The library is the place for pupils

With the hol­i­days now pleas­ant mem­o­ries, many folks have returned to their reg­u­lar school sched­ules. The Delaware County Dis­trict Library offers a wide menu of sup­port for stu­dents of all kinds — tra­di­tional, non­tra­di­tional — and ages — chil­dren, teens and adults.

Of course, we have Inter­net com­put­ers at all loca­tions, but more impor­tantly, we have skilled and expe­ri­enced librar­i­ans to help nav­i­gate the Web and find the infor­ma­tion that you need. The library sub­scribes to dozens of data­bases, too, cov­er­ing a vast array of top­ics with cur­rent and author­i­ta­tive articles.

Each of the four library branches has wire­less access so you can bring your own lap­top, iPad or other device for research. If you have trou­ble hop­ping on the library’s wi-fi, there is always a librar­ian avail­able to offer tech­no­log­i­cal assistance.

At the Orange and Delaware (Main) Libraries, you can use a quiet study room, to work alone or with oth­ers. These study rooms are in great demand so you may want to reserve one in advance. You will always find a quiet nook at any of the branches to read or study, if pri­vate rooms are unavailable.

If you hap­pen to be study­ing dur­ing the mid­dle of the night and you need help from a librar­ian, visit delawarelibrary.org and click on “Chat With a Librar­ian.” You will be directed to the statewide 24/7 ref­er­ence ser­vice called “Know It Now,” staffed with honest-to-goodness librar­i­ans from all over Ohio (you may even be con­nected to a Delaware librar­ian!) who you can talk to online to get much-needed answers.

The Delaware Library has long been a friend of stu­dents of all kinds; in fact, the pub­lic library has often been referred to as “everyman’s uni­ver­sity,” pro­vid­ing access to infor­ma­tion and knowl­edge for any­one who wants it. Let us help you be suc­cess­ful in your for­mal or infor­mal edu­ca­tional goals!

When you are in the library, look for these books avail­able dur­ing the month of January.

Boca Daze by Steven M. For­man. Armed with his unfail­ing wit and his Boston-bred fight­ing skills, retired Boston cop Eddie Perl­mut­ter walks straight into the most dan­ger­ous game of his life when he tries to shut down a string of ille­gal pill mills.

Cop­per Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz. After a deadly inci­dent in the pri­vate library of an obses­sive rare-book col­lec­tor, Abby Rad­well, a psy­chic who is able to detect para­nor­mal secrets in old texts, hires inves­ti­ga­tor Sam Cop­per­smith to track down a killer with super­nat­ural abilities.

The Fry Chron­i­cles: An Auto­bi­og­ra­phy by Stephen Fry. A per­sonal account pre­sented in the lin­guis­ti­cally witty style of the BBC actor chron­i­cles such top­ics as his unlikely Cam­bridge edu­ca­tion, his rela­tion­ships with such con­tem­po­raries as Hugh Lau­rie and Emma Thomp­son and his hedo­nis­tic rise to stardom.

More Room in a Bro­ken Heart: The True Adven­tures of Carly Simon by Stephen Davis. Draws on pri­vate archives, fam­ily inter­views and the author’s friend­ship with the singer to cover top­ics rang­ing from her rela­tion­ship with her father and the story behind “You’re So Vain” to her strug­gle with breast cancer.

The Rope: An Anna Pigeon Novel by Nevada Barr. The long-anticipated story of Anna Pigeon’s past traces her bro­ken­hearted 1995 relo­ca­tion from New York City and first days as a Glen Canyon park ranger, a new start that is shat­tered by her abduc­tion and impris­on­ment in the bot­tom of a dry well with­out supplies.

Sher­lock Holmes on Screen by Alan Barnes. Conan Doyle’s mas­ter detec­tive Sher­lock Holmes has appeared on screen more times than any other fic­tional char­ac­ter. Sher­lock Holmes on Screen sur­veys over a century’s worth of his exploits in film and tele­vi­sion, from the silent era to the present day.

Sophie: The Incred­i­ble True Story of the Cast­away Dog by Emma Pearse. Doc­u­ments the true story of a young Aus­tralian blue heeler who was lost over­board in the Great Bar­rier Reef and who swam through shark-infested waters to an iso­lated nature pre­serve, where she sur­vived unas­sisted for five months before being mirac­u­lously rescued.

The Syn­er­gist: How to Lead Your Team to Pre­dictable Suc­cess by Les McK­e­own. A lead­er­ship model that trains man­agers to come together to deliver suc­cess, over­com­ing the grid­lock and com­pro­mises that typ­i­cally water down the team approach.

Taft 2012 by Jason Heller. A most extra­or­di­nary satire, Jason Heller’s debut novel fol­lows the strange new life of a pres­i­den­tial Rip Van Win­kle: a man who never even wanted the White House in the first place, yet finds him­self hurtling toward it once more, this time, through the media-fueled mad­ness of 21st-century America.

Worth Fight­ing for: Love, Loss, and Mov­ing For­ward by Lisa Niemi Swayze. The wife of the late Patrick Swayze presents an account of grief, loss, care­giv­ing and mov­ing on while shar­ing pre­vi­ously undis­closed sto­ries about their final months together, offer­ing addi­tional cov­er­age of their teenage romance, dance careers and 34-year marriage.

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 at delawarelibrary.org or 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 Jan 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.