Banned Books Quiz

Staffer Jessica Branciforte has come up with a quick quiz to test you on your knowledge of banned books in keeping with Banned Books Week–traditionally the last week of September. Check out her quiz and read a banned book this week to celebrate the Freedom To Read.

http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=3845

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV

Interested in watching a fresh take on wine reviews?  Take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s televised reviews of wine. “Gary’s key goals are twofold: “First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”

http://tv.winelibrary.com/

Got Kids Who Love Mysteries?

If you’ve got some kids hanging around who love mysteries and you can’t get to the Library to borrow some of our terrific mystery books, then check out Mystery Net’s Kids Mysteries. The site offers short mysteries, chillers, magic tricks and even mysteries written by other kids. There are also reading suggestions for books for your next trip to the Library.

http://kids.mysterynet.com/

Organize Your RSS And Social Feeds With Feedly

We just found a great tool for looking at our blog feeds and it also enables us to organize the feeds into categories and create favorites within the categories–and so much more. It weaves your favorite content into a fun, magazine-like start page and it’s so easy to set up and use.

http://www.feedly.com/

Great Web Sites For Kids

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, maintains a list of hundreds of links to recommended web sites for kids up to 14 years old on its Great Web Sites for Kids page. The links are organized into subject categories including: Animals, The Arts, Sciences, Mathematics & Computers and History & Biography.  There is also a link to sites of interest to parents, caregivers and teachers.

http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm

Traveling In NY City?

HopStop is one of the best city transit guide websites. They provide door-to-door subway and bus directions and maps for several metropolitan cities including NYC, Boston, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco as well as Paris and London. You can also search for places to eat, drink, sleep and see in the City Guides.

With HopStop you can:
- Send directions by e-mail or text message to a cell phone directly from the website
- Plan a trip with multiple destinations using the Itinerary.
- Get directions or the locations of nearby subway and bus stops remotely on your cell phone or PDA with the HopStop Mobile service.

http://www.hopstop.com/

Free Sticky Notes For Your PC

Zhorn software has come up with a very useful and free program that allows you to post sticky notes on your desktop. Some people we know have little pieces of paper all over their desks; this will help you sort all that out.

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

Tax-Free Shopping

The back-to-school season brings with it a  tax-free shopping week in Connecticut. This year, the week is August 15-22 and it applies to clothing and shoes under $300. Click here to find out more about tax-free shopping nationwide.

How to Create Top Quality Computer Desktop Wallpapers

From MakeUseOf.com, a great online resource for all kinds of how-to help and go-to advice. The instructions given here will help you put up a perfect desktop wallpaper without a lot of fuss.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-create-top-quality-computer-desktop-wallpapers/

Yahoo Games

It’s Friday, the last day in July, go ahead and have some frivolous fun. Try out some of the free games avalable at Yahoo Games. There’s crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, scrabble and many, many others.

http://games.yahoo.com/