Google This!

Here's some ways to improve your searches using Google.

• Use " " for an exact phrase: "war of 1812"
• Use - to exclude words: bass -fishing
• Use ~ to search for synonyms: ~cell for cell phone, wireless, etc.
• Use OR to combine terms: jesus sign OR miracle

But wait, there's more...you can get Google to do more than search!

• Don't know the meaning of a word? Use define:hubris to learn that it means excessive pride
• Need a calculator? Type in 1+1 or 2 divided by 4

Have you found any other tricks for searching Google? Stop by and let me know. Meanwhile, enjoy!

New Display -- Local Authors Published!

Come and see our display of books written by students in Peggy Lord's Children's Literature class.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne -- Prosperty Theology with a new Book Cover

There's a new book that has quickly leaped to the near top of the bestseller lists. On the Barnes & Noble and Amazon site, it's ranked #2, just behind the new Harry Potter book. Oprah devoted 2 shows to it.

Rhonda Byrne has written a book that she claims is the secret to sucess in life, but isn't it really just prosperity theology in a new package?

So, what's the secret? Simply, it's this: "You attract what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny." (Whitney 2007) It's based upon the laws of attraction.

To learn more about the book, read Don Whitney's commentary about it on Baptist Press. Also look at the transcript of an interview on Larry King Live. Amazingly, even Newsweek is skeptical in their article, "De-coding the Secret."

Frog and Toad & Children's Literature

This week is the start of SDCC's Spring Musical "A Year with Frog & Toad."

We in the library have a small exhibit of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series, including Frog and Toad are friends (1970) a Caledcott Honor book & Days with Frog and Toad (1979).

In support of the Children's Literature class, the library has a large collection of children's books, including the Caldecott (picture books) and Newbery (children's fiction) winners and also books about children's literature.

But I'm too old to read children's books, you think to yourself. Well, to quote C.S. Lewis from his preface in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to his godchild Lucy Barfield,

"...But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

So come in and checkout our children's literature collection. You might be surprised to find an old friend or two there.

Cat in the Hat turns 50!

Can you believe
It's been as long as all that
That a man with a pen
Wrote about a cat with a hat?

We salute you, kind sir,
with your magical pen
which wrote such fun rhymes
we read again and again.

For more about the celebration, go to the official Seussville website.