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Staff Picks

Database Spotlight– Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government

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Looking to explain the workings of our government to kids, or yourself? This site is for kids, but we are bound by the librarian code of secrecy– we won’t tell anyone what you’re reading (and we aren’t tracking it either). With sections for ages 4-8, 9-13, and 14+, you can find easy to understand concepts and definitions for a variety of age groups and ability levels.

Ben’s Guide to US Government for Kids, a service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program. It is our hope that Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government fulfills that role.

 

Database Spotlight– Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center

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We have access to so many databases that are underutilized. As we hunker down for the cold months ahead, it’s a good time to explore new hobbies! Jetskiing is out, but knitting, scrapbooking, soapmaking, and model building are IN!

Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center (EBSCO)

A resource that offers detailed “how-to” instructions and creative ideas to meet the interests of virtually every hobby enthusiast. Full text from leading hobby and craft magazines. Video tutorial from Niche Academy.

How to Find a Book in the Catalog

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How to Find & Request a Book

With permission from the librarians at Maine Maritime Academy’s Nutting Memorial Library, here’s a video explaining how to search the library catalog for a book and request it. Though the library is different, we use the same catalog so the same steps will work.

Are there library or tech topics you’d like a tutorial on?

History of the English Language

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A few weeks ago a friend introduced me to a podcast called The History of the English Language Podcast, and now I am passing it on to you. As the title clearly indicates, it is a podcast about the history of the English language. The creator of the podcast states that he approaches the language from a historical perspective rather than from a linguistic one, and after a few episodes, he admits that he is neither a historian nor a linguist but merely a very avid amateur. With that caveat, I am still learning a lot about the evolution of our language that I never knew before.

I was late to the History of the English Language Podcast party — its creator started it in 2012. He is still going strong though: Episode #141 was just posted at the end of September 2020.

Check it out on your favorite podcast player or visit https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/ to listen.

Ennio Morricone and the “Spaghetti Western”

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The Italian composer Ennio Morricone died at the age of 91 in July. He was a very prolific writer of scores for films of all genres, but he might be best known for scoring a number of films made in Italy, France, and Spain that were set in the Old American West, films that are known affectionately “Spaghetti Westerns”. The most famous of Morricone’s themes and the most famous European Western was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the third in the “Man with No Name” Trilogy. Morricone scored all three, Sergio Leone directed all three, and Clint Eastwood starred in all three. The Spaghetti Western Canon is not terribly deep; very few besides the “Man with Name Name” trilogy have been available at libraries in Maine. In remembrance of Ennio Morricone, I purchased a few of the films he scored in the 1960s. They are available now at MML.

  • The Great Silence (1968), directed by Sergio Corbucci (the other Sergio), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski. Available on DVD.
  • The Big Gundown (1966), directed by Sergio Sollima (the other other Sergio), written by Sergio Donati (the other other other Sergio), and starring Lee van Cleef and Tomas Milian. Available DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
  • A Pistol for Ringo (1965) and The Return of Ringo (1966), directed by Duccio Tessari, starring Giuliano Gemma. Both films are on one Blu-ray Disc.