Library possesses several types of eReaders

If you’re con­fused about which eReader device to buy for your­self or for a gift, don’t despair — the Delaware County Dis­trict Library is here to help. We have pur­chased two or three of sev­eral dif­fer­ent types of eRead­ers, such as the Nook, Nook Reader, Kin­dle, Kin­dle Fire and even iPads in their lat­est ver­sions, to demon­strate them and to allow you to have a hands-on expe­ri­ence with sev­eral devices, all in one place. Unlike retail stores, the library staff won’t encour­age you to buy one type of eReader over another; our only goal is to make sure you have all the infor­ma­tion you need to buy the one that best suits your needs.

To make sure we are as knowl­edge­able as we can be on these eRead­ers, library staff have done their due dili­gence to learn how each device works, becom­ing famil­iar with fea­tures, pros and cons and func­tion­al­ity of them. We can answer ques­tions before you buy an eReader, and then we are here to help you when you finally get it home.

You prob­a­bly know that the library has thou­sands of eBooks that you can bor­row as well. We belong to the Ohio eBook Project, a col­lab­o­ra­tive pur­chas­ing and bor­row­ing pro­gram sup­ported by about 80 libraries in Ohio. By click­ing on an eBook title listed in Delaware Library’s cat­a­log, you will be con­nected to the Ohio eBook Project, where you will find many more titles that can be down­loaded to your device. Once checked out, the title can be accessed for up to three weeks. Library staff mem­bers are well versed on down­load­ing books to any device and are eager to help you with the process.

We are also offer­ing pro­grams on eBooks through­out the month of Jan­u­ary and at all library loca­tions. Pick up a copy of the quar­terly newslet­ter, “Check It Out” for a com­plete list­ing of pro­grams, or check online at delawarelibrary.org.

ERead­ers can be con­found­ing, but the exper­tise that you will find at the Delaware County Dis­trict Library may make your decision-making a lit­tle less con­fus­ing and a lot more confident!

Why do we build gin­ger­bread houses at Christmas?

Gin­ger can be traced back to Europe dur­ing the 11th Cen­tury. Explor­ers came back from the Mid­dle East with the spice gin­ger, and it quickly became pop­u­lar, espe­cially in Nurem­berg, Ger­many, the gin­ger­bread cap­i­tal of the world. All types of gin­ger­bread became pop­u­lar in Europe, but tra­di­tion says the idea of a gin­ger­bread house came from the “Hansel and Gre­tel” fairy tale writ­ten by the Grimm broth­ers. These houses were some­times referred to as “hex­en­haeusle” (witches’ houses) and are also called “lebkuchen­haeusle” or knus­per­haeuschen” or ” houses for nib­bling at.” The pop­u­lar­ity of gin­ger­bread cook­ies and houses spread to colo­nial Amer­ica. Recipes var­ied from region to region, accord­ing to the national ori­gin of the immi­grants who had set­tled there. Check in Christ­mas: Tra­di­tions, Cel­e­bra­tions and Food across Europe for more information.

Who invented Christ­mas lights?

Thomas Edi­son, the inven­tor of the first suc­cess­ful prac­ti­cal light bulb, cre­ated the first strand of elec­tric lights. Dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son of 1880, these strands were strung around the out­side of his Menlo Park Lab­o­ra­tory. Rail­road pas­sen­gers trav­el­ing by the lab­o­ra­tory got their first look at an elec­tri­cal light dis­play, but it would take almost forty years for elec­tric Christ­mas lights to become the tra­di­tion that we all know and love. The Library of Con­gress’ web­site, loc.org, is a great place to find infor­ma­tion such as this.

When did “A Char­lie Brown Christ­mas” first appear on television?

“A Char­lie Brown Christ­mas” is the first prime-time ani­mated TV spe­cial based upon the comic strip “Peanuts,” by Charles M. Schulz, accord­ing to Tele­vi­sion Shows that Changed our Lives. It was pro­duced and directed by for­mer Warner Bros. and UPA ani­ma­tor Bill Melen­dez, who also sup­plied the voice for the char­ac­ter of Snoopy. The spe­cial debuted on CBS in 1965, and has been aired dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son every year since: on CBS through 2000, and on ABC since 2001. The spe­cial has been hon­ored with both an Emmy and Peabody Award.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!

Posted by Mary Santos on Dec 17 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.