Staff Picks

Good stuff on Bandcamp

posted on - January 15, 2021

Flipping through an old New Yorker the other day, I spied a blurb mentioning that Steve Shelley, the drummer in Sonic Youth, has been using his time in lockdown to upload live recordings of his band to Bandcamp, and it looks like their albums are there too.

Sonic Youth is surely not everybody’s cup of tea, but Bandcamp is great way to explore and discover music while supporting the musicians, especially newer, younger musicians. The internet upended the music business, and Bandcamp has been one of the better new models that are now competing for listeners’ ears and dollars. Last year, the live music industry collapsed too, but Bandcamp remains a way for creators to keep creating and keep making money doing it.

The Hidden World of Everyday Design

posted on - December 23, 2020

Here’s a fun new book that just hit our shelves: The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design.

Some of the minds behinds the popular design podcast 99% Invisible have put together a book that stops to examine some of the elements of a city that you have probably walked past a million times without considering the thought that went into designing them, and provides a little background on how they came about. Written in short chapters that are easy to consume, you can bounce around this book without reading it cover to cover and learn about the world hidden right in front of your face and under your feet.

Gateway Movies

posted on - November 30, 2020

Looking for something to watch? Last night I binge read a series in the New York Times called Gateway Movies. Running since March, each article suggests one or two films to break you into a particular genre or the work of a particular director, and through the course of the article mentions a number of films. One article caught my eye and had to do with staged documentaries, which was, in a way, related to Dick Johnson Is Dead, the last film we discussed with the Merrill Film Society. They recommend Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran and Orson Welles’s F is for Fake. I love that most of the films are recommended in twos, which is how I often plan film discussions. [Read more…] about Gateway Movies

Ancestry Library Edition

posted on - November 4, 2020

Ancest ry Libra ry Edition (ProQuest) – For Use in Public Libraries – Now available from home for Maine citizens

Home access during coronavirus pandemic. The world’s most popular consumer online genealogy resource is available to use in Maine public libraries. This collection holds billions of records in census data, photos, directories, vital records, and more. Video tutorial from Niche Academy.

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

posted on - October 28, 2020

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.