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Maine

digitalmainelibrary – Books and Authors

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It’s been quite a while since we had a Blog post discussing any of the Digital Maine Library databases, so I think it’s time for me to poke around a bit.

For those of us who are unaware, we can access many incredible databases that have been provided to all residents of Maine, with a valid library card.

From our (Gardiner Public Library) home page you can access the Digital Maine Library by clicking on the word DOWNLOADS on the bar beneath the library picture.

This next page (DOWNLOADS) shows the various databases that the Gardiner Public Library subscribes to.  Click on digitalmainelibrary.

From there scroll down the page to see what types of databases are available.

My choice today is BOOKS AND AUTHORS (GALE).

Clicking on this brings me to a new page – GALE BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

I see the page title, and below that is a search box.  I can search by TITLE, AUTHOR, SERIES or KEYWORD.  There is also a choice of ADVANCED SEARCH.

I admit it, I’m all about scrolling the entire home page first, looking at the book covers, noticing there are three carousels of book covers.  Currently, the carousel lists are – New and Updated Books and Season Picks: Books by Contemporary French Authors in Honor of Bastille Day (July 14, 2021) and Spotlight On: Ghost Stories for Teens to Read by the Campfire.

Along the left side of the page, I see Select A Genre.  If I’m looking for Horror Stories, or perhaps Biographies, this looks like a good place to start.

Below the picture of the open book and the book covers there is a bar with choices on the right side.  These include Browse Genres ; Author Search ;  Book Lists ; Search History and Get Link.

Hmmm . . . I click on the Browse Genres icon.  This takes me to a new page.  I see more colorful book covers, as well as several filters.

Along the left side the Select A Genre column has changed a bit.  I’m now given options.  The first being Fiction or Non-Fiction.  Below that option box are the same choices from the previous page, select a genre.  At this point the default is Fantasy Fiction.  Below that is an (all?) encompassing list of various Fantasy Fiction Genres.

I play around a little with changing the primary genre and each of these have an incredible number of secondary or sub genres. 

Very interesting!

Back to the Author Search choice.  This is located between Browse Genre and Book Lists. 

This takes me to a new page.  I see an Author Search bar.  Below this are limiters.  In the search bar I type King, Stephen (I am in Maine, and he is one of ours).  Clicking the search icon takes me to a new page.  There are three King, Stephens – a Novelist, an Economist and an Illustrator.  I also see birth and possible death dates of these individuals.

Each of the names is a click-able link.  Stephen King the novelist shows other names he is know by, or pseudonyms he has used in the past.

I click on Stephen King (American Novelist).  This new page gives me a list of his works, in chronological order from the most recent to his earliest titles.  On the right side of the page, there are several ways to filter my search.  Something to play with another time.

Back to the Book Lists choice.  This is located between Author Search and Get Link.

This takes me to a page of Award Winners.  WOW!  Every year I look for different book awards – and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such an all-encompassing list!  The site tells me there are 495 Awards listed.

On this page, I click Expert Picks.  Another WOW – 222 lists of books.  These lists are in alphabetical order, but with list titles like – “New Adult” Romance Titles ; The Cold, Snowy Breath of Winter ; Ten Recommended Christian Western Romance Series and Holiday Sparkler! I’m not completely sure how useful this is, but lots of fun to browse!

The last choice here is Librarian Favorites.  More lists – 234 this time.  Another fun place to browse but not really usable, in my opinion.

The next choice beside Book Lists is Search History.  Clicking on this one shows me where and what I have actually typed into the search bar.  A great way to get back to something I “know I saw that – somewhere” when I don’t remember what search term I used on a website.

The last choice in the bar with Browse Genres and Book Lists is Get Link.  This is exactly what it means.  If you creating a webpage/Blog post the link has been created and you can pop it into your post.

As I have done here — Gale Books and Authors

 

Travel New England

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T ~ There Goes Maine!
R ~ Rhode Island
A ~ Apples Of Maine
V ~ Vermont Atlas & Gazetteer
E ~ Eat Local Cookbook
L ~ Life And Death In The North Woods

N ~ New Hampshire Facts And Symbols
E ~ Eastern Wildflowers
W ~ Weatherbeaten

E ~ Edible And Medicinal Mushrooms Of New England And Eastern Canada
N ~ Northern Frights
G ~ Gardening Month By Month In New England
L ~ Little-known Mysteries Of New England
A ~ Along The Rails
N ~ Night The Sky Turned Red
D ~ Detective In The Dooryard



Maine Bicentennial

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M ~ The moose with loose poops

A ~ A is for Acadia

I ~ In Peppermint peril

N ~ Nautilus

E ~ Emmeline

 

B ~ Bag of bones

I ~ Interrupted forest

C ~ Cousins Maine Lobster

E ~ Eagle flies at night

T ~ Take heart

E ~ Enjoying Maine birds

N ~ Now that you mention it

N ~ No news is bad news

I ~ Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

A ~ Answer in the tide

L ~ Lighthouse dog to the rescue

Summer’s here! Don’t forget to write!

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early 1900s postcard - Take a trip to Gardiner, Me. and forget your troubles

School is out; the weather’s warm; it’s time to hit the road, explore old (and new!) favorite places, and share your adventures and travels with friends and family.  Long before Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, postcards were the way to drop a line and keep folks up to date.  We have a wonderful collection of Gardiner-themed postcards in our Community Archives Room.  Many of them depict scenes around town, but there are also quite a few that were more generic, novelty cards into which Anytown, USA, could be inserted — and Gardiner was not to be left out of the fun!

Here are some classics that recently entered our collection — Enjoy!  At just over 100 years old, these range from about 1900-1915.

early 1900s postcard - No Time to Write in Gardiner

early 1900s postcard - We are just as happy as can be in Gardiner, ME.

early 1900s postcard - Stirring times in Gardiner, Me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

early 1900s postcard - I'm tied up in Gardiner

early 1900s postcard - The girls snap you up quickly in Gardiner, ME. I was caught the moment I got here.

 

early 1900s postcard - When you are away from Gardiner, ME. Do you have another girl

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t forget,

If you’re in search of a happy home, come to Gardiner, Me., this is a classy spot!

early 1900s postcard - If you're in search of a happy home, come to Gardiner, ME. this is a classy spot

 

Happy Summer, everyone!!!

 

Unsung Heroes

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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.

Maine State Park Pass

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Here is a reminder to our patrons that the Gardiner Public Library will once again be providing a Maine State Park pass for you to use free by checking it out with your Gardiner library card.  The pass goes out for three days on a first come/first served basis and allows a vehicle and all its occupants’ free access to a State Park in Maine.

 

Enjoy the warm weather now that it has arrived!

 

Museums

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Maine has some other great art museums besides the Portland Museum of Art that are perhaps not necessarily on your radar.  For future planning, I would like to suggest an upcoming exhibit at the Bates College Museum of Art at the Olin Arts Center in Lewiston.  Beginning in June and running until October, Bates College Museum of Art will be featuring Maine’s own Dahlov Ipcar in a show that is drawn mainly from private collections.  Find out more about this exciting exhibit at the Bates College Museum of Art web site – http://www.bates.edu/museum/exhibitions/upcoming/dahlov-ipcar-a-life-in-the-arts/

 

 

Latest Snowfall In Maine

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Yes, we are tired of it. Yes, it seems it will never go away.  But, have you ever wondered when was the latest recorded snowfall in Maine?

 This was featured on B98.5 FM Central Maine’s Country Radio Station’s website:

The latest recorded snowfall in Maine goes to Caribou, Maine, on May 25, 1974 they recorded 0.2 inches of snow.

So, if you do see some flakes tomorrow and your furnace kicks on, it’s nothing we can’t handle. We’re Mainers!

And this confirms it from the

National Weather Service

Late Season Snowfall across northern Maine

…2nd latest measurable snowfall on record at Caribou, Maine…

A cold upper low tracked across northern Maine during the early morning hours of May 23, 2015.  The air mass was cold enough that the precipitation that fell across far northern Maine fell mainly as snow. A total of three tenths (0.3″) of an inch of snow was observed at Caribou, Maine on May 23, 2015. This broke the previous record for May 23rd of a trace of snow observed in 1990.  It was the greatest snowfall ever observed so late in the season. It was also the 2nd latest measurable snowfall on record at Caribou. The all-time latest measurable snowfall was May 25, 1974 when two tenths (0.2″) of an inch of snow was observed.

Marsden Hartley

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Do you know who Marsden Hartley was?  If you are interested in what Maine has contributed to the culture of the world, then you should know who he is even if you do not know yet.  Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1877 and died in Ellsworth in 1943.  His contribution to world culture?  Wikipedia calls him an American Modernist painter and says “he wanted to become ‘the painter of Maine’ and depict American life at a local level.  This aligned Hartley with the Regionalism movement, a group of artists active from the early- to mid-20th century that attempted to represent a distinctly ‘American art.’  He continued to paint in Maine, primarily scenes around Lovell and the Corea coast, until his death in Ellsworth in 1943.  His ashes were scattered on the Androscoggin River.”

Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville is currently featuring an exhibition titled Marsden Hartley’s Maine which will run through November 12, 2017.  The museum’s web site at  http://www.colby.edu/museum reports that, “This exhibition will explore Marsden Hartley’s complex, sometimes contradictory, and visually arresting relationship with his native state—from the lush Post-Impressionist inland landscapes with which he launched his career, to the later roughly rendered paintings of Maine’s rugged coastal terrain, its hardy inhabitants, and the magisterial Mount Katahdin.

Hartley’s renowned abstract German series, New Mexico recollections, and Nova Scotia period have been celebrated in previous exhibitions, but Marsden Hartley’s Maine will illuminate Maine as a critical factor in understanding the artist’s high place in American art history. Maine served as an essential slate upon which he pursued new ideas and theories.  It was a lifelong source of inspiration intertwined with his personal history, cultural milieu, and desire to create a regional expression of American modernism.

The exhibition is organized by the Colby College Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Check out this exhibition for the unique style with which Hartley has been celebrated, for the man’s unique view of Maine and its inhabitants, and for the wonderful Colby College Museum of Art building and collection which have a splendor all their own.

 

 

An Alphabet of Maine Titles

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A friend and I were talking the other day, and we wondered if it would be possible to create an alphabetical list of books containing Maine places.

My list isn’t quite alphabetical, though the Maine places ARE in alphabetical order.  As you will notice, I did use poetic license with two letters – X and Z.  Please leave a comment if you have ideas for these two special letters!

Summers at Castle AUBURN

The BLUE HILL meadows

CHELSEA Chelsea bang bang

DALLAS Buyers Club

EMBDEN town of yore

FRIENDSHIP makes the heart grow fonder

The GRAY man

HOPE and tears

History of ISLESBOROUGH, Maine

Thomas JEFFERSON builds a library

KENNEBEC gumbo

LIBERTY or death

MOUNT VERNON love story

NORTH HAVEN

The OLD TOWN Canoe Company

Mr. Goodhue remembers PORTLAND

The daring Miss QUIMBY

RANDOLPH Caldecott

SAINT GEORGE and the dragon

TURNER & Hooch

The UNION quilters

Hollywood comes to VINALHAVEN

The three Weissmanns of WESTPORT

Elijah of BuXton

New YORK to Dallas

History of Cape EliZabeth, Maine