Staff Meet & Greet

“Staff Meet & Greet” is a weekly series where you’ll get to know the people behind the scenes at your Beauregard Parish Library.

Hi, my name is Brenda. I have had the pleasure of working for the Beauregard Parish Library for four years. During that time, I have worked in many areas of the library, including checkin in and shelving books. My favorite job has been delivering new books to all our branches so all our patrons can enjoy the latest.

I love to garden, read and just enjoy nature, especially bird watching, whenever I can.

Rollout of new software in labs

New software should be on all lab PCs starting today. Besides the usual bug fixes involved in upgrading to CENTOS 6.5 there are two notable new version upgrades:

• Firefox 25
  This update gets the very latest browser deployed. Be sure to let us know if anything breaks.
• LibreOffice 4.0
  This is a major version upgrade from the previous 3.4 version. This version should do a noticably better job of opening documents imported from other systems, especially docx files from Office 2013. Import filters now include Microsoft Visio and Publisher.

Thanksgiving is over and, as they say "It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!" If you are looking for some good holiday movies to help you get in the spirit of the season, we have some new DVDs that might do the trick.

The Santa Suit: Drake Hunter, the president of Hunter Marketing, has the perfect plan to boost sales for his father's toy company over the holiday season--hire department store Santas to promote his father's merchandise. When the real Santa Claus turns Drake into a Santa lookalike, Drake finds himself working as a dress-up Kris Kringle to make ends meet. Stripped of power and position, Drake discovers the importance of honesty, compassion, and respect as he helps an unprivileged girl enjoy the magic of Christmas. Stars Kevin Sorbo.

Lifetime 12 Films of Christmas: Enjoy 12 of the best Christmas movies from the Lifetime Television Network.

Thomas & Friends Santa’s Little Engine : Thomas is full steam ahead as a Really Useful Reindeer, saving the day by guiding Santa's sleigh straight to the Sodor Christmas celebration! When snowfall transforms the island of Sodor into a winter wonderland, Thomas discovers that being safe is the best route to holiday fun. Percy makes everyone's Christmas wishes come true and Gordon discovers his friends' special skills are the gifts that keep on giving, all year long!

The Town Christmas Forgot : Stranded in a remote, impoverished lumber town two days before Christmas, a couple tries to encourage the locals to carry on the tradition of the town's home-grown Christmas pageant.

The Carol Burnett Show: Christmas with Carol : Carol Burnett never did a full hour-long Christmas special during her tenure at CBS, but fortunately she celebrated the holidays in a collection of seasonal sketches gathered here.

You can find these, along with many of your favorite Christmas classics in our DVD section. Please note that these DVDs are not rated and may not be suitable for all viewers.

Another short tip this week folks. While the computers in our lab can do most anything you want to do, they are still not Windows computers and sometimes you just need Windows for compatibility reasons. If you are having trouble getting a program to work or a file to open on one of our lab machines then ask one of our friendly clerks about checking out a BTOP laptop. Each branch has one as well!

These laptops come with Windows on them so they may be able to help you open that pesky .wps that our version of LibreOffice just won't open. The BTOP laptops are able to be checked out for one week but you do not have to keep them any longer than you need. Hopefully this will help some of who may be getting frustrated with some older Windows compatibility issues.

Just remember these laptops are on a first come, first served basis so we can not guarantee any will be available. Happy computing everyone!

Staff Meet & Greet

“Staff Meet & Greet” is a weekly series where you’ll get to know the people behind the scenes at your Beauregard Parish Library.

Hi, I'm Tess Yeager, head clerk at the Merryville Branch of the Beauregard Parish Library.

I like to study the Bible in my spare time and love all sorts of crafts, painting, beading, and paper art; I’m crazy about flowers. Come by the Merryville branch and visit with Danielle and me sometime. We love our patrons, especially our little people patrons.

Favorite quote: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart."

This Week...

Ms. Sandi will be reading all about Thanksgiving for our special Wednesday Story Time this week Be there at DeRidder branch at 11:00 am for the Story Time fun!

• Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell
• One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy
• Look Who's in the Thanksgiving Play! by Andrew Clements

At the end of story time will be an exciting craft. Our young patrons will make a turkey using a tissue roll!

Staff Meet & Greet

“Staff Meet & Greet” is a weekly series where you’ll get to know the people behind the scenes at your Beauregard Parish Library.

I am Ashley. I work circulation at the Bearegard Parish Library main branch in DeRidder. I have been here for only a few months.

My husband is military and we moved to DeRidder from Ft. Hood Texas in May(2013). It is just me, my husband and our fur-babies. We spend a lot of time just around the house.

On my off time I read, spend time with my hubby, a full time student, and do some odds and ends around the house such as: cleaning, working on my blankets and other projects.

November 22, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of one of the major events in American history – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Those who were alive at the time remember is as life changing, and most can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about it. We have all studied about it and the controversy surrounding it that continues to this day. This week we received several new books on the subject to help if you wish to learn more about this important part of our history.

Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy (revised and updated edition) . Author Jim Marrs has completely updated his earlier book that was considered to be the most comprehensive account of the assassination. He has included a great deal of new information and an expanded index to help bring all of the facts surrounding the event.

Where Were You? America Remembers the JFK Assassination. Compiled and edited by Gus Russo and Harry Moses, with a foreword by Tom Brokaw, this is a companion to the television documentary in which 46 people share their stories concerning the event. Some of these were people who were close to the tragedy, while others include politicians, authors journalists and celebrities.

If Kennedy had Lived: the First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: an Alternate History. This interesting book proposes the question: What if the assassination had not happened? Author Jeff Greenfield discusses how our country, and even the world, might be different if Kennedy had been able to finish his first term as President and win re-election to a second.

Attention Attention Attention!

This is an important reminder for those of you who may have forgotten. The library is offering laptops for in-house checkout! Not a fan of the lab environment? Need a little more quiet for a project or assignment you are working on? Then these laptops would be perfect for you. You check them out just like a book, except these have a two hour time limit. Of course, that should not stop you from renewing them!

The laptops have everything included in our standard lab model plus the portability (within the library building) that is becoming in demand in our fast paced culture. So don't get discouraged by a full computer lab. Head to the front desk and check out a laptop today!

Note: In-house checkout laptops available in Deridder only.

This Week...

Ms. Sandi will be reading all about Leaves for our Wednesday Story Time [Deridder branch @ 11 am]. Can you guess what the letter of the week is? That’s right! It’s Ll!

• In the Woods: Who's Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George
• Max and Maggie in Autumn by Janet Craig-Palazzo
• The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

At the end of story time, there will be a fun craft. Our young patrons will make their own daubed tree!

For our Tumblebook Tagalong, try Scaredy Squirrel, written by Melanie Watt.

Staff Meet & Greet

“Staff Meet & Greet” is a weekly series where you’ll get to know the people behind the scenes at your Beauregard Parish Library.

My name is Linda; I am the Branch Manager for the East Beauregard branch.I have worked for the library since 2001.

I love to read historial romances and light mysteries.The patrons here make this a great place to work. I enjoy every moment.

My husband and I have 2 sons, 2 daughters, 8 grandsons, 3 grand-daughters, 1 great-grand-daughter, and 1 great-grandson. We are very proud of our family. We love to hunt and fish in our spare time.

Odin went down today

We suddenly went off the air at about 1:40pm today for around a half hour. Best we can figure at this point is we have suffered a failure in the RAM in our primary Internet host. As of now we are running on only one bank of memory, leaving it with 4GB instead of the usual 8GB. All services are running close to normal for now.

Expect more downtime this evening when we pull it back offline to open it up, inspect and attempt to repair it.

Update 6:45pm: Repairs completed for now. The memory wasn't bad, the slot was. Well! That is something you don't see every day. So after reshuffling we have 6GB and that will have to do for now. No more outages unless something else goes Foom!

With the holidays just around the corner, many of us are looking forward to festive meals and parties. While this is certainly fun, it can be stressful if you are the one responsible for cooking and baking all of the delicious treats your family and friends have come to expect. Let us help!

This week we received Southern Living 2013 Annual Recipes. This beautiful book is full of incredible recipes and hints to assist you in all of your culinary endeavors. There are color photographs of some of the more delectable dishes. So, whether you are hosting a small family dinner or bringing a dish for a huge potluck, you should be able to find a recipe to fit your needs.

If you are still searching, we also received Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2014. This wonderful book contains even more recipes to inspire you. Each page has a color picture of the featured dishes that will make your mouth water.

We also have many of the previous year’s editions of these cookbooks and many others should you need even more recipes and ideas. They are in the 641 section of our non-fiction collection. As always, just ask a helpful staff member to help you locate them.

Happy Cooking! (and eating!!!)

Wireless Printing

Today, we are going to talk about how to print wirelessly with your laptop at the library; boy, is it simple! All you need to do is navigate your web browser to http://docucolor.library.beau.org and click the "print" tab at the top of the page. From here, you will be able to upload your document. It really is that simple.

Remember, charges for printing still apply.

One last thing: If the printer does not seem to want to print your job, convert your document to a PDF before submitting it for printing. This will help the printer to see the document you are trying to print. That's all there is to it, guys! Happy printing!

This Week...

Ms. Sandi will be reading all about Kangaroos for our Wednesday Story Time [Deridder branch @ 11 am] and Saturday Story Time [South Beauregard at 10:30 a.m.]. Can you guess what the letter of the week is? That’s right! It’s Kk!

• Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow
• Coco's Surprise by Karen van Holst Pellekaan
• The Very Boastful Kangaroo by Bernard Most

At the end of story time will be a fun craft. Our young patrons will make their own kangaroos!

For our Tumblebook Tagalong, try Marsupial Sue Presents the Runaway Pancake, written by John Lithgow.

Staff Meet & Greet

“Staff Meet & Greet” is a weekly series where you’ll get to know the people behind the scenes at your Beauregard Parish Library.

My name is Paul Ringo. I am a clerk for the Beauregard Parish library. I am the branch clerk for the Singer branch and work in DeRidder as well.

My reading interests are generally non-fiction but good fiction has a place on my shelf. I also lean toward more practical ways for people to be connected with simple living skills that have proven faithful for many generations and give meaning to the lives of us all.

Did you ever wonder what great events happened on the date you were born? Or how about which famous people share your birth date? Maybe you just want to know when Random Act of Kindness Week occurs. A great resource for discovering this information is Chase’s Calendar of Events. This fascinating book is published each year and we just received the 2014 edition. There are facts about every day of the year and much more. It is arranged by day, but there is a very helpful index if you know an event and want to know on what date it occurred. At the end of the book, after the calendar, there are many pages of other interesting information. These include: a perpetual calendar from 1753-2100, a world map of time zones, hurricane and cyclone names for the next few years, sections of facts about the United States, Mexico and Canada, a list of all of the Presidential Proclamations issued from January to June of this year, a list of all of the major entertainment awards, and many more.

This book can be found in the library's reference section. It does not check out, so you will have to look at it here, but the upside of that is that it is always available for you! As always, our helpful staff can help you find this and the many other helpful resources that are available to meet your reference needs.

Beauregard Book of the Week

Our Beauregard Books of the Week for November 6, 2013 are The Sookie Stackhouse Novelsby Charlaine Harris

The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris are a good mixture of mystery, science fiction, and fantasy based in Louisiana; they include different super natural beings, with a love story mixed in.

If you are fan of the television series "True Blood" or you are interested in a different kind of vampire story, check out Charlaine Harris' novels.

In the Digital Library series we will explore the different electronic resources the library provides Beauregard Parish patrons. To use these, you will need a computer or mobile device with internet connection and your library card. For certain services, you will also need to use your electronic services password.

Tumble & Audio Book Cloud

Tumble Book Cloud and Audio Book Cloud are “an online collection of ebooks and read-along chapter books, non-fiction books, graphic novels, educational videos, and audio books!” The content has stuff for everyone, from small children to experienced adults, and you can do it all in your web browser with no special software.

The four parts of the Tumble/Audio Book Cloud family are:

• TumbleBookLibrary: TumbleBooks are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in order to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you. The TumbleBookLibrary provides enrichment to students who are reading independently with a variety of high interest material. It also provides support to students who require skill building with a variety of exercises that can be matched with other areas of the curriculum.
• Tumble Book Cloud, Jr: Designed for children in grades 3-6, this is “a great option for adventurous young readers who wish to read beyond the picture book collection in the TumbleBookLibrary.”
  Please note that the link to this product is only on the Louisiana Library Databases page.
• Tumble Book Cloud: TumbleBooks' one-of-a-kind Read-Along format combines the flexibility of an ebook with full-length professional narration highlighted text so kids can follow along with titles such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Hamlet, and The Great Gatsby. Plus, the enhanced novels include chapter/plot summaries, character sketches, and quizzes. Readers can even highlight portions of a book and add notes!
• Audio Book Cloud: This, as the name suggests, has audio content only and is aimed at the adult audience. It allows you to listen to your favorite audio books with just a click of a button. These books are always available, never on hold, and no need to download.

Fun Extras:

• The Tumble portion was made with academic achievement in mind. Included with most books are AR levels and Common Core information.
• Some foreign language books are included, including a section of Spanish books in Audio Book Cloud.
• All variations of the Book Clouds offer “My Cloud” so you can sign up to keep track of your books and audios from anywhere on the Internet.

Caution:

This product is for online use only. At present Beauregard Parish Library does not have an offline version, so data/internet charges will apply when using these products.

CLICK!

To access this great content, click either the Tumble Books & Audio Book Cloud button or the Louisiana Library Databases button in the Digital Library menu at left . Decide which of the four you want to use, and click through to have some fun!

This Week...

Ms. Sandi will be reading all about Journeys for our Wednesday Story Time [Deridder branch @ 11 am] and Saturday Story Time [East Beauregard at 10:30 a.m.]. Can you guess what the letter of the week is? That’s right! It’s Jj!

• Someday When My Cat Can Talk by Caroline Lazo
• The Wheels on the Bus by Maryann Kovalski
• Clifford Takes a Trip by Norman Bridwell

At the end of story time will be an exciting craft. Our young patrons will pack a "suitcase" for a journey!

For our Tumblebook Tagalong, try Dinotrain, written by Deb Lund.