Library launches revised, improved website

This week, I need to tell you about three sig­nif­i­cant events at the Delaware County Dis­trict Library.

I hope you have had a chance to visit the library’s web­site, delawarelibrary.org, in the past few days. After months of dili­gence, dis­cus­sion and much exper­i­men­ta­tion, the library launched its newly revised and, I think, vastly improved web­site this week. The devel­op­ment of the web­site helps us to ful­fill our pledge to the com­mu­nity to upgrade tech­nol­ogy, and I think you will agree that the web­site is cer­tainly a major upgrade to our for­mer one.

We lis­tened to your sug­ges­tions, and the new site is more eas­ily nav­i­gated, focuses on search­ing the library’s online cat­a­log and high­lights events at all loca­tions. There are dozens of other new and enhanced fea­tures, too, such as a revolv­ing wid­get that con­tin­u­ally changes to dis­play new books, and a carousel that rotates to spot­light upcom­ing events or new ser­vices. Take a tour of the new site, and I think you will be delighted with the enhance­ments and improvements.

If libraries and authors are a won­der­ful mar­riage, then we are com­mit­ting bigamy this month. At 7:15 p.m. March 12 , join us at the Delaware Main Library for a visit by pop­u­lar local author Robert Flana­gan, who will be read­ing from his lat­est book, Fight Night.

And then, at 7 p.m. March 19, stop by the Delaware Main Library to meet children’s book author Bran­don Mull as he answers ques­tions and dis­cusses his newest book in the Beyon­ders series, Seeds of Rebel­lion. Mull’s pro­gram is spon­sored by Fun­da­men­tals Par­ent Teacher Bookstore.

What hap­pens to the stuff that is con­fis­cated at airports?

I checked the Trans­porta­tion Secu­rity Administration’s blog, blog.tsa.gov, and found the fol­low­ing: Because the items are excess gov­ern­ment prop­erty, TSA must fol­low Gen­eral Ser­vices Admin­is­tra­tion guide­lines for the dis­po­si­tion of the mate­r­ial. Many air­ports use a TSA-provided con­trac­tor who col­lects the stuff and throws it away. Some air­ports donate items to approved, non-profit orga­ni­za­tions in accor­dance with GSA reg­u­la­tions, with local schools receiv­ing the scis­sors, and local police depart­ments receiv­ing con­fis­cated weapons. Some non­prof­its, includ­ing sev­eral state sur­plus prop­erty divi­sions, sell the mate­r­ial, but TSA does not sell or profit in any way from the sell­ing of this vol­un­tar­ily aban­doned prop­erty. Liq­uids are thrown away. Donat­ing these items to any­one poses a lia­bil­ity risk because there is no assur­ance that the bot­tles have not been tam­pered with.

How close is “point blank range?”

In action movies and the like, point blank is almost always used to describe a gun­shot fired from an extremely close range that is not quite close enough to be a con­tact shot (where the muz­zle is actu­ally touch­ing the body). Among bal­lis­tics experts, though, point blank is the range at which a given weapon/ammunition com­bi­na­tion can be fired at the cen­ter of a given tar­get and hit it with­out the shooter hav­ing to adjust the ele­va­tion of the weapon to account for the effect of grav­ity on the projectile’s tra­jec­tory. As soon as a pro­jec­tile weapon — whether a gun, bow and arrow or can­non — is fired, grav­ity causes the pro­jec­tile to start drop­ping imme­di­ately. Within point blank range, this drop is insignif­i­cant and imper­cep­ti­ble. Any more dis­tance between the shooter and the tar­get, how­ever, and the drop has to be adjusted for, usu­ally by aim­ing above the tar­get. Point blank range will dif­fer depend­ing on the weapon type, the ammu­ni­tion being used and the tar­get being shot. Weapons: An Inter­na­tional Ency­clo­pe­dia pro­vided this information.

Is it true that Alfred Hitch­cock never won an Acad­emy Award?

Yes, accord­ing to Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitch­cock. Hitch­cock was a mul­ti­ple nom­i­nee and win­ner of a num­ber of pres­ti­gious awards, receiv­ing two Golden Globes, eight Lau­rel Awards and five life­time achieve­ment awards, as well as being six-time nom­i­nated for, albeit never win­ning, any of the Acad­emy Awards.

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 us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing 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 Mar 10 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.