The library is currently open Monday through Friday from 10:00am-5:30pm and Saturday 9:30am-12:30pm. The Children's Room and Archives are open by appointment. Please call for details: 207-582-3312.

Ann Russell, Technology Librarian

Education Month at the Gardiner Public Library!

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Education is our theme for September!  Those who are taking part in our “Year of Reading” we hope you read a book, watch a movie, listen to an item, read a magazine, that somehow pertains to education.  As you all know, we are VERY relaxed about the relationship of your item to our theme, so enjoy something today.  Our September sponsor is Gardiner Family Chiropractic, so thank them next time you have an adjustment!

Since “Banned Books Week” runs from September 30 – October 6 this year, we’re offering our readers a “deal” – read or listen to a Banned Book and get an extra chance for the drawing!
We would like to offer a HUGE thank you to our other sponsors!!!
January was sponsored by At Home Veterinary Care, in West Gardiner.
February was sponsored by Book It! the library’s used book store on Water Street here in Gardiner.
March was sponsored by the Community Wellness Center, in Gardiner.
April was sponsored by the Black Crow Bakery, in Litchfield.
May was sponsored by Lisa’s Legit Burritos, in Gardiner
June was sponsored by Kan 2 Kanvas, a local artist, Mario Del Rio, in Gardiner.
July was sponsored by Deb’s Ice Cream & Mini Golf, in Randolph.
August was sponsored by Dennis’ Pizza, in Gardiner.
Please come on in and join the fun!  We would love to have you participate in whatever way works for you.
If you know any Gardiner area business that would like to sponsor a month, give us a call at (207) 582-3312. 
Ann Russell, Technology Librarian

Maine Newsstand

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Another wonderful addition to the Marvel Databases is Maine Newsstand.  I must say this one, as a “Maine-I-Ac” is fascinating.

*** Remember, you must have a VALID Maine library card to access this database! ***
When I open this database, it is set for a Basic Search, and the Full Text radio box is unchecked.  I search “Portland Head Light” with 22992 results.  The first link that I see is from the Portland Press Herald, dated Mar. 2, 2005.  Scrolling down the screen I see that the database indexes from 1993 – 2012.  I also see a place to Sort Results By, with choices of Relevance, Publication Date (oldest first), and Publication Date (most recent first).
Other options include
Publication Title – 7 Maine newspapers are included Portland Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, Lewiston Sun Journal, Waterville Morning Sentinel, Kennebec Journal, Maine Times and Central Maine Morning Sentinel.
                Document Type – including News, FrontPage/Cover Story, Obituary, Article, Feature, Editorial, Commentary, Undefined, Review, Correspondence, Interview, Letter To The Editor and Market Research.
                Subject, Company/Organization and Location all have many, Many, MANY options.
I narrow my search by Document Type and choose to include only Front Page/Cover Story and Obituary.  The search is now only 948 articles.  Hmmm . . .  I sort the search by Publication Date (most recent first).  The first several articles are obituaries.  Out of curiosity I click on one.  I’m not completely sure why this obituary is part of my results.  The search terms are all highlighted in the article, but I only see the words Portland and Light.
                I go back and eliminate Obituary from my search, and now have 661 results.  The most recent article is from the Portland Press Herald, and dated Oct. 21, 2011.  Checking this article, I’m still not sure why my search terms are bringing it up.
(**Picture me smacking myself in the head**)
I fix my search criteria – adding quotation marks around the term “Portland Head Light”, the results are now 814 articles, and all of my filtering has been cleared.  Clicking on the first article, dated July 20, 2012, I find my search term highlighted – PERFECT!!!
Not wanting to bore you, I am having a great time trying several other search terms, as well as names. Sooo . . . Are you interested in a person in the news in Maine? Try a name search.  Are you interested in a specific place or attraction? Try a search.

And ENJOY!!

Ann Russell, Technology Librarian

Marvel – Kids Search

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Another wonderful database provided in Marvel.

Kids Search is, as you may have guessed, geared toward the younger user.  It searches several sources at once. 

My first search was “elephant”, using the search bar on the first page.  This brought up over 1800 results!  Next I was given the opportunity to Filter Results By.  My choices were All Results, Magazines, Newspapers, Books & Encyclopedias, Animals, Biographies, Radio & TV News Transcripts, and Primary Source Documents. WOW! Where do I begin to filter??

I clicked on Biographies, and narrowed my search to 15 results, all of these being from electronic encyclopedias.  Scanning through the list, some of the articles give a Lexile number for those folks who need to know what reading level an article is written.  All of the articles happen to be available in Full Text, so clicking on an article brings up the entire article, and I was given the opportunity to Print, E-mail, Save, or Add to folder.  Adding to my folder saves the search for later, so if you are not connected to a printer, you can access the article easily.  Another option here is the Sort By option.  Clicking this drop down box gave me the choices – Relevance, Date Descending, Date Ascending, and Source.  I was also able to Narrow Results By Subjectand Publication.

Moving back to the previous page, filtering my results by Animal gave me 22 results.  These results also give Lexile numbers, and all appear to be Full Text articles, a couple with graphics.  I still had the Sort By options, but the Narrow Results By option is now only Subject.

Primary Source Documents was the next filtering tool I used.  Of the 15 articles, only 2 of them had Lexile numbers, all of them were Full Text articles, and as primary source documents, generally written as first person accounts.  A couple of these articles are Congressional Testimony, which adds an interesting bit to our research.  Here the Sort By options are still the same, but the Narrow Results By option is only Publication.

Photos was my next filtering choice.  Here we have over 300 thumbnail pictures of elephants, with description and source citation.  On this page, Sort By options have lessened, my choices are now Relevance and Title, and there are no Narrow Results By options.

This looks like a WONDERFUL resource for anyone needing information.  It may be titled Kids Search, but . . . . chronologically, I’m no “kid” and I will use this site!!