This blog began in 2003 as Mrs. Rabbitt's Bookbag and continued as From the Library Director from 2005-2010. You can read my newspaper columns at FromtheLibraryColumn published Thursdays in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Nutty on Tips

Go to TipNut for 20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing.

Pollen-hate

Go to Pollen.com to get your local pollen four-day forecast and to sign up for pollen alerts by email.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Swap a DVD


Swap a DVD by joining up. The sister site is SwapaCD.com.
I've read how it works but I use my public library and Blockbuster.com for DVDs so won't be joining soon. Seems like a great green idea, however, for all of those children's DVDs hanging around.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Disney - It's Where It's At


I'm off on a Disney Cruise. Thanks to Beth Paisner and Lorie Linnell for all your tips. And to the trustees for understanding that vacations are the sustenance a new library director needs.

Factory Tours in New England


Read Factory Tours for a variety of interesting summer activities around New England.
"Ever wonder how the fortune gets into the fortune cookie? How toothpaste gets into the tube? Or how sheet metal is welded into a shiny new car or motorcycle? Having traveled thousands of miles and personally visited hundreds of factory tours since 1992, we invite you to explore some manufacturing mysteries of the world. Since most of the tours are free, and many give free samples, factory tours and company museums remain the best vacation value in America. Come along for the ride!" Factory Tours.com
I've ordered the latest version of the book. Make sure you reserve it - call the library or visit the catalog and place a hold within the next few weeks.

Green Diming


Here's another way to get rid of junk mail and get paid for it! GreenDimes will pay you $1 to join.

Where Have All The Fireflies Gone?


Log in to the Firefly Project, a Citizen Science website of the Boston Museum of Science.

"The Firefly Project seeks to enlist people across the state to log on to the Firefly website to report the occurrence of fireflies in their back yard throughout the summer, as well as record information about their particular habitat. The goals of this project are twofold. The first is scientific. The more data collected by citizen scientists, the more valuable it is to firefly researchers. The second is educational. The site will contain a lot of information about the natural history of fireflies as well as environmental factors within our control that may affect their populations." Some fun facts about fireflies from the Museum of Science: Some fun facts about fireflies:* there are about 20 species of firefly in Massachusetts* fireflies use their flash to locate a mate. Each species has avery specific flash, both for the male and for the female.* the males flash while flying. If the female is interested, sheresponds with a flash from a perch on the ground or low shrub.* One type of firefly can imitate the flash of other femalefireflies. She does this to lure i n a male which she promptly devours.* fireflies produce a toxin in their blood that makes themunpalatable to most predators.* the predatory firefly can not produce this toxin and must acquireit through her prey.* fireflies can not see the color blue. Therefore, a flashlight witha blue filter is ideal for observing fireflies undisturbed at night.

Thanks again to Gerry for the link!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Stay With This One For the Message


Found it on Reddit.com

This Is Earth. You Know That, Right?

Click on this link for The Traveler IQ Challenge.
You have to work fast and exact if you know your stuff in order to travel on to the last six levels. Watch especially for the comments on your work. "You nailed that one" feels great. "This is Earth, you know that, right?" is just plain humbling.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Helping the Environment. Please.

This is the longest blog entry you will EVER find from me. I promise.

I urge you to take this small action to change the world today.

I added Catalog Choice dot org to my blog this week on Tuesday, April 8th. I want to update my own progress:
My husband, Gerry, and I are spending a sleepy Saturday night tearing off the back covers of all the numerous catalogs we receive (sometimes in four different names) to this address. It just sickens us to see them in the mail each day, falling out of the mailbox, slipping off the pile on the kitchen counter and stacked in the pile to take to the recycling center. I URGE you to take this time and go to Catalog Choice dot org and set up your account - you can set up a name at your address, another name at your address, a name at another address. It's really simple to add it all to your account. We can simply NOT ignore this important step in helping the environment. (Next? the flyers in the newspapers.)

Tear off the back cover and save it to a pile. Once a month or so you can go to Catalog Choice dot organd choose the name the catalog is addressed to, the address (if you have more than one) and the customer number if it is available and apparent on the mailing label. It really is so simple to go green.

Choose "I want to help the environment" as your choice. However, if one person at the address actually LIKES getting the catalog (as in the case of several we receive) choose the option: "Duplicate mailings to this address." We like Levenger, Solutions among a very few others.) If you HATE the catalog, well say so and choose"I have no interest in this catalog." Send the message that it is just too much.

This is a VERY important first step for both the environment and for advocating this consumer initiative movement and I can't tell you how good it felt to take ourselves off of all those lists. We plan to do this once per month and really cut down on the mail in our small mailbox at the curb.

By the way, we were unlucky with mailings from colleges, associations and professional publishers. Once again, thanks to library trustee, Holly Collins, for this great tip.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Razzmatazz


The Crayola 64-crayon box celebrates its 50th birthday. And did you know that you can order a custom box of up to four colors - one row of each? Take a look at the Crayola Crayon Chronology, "a summarized history of the 120 core colors." Did you know that there are 23 colors in the 'red' family? And that one of them is named 'piggy pink?'

No Personality

Read how they are taking the personal touch out of China's branch libraries. From Library Link of the Day[Photo: Shenzhen Special Zone Daily]

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Catalogs versus Trees


Catalog Choice dot org is a great little tool for keeping the world green. Stop those catalogs from arriving in your mail. Thanks to Holly Collins for the tip.

Now, if only we can do something about the newspaper inserts.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Freecycling: Going Green With Stuff


I've been a member of Freecycle.org in several areas since the turn of the century. In 2003 I got rid of a barely-used karioke machine that my teenaged daughter HAD to have back in the 90's. (She was our Madonna-in-the-making at the time but she leads a very respectable corporate life in New York City today wearing button-down white shirts and practical heels.) Anyway, the mother who picked up that little bit of 'freecycling' (the karioke machine) was absolutely thrilled with the pricetag. If you haven't yet discovered Freecyle, find a convenient local group through the website. There are 2685 members of the Marlboro/Sudbury group. If you sign up for the digest-form, you'll receive one email per day ... but you might lose out if you are looking for something. However, if you hope to rid yourself of stuff (as most of us are) you'll receive reply emails as quickly as they are sent.

The Last Lecture




Professor Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture, is in print April 8. Watch the entire lecture, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, given last September 2007 at Carnegie-Mellon University. It is poignant and inspirational.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Champions

The proud champions of the 2008 Dover Town Library Spelling Bee - the Dover Foundation team: Marguerite Eckles, Brent Johnstone and Rebecca Delgado.

First Runners-Up were Ellie Herd, Christine DiMartino and Karen McKoy of the library team, Carpe Spellum.
"It was a wonderful, amazing, successful night ... congratulations to [the] champions who edged out Carpe Spellum on the third page of the Especially Difficult Extra Words Just in Case (aka the Killer Bee words). Well done, all, and thank you!" Kate Haviland, Board of Library Trustee Chair
The Bee was held at the Chickering School on April 3rd from 7-9 pm. The Friends and Trustees of the Dover Town Library, the community, the sponsors are to be congratulated for a wonderfully successful fundraiser. Our library depends on these gifts and donations for library materials and adult, young adult and children's programs throughout the year.