Logging into your Library Account

The Berkeley Heights Public Library upgraded the software used for our online catalog and patron accounts at the end of April 2017. To log in to your account from the catalog, click on 'Log in' which is on the upper right of the catalog screen. You will have to enter your barcode from your library card and your pin, which is the last 4 digits of your phone number. If this information was remembered/saved by your computer or device previous to a month ago, you will have to enter it once again and ask it to remember the information. When you have logged in once, your computer should remember your login credentials going forward. If you see the message saying that the connection is not secure, you can log in anyway. We are in the process of getting an HTTPS website, a secure website, like a bank or online retail store. You can recognize secure sites because there will often be a little padlock in the upper left of your screen in the address bar. Because libraries do not take credit cards or handle financial information, having a secure site is not something that most libraries in New Jersey currently have. Because patrons have expressed concern about our site's security, we are going ahead with getting a secure website soon. Meanwhile, you can ignore the security warning on our login page, or not, depending on your concerns about online security. If you would prefer for the staff to place holds for you and answer questions about materials you have checked out, just call us.

To login into your account, go to our home page

http://www.bhplnj.org/

Click on 'My account'

Enter your credentials to access your holds and checked out materials.

Or call the library with your questions.

Software Upgrade at the Library Scheduled for this Friday

Happy Library Staff Awaiting Software Upgrade

Thursday night, April 27, in the quiet and darkest part of the night, while library staff and patrons are home sleeping soundly, the library servers in the basement will be upgraded! A new and completely different-looking catalog and circulation system will be loaded overnight, somehow magically and remotely, by our software vendor. When the librarians arrive for work on Friday morning and boot up their computers, they will be confronted by... something unlike what the library has been using for years and years. The staff has been feverishly practicing on the new system and feels ready to go, or as ready as we'll ever be. ------------->
For our library patrons, when you use the online catalog, it will look more colorful. If you need help, be sure to ask at the reference desk. We will be open as usual during the upgrading process. Please bear with us while we curse and swear, er, fumble, um, patiently tap, tap, tap, brows furrowed while we search for and check out books and so on.

Vocabulary Quiz for Library Software Upgrade:

Why do we want to go from a 'client-based' to a 'web-based' system?
What is our 'ILS' and why are they making us upgrade?
How does 'TLC', our ILS, get into our server room in the middle of the night for the upgrade?
Can we lock them out?
What is the difference between an OPAC and a PAC and what did they do with the card catalog?
What happened to Melville Dewey and his Decimal System?
Would Mr. Dewey like this upgrade?

Preschool and Elementary School Online Learning for Children

Last week while visiting my grandchildren I spent time walking backwards, chasing downhill and up, reading stories and, yes, watching shows on the Nickelodeon TV channel. I was surprised to see 'ABC Mouse' advertised during a show about humanoid monster trucks that my three year old grandson loves. "Wait!" I felt like saying, "don't buy that stuff, parents, get it free from your local library."

Whether you are reading this from your cozy spot in Berkeley Heights, NJ or have stumbled upon this blog post by Googling and are somewhere else in the world, here is what librarians want you to know:

Your library has so many resources available for free and librarians hate for you to spend money on something we can teach you how to use without getting out your charge card. 

Libraries have done a pretty good job letting people know that we have books. Most people realize that libraries also have DVD's and books on CD. Many people realize libraries have downloadable e-books for free. Students may know that we have databases that can be used for researching term papers. But libraries also offer streaming and downloadable resources for children. So if your child or grandchild really, really NEEDS to be entertained so you can cook that Mac 'n' Cheese in peace, you can turn on a fun and educational library resource and know that the child will not be bombarded by commercials or unsuitable content while you boil up that orange goop or even tackle something more challenging.

 

Several online educational resources for children including ‘ABC Mouse’ are offered free from the Berkeley Heights Public Library.

Go to our Database links at http://www.bhplnj.org/databases-for-children/ to find ‘ABC Mouse.’ Sign up for a free account and start learning!  Preschool to elementary age children will learn pre-reading and reading skills through fun online games. Other children’s online resources include:

‘BookFlix’: Animated children’s books and read-alongs. 

‘Hoopla Kids’: Movies, TV programs, music and e-books that can be viewed on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Use the Hoopla Kids Mode by toggling to ‘Kids’ in your Hoopla app settings. Hoopla offers content for adults and children. Parents can toggle from adult mode to children’s mode in the app. Each BHPL card holder can view, stream or download up to eight free Hoopla items per month. One item may contain a TV series or musical album but that only counts as one item. Lending periods vary by title and format.

‘TumbleBooks’: animated storybooks that also work on iPads. Children will be entertained and learn while using ‘Tumblebooks’ and the other library resources for children. There are no fees and no advertisements! If you watch Nickelodeon TV and see ‘ABC Mouse’ and other resources advertised, don’t buy them before checking out the free access that your local library provides. 

 I wrote about these online resources in our monthly email newsletter, The Buzz, which can be found on the library website here. You can read the Buzz online or you can have a link to it emailed to you monthly. Come in to talk to the children's librarian or reference librarians about these fun online learning activities and other library resources which are free, free, free, did I mention that? It's hard to compete with talking monster trucks, but libraries are trying.

Should You Moderate Your Blog's Comments?

Our blog moderates comments. Below are some comments that went right to the Blogger spam folder, for obvious reasons you will see. Other comments which are not so obviously spammy are sent by Blogger software to the Reference Department email to moderate.  We love comments about our posts, about books, about library services, about Children's programs, about our databases and down-loadables, about what you are reading, about what we are reading. But, we do not want to be a venue for commercial advertising. Thanks, but libraries are non-profit and cannot promote one product over another. Isn't that nice that there is one place on the internet that does not advertise or take sides? For details, see our blog policy, which is posted right here on our home page. So, if you are a blogger and want to know whether to moderate comments or not, I have no idea what you should do, but be prepared for some pretty irrelevant (at best) comments if you just leave that commenting option wide open.

Thanks for the comments! (The end of each comment refers to the post they tried to 'comment' on. You can see that the comments are completely irrelevant to the topic. Nice try, though!)

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Apps for the Amateur

Apps we liked this year: ( I use an iPhone and iPad, but probably most of these have Android apps too.)

FingerDraw: free, you can draw on photos you have taken. I used this app in a post I made a few weeks ago to illustrate a point about memos. It was easy to take a picture with the iPad, then doodle on the picture with FingerDraw, then upload that saved picture to the blog, using the Blogger app, never leaving my iPad the whole time! 

Using FingerDraw app

Notice old technology: clipboards should never be underestimated for how official they make something seem.

Using PhotoCollage app for the Blog

PhotoCollage: free, you can turn a bunch of your photos into a collage, more is better than one.

Evernote: do you keep thinking you could be organized if only you found a good system? Evernote is the ultimate Getting Things Done (GTD) and Getting Organized app. There is a free version and a fee version. The free version has so many options, I have not used them all yet. You can make Notebooks into which you can place virtual clippings from the web, you can keep lists and notes, you can share your stuff with other people. I use one notebook to file research articles on a topic I am following so I can refer to them easily. This works better than just bookmarking the articles in a browser as it keeps them all in one file.

WhatsApp: for texting on your phone from outside the U.S. I am told by my traveling daughter that this app only works in wifi so that you won't get charged huge out of country fees by your phone service.

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Wordpress and, yes, our very own Blogger here (This blog is on Blogger), have apps so you can use them on your phone or tablet. The library is on many of these social media platforms and we use the apps on an iPad and also the desktop versions. Take a look at our homepage http://www.bhplnj.org/ and click on the app logos to see the library's posts on FB, Twitter and Pinterest. We are not on Instagram.

Chatbooks is a photo book making app that promises to be fast and to make design decisions easy. I used this over the holidays and sure enough, it was so simple, I actually made three photobooks in time to be shipped for Christmas. Usually I get so hung up in all the choices and styles of the other photo book apps that I have unfinished books littered around cyberspace, I think. There are lots of good photo book apps out there, but for the cheap and indecisive, this was the one for me. I could even connect it to my Facebook account and Instagram account, but let's not get too ambitious here.

Finally, many of the Berkeley Heights Public Library's databases and downloadable services have apps: go to our All Things E page to try  our FREE downloadable and streaming apps.
Rosetta Stone languages
Hoopla - streaming TV, movies, books and music
eLibraryNJ (Overdrive) - ebooks and audiobooks
Flipster - magazines
OneClickDigital and Zinio and Atomic Training all from RB Digital which is coming out with a new app this spring.

P.S: the library has its own app which we made using Boopsie.

-Anne
Related posts on this blog about apps:
There's an app for that
the library app
more apps

The article that clued me into making fast photo books, from USA Today, (I read actual newsprint papers, enjoying them while they still exist, but here is the digital article) Make photo books faster on a phone app

Atomic Training: learning technology with online tutorials

Does your smart phone seem smarter than you? Do you want to start a blog? Are you curious about how to get organized using Evernote? Are you under-utilizing your Firefox browser? Does Microsoft Word drive you nuts and what are all those options anyway? Are your spreadsheets adding up or just staring back at you mutely? Do you want to tidy up your email account and take back your iPad from your grandchildren? These and other vexing questions will be answered by watching short videos on Atomic Training, free from the Berkeley Heights Public Library.

To use this online resource,  go to our All Things E page
Click on Atomic Training to learn new technology and computer skills online by signing up for a free account using your Berkeley Heights Library card. No need to troll through You Tube to find the best video to learn how to master technology, Atomic Training has videos on hundreds of topics.

A video-based how-to training resource, Atomic Training opens up unlimited access to thousands of short videos covering more than 500 of today's most popular software applications on both PCs and Macs, including:

·    All the latest offerings — Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Google, and more
·    Valuable job training — Improve job skills with in-depth training on Excel and Photoshop
·    Learn valuable social media techniques with tutorials on Twitter, blogging, and podcasting
·    Mobile training — Learn how to use mobile products such as the iPhone and iPad
·    Access anywhere — Watch videos at the library or remotely from home
·    ADA Accessibility — All videos are closed captioned Accessibility Statement

A full list of courses can be found here (copy and paste this link into your browser) http://blog.atomiclearning.com/sites/blogs.atomiclearning.com/files/AtomicTraining-OverallAppList.pdf


Call the Reference Desk or stop by with your phone, tablet or laptop and we will get you started.

Desk Set: News Librarians then and now

In the 1957 movie Desk Set starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, computer engineer Richard Sumner played by Mr. Tracy, plans to automate the TV network library run by Ms. Hepburn's librarian Bunny Watson. The librarian thinks her excellent memory can beat the computer's 'brain' in any fact-finding contest. In the end of course, Tracy and Hepburn fall in love and the computer does not replace the librarians, but only serves to supplement their brainpower.

I always loved Desk Set because in a strange life-imitates-art way, I was a librarian in a newspaper library before automation arrived. In the early 1980's I worked at the National Bureau of the Baltimore Sun. The bureau had offices in the National Press Building in Washington, DC and covered all the Washington news, every Federal agency from the White House to Congress to the Supreme Court. The reporters had incredible memories for their beats, but their filing systems seemed to be somewhat haphazard, consisting of piles of paper scraps and floppy discs surrounding their desks and weighed down by coffee cups. The bureau had a small library consisting of a few thousand books, a dozen or so regional newspapers and a wall of filing cabinets filled with clippings from those newspapers. The librarian maintained the clip files and created an index card file to search it. But mostly the librarian was expected to know every little thing off the top of her head - and quickly - because daily deadlines make reporters very anxious. When a reporter's brain or 'filing system' could not come up with the facts, he or she would run to the library demanding the information as soon as possible, preferably yesterday. Computerized news databases like Lexis Nexis were just coming on the scene at that point and the Sun did not yet have access to it. I had files on Congressional Budgets, Supreme Court cases, defense system tests, the invasion of Granada, the ongoing trial of John Hinckley and so on. Most importantly, I kept byline files for each correspondent. These files answered the frequent question,
"WHERE IS THAT COLUMN I FILED A WHILE AGO ABOUT YOU KNOW.... DO YOU HAVE IT?!!!"
An office filled with people fueled by lots of caffeine meant lots of fast talking and occasional  odd behavior, but I'm not telling. Well ok, there was the time a reporter flung all my files and books off my desk in a fit of pique. I stared at him speechless. He apologized and picked everything up like a small child. There was the reporter who would nap on the piled editions of newspapers on the library table display. There were the reporters who looked through my lunch bag to make sure I was not eating too much during my pregnancy. (Research, anyone?) There was the White House correspondent who told me what he thought about President Reagan's hair (Dyed? Probably.) There was the famous TV reporter who stole the library window. (Long story.) There was the copy boy who did not want to work in the library tearing articles for me because he thought he was destined for better things than that. I hope he found his Watergate by now.

But now, I don't know where all those old clipping files have gone or where people's memories have gone either. Newspaper research is so much easier using online research databases. Berkeley Heights Public Library has more newspapers online than I ever dreamed of back at the Sun. My clipping files could never compete with the resources listed on the library's Newspaper and Magazine Databases page. With a Berkeley Heights Library card, any patron can click their way through the entire New York Times back to 1857, The Star Ledger from 1989 to the current edition, the Independent Press back to 2006. Decades of the big regional papers I used to skim every morning, coffee cup in hand, like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post and USA Today can be found in the Proquest National Newspapers Expanded database. Our Ebsco databases indexes and provides full-text of thousands of magazines and research journals. It really is incredible and easier than scrabbling around in the newspaper morgue or calling in favors from other news librarians. Although that was fun too.

New York Times online from BHPL Website

Selecting Research Databases for the Library

Librarians are raised on selecting books,but database selection is another kettle of fish entirely.    Professional journals contain reviews of new and updated online research resources and comparisons to similar products.  Some databases are necessary because they have replaced commonly used print resources.  Like books, new or recommended databases are brought to our attention by patrons, visits to other libraries, professional development webinars and advertisements. 

Our database subscriptions, other than those provided through the New Jersey State Library, are reviewed annually before it is time to renew.  We consider usage, upgrades, competition, overlap with other resources and price. When we purchase a new database we try our best to promote it through in-house demonstrations, word-of-mouth to patrons, website advertising and an article to the local on-line paper.  Classes are held periodically to introduce the public to our electronic resources.  We normally give a database two years to prove its worth. Depending on the outcome of the review, some databases are eliminated completely or, depending on the content, a similar resource may be considered.

We request a staff demo or trial when a new database is being considered.  Staff will then spend time navigating around, clicking on buttons, uploading or downloading, and following links.  They will consider if the product fills an informational or instructional need and if it provides what is promised.
First impressions are important – is the user welcomed in or overwhelmed. Ease of navigation is equally important so that no one will become frustrated and feel the need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs.  The information housed in a database is only as important as a user’s ability to access it. 

Purchasing a database is more complicated and labor intensive than simply placing an order and waiting for a box to be delivered.  During the implementation period we work closely with the vendor in hopes of a smooth roll-out.  Questions about SIP, patron authentication methods, our ILS provider, and firewalls must be answered.  Are we paying for a defined number of seats or unlimited concurrent users?  Can the database only be used in-house or is remote access available?  Will the database cooperate with our aging LINUX system or should we wait for the installation of a Microsoft based system?  What about the logistics of staff training?  All of these questions must be answered.

A final and very important consideration in subscribing to a new database is the cost.  As our annual budget continues to decrease, adding a new resource normally involves canceling an existing subscription.  As an example, I am currently researching a new resource for language instruction which, if successful, could replace two existing databases and save money.  That would be a win-win for the budget – adding one site to be used by both children and adults.  At this point in the 2015 budget year, that savings will help us plan and possibly increase what we can offer in 2016.

-S. Bakos

To use databases from the Berkeley Heights Public Library from home, have your library card handy and go to these pages on our website to see lists of databases:

Databases and Articles

Children's Databases

Business and Career Databases

All Things 'E' (Downloadables)

Upcoming Databases in September 2015:

Language learning database will be available remotely

Streaming TV, movies, music, books and more

What if Book Reviews Were Written Like Text Messages? BR=TM

A while ago I wrote a blog post in which I wondered...What if Book Reviews Were Written Like Wine Reviews?


Recent 'Incoming' text messages which I have had to decode by 'Googling' the acronyms sent to me by younger, hipper people (ahem, my kids) got me to thinking about...

What if book reviews were written like text messages with a bit of Twitter hashtags thrown in?
Or should I say #whatif? BR=TM ROTFL because YOLO, I literally can't even um like imagine, but here goes.

In our continuing series of posts about what is new on our non-fiction shelf, LMK if u like these books:



Get What's Yours, the Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security by Laurence J Kotlikoff
(368.4 KOT) Our BR=TM: How is that even possible? Define 'yours' #getmoreSS$$

The Teenage Brain, a neuroscientist's survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults by Frances E. Jensen, MD (612.6 JEN) Our BR=TM: RUH ROH enter the teen brain AYOR The Struggle is Real! But seriously folks, if it's quiet, too quiet, check their rooms.

Biscuits, sweet and savory southern recipes for the all-American kitchen by Jackie Garvin (641.815 GAR) Our BR=TM: OM NOM NOM #nuffsaid WTF (Well that's *fantastic, right?)

 How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are, Love, Style, and Bad Habits by Anne Berest et al (305.409 BER) Our BR=TM: Ladies and Germs...I am sure the Academie Francaise is rolling in its collective grave at the very perish-the-thought of les messages SMS. Mais, non! #Jamais! #SacreBleu


I aw8t 4 u 2 reply to this post.

IMHO this post rocks!

Our Valentine's Day Conversation with the Library Computer

Why don't I just blog about romance books today?  Searches of the library OPAC (Online Public Access Computer, formerly known as the card catalog) tell us that:
# items (books+) in library with keyword 'Valentine' = 203
# items (books+) in library with keyword 'Valentine' upstairs only (ie: not kid's books) = 106
#DVD's in library with keyword 'Valentine' = 25
#books with keyword 'love' in library = too many to count. That query caused our online catalog to give up and answer '250', which is what it says when the number is larger than 250. It just gives up and expects the term to be narrowed or qualified in some way to bring the number below 250. Sometime it is difficult to 'heart' the library catalog. It is an ornery computer servant, like HAL, that has its own rules, regardless of what we want to ask it. I imagine my conversation with HAL/OPAC would go like this:

Anne the Librarian: "How many books about love do we have, oh library computer?"
OPAC: "I'm sorry, Anne, I can't do that."
Anne the Librarian: "OK, so how about just adult books about love?"
OPAC: "I'm sorry, Anne, I can't do that."
Anne: "OK, would you believe, just books with the Library of Congress Subject Heading 'Love'?"
OPAC: "I'm sorry, Anne, you sound like Maxwell Smart, that is the wrong video entertainment format. I can't understand you."
Anne: "I am going to power you down now, OPAC. Good bye!"
OPAC: "Nooooo...."
Anne: "Mwah ha ha."

Happy Valentine's Day! We've got lots of books about romance and love at BHPL, more than 250 I'm guessing. Just ask at the Reference Desk.

A Day at the Reference Desk

Q: Does the library own a well-known university's alumni directory.
A: We do not own any alumni directories, but we can search the 'Reference USA' database for people in the U.S. and Canada and we can teach patrons how to access that database from their home computer or by using library computers. Go to our 'Databases and Articles' page, find 'Reference USA', type in your library barcode number when directed.

Q: Can we find an obituary in a local newspaper?
A:We will be glad to look through online databases of 'The Star Ledger' and 'The Independent Press' and other resources that we have at the library, or we can teach patrons how to access these databases so they can search them. See above for how to get to our 'Databases and Articles' webpage.

Q: Can you help me download an ebook to my device?
A:Yes, we can help you do that. The best way is to stop by with your tablet or smartphone, and be sure to have all your usernames and passwords handy. We will help you download ebooks or e-audiobooks to your iPad, Kindle, Nook or other portable electronic device. Go our our 'All Things E' webpage for a list of library ebook providers.

Q: Can you tell me the resale value of a certain car?
A:Yes, we have the so-called 'blue books' which are really orange and called the 'NADA Official Used Car Guide.'  Ask at the Reference Desk where we keep them or we can look up a car for you if you know the model and make and year.

Q:Where do wildfires occur the most, what is the cost of wildfires and who has lost the most from wildfires.
A:The National Interagency Fire Center has a page of statistics that we found helpful to answer these and other wildfire-related questions.

Q: How can I find which cookbook has the recipe I want?
A: We recommend the app 'Eat Your Books' which has indexed millions of recipes. You can even enter the ingredients you have and it will find recipes to match. You can enter the cookbooks you own and it will find the recipes in those cookbooks.

Q: If BHPL does not own the book I want, can you find it for me?
A: Yes, we can tell you which local library owns it by looking in their online catalog and/or we can request it on interlibrary loan.

Q: Do we have downloadable travel books?
A: Yes, we have some travel books available from eLibraryNJ.com and we also have a database called 'A- Z the USA' and 'A - Z World Travel' which has information for travelers.

Q: What are the latest audiobooks you have gotten at the library?
A: If you look on our Wowbrary list, you can find what audiobooks were acquired by the library in the last week and then click back week by week to see what was acquired in past weeks. You can also subscribe to wowbrary.com to get a weekly email of new library materials.

Dave Coverly cartoon http://www.speedbump.com/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Apps for That - a blog update

About a year ago I posted about the apps I have on my smart phone in There's an App for That! 
Over a year ago, my children had encouraged me to update from an embarrassingly uncool and pre-Diluvian flip phone to a really cool smart phone from a well-known and very cool company that is known for cool computers, cool phones, cool portable electronic devices and advertisements that are so cool I don't really know what they are trying to get me to buy. (But has a very catchy tune from the 'Pixies', watch the Gigantic ad here.)
Before I go any further in my update, let me just say that this is relevant to a library blog, because libraries are now really cool too. The Berkeley Heights Public Library has a phone app, downloadable e-books, a website of course, this really cool blog (ahem) and a very strong presence on social media (ie: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc)
So anyway, in the last year I have added a mini-tablet to my arsenal of techie stuff. The mini-tablet is from the same cool company referred to above. The idea is that my phone and my tablet will 'sync up' with each other, sharing content and reporting it all to the same 'cloud' where my stuff (photos etc) is stored. And my devices and my kids' devices are made by the same company so we can video talk with each other easily without having the battle of rival hardware/software occur. At least that's the idea and that is generally the case except when it's not working, but of course, one always assumes that if one was just 'cool' enough it would all work seamlessly and I would be singing 'Gigantic' and not cursing when both my personal and work to do lists appears on my phone, but not on my tablet.
Here are some of the apps I have added in the last year to my phone and tablet. I'm not saying I couldn't live without them, but they are really cool.
Merlin Bird ID - (free) a bird identifying app that allows you to look up a bird by characteristics and then gives you a best guess list and the calls of the bird plus maps of where it can be found and other information about the bird. That bird with the little beret look? It's a Black Capped Chickadee. Who knew?
BuzzFeed - (free) which is basically the biggest time-waster ever and really fun. If you have ever seen those fun quizzes being passed around on Facebook about which Jane Austen character would you be, or what country fits you best, BuzzFeed is probably the source of those little quizzes.
GasBuddy - (free) for finding the cheapest gas nearby.
United Airlines - (free) for keeping track of my flights and getting a mobile boarding pass.
For real estate searching, I have Trulia and Zillow  (free) which are useful for house-hunting or just for snooping about house values in your neighborhood.
Animoto - (free + fee version) which allows you to make free 30 second slide shows set to music. You can use photos from your phone or device, upload them to your account and make a really nice little slide show very quickly. For a fee, you will be able to make longer videos.
Overdrive Media Console - (free) allows me to borrow ebooks from eLibraryNJ through the library website. The reference librarians help patrons set this up on their devices all the time and it is hugely popular when people find out they don't have to purchase ebooks and e-audiobooks.
Zinio -(free) also available from the library website allows patrons to download magazines to their devices. I love this, the magazines look great on a tablet and they do not ever expire or come due.
I also have the apps for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and GoodReads so I can post to my personal accounts or follow what other people are posting.

What apps do you like? Click on 'comment' below to let us know.
Here is the link to one of the library's Animoto slide shows
and below is another library Animoto video. You can embed the HTML into a blog or website. How cool is that?


Going to the Library

What's New at the Library? Use Wowbrary

Have you ever wanted to poke around the super-secret room at BHPL where all the new stuff is "in process"? Now you can, virtually. BHPL has teamed up with Wowbrary to provide you with a weekly email about all the new books, audiobooks and DVDs that have been added to BHPL's catalog in the past week. It's your chance to put a hold on a book, often before it even hits the shelf. Just click on the title you want in Wowbrary, then click Hold Request. To sign up for the email newsletter, go to the Wowbrary site.

Originally posted by Ellen in March 2009

Learn Languages on Your Smart Phone

Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog: Learn Languages on Your Smart Phone:   The Berkeley Heights Public Library offers free online language tutorials from Mango Languages. Patrons with smart phones (iPhones or Android..)

Click here for the rest of the post about our Mango Language Learning online software program - available to Berkeley Heights Public Library patrons.



Original post:

http://bhplnjbookgroup.blogspot.com/2012/02/learn-languages-on-your-smart-phone.html

College Guidance Online with Library Databases

The Berkeley Heights Public Library subscribes to Infobase (formerly Facts on File) databases which include history, science, and literature materials for students as well as a  career and college guidance information which can be found in Infobase's  Ferguson's Career Guidance Center.
Ferguson's Career Guidance Center includes a database of more than 4,000 undergraduate institutions and a wealth of valuable new career information.
BHPL patrons may search the database for schools based on a number of factors--such as admissions difficulty, curriculum offerings, housing options, location and setting, student body, and tuition--to identify ones that best match their career aspirations, educational needs, and personal preferences. All schools included have full accreditation or are pre-accredited and grant degrees at the associate's and/or bachelor's level. College data is provided by Peterson's, a leading producer of educational databases and planning information.



All databases should be accessed through the library's "Databases & Articles" link where you will be prompted to enter your library barcode number and pin. Choose Ferguson's or Infobase from the list of databases to find college and career information.

The library also has college guidance books to check out and in the Reference Collection, such as Peterson's, College Board, and Barron's guide books. The Dewey Decimal number is 378.73.

 

 

 

 

 

College and Financial Aid searchable database available from the library

Financial Aid resources searchable database available from the library