought I would share.  Its pretty cool and it does printer friendly versions too!

http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/whatsnext.asp

Thanks to Jennifer for sharing this great resource! 

Giant book-sorters, the interet Wayback Machine, and crowd-sourced digitization

Enormous automated conveyor belts move items around a system of bins, gently tipping bar-coded items into their desired destinations, sorting thousands of items every day, every hour, even. This is how huge library systems handle millions of items per year.

"When the Technology Changes on You" gives an interesting list of situations in which the technology we have adapted to and use suddenly doesn't work like we expect it to. Spotlight on the "Wayback Machine" which allows you to view webpages that no longer exist, and setting up a Dropbox for when Google Docs lets you down.

What if anybody with a cell phone could help the library digitize materials? How long before everything was scanned? Well, people are floating the idea because traditional book scanners are slow, cumbersome and terribly expensive. Technological capabilities for modern smartphones is astounding, and soon there will few things they can't do, and crowd-sourcing the labor could get the project done in a fraction of the time, given the willingness of volunteers.