News and Reviews
Blog Post
Microsoft & Yahoo - Together at last?
by remnil
How can your friendly neighborhood business correspondent pass up a story like this? Microsoft has just made a $44.6 billion bid (yes that's a "b") to buy Yahoo. The move comes following search giant Google reporting pretty sad earnings for the final quarter of last year.
The bid is an aggressive move by Microsoft to gain dominance in an area where they're lagging: online advertising. Google's expertise is search, but they make their money in internet advertising. And they're really good at it. But with its tepid recent earnings and Microsoft's latest move, could the Google juggernaut be in danger of hitting a wall, or at least a bit of molasses? What do you think?
Blog Post
The R-word
by remnil
The R-word - recession, that is - has been bantered about a lot more recently. With job losses, a pitiful housing market, and the subprime mortgage crisis, its prominence isn't overly surprising, nor is politicians' desire for a bit of economic development. It also is not surprising that people aren't really in a spending mood right now, which further risks bringing about the R-word. In hopes staving off said recession, the House has passed a "stimulus package" that could result in a $600 check appearing in your mailbox. Providing that the Senate agrees, that is.
A $600 check does sound mighty nice. But the question is, will you spend it? The "stimulus" part of the economic stimulus depends on us going right out and buying that new ipod or laptop. Of course, with the economy as rotten as it is, some might want to save it for a rainy day.
So, what if you got a big, fat $600 check in the mail? Would you save it? Spend it? If so, on what? Let's see if Congress' plan is really going to work.
Blog Post
Sweet, Sweet, Memory by Jacqueline Woodson
by Tahira
Sarah's family gathers at her grandmother's house and share memories of her grandfather. Sarah can't express how she feels until her relatives repeat grandfather's words that once touched her heart, "Everything and Everyone goes on and on." Jacqueline Woodson touches her readers' hearts in this poignant story.
Blog Post
DVD Bits - Nobody Knows
by ryanikoglu
This Japanese film title Daremo shiranai translates to "Nobody Knows",... a touchingly beautiful film based on a true story. For more than a year, four siblings take care of each other without the presence of a parent. They range in age from 12 to 5 years old. They manage to protect the secret that they are "home alone". The quiet film footage of the children involved in their daily routines is a skill full work of patience and art.
Blog Post
DVD Bits - Parent Tales
by ryanikoglu
I don't know how well the kids relate to these sitcoms, but as a parent, I find them very fun. The Library has the first season of Malcolm in the Middle. Newly arrived is the first two seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond. Soon, the first two seasons of Grounded For Life will arrive. If you believe you need to improve your parenting tactics after watching, remember the "parenting books" are in the non-fiction collections around Dewey # 649.1. It's always time to laugh.
Blog Post
Kid Bits - Dentists
by ryanikoglu
Going to the Dentist soon? Find these books Make Way For Tooth Decay; What To Expect When You Go To The Dentist; Open Wide: Tooth School Inside. If you want stories on DVD try Open Wide with 3 added stories. Then practice saying, "Ahhhhhhh".
Blog Post
City directories available through HeritageQuest
by amy
Genealogists have long placed old city directories at the top of their wishlist of books to be digitized. And now it's happening! The Google books project already includes a few local directories and the Books section of our Heritage Quest product includes Ann Arbor and Washtenaw county directories from 1886-87, 1888-89, 1909, 1914, 1915, and 1916. For those of you who prefer perusing the original print editions, you'll find them in our Local History room on the second floor of the Downtown library.
Here are the local directories available through Google: Cole & Keating’s Ann Arbor City Directory for the year 1872; Glen V. Mills Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti City Directory 1892; Polk’s Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Washtenaw County Directory, 1916(7)
Blog Post
May Angelou (Poetry for Young People)
by Tahira
Young and old will be inspired by the powerful words of one of our Nation's most distinguished poets in Maya Angelou (Poetry for Young People)
Blog Post
The Lost Street Names of Ann Arbor
by amy
view from Cedar Bend Drive, ca. 1900-1919, Making of Ann Arbor
Little did I know that each time I trudge up Spring Street to Hunt Park, I pass by Pardon Street (formerly Walnut Street), which now lies buried under the grass and trees of lower Hunt Park. In his July 2002 Ann Arbor Observer article, "The Lost Streets of Ann Arbor," former AADL librarian, Don Callard, takes you on a fascinating historical tour down Ann Arbor's lost streets -- past Lulu's Court, down dangerous Chubb Street, over to Bowery Street and across the river to California Avenue. You'll find this article in our Streets and Roads binder on the second floor of the Downtown branch. Meanwhile, we've posted a handy list of former Ann Arbor street names and their current counterparts under the new Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County - History link from our AADL Select Sites.
Blog Post
Mouse Bits - Family Reads
by ryanikoglu
A sweet set of titles for a cozy family read ... Mitt And Minn at the Wisconsin Cheese Jamboree and Mitt And Minn's Illinois Adventure. They are published by Mitten Press in Ann Arbor, MI! Two mice have stories to tell and adorable illustrations to enjoy. The books are nice reads for parents with children who are listening to chapter books, or by children who are reading independently and still enjoying pictures. You may think of nibbling bits of cheese while you're at it.
Blog Post
Baby Bits - First Snow
by ryanikoglu
Baby PlayGroup Programs begin this week. Every week there are 6 programs at 4 locations. Join us when you can!
3 great books for winter with babies are Snowballs; Mouse's First Snow; and First Day Of Winter. Then let's make some roly-poly snowballs and itsy-bitsy snowflakes together!
Blog Post
Charles Perrault
by pumpkin
Today, January 12 is the birthday of Charles Perrault (1628-1703 a French author who was responsible for a new genre: the fairytale.
As a young man, Perrault participated in literary circles, especially in the debate between the "ancients" and the "moderns" Perrault being emphatically on the side of the "moderns."
At the age of 67, Perrault decided to devote himself to children's literature and published "Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals," with the subtitle "Tales of Mother Goose."
Perrault used earlier folktales in his books. Literary critic Jack Zipes has written that Perrault's tales were slightly subversive in their criticism of the ruling classes. We see that, for example, in his Cinderella.
You can find many versions of Perrault's tales by different authors on our shelves.
Blog Post
On frankenfoods and international trade
by remnil
The European Union's in trouble! And with the World Trade Organization, no less. A deadline is looming for the EU to lift its ban on genetically modified foods (GMOs), affectionately called "frankenfoods." The EU says that the foods are dangerous. The United States, among others, thinks that the ban is just convenient way to protect EU farmers from competition. Thus, as any good American would do, the US government sued, via the WTO.
Europeans are deeply skeptical of GMOs, claiming that there are adverse health effects and the risk of contaminating other crops. Many people beg to differ, claiming that there is no evidence that GMOs are unhealthy. Ultimately, then, the debate boils down to whether, in a world where free trade among countries is the norm, an individual country has the right to block genetically modified foods from their markets.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways of dealing with GMOs than outright bans. Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, for instance, thinks producers should say whether a food GMO ingredients. But the question is, what do you think? Should the EU be able to ban genetically-modified foods? Should the US do the same? Should we label foods, as Kucinich suggests? Other thoughts?
Blog Post
DVD Bits - Quirky Love Stories
by ryanikoglu
Quirky people finding love anyway. Older movies but a new "find" ... Love, Ludlow features a young "office temp" in New York who cares for her adult brother Ludlow. Funny and endearing and enlightening and stressful .... just like life. Other movies with "survival instinct" ... Mozart And The Whale which features a support group of adults with Asperger's Syndrome; Pieces Of April features a couple of alternative teens preparing their first Thanksgiving dinner for parents; and .... Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill a documentary (and love story) of wild parrots in San Francisco.
Blog Post
New aadl.org features, including Video On Demand!
by eli
As you may have noticed, we've added a few new features to aadl.org today. First, we are delighted to offer Video On Demand, which provides instant access to video of past library events and other library productions, such as our Annual Report, presented in video format for the first time! You can also download high-quality or iPod versions of each video, or subscribe to a video or audio podcast through iTunes that will automatically download new video of library productions as they are added to the collection. You can find the new Video On Demand page at , or on the page.
We've also added links at the top of the page that allow visitors to aadl.org to have the site automatically translated into one of 6 languages: Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Japanese, Korean, Russian or Spanish. Please note that this is machine translation, which means that the quality of the translation will not be as good as if a human had translated the content. However, our polyglot patrons are encouraged to point their mouse at translations that they think could be better; a pop-up balloon with the original text and a link to suggest an improved translation will appear. You can also access the translated versions of the site directly using international language codes like so:
ar.aadl.org (Arabic)
zh-cn.aadl.org (Chinese Simplified)
ja.aadl.org (Japanese)
ko.aadl.org (Korean)
ru.aadl.org (Russian)
es.aadl.org (Spanish)
Our services brochure is also available in these 6 languages at any AADL location.
Finally, pictureAnnArbor, our collection of images contributed by patrons, also has a new feature. aadl.org users can now sign up online to get their own gallery within pictureAnnArbor, and then upload pictures to their gallery over the web. Browse pictureAnnArbor now to see what other have already contributed, and sign up today to join the project!
Thanks for using aadl.org, and please feel free to comment on this post or contact us if you have questions or feedback about these new products!
Blog Post
The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington
by Tahira
[cover_image]9780374312510|b12903681[/cover_image]
A little girl loves to chase chickens. She won't stop until she catches her favorite, Miss Hen. When she finally gets close enough to grab the sly hen she is in for a surprise. This is a fun story with a warm ending.
Blog Post
The More Things Change ...
by Debbie G.
"The question of street repairs and improvements will always be with you and cannot be too thoroughly studied." So said the Mayor of Ann Arbor. No, not Mayor Hieftje in 2008, but Mayor Francis M. Hamilton in 1905. The collection of Council Minutes and Proceedings of the City of Ann Arbor in the Local History Room at the Downtown Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library provides ample proof that elected officials may come and go (and come again) but the issues, concerns and downright quirkiness of Tree Town remain constant.
Blog Post
But Wait ... There's More
by Debbie G.
The Local History Room at the Ann Arbor District Library also boasts a complete run of the Ann Arbor Observer from 1976 as well as the Observer's City Guide from 1987. We use the Observer constantly at the Reference Desk to answer all questions local. The covers alone are worth a visit!
Blog Post
Good News on Old News
by Debbie G.
There is a treasure trove of area newsletters in the Ann Arbor District Library Local History Room and they provide histories of our streets and neighborhoods, social events and social groups, churches and businesses that cannot be found anywhere else. We have Washtenaw Impressions from 1943, Old West Side News from 1975, Family History Capers from 1979 and Washtenaw Jewish News from 1977 to name just a few. The Local History Room is located on the 2nd floor of the Downtown Branch Library.
Blog Post
One Million Men and Me by Kelly Starling Lyons
by Tahira
The Million Man March took place on October 16th 1995. It was a call to all Black men in this country to make a promise to improve their communities, their families, and their lives. Seen through the eyes of a little girl, The Million Man March and Me will remind young people of what an important event this was in our nation's history.
Blog Post
Ziba Came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse
by Tahira
Ziba sat on her mama's lap in the hull of the boat on her way to a new land. She remembers all they left behind before gunfire as tore through their village. Liz Lofthouse tells a moving tale through the eyes of a young refugee.
Blog Post
Ron Paul's curious economics
by remnil
As always, the 2008 presidential election brings us some, shall we say, interesting characters. When it comes to economics, though, few are quite as interesting as Republican Ron Paul. In addition to abolishing the IRS, Mr. Paul hopes to bring back the as the basis for U.S monetary policy. Ben Bernanke is indubitably shaking in his boots.
Currently, our money is basically as good as our word; other countries accept dollars because they trust that we're willing to trade it for other goods & services. The gold standard, however, makes each one of those dollars equivalent to a specified amount of gold. Paul argues that, in the era of the declining dollar, perhaps we need that gold standard back.
Of course, there are plenty of good reasons why we abandoned the gold standard. But one has to give Paul some props for some unconventional economic thinking. Of course, recent economic news may have people clamoring for someone unconventional, just not quite as unconventional as Ron Paul.
Blog Post
Carrie Nation in Ann Arbor, May 3, 1902
by amy
submitted by Wystan Stevens. Click here for a version with mouse-over features highlighting historical details in the photograph; or here, for a much larger view.
Mob cheers for a State Street hatchet job: but hey, who axed that woman to come here, anyway?
Carrie A. Nation (1846-1911), the "Vessel of Wrath," was 56 and at the peak of her fame on May 3, 1902, when, standing on the back of a horse-drawn cab at the corner of State Street and North University Avenue, she engaged in rollicking repartee with a boisterous crowd of Michigan students. Emerging as a Prohibition crusader in Kansas in 1900, Mrs. Nation had obtained quick national renown by vandalizing the stock and furnishings of numerous saloons -- at first hurling rocks, then switching her M.O. to smashing with a hatchet that she carried beneath her waterproof cape. She was arrested again and again, and paid the fines for her "hatchetations" by lecturing and selling souvenir hatchets and photographs. In this area, she spoke in nearby Milan and in Ann Arbor (at the Athens Theater, the former Opera House, at the SW corner of Main and Ann). Although she entered several Ann Arbor saloons to confront their owners or barkeeps, she was on good behavior there, and smashed nothing. Newspaper reports suggest that too-high admission fees kept her Ann Arbor lecture audiences small, and there were few verbal fireworks. In fact, while here she drew her biggest crowd during this free appearance on the edge of the University of Michigan campus.
"I have been to all the principal universities of the United States. At Cambridge, where Harvard is situated, there are no saloons allowed, but in Ann Arbor the places are thick where manhood is drugged and destroyed." --Carrie Nation, in her memoirs (1905).
The following report appeared in the "Washtenaw Daily Times," May 3, 1902:
One thousand students had a rollicking old time with Carrie Nation at the campus this morning and the collegians applauded everything she said . . . .
Just before the close of her address Mrs. Nation made a strong plea for the Prohibition party: "Now I want to see the hands raised of all you who vote the Prohibition ticket after this," said the smasher. Every mother's son in the mob put both hands high in the air. "Good!" shouted Carrie, with a broad smile and at the same time clasping her hands gleefully at the thoughts of making so many "converts." "Oh," she said, "that made the devil awful mad when he saw those hands."
"Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! THE DEVIL," yelled the students in chorus.
Mrs. Nation spoke from an open hack at the northwest corner of the campus. During the early part of her address somebody passed up a whiskey flask that was labelled with a well-known brand, and containing a fluid that looked for all the world like genuine booze. Carrie held it aloft.
"Smash it!" yelled the crowd, and she complied. She bent down, took a good aim at the iron tire on the hack wheel and -- "crash" -- went the bottle.
Then the crowd was sorry that it had spoken, as the fluid in the bottle was a solution of hydrogen de sulphide, which is the polite name for the smell of rotten eggs. Some student pursuing chemistry had fixed up the dose and Carrie and the crowd got the benefit of it.
"Whew!" said the students, backing away and holding their noses, but it didn't seem to phase the agitator.
"Tell us about Doc Rose [an Ann Arbor saloonkeeper]," shouted some one.
"I'll tell you about that old Doc Rose," she declared.
"Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! DOC ROSE!" yelled the students.
"All he wants you to go there for is your money," she said.
"Ain't got any money," remarked the student who has been waiting to hear from home.
"You go in there sensible, continued Mrs. Nation, not noting the interruption, "and you come out --"
"Broke," emphasized a student.
"I want you to be like Daniel of old. Daniel was a captive and --"
"Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! Rah-rah-rah! DANIEL!" yelled the students in chorus again.
The collegians simply made a farce of the whole performance. At the close of her talk Mrs. Nation reminded the crowd that she had some souvenir hatchets and photographs for sale.
The mob rushed in and she was proceeding to do a land office business, when it began to look as if the hack would be overturned in the mad rush. The hackman whipped up the horses and the carriage rolled away, but not before one student had climbed up behind and stole a hatful of little hatchets. He dropped down and distributed them among his friends.
The crowd chased up the hack for about a block and then gave up the pursuit.
Blog Post
Listening Bits - Tall Tales
by ryanikoglu
Road Trip! Need good stuff for the family? Books on CD produced by Rabbit Ears Productions are great for family listens! Try World Tales volume 5 with Catherine O'Hara and Whoopi Goldberg's voices; American Tall Tales volume 4 with Keith Carradine doing the voice of Pecos Bill; or my personal favorite ... Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories with Jack Nicholson and Danny Glover's voices. Buckle Up and listen!
Blog Post
Listening Bits - Funny Stuff
by ryanikoglu
Road Trip! Need funny stuff for the family to hear? Here are some recommends that are published books, as well as recorded on CD. Bill Harley creates songs in his stories and Blah, Blah, Blah includes 4 funny stories of clams, pirates, swamp monsters (not too scary) and more. Fun "chapter book" listens are Betty MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series; and Kate DiCamillo's series with the pig named Mercy Watson. Hee, Hee, hee .... Buckle Up and Chuckle !
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Washtenaw County, Michigan Heritage Driving Tours
by amy
The weather may be more suitable for sleighing than driving, but if you're up for a trip into Tree Town's past during the holiday, try one of The Washtenaw County Historic District Commission's four driving tours. Each of these themed tours--the Esek Pray Trail tour; the Greek Revival Architecture tour; the Historic Barns tour; and the German Heritage tour--comes with a detailed, color brochure you can download to accompany you on your drive. The tours are offered as part of The Washtenaw County Heritage Tourism Map Project to guide visitors and locals through the County’s cities, villages, and rural areas and to celebrate the region’s rich heritage.
Blog Post
Media consolidation: Coming soon to a city near you
by remnil
Today, the Federal Communications Commission has given media companies a bit more freedom. On party lines, the Commission voted to allow businesses to own both newspapers and television or radio stations in the same city. So what does this mean? It means that MediaNews Group, owners of the The Detroit News could start buying up Detroit television stations, if they so choose.
Proponents of such restrictions worry that media consolidation stifles critical voices in a community. If multiple media in a city are owned by the same people, chances are you'll be hearing the same stories - and the same opinions. However, opponents like the FCC argue that, in the Internet age, there are plenty of alternative voices through blogs and other online news sources. All such restrictions do hasten the death of newspapers.
So should we be worrying about Rupert Murdoch and his ilk snatching up newspapers and TV stations? Or have the Arbor Updates and Ann Arbor is Overrateds of the world changed how we consume news? What do you think?
Blog Post
Kid Bits - more TOOTH stories
by ryanikoglu
Who stole my tooth?! "I'm gonna send them Airmail To The Moon." This is what Ora Mae Cotton is going to do to the person who stole her tooth. She was saving it for the tooth fairy of course!
Dear Tooth Fairy: A Harry & Emily Adventure is Emily's letter to the tooth fairy in anticipation of a tooth falling out. Throw Your Tooth On The Roof tells tooth tales/traditions from around the world. AND then there's Mabel The Tooth Fairy And How She Got Her Job... another view all together...
Blog Post
Black, White, Just Right! by Marguerite Davol
by Tahira
First published in 1993 Black, White, Just Right! by Marguerite W. Davol celebrates the similarities and differences of an interracial family.
Blog Post
Life of Nathaniel Stacy, first Universalist pastor in Ann Arbor
by amy
submitted by Wystan Stevens
The St. Andrew's history committee should check out this book, which I discovered during a Google Books search. Nathaniel Stacy published his memoirs in 1850, and this rare volume is now in the Universalist collection at Harvard University -- and fully readable online. Stacy was invited in 1835 to pastor the Ann Arbor Universalist congregation, and he came and stayed here about five years. He discusses the establishment of the Universalist church in Michigan, his acquaintance with Mssrs. Kellogg and Fuller, businessmen of Lower Town Ann Arbor who were members of his congregation, and his conversion to Universalism of John Williams, an ex-Calvinist (Presbyterian) farmer of Webster Township. The Ann Arbor material in Stacy's book begins on page 383.
Stacy's account has several pages on his own financial troubles, and he relates them in strong terms to the immoral craze of speculation that afflicted Michigan in the 1830s -- the era of Wildcat Banks and worthless paper money. The St. Andrew's history committee should relish the account of his doctrinal dispute with the pastors of the mainline protestant churches of Ann Arbor, which resulted in a public challenge to debate each of them -- either in his pulpit or in their own.
The debate challenge was flung boldly, via a letter printed in the Ann Arbor Argus and the Ann Arbor Journal, and it was ignored by all of the pastors except, finally, Mr. Marks, the Episcopal minister, who published his retort to Stacy (a lengthy letter) in the same newspapers. After that, Marks avoided Stacy on the street. Then he left town . . . .
Portrait of Rev. Nathaniel Stacy, in the fronticepiece of his memoirs:
Around page 450, Stacy writes briefly of his return visit to Ann Arbor years later, by train.