News and Reviews
Blog Post
Parent Bits - Cyber-Safety
by ryanikoglu
If you can find the time for gathering parent information, there are useful Parent Guides on raising Cyber-Safe Kids today. Help young people learn to use the Internet Safely and Responsibly. It is an essential skill for life.
Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens;
Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online;
Generation MySpace: Helping Your Teen Survive Online Adolescence;
Me, MySpace, And I: Parenting the Net Generation;
And The DVD Think Before You Click: Playing It Safe Online.
Blog Post
Inauguration Day 2009
by iottJen
The 2009 Presidential Inauguration will take place Tuesday, January 20 in Washington, D.C. All are invited to view the televised live broadcast of the events of the day from 10 am – 5 pm in the 4th Floor Meeting Room of the Downtown Library.
As specified by the 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, presidential terms of office begin and end at 12:00 noon on January 20. President-Elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office at 12:00 noon and then give his inaugural address as the 44th President of the United States.
Remember, wireless Internet access is available throughout AADL. Use your laptop while you watch Inauguration Day festivities!
Blog Post
Parent Bits - What Do We Read NEXT?
by ryanikoglu
Parents (and Kids) ask ... "What are some good kid reads?" and we love to help. There are many Guides to help also. You can find great suggestions with:
Nancy Pearl's Book Crush.
Laura Bush's Laura's List.
Reading Raps: A Book Club Guide for Librarians, Kids, and Families.
Gotcha For Guys! Non-Fiction Books to Get Boys Excited About Reading.
Peak With Books: An Early Childhood Resource.
New York Times Parent's Guide To The Best Books For Children.
Blog Post
Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nichols
by Tahira
[cover_image]0545069483|b13221401[/cover_image]
Sam has alls sorts of questions about life such as, “Where do you go after you die?” Living through the last stages of leukemia, Sam searches for the answers. Through journal entries, lists and questions, the reader sees life through Sam’s eyes and learns how precious life is.
Blog Post
PreK Bits - STORYTIMES START again !
by ryanikoglu
[cover_image]0688100082|b10479880[/cover_image]
Pack up the babies and grab the grandparents and everyone goes....
To the STORYTIME SHOWS!
PRESCHOOL STORYTIMES and BABY PLAYGROUPS
begin next week... JANUARY 12, 2009.
So Line up the sneakers, unknot the shoelaces,
Don't match the mittens, don't match the socks,
Get ready to warm up a spot on the floor...
We're ready to sing once more.
Blog Post
News from the Ypsilanti Historical Society
by amy
Join us at the Ypsilanti District Library (5577 Whittaker Rd, Ypsilanti, MI) on Saturday, January 10, at 11:00 a.m. for the unveiling of an online archive of the Ypsilanti Historical Society's newsletter, Ypsilanti Gleanings. This event will include a demonstration of the site and a presentation on Ypsilanti history by Al Rudisill, President of the Ypsilanti Historical Society.
Blog Post
Kid Bits - What was it like?
by ryanikoglu
If you are in elementary school, here's a series of books that make history fun. The pictures are funny too!
You Wouldn't Want To Be Sick In The Sixteenth Century!
You Wouldn't Want To Work On The Railroad!
You Wouldn't Want To Be Mary Queen Of Scots!
You Wouldn't Want To Be A Victorian Servant!
You can find many more titles in the series by typing "you wouldn't want to be" for "title". Let the CATALOG find the rest and then you can choose.
Blog Post
Piano Starts Here by Robert Andrew Parker
by Tahira
The childhood life of one of the great jazz piano players Art Tatum, is told in this lyrical book. Simple sentences give the book a gentle feeling as Robert Andrew Parker tells the story of a young man challenged by poor eyesight.
Blog Post
Anne Rice's spiritual confession
by pumpkin
Anne Rice wrote books about vampires long before Stephenie Meyer but in her Called Out of Darkness, a Spiritual Confession, Rice repudiates her vampires and vows to write only on religious themes, most particularly Catholic themes.
The book is interesting for her memories of a Catholic girlhood in New Orleans, her embracing of atheism as a college student and finally her “reconversion” in her early fifties. Although sometimes overwritten, it still stands as the progress of a mind in conflict. Readers of books such as Interview with a Vampire, will find the confession interesting as Rice now sees her fascination with vampires as an attempt to contact the spiritual realm. The reader can judge for him/herself whether she succeeds in her latest endeavors.
Blog Post
Annual Report Video Now Online
by TimG
What are people saying about AADL?
Watch the 2007-2008 annual report video now available online. See for yourself!
Blog Post
Wool Bits - 'Tis the Season
by ryanikoglu
'Tis the SEASON to do COZY things. Here are some ideas with wools and yarns.
Crochet: Fantastic Jewelry, Hats, Purses, Pillows And More
Knit One, Felt Too
Knitted Toys, and
Just Socks.
Blog Post
Holiday Hours
by TimG
All Locations of the Ann Arbor District Library will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday, December 24 & 25. Regular hours will resume on Friday, December 26.
On Wednesday, December 31, all Library locations will close at 6 pm. Locations will also be closed on Thursday, January 1. Regular hours will resume on Friday, January 2.
Blog Post
DVD Bits - Red and Green for the Holidays
by ryanikoglu
If you enjoy HOME IMPROVEMENT with "Tim, the Tool Man, Taylor", you'll get a kick out of this set. Try the Red Green Show from Canadian Broadcast.
Uncle Red and his nephew Harold host the show at the Possum Lodge ("When things go wrong, play dead.") Each episode features segments like "Handyman's Corner" ("If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"); "For You Older Men Out There" (Just remember, I'm pullin' for you. We're all in this together."); and ends with the Possum Lodge meeting.
Want more ideas of what to do with Duct Tape? Check Out Ductigami; and Got Tape?.
Blog Post
Lookback Time: The Detroit Observatory
by amy
In , author writes, "Peering far into space means looking deep into time gone by. This phenomenon, known as 'lookback time,' makes historians of stargazers." Historians and stargazers alike can enjoy a look back in time to 1854 by the at 1398 E. Ann St. In its day, the Observatory housed the first large telescope constructed in the United States, for years the third largest refractor in the world. It was the training ground for many 19th century astronomers, saw the discovery of 21 asteroids and 2 comets, and remains the most important physical legacy of the University's early scientific preeminence. "I cannot speak of the Observatory without emotion," said former UM president . "No one will deny that it was a creation of my own." ()
Although the dome is currently not operational, rendering the telescope unusable, the Observatory was fully restored in 1998 and remain intact and operational. Read and watch for upcoming open houses in conjunction with UM's .
Blog Post
Bird by Zetta Elliott
by Tahira
[cover_image]160060241X|b13240559[/cover_image]
Mehkai, also known as Bird, struggles to understand the death of his brother and grandfather as he finds what his special something is. A sad and realistic look at life in the ghetto, and how our own special gifts can help us heal.
Blog Post
Baby Bits - Happy Birthday NEW Year!
by ryanikoglu
The NEW YEAR is coming. Sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Here are some birthday books and songs you can enjoy with your baby.
STORIES: Little Gorilla
The Birthday Box
Oscar's Half Birthday
F Is For Fieasta
SONGS on CD: Birthday Party!
Birthday Party Songs
Blog Post
Kid Bits - Visions of Sugarplums
by ryanikoglu
Sweet stories to go with Cookies And Milk. If you Give A Moose A Muffin; The Gingerbread Boy; The Gingerbread Baby; Ginger Bear; In The Night Kitchen; The Doorbell Rang; A Baker's Dozen; or The Woman Who Flummoxed The Fairies.
Blog Post
DVD Bits - Searching For Debra Winger
by ryanikoglu
The idea started with "What ever happened to Debra Winger?" Rosanne Arquette went Searching For Debra Winger through interviews with "big name" actresses, exploring their life in the spotlight and the pressures they face in family relations, finding themselves, and finding work after 40. You never confront this insight in the tabloids or Hollywood PR!
Undiscovered is Winger's autobiography. She muses, "someone told me that when you age, you turn into the person you were all your life." The interviewed actresses would agree.
Blog Post
Headed for Mecca
by ryanikoglu
Qanta Ahmed provides a dynamic feminine view inside Saudi Arabian culture as she left the USA and joined the Royal Hospital staff in Riyadh. Raised in Britain. Educated in the USA. A practicing Muslim, of Pakistani descent. In the land of invisible women : a female doctor's journey in the Saudi Kingdom tells her unforgettable experience.
Blog Post
Library Board Votes To Suspend Downtown Library Project
by TimG
This morning the Board of the Ann Arbor District Library voted unanimously to suspend work on the project to renovate, or tear down and rebuild, the Downtown Library at 5th and Division.
The Library's 2004-2010 Strategic Plan called for this project, but with more bad economic news expected for Michigan, Board members agreed that continuing this project now would be inappropriate. The AADL will instead focus its attention on maintaining the Downtown Library.
We will embark on the maintenance, repairs, and renovations necessary to continue to provide outstanding library service to our community at our Downtown location, as well as from our four branch locations.
Blog Post
Baby Bits - Boynton Books
by ryanikoglu
When you are reading to Babies and Toddlers be sure to include board books by Sandra Boynton. They are fun ... even after you have read them over, and over, and over, and over .... =)
Doggies; Blue Hat, Green Hat; Barnyard Dance; Moo, Baa, La La La!; But Not The Hippopotamus!; Horns To Toes And In Between; and Pajama Time!.
Blog Post
Baby Bits - What To Do With the BABY-O
by ryanikoglu
What do you do with the Baby-O ?
Start with Art ! FIRST ART: Art Experiences For Toddlers And Twos is packed with recipes and ideas for first art experiences anyone can do at home or in groups.
Then the Games ! The Baby's Game Book reminds you of plenty of lap games to count on and bounce on.
Blog Post
New online collection profiles the founders of Ann Arbor
by amy
AADL is pleased to present a new collection, The Ford Gallery of Ann Arbor Founders, based on the permanent exhibit located in the Michigan Theater. You can browse the exhibit panels, which include such topics as early settlers, women who made a mark on the community, and the people who made the parks. Click on any image for a larger view or "read this panel" for a text-only version. You can also browse all the founders by name and search the collection by keyword. The permanent exhibit was funded by the Ford Motor Company Fund, with the cooperation of the Michigan Theater and the Bentley Historical Library.
Blog Post
Baby Bits - To Market To Market to Buy a Fat Pig !
by ryanikoglu
Home again Home again Jiggety Jig! My favorite rhythm-and-rhyme book for little folks is Piggy In The Puddle by Charlotte Pomerantz. It tells a piggy story with nursery rhyme rhythm. You can watch and listen to a claymation version of the story in the Reading Rainbow DVD Piggy In The Puddle, which includes "This House Is Made Of Mud" and the "Hippopotamus Song".
Blog Post
A History of U of M's Medical School
by amy
Join us Sunday, November 16, from 2-4 p.m. in the Downtown Library's Multi-Purpose Room for a talk by Dr. David Bloom on the history of the University of Michigan Medical School. In preparation, consider taking a look at some of our online collections, including this panel about the history of medicine in Ann Arbor from our new online collection of Ann Arbor Founders, or search for the term 'medical school' in The Making of the University of Michigan, 1817-1992.
Blog Post
Ann Arbor, circa 1968
by amy
On Thursday, UM will celebrate its heyday as a center of social activism in the late 1960s with a panel discussion on the social protests of 1968, beginning at 4:00 p.m., and a performance by Country Joe at 8:00 p.m.
These events accompany an exhibit from UM's Labadie collection titled "The Whole World Was Watching: Protest and Revolution in 1968," currently on view in the Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery. Other photographs of Ann Arbor during this period, such as this one can be found at site 15 of the Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit program.
Blog Post
Death of a musical legend Miriam Makeba
by tonyabreu
World lost one of Africa's greatest singer and true fighter against human rights. Haven gained another messenger of peace and an ambassadress of jazz music.
The legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba died early Monday 11/09/08 of a heart attack, after collapsing on stage Sunday night in Italy. She was 76 years old and well known as “mama Africa”. Her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all South Africans during the time of apartheid. In her amazingly impressive career and glorious achievement, "Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world — jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon — and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela". Her sudden death “plunged South Africa into shock and mourning”. Here is Makeba's Biography, Discography and additional References God bless her soul, rest in peace!
Blog Post
Huge idle equipment and furniture sale
by amy
Come to the Downtown Library on Sunday, November 9, 2008, from noon - 6 p.m. for this huge sale. We've got tons (literally) of idle equipment and furniture we'd like to move from our basement to yours. Some of it is obsolete, some is surplus, and some has been salvaged from various library projects. Among the items for sale are chairs, tables, lots of steel bookshelves, computers, networking equipment, cubicle and office system walls and desks and much more. Everything is cash and carry and sold as-is at very low prices.
Blog Post
Riding to Washington by Gwenyth Swain
by Tahira
[cover_image]1585363243|b13084872[/cover_image]
A young girl stands up against racism when she insists that a clerk allows her friend Mrs. Taylor to use the Whites Only restroom, during a bus trip to participate in the civil rights March on Washington.
Blog Post
Kid Bits - THINK "Three Pigs"
by ryanikoglu
If you like FairyTales already, try some "fractured" FairyTales. It's fun once you already know some of the original tales. Think "Classic" The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone and then try "Newer" and "Edgier" with:
The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall.
The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs by John Sczieska.
The Three Little Pigs by Steven Kellogg, and
Three Hungry Pigs And The Wolf Who Came To Dinner by Charles Santore.