The LearningExpress Library database offers practice tests in AP Biology, English Literature, Calculus and more. Head to any of our branches to use our public computers - or, if you've got a library card, access the tests from home!

The Oxford English Dictionary is now available online at all library locations and to Ann Arbor District Library cardholders from home or office. The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary providing the meaning, etymology, pronunciation, and usage for over half a million words from across the English-speaking world.

The advanced search offers some useful features. You can use wildcards in your search. The question mark, “?”, can be used to replace any one single character. The asterisk, “*”, can be used to represent any number of characters (or no character at all). In the advanced search you can combine two or more words in your search. You can use “and”, “or”, “and not”, and “near” to combine words. With “near” you can choose whether your search words need to appear within 1, 2, 5, or 10 words of each other.

If you want to find a word for a lover of words, then you can enter “love*”, select “near” and enter “words”, then choose within 2 words from the pull-down menu on the right.

The eight search results include logophile, defined as a lover of words.

Parents struggle with creating healthy habits for children. One BIG issue these days is "Screen Time", homework, social behaviors, video games, computers, television, and how it all fits together. Perhaps these titles can help .... Taking Back Childhood and Grand Theft Childhood, or the following web site, and it's links.

David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family, presented research on the topic at the Public Library Association 2008 Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in March 2008.

Notre Dame (Cathedral). Portal: “The Last Judgment” in North transept.; 1211-1427. Click image for larger view.

Whether you're looking for a local map from 1923 or the plan for the Piazza Del Campidoglio, searching for detail from a great work of art or architecture, consider browsing AAEL's Lantern Slide Collection, which includes thousands of digital images created from lantern slides showing architecture, cities, and landscapes from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The AAEL also boasts a growing collection of Artists' Books in the form of art objects or art objects in the form of books. (The books require careful handling, so many are housed in the Special Collections Room and available by appointment.)

A Leonardo da Vinci mural not seen for 500 years and an engineer on a quest to find it, spurred on by the inscription Cerca trova, or "Search, you shall find." Sounds like the makings of a great mystery! Listen to the story of da Vinci’s mural, The Battle of Anghiari, on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Need to do some art investigation of your own? Check out the Grove Dictionary of Art database to find artist biographies and images of their work.

Do you enjoy reading book jackets and covers? Do you have five minutes in your day to enjoy a excerpt from a book in your favorite genre? Well then a Online Book Group is for you!!!

A few months back, I joined 3 online Book Discussion Groups. Each Week (Monday-Friday), you start a new book and read a few pages a day, so by the end of the week you have read a chapter or two of a book that may become one of your favorites. Choose from: Business, Non-fiction, Classics, Fiction, Romance, Mystery, Horror, Teen, Science Fiction, and more!

Readers can comment about book selections several places throughout the site and are encouraged to email Suzanne (the leader of the groups) with any suggestions or questions.

You can check this out at http://www.dearreader.com/

Join a Book Group Today!

Heard a great interview on NPR? Want to use a news story in your research paper?

Transcripts and audio files from NPR shows, like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, are available in our Academic OneFile database.

When you’re searching, enter the program name in the 'publication title' field to find transcripts from a particular show. If you’re searching for content by keyword or subject, choose the 'multimedia' tab to see any NPR results.

Library cardholders can access the database from home.

This coming Sunday, March 9, at 2:00 a.m. the time will become 3:00 a.m. and Daylight Saving Time will begin and will continue until Sunday, November 2.

Under the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Daylight Saving Time, starting in 2007, began on the second Sunday of March and ended the first Sunday in November. Before 2007, Daylight Saving Time had started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday of October.

You can no longer call 665-1212 to hear “At the tone, the time will be…” but you can go to the Official U. S. Time to make sure you set your clocks correctly.

This website, plus a WebExhibits article on Daylight Saving Time, are among the websites listed in the Time, Calendar, and Holidays section of the AADL Select Sites (a guide to useful and interesting websites).

For more on Daylight Saving Time consult Seize the Daylight: the Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time by David Prerau, published in 2005.

By tickling it, of course!

According to neuroscientist Dr. Jaak Panksepp, laughter isn’t just a human phenomenon - rats laugh, too.

Hear ticklish rats laughing and an interview with Panksepp on the “Laughter” episode of NPR’s Radio Lab.

Intrigued by animal emotions? Read the Psychology Today article about Panksepp’s research and his critics in our General Reference Center Gold database. Library cardholders can read the article from home.

In honor of President's Day, The Academy of Natural Sciences museum is exhibiting the locks, clips, and snips of presidential hair from their collection of hair albums. Curious? Check out their online exhibit.

Want to learn more about a former president? Find presidential biographies, articles, websites (and no hair!) in our Biography Resource Center database.

Check out a new web site with more than 1,200 job postings at 24 Michigan colleges and universities: Michigan Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC). Jobs include research, professional, executive, administrative, and support positions in academia and their hospital and healthcare facilities as well as tenure-track and instructional faculty and positions in information technology and the trades. To broaden your job search, use the AADL Employment & Jobs section of the AADL Select Sites.

So, you’re ready to start working on that research paper, but you need articles from peer-reviewed journals. Or images. Or newspaper editorials written this year.

The Library’s got you covered!

Our General OneFile database groups search results by document type. Plus, you can limit your search to peer-reviewed journals, articles with images, or by publication date.

Have questions about our databases or need more research help? Stop by any of our public desks!

Michigan Tax Booklets containing the MI-1040, Instructions, Homestead Property Tax Credit, Michigan College Tuition & Fees Credit, Schedules 1, W, and Non-resident are now available at all library locations. The Michigan Home Heating Credit booklet is also available. Express stations linking directly to the IRS and Michigan Treasury tax forms are available and forms can be printed free of charge. We’ll be happy to assist you in locating and printing forms at all our public service desks too. To access forms, instructions, publications and tax info 24 hours-a-day from anywhere, visit the IRS and the Michigan Treasury web sites.

Genealogists have long placed old city directories at the top of their wishlist of books to be digitized. And now it's happening! The Google books project already includes a few local directories and the Books section of our Heritage Quest product includes Ann Arbor and Washtenaw county directories from 1886-87, 1888-89, 1909, 1914, 1915, and 1916. For those of you who prefer perusing the original print editions, you'll find them in our Local History room on the second floor of the Downtown library.

Here are the local directories available through Google: Cole & Keating’s Ann Arbor City Directory for the year 1872; Glen V. Mills Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti City Directory 1892; Polk’s Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Washtenaw County Directory, 1916(7)

The most requested federal tax forms and instructions are now available at all branches of the Ann Arbor District Library. Express stations linking directly to the IRS and Michigan Treasury tax forms are also available at all locations and forms may be printed free of charge. We’ll be happy to assist you in locating and printing forms at all our public service desks, too. To access forms, instructions, publications and tax info 24 hours-a-day from anywhere, visit the IRS and the Michigan Treasury web sites.