What CAN you do with T. E. L.?

You can do just about anything with the Tennessee Electronic Library! You can customize your resume, create and save cover letters, or research a new career. You can study for the GED, the SAT or the GRE not to mention other tests like nursing school entrance exams or the police officer exam. You can also research any topic from economics to poetry to health and wellness. If you'd like to understand an issue in depth, you can use EBSCO's Points of View Reference Center and find position papers on both sides of a plethora of issues. If you are searching for a newspaper article, you can access the Tennessee Newspaper Collection. And if you are trying to track down your ancestors, you can access HeritageQuest. All this is free to the Tennessee public. You do not need passwords to access T. E. L. Just go to http://www.fisherlibrary.org/ and click on T. E. L.

Cheers to All Who Make Our Library Sing!

Take a moment and try to imagine a library without volunteers. Books would never make their way back to the shelves. The Storyline wouldn't have stories on it. There would be no Annual Book Sale (and no money to purchase new books!) Of course, you wouldn't recieve those overdue notices, but then there REALLY wouldn't be any money to buy new books. E. G. Fisher is blessed to have the help and support of so many dedicated and talented volunteers. Thanks!

Staff's Picks

Just because vacation time is over, doesn't mean that reading time is over. If you've been wondering what to read next, here are some suggestions from the crew at the library.



Early Readers, Juvenile and Young Adult Selections



Beth -- Flush by Carl Hiaasen (J)



Beverly -- Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (J)



Liz -- Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (YA)

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (YA)

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (YA)



Julie -- Rafi and Rosi by Lulu Delacre (ER)



Adult Selections



Beth -- The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Fyer

Rivertown: Two Years on the Yangtzhe by Peter Hessler



Carolyn -- You Make Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall

Just Too Good to be True: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris



Beverly -- Atonement by Ian McEwan



Geri -- Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

Host by Stephanie Meyer



Liz -- Austenland by Shannon Hale

I'll Always Have Paris by Art Buchwald

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie



Athena -- Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Religion Gone Bad by Mel White



Steven -- Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant



Julie -- The Yiddish Policman's Union by Michael Chabon

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

Starship Readers

If anyone ever tries to tell you that young people today don't read, tell them this: In the six short weeks of our summer reading program, our young readers read 2,872 books. And that's just the people who counted the titles of the books they read. Those who counted the number of pages read a total of 187, 986 pages! Congratulations to everyone who participated in Starship Adventure! If you weren't able to make it the smashing finale with Howard Pink and His Musical Garden Hoses, you can still pick up your certificate at the library desk. Congrats go to our top readers and listeners:

Readers counting by title:

Jazmine Ervin - 191 books
Kaitlyn Winder - 25 books
Wyatt Head - 11 books

Readers counting by pages:

Flo Rochelle - 13,845 pages
Jessica Woodcock - 10,150
Kaylan Ervin - 6,684

Listeners counting by title:

Emily Malick - 208 books
William Ervin - 190 books
Grayson Layman - 158 books

Listeners counting by pages:

Cheyenne and Jeremiah Hager
Joey Sheffey - 6,688
Jake Sheffey - 6,373

Summertime at E. G. Fisher

The heat and humidity of our Tennessee June don't make it into the library. In here, it's cool, sometimes even chilly. Still, there are ways to tell the passing of the seasons. I know it's summertime outside because children, barefoot, wrapped in towels, fresh from the pool across the street, are checking out books by the pile for our summer reading program. The prize wheel is spinning constantly, doling out skating passes, day pool passes, free food and free books to those who keep track of how much summer reading they've done. If you haven't had a chance to spin the prize wheel, stop at the Library counter and join Starship Adventure, our summer reading program. We'll give you a reading log to keep track of your (or your child's, if you want to let them have all the fun) reading and a schedule of the summer's events. Summer also brings sunshine and this June was no exception. The Sunshine Monkey Show was here again for the 15th year in a row. The Monkey Lady and her monkey friends were here once again to entertain and educate us about monkeys and monkey life in East Tennessee. Check out our website for more summer events including a mad scientist, magicians and musical garden hoses.



For adults looking for summer reading, our New Book shelf is full of new arrivals including, among many others, new titles from James Patterson, Barbara Kingsolver, Sandra Brown, Patrick Taylor, and the actor, Gene Wilder. We also have a new edition of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and a new collection of the works of James Agee. You'll find Norman Mailer's latest novel, A Castle in the Forest, as well as new biographies of Princess Dianna, Hilary Clinton, Edith Wharton, Benazir Bhuto and Pocahontas.



If children in swimsuits, monkeys and new fiction don't mean summer, then the annual Friends of the Library Used Book Sale certainly does. The Book Sale starts on July 24 at the McMinn County High School Cafeteria. Thursday night begins at 5 pm and is for members only, but don't worry if you're not a member -- you can join at the door. Friday the sale opens to the public at 9 am. Saturday is half price day and Sunday, from 12-4, is bag day. Now's your chance to stock up on some treasures.



The Big Read is coming to Athens. Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, E. G. Fisher along with several other Athens organizations will be participating in The Big Read, a community-wide event designed to restore reading, literature and literacy to a place of cultural importance. The Big Read this time will be To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Look for announcements for events starting in February 2009.



The Tennessee Electronic Library is an excellent resource and is available here or through the library's website, http://www.fisherlibrary.org/. Through TEL, you can access websites and databases on nearly every topic imaginable including driver practice tests, newspapers from all over Tennessee, current events, health and wellness, homework help, and academic papers.

Research Channel - Free Streaming Video

ResearchChannel was founded by a consortium of leading research and academic institutions to share the valuable work of their researchers with the public. A library of over 3,500 streaming video programs are available for free, including everything from a speech by author R.L. Stine to a talk on 2D, 3D, and Surface Texture Analysis and Synthesis by Yizhou Yu, Dept of computer Science, UIUC. The subjects covered are Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Computer Science & Engineering, Health & Medicine, K-12 & Education, Sciences, and Social Sciences.
http://www.researchchannel.com/prog/

Financial Ratings - Online Resource

TheStreet.com offers ratings of companies and stocks for your investor patrons. Their mission is to empower consumers, professionals & institutions with high quality advisory information for selecting or monitoring a financial services company or financial investment.
Free Trial Access (expires 4/21):
http://www.weissratings.com/Fastlink/UnvLib/Verify.asp?TSCPUBXX
Obtain login information from E.G. Fisher Public Library Reference Desk.
Please remember to disable the Pop up Blocker for more efficient use.

The online database consists of 4 major categories represented by four tabs on the search page.
Banks & Thrifts (covering every bank regulated by the Federal Reserve)
Insurers and HMO's (covering health insurers, property & casualty insurers, and life & annuity insurers)
Mutual Funds (covering stock and fixed income funds as well as exchange traded funds) Stocks (covering every stock on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX)

April Highlights @ Awesome Stories

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.

Poor Robin's Almanack(1760)

The origins of April Fool's Day - by 1760 - were already lost to history. Some scholars think the day has ancient, or medieval, roots. Maybe it stems from the Hilaria celebration in Rome, the Holi in India or the Festus Fatuorum (the Feast of Fools) where people (mostly in France) parodied Catholic-Church rituals. Caring little about its actual history, Mark Twain observed:
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

But ... April is not all tricks and foolishness. It is also a time to remember significant world events. Take a look at some of the stories that AwesomeStories.com is featuring this month.

WHAT'S NEW

To help users more quickly locate stories, we have created a new site map.

Each story included in the list also has (or will soon have) a new summary. In addition to a quick overview of the subject, the summaries include specifics about featured links. For example: Charlotte's Web provides a direct path to E.B. White reading from his much-loved book. The Black Death includes pictures of the bacteria which causes bubonic plague and the fleas which transmit it. Dead Sea Scrolls uncovers artifacts which ancient people used in their daily lives. Plessy v Ferguson reveals pictures of those involved in the "separate but equal" discrimination case of 1896 Victory in Europe provides a path to Russian-archive photos of the liberation of Berlin during April, 1945.

QUICK GUIDE to HOT TOPICS
We have also created a new "Hot Topics" section which lists stories by category:
Biographies
Disasters
History
Law and Government
Movies
Religion

FOCUSED TOPICS at AWESOME STORIES
Because the site has hundreds of stories which incorporate thousands of topics, it isn't always easy to do a "one-stop shop" on a particular subject. So ... we are creating a series of focused topics which provide our members, and site users, with detailed information - and direct access - to those sources.
This month we feature:
Civil Rights
Revolutionary War (American)
Triumph Over Tragedy
World War I

STREAMING AUDIO at AWESOME STORIES
We have completed many audio recordings. You do not have to load a player - just click on the green arrow, at the top of each recorded chapter, and off you go! (Soon the audio versions will also be available as podcasts.)

LEARNING TOOLS
AwesomeStories has hundreds of links to explanatory animations, audio/video clips, online games and virtual field trips. Linked throughout the entire site, they are not always easy to spot. We thought a separate section, where you can quickly locate these learning tools, would be helpful. The first version is now online.

APRIL HIGHLIGHTS
RUINS OF POMPEII - DISCOVERED
In early April, 1748, a team of excavators rediscovered Pompeii. Once a thriving town, it was completely destroyed by Vesuvius, a nearby volcano, in the summer of 79 A.D. Discoveries at the site, which is like a living museum, continue to this day.
AMERICA JOINS WORLD WAR ONE
European countries had been at war nearly three years before President Woodrow Wilson asked the U.S. Congress to enter the conflict on April 2, 1917. Germany's formidable weapon - its rigid airships (see Chapter 9) - had been creating fear and inflicting damage in London while its use of chemical weapons - the first ever - compounded the misery of soldiers fighting in the trenches of France. More than two million Americans were ultimately drafted while government-created posters - like Uncle Sam declaring "I WANT YOU" - helped to change the attitude of isolationist Americans who had long resisted involvement in the conflict. During the war, Congress passed censorship laws which greatly limited the people's right to freely speak their mind. Americans - and citizens living in war-torn countries - grew "tired of the war and everything belonging to it." The various stories profiled in this segment include video recreations and eyewitness accounts, explanatory animations and virtual field trips.
JESSE JAMES - ASSASSINATED
It was hot in Missouri on the 3rd of April, 1882. After feeding his horses that morning, Jesse James returned to his rented home. Then he did something he almost never did - he took off his gun belt. Soon thereafter, he was fatally shot by one of his own men, Robert Ford. Learn the story of Jesse James within the context of the American Civil War. And ... learn what happened to his assassin, ten years later.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. - ASSASSINATION
Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on the 4th of April, 1968. The night before his death he gave a powerful, extemporaneous speech - known today as "The Mountaintop Speech" - which seemed to foreshadow his untimely end. We provide links to a video of the entire speech, its written transcript, the assassination scene and the federal government's investigation into Dr. King's death.
APOLLO 13 - SAVED
Before Apollo 13 launched, some folks wondered whether its mission number should be changed. It was that thing about suspicion...about the number 13. Keeping the sequential numbers in place, however, NASA launched the intended moon shot on the 11th of April, 1970. Two days later - on April 13 - the astronauts radioed Houston control with the now-famous words: "Houston, we have a problem." With links to official documents, video and radio transmissions, learn about the "problem" and how the astronauts were saved.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION
On the 14th of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended a play - Our American Cousin - at Ford's Theater. It was just a week after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, ending the American Civil War. John Wilkes Booth, an actor who often performed at Ford's Theater, knew the place well. He also knew the President would be there. Wielding a knife and a derringer, Booth had no trouble entering the President's box since no bodyguards were there to resist him. Lincoln died from a single shot to the head. Three others were attending the play with the President. Each faced serious personal challenges as a direct result of what they had witnessed.
Thanks to the Library of Congress and National Archives, you can see Booth's derringer, the contents of the President's pockets when he was shot, the theater as it appeared at the time, the only known photograph of Lincoln in his coffin and much more. Also learn "the rest of the story" regarding several others whose lives were impacted by the first assassination of an American president.
DIARY of JOHN WILKES BOOTH
Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, kept a diary about the shooting. Many pages of that diary are missing, causing an ongoing debate about what they might have said.
THE TITANIC
Crossing the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage, the Titanic - then the world's largest ship - received several warnings about ice in the area. Some of the messages were not marked for the captain to see. Late in the evening of April 14, 1912 - a moonless, windless night - the Titanic struck an iceberg. Within five to ten minutes, the ship had a starboard list of five degrees. She was already sinking, without enough lifeboats to save everyone. Although it was not the most deadly sinking of all time, Titanic remains the most sensational. Learn how icebergs are formed and how they reach "Iceberg Alley." See a picture of the iceberg believed to be the one which Titanic struck. Examine photographs of the ship - before and after its sinking. Review the testimony of witnesses and discover how Titanic communicated with other ships Learn how her new wireless system operated, and meet rescuers and heroes who risked their own lives to help others.
MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE
It was the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, in 1775. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later penned:
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
The poem, of course, commemorates the famous ride of Paul Revere, sent to alert Massachusetts colonists that British troops were on their way. But three men, not just Revere, attempted to warn the colonists. And only one - Dr. Samuel Prescott - made it to Concord. Revere and his other companion, William Dawes, were captured. Perhaps Longfellow changed the facts because his poem would have lacked good rhyme and rhythm had he used Prescott's name!
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
While the people of San Francisco slept, the ground below them was moving. At first, during the early hours of April 18, 1906, no one knew that something was awry. But then the rolling motions came, causing streets to rise, and fall, and rise again. It seemed, to one observer, as though the earth itself was breathing. What happened next devastated one of America's most popular cities and traumatized her citizens. Learn the story from eyewitnesses and archived photographs.
AMERICAN REVOLUTION - THE FIRST SHOTS
By the time an advance guard of British soldiers arrived at the town of Lexington - on April 19, 1775 - most of the minutemen under Captain John Parker's command had gone home. He had earlier admonished them: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." It did - hours later.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
It is believed that on the 20th of April, 1853, Harriet Tubman began the "underground railroad." What was it - and - how did it work?
CAPTURE of BATAAN
We provide this story to mark an important event, but be advised it is neither for children nor for anyone who does not want to see pictures of war.
On the 9th of April, 1942, Filipinos and Americans could no longer defend Bataan during World War II. The following day, the "Bataan Death March" began. Thousands of Filipinos and Americans died before the last survivors were rescued.

SEARCHING AwesomeStories
To find general topics, see the new site map. To find story summaries, examine the new Quick Guide to Hot Topics. To find details of specific subjects, check out the subject index.

Enjoy an interactive learning experience as you see thousands of hand-selected and relevant links to pictures, artifacts, manuscripts, documents and other primary sources, IN CONTEXT, within each story. The first eight chapters of every story are available to all.

For free INDIVIDUAL ACCESS - including students - CLICK HERE.

Site Members ... if you cannot remember your password, click here. If you have changed (or plan to change) your email address, click here.

GreenFILE -- Environmental Index

EBSCO Publishing announced the release of GreenFILE, a bibliographic database of information about environmental concerns. This database is being made freely available at www.greeninfoonline.com.

GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.

Academy of American Poets Presents National Poetry Month 2008

Poem In Your Pocket Day, April 17
Poets.org is brimming with poems for pockets in anticipation of the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 17. Celebrate the power of the poem to both transport a reader and be transported by carrying a poem in your pocket to share with friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers on April 17. www.poets.org/pocket

Handpicked for Your Pocket
Get ready for Poem In Your Pocket Day by finding the perfect poem for your pocket. In addition to browsing your library, bookstore, or shelf at home, you can pick poems in these new ways:

Pocket-Size Poems
Poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more are ready to print and distribute for your Poem In Your Pocket Day celebration. www.poets.org/pocketpoems
Poetry Ringtones
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light" with ringtones for your mobile phone featuring lines by Dylan Thomas, Langston Hughes, W. B. Yeats, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Wright, and Robert Lowell. www.poets.org/audio
Poets.org In Your Pocket
Verse is now at your fingertips with the launch of a new mobile version of Poets.org, which provides free and direct access to the entire collection of over 2,500 poems from the Academy of American Poets. To carry Poets.org in your pocket, simply go to www.poets.org/m from any mobile device.
www.poets.org/mobile

"I Carried My Life, Like A Stone, In A Ragged Pocket": National Poetry Month Poster
Celebrate National Poetry Month 2008 with the official poster, featuring lines from Jay Wright's poem, "The Healing Improvisation of Hair." Designed by SpotCo, a New York City agency responsible for the lion’s share of poster designs for Broadway’s most popular shows, the poster is available to teachers and librarians while supplies last. www.poets.org/poster

Poem-A-Day Email
Sign up for a daily shot of poetry in April from new spring poetry titles including new poems by Charles Simic, Marie Howe, Alan Shapiro, James Tate, Adam Zagajewski, Caroline Knox, Cate Marvin, and many more.
www.poets.org/poemaday

Life Lines Contest: Enter by April 1
Enter to win a piece of jewelry hand-engraved by San Francisco designer Jeanine Payer by sending the lines of poetry most vital to you, along with notes about the precise situation that summoned them to mind. The winner will have their "life line" hand-engraved on a specially chosen piece. Entries can be emailed to npm@poets.org until April 1, 2008. www.poets.org/lifelines

CQ Press - Online Trial

CQ Press, a Division of Congressional Quarterly Inc. is offering free access to their online products through April 30th. You will be able to access all CQ products, including CQ Researcher, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ Global Researcher, CQ Almanac, CQ Weekly, CQ Collection Databases, and CQ Online Editions.

http://library.cqpress.com/login.php?mode=trials
You may obtain the username and password from the Reference Desk.
TIP: be sure to have your web browser set to accept pop-ups; each topic/chapter opens within a pop-up window.

Currently there are several new topics covered in CQ Press Online. And be sure to view topics covered in "New Releases" such as an in-depth explaination of the American political campaign process. Much more is awaiting you when you visit this great online resource!

AcronymFinder web site

If you’re ever at a loss to know what a long string of letters stands for, you can turn to the free online version of this ready reference staple at http://www.acronymfinder.com/.

Volunteer Voices: Women’s History Resources

Volunteer Voices (http://www.volunteervoices.org) is a state-wide digitization project that will provide access to primary sources that document Tennessee's rich history and culture. Volunteer Voices combines the collaborative efforts of Tennessee archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and schools. Highlights of the collection that can be used for Women’s History are outlined at the Vol Voices blog (http://digitenn.blogspot.com/2008/03/womens-history-sources-in-volunteer.html).

Check it out – although still in “beta,” Volunteer Voices has brought together a wealth of information and it’s FREE to use.