Some fun things that happened in the
Children’s Room this summer.
Then an upcoming event for Storytime.
Rock Painting
Lindsay & Her Puppet Pals
Craft time decorating a rocking chair
Month: September 2018
Digital Maine Library ~ formerly known as MARVEL!
By now, it may not be a surprise, as the announcement has been made – MARVEL! has changed. It is now known as Digital Maine Library. It is still an AMAZING database available to all Maine library card holders. This database is provided by the Maine State Library.
When I go to the new site, there are several differences. There is no general search bar visibly available to search the entire site, and there is no alphabet at the top so that I may jump to the database I want. These are just a couple of the changes I see immediately.
Hmmm . . . At the top of my screen I see the website name, ABOUT, VIDEO TUTORIALS and NEED ASSISTANCE. Below that, I again see DIGITAL MAINE LIBRARY / GETTING STARTED WITH DIGITAL MAINE LIBRARY / A-Z INDEX / ADVANCED SEARCH. Below this there is a slide show, with a bit of what we will find here. Scrolling down the page there are three places I can narrow my search choices – SUBJECT, RESOURCE TYPE and AUDIENCE.
Next there is the content of the site. At a guess, I would say that there are close to 100 different databases that can be accessed here – WOW!
Okay, I click on the word ABOUT and am taken to a page that gives me some history of MARVEL! and the DIGITAL MAINE LIBRARY. Very interesting information.
Now I’m interested to see what VIDEO TUTORIALS is all about, so I click there. A page of a variety of lessons appears – from some of the databases, to Facebook, G mail and Instagram. I will have to take some time to check these out.
The NEED ASSISTANCE button takes me to a place with information about who to contact with questions about this site.
In the next line of links, I click on Getting Started with Digital Maine Library. This page gives me answers to some of the most commonly asked questions regarding the new site.
A-Z Index is just that, an alphabetical list of all the resources available here pops up on the left side of the page.
The last link on this line is Advanced Search. This takes me to a page that discusses a couple of the ways that the website sorts, searches and then presents the information to us. I have discovered a Search Bar that is not on the home page. This Search Bar is the one that will search the entire Digital Maine Library website and not only the databases that I choose to look at. Personally, I hope that this will be moved to the home page for the convenience of all of us.
Back to the home page.
Below the slideshow there are three boxes – Subject ; Resource Type and Audience. Each of these has up and down arrows in the box. Clicking on the arrows gives me many ways to narrow my search – perhaps define or refine are a better words. Each set of arrows has many, MANY choices and ways to pinpoint which database(s) will be most appropriate for my search.
Enough for now, I look forward to exploring more on this site, but that will have to wait for another day!
Unsung Heroes
Recently I saw the film, The Way We Get By, directed by Aron Gaudet who grew up in Old Town, Maine. Many of us here in Maine have heard of the troop greeters at the Bangor Airport. Actually, I have been there at the same time waiting to fly out. At the time I didn’t really know what was going on. This is a wonderful film about some wonderful Mainers who are making a huge impact in such a small, personal way.
The product description from Amazon.com says: “The SXSW Special Jury Award winning The Way We Get By is a deeply moving film about life and how to live it. Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters – a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.
When its three subjects aren’t at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Joan, a grandmother of eight, has a deep connection to the soldiers she meets. The sanguine Jerry keeps his spirits up even as his personal problems mount. And the veteran Bill, who clearly has trouble taking care of himself, finds himself contemplating his own death. Seeking out the telling detail rather than offering sweeping generalizations, the film carefully builds stories of heartbreak and redemption, reminding us how our culture casts our elders, and too often our soldiers, aside. More important, regardless of your politics, The Way We Get By celebrates three unsung heroes who share their love with strangers who need and deserve it.“
You can reserve this film online via the Minerva system or just give us a call and we will do it for you.