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.

TEL Undergoes Updated Look!

The new TEL Web page is located at http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/tel_p_egfpl. Or you may also connect to TEL from the E.G. Fisher Public Library web site: http://www.fisherlibrary.org/ [please remember that remote users must type in the password.] This page is under development, but it now serves as an entry portal to the three vendors who provide resources to the Tennessee Electronic Library. Soon you will see other resources such as tutorials, training and marketing materials, as well as links to news articles about TEL. See also http://www.tntel.info for info on new and expanded TEL resources, including state newspapers and more. Please note that at this point in time only the Gale resources [use the TEL password!] listed on this site are available from home. Remote passwords and usernames for the other two resources will be announced soon! Stay tuned!

Improvements to Health and Wellness Resource Center

TEL's Health and Wellness Resource Center has a new look! See how this database has changed to make searching for health information easier. The release of a new search interface plus a range of new features make Health and Wellness Resource Center even better! Available to all current Health and Wellness Resource Center users, the enhancements are designed to:

1. Make the database easier to use by offering more opportunities to browse through the database and by enhancing your search options
2. Add new pathways to information by adding two new tabs "Videos" and "News" now have their own 'homes' in your search results
3. Lead users to current and reliable health information by exposing more of the rich content and then labeling it so that it's easier to find a resource. "Reference" is now "eBooks and Fact Sheets" and "Other Sites" is now "Trusted Sites" See for yourself! Look for these new features in your Health and Wellness Resource Center this week:

1. A new, updated interface
2. Additional browsing opportunities, with a streamlined design that offers more graphics and highlights current news headlines
3. Video results under a new "Videos" tab
4. Newspapers, newsletters and news feeds populating a just-added "News" tab
5. Improvements to the printing, e-mailing and viewing options available at the document level
6. Access to PDFs for many periodicals, reference, and pamphlets
7. Many content updates

Remember, to get to TEL, visit http://www.fisherlibrary.org/ and click on "TEL - Tennessee Electronic Library" in the left-hand menu. You will see a secondary page, click on the link there and type in the password. (if you have forgotten the password, please contact the library at 423-745-7782.