Thank this guy...

If you've ever gotten sleepy on the highway, hit the rumble strip and been snapped back to reality, you have one of our patrons to thank. Chung Chen, who comes in fairly regularly to use our computers, works for VDOT and was the mastermind behind the rumble strips that line most of our highways. He received national and state reccognition and several awards for his work, which statistics estimate save around 4,000 lives per year on Virginia highways. Here's the VDOT article that shows his picture.

If you see him around, thank him for his great idea! I know it has saven me a time or two!

Front Page News

The always cool Neweum has a nice online exhibit of post-election front pages. No Free Press, though. ;-)

NP Patrons Rock the Vote!

North Park patrons have taken quite an interest in the mock election we have set up at the Children's desk!

********************************************************************************

We caught this unsuspecting patron at the polls doing her civic duty!

The Robinsons make voting a family affair!

Check back on November 5th for the results!

Dia de los Muertos

Check out Rebecca's awesome end cap! Props to Barbara too for helping!

Pimp My Bookcart

Here's what I'm thinking for Pimp my Bookcart.

Gas Pump- maybe the old fashioned rounded kind because it would lend itself more to the form of the book cart

Since most of the bookcarts have 3 levels, we could have each level labelled like the three basic gas octanes... Regular 87, Mid-Grade 89 and Premium 93... Maybe some Children's books on top, YA in the middle and some adult on the bottom. Or we could do light-heavy reading... Obviously if we did place books on the shelves of the cart, they would have to be placed decoratively and not just thrown on there like we were going to shelve them...

And the catch phrase, Get your fill at the library, incorporated somewhere...

More to come... share your ideas!!

University Librarians Do the Neatest Things

At Penn State, librarians staff a hot dog vendor's cart on campus and call it the Ask Cart.

Bulletin Board

Hello all:

I saved the font and size of the text on the bulletin board across from the children's ref desk to a Publisher document in our North Park-All-Signs folder. If you need large readable font quickly, feel free to use it!

News From the Medicial Front

www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/04/08/deadly.animals/index.html
Here is a interesting story: Enjoy!!

Dude, That's a Llama

From DePauw University Libraries, promoting their Visual Resources Center (which I think is what we, back in the 80s, called an art library).

Internet Public Library

Hello all:

I just stumbled upon a great online source for ideas, info etc... while searching for children's ocean rhymes. Don't know if you are already familiar with it or not, but it's http://www.ipl.org/ (Internet Public Library). It has links with information for everyone, including a cool section in the kid's area with tons of cool clip art that anyone is free to use!

Check it out!

In Orbit

Via Wired magazine, the Navy's footage of the satellite shot down the other day.