"The COUNTRY REPORT"! DUE! AND the BOOK is checked OUT! Aaargh!!

Relax!
Get ARTICLES from "authorized" sources, through the Library Website!
Reach CULTUREGRAMS from HOME.
Choose "My Account" tab, and Login "username" and "password".
Choose "Research" tab and find CULTUREGRAMS.
It provides up-to-date information on countries and people.
It includes a State Edition with profiles on each state,
AND it tells you how to cite the article in your report.

Another great online resource for country information is the CIA World Factbook.

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.

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.

It's time for gardens and summer activities. The following web sites can help kids FIGURE OUT how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Texas Agriculture Extension Service provides a nice slide show sequence of kids setting up a compost bin. Learn how garbage can become new and treasured at EEK! Recycling and Beyond. At The Imagination Factory an Indiana waste management company has a site full of fun and artisitic ideas on how to reuse materials.

Frustrated that you could never get to those unbelieveable low airfares advertized by the airlines? You are not alone.

Michelle Higgins's recent article in the New York Times "If It’s Good, Is It Too Good to Be True?" explains why.

The real bonus of the article is its tips on great websites that help consumers navigate through the maze of advertized come-ons and "special fares". She especially likes Airfarewatchdog.com which scours the Internet for the best bargains; FareCompare.com shows the lowest prices offered by month for the next 11 months between 77,000 North American and 200,000 international cities; and Farecast.com which predicts domestic ticket prices for air travelers. Happy Clicking.

The internet is a challenge and there are web sites that provide safety tips for parents raising kids to use the internet wisely. The following web site is from the American Library Services for Children (ALSC). GetNetWise offers "web sites for kids", "Tools for Families", and an "Online Safety Guide".

WARNING! Don't go here if you are not, or do not intend to be, an involved Dad. The graphics are not intended for adults with no children.

If you are an expecting or new Dad, Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay will lead you through the pride and pitfalls of "Building a Good Dad" on their blog. Go to DadLabs.Com. If you are in range of a new birth, diaper pails, breast-feeding, or food faces, to name a few .... these real-life Dads have "Dadvice" for you. They are PROS. The evidence is lab coats WITH company logo on the chest, AND they wear goggles when necessary.
NOTE: Moms, this site can be a lift for you too. Enjoy!

Parents need all the help they can get! looking for credibility? For blogging parents, the following recommendations were noted in the March 2007 issue of School Library Journal. Parenthacks provides "Sound practical advice served up in straightforward entries that still manage to be smart". Sample articles are "Email for the Underage", "Sleep (ours and theirs)", "Recording your kids promises with a digital camera". Parentography is a recently launched "online forum for families on the go, with excursion ideas, ratings, and family-friendly places".

Sue Stauffacher http://www.suestauffacher.com/ has done it again, and she's a Michigan Author! Laugh out loud funny, combined with heartfelt issues!! Donuthead was the first book, and Donutheart is the pefect companion and follow-up. Franklin Delano Donuthead and his friend/nemesis Sarah Kervick enter sixth grade and Middle School. For what it's worth, life fits a bit smoother, by the end of the tale.

Do have dirt? Do you have kids? Do you want a summertime project to do at home? There are good Kids and Garden sites to give you inspiration. Try
"Gardening With Children or "The Great Plant Escape".

For Earth Day 2006, lessons on global warming were developed by Google and publisher Scholastic. They built a site that "lets students literally fly across the world and see for themselves how the earth is changing" using satellite imagery. It is designed for 6th to 8th grade students, and can be found at "Explore Your Earth". Educators need to download Google Earth in order to use the lesson plans but the basic version of the virtual globe is free.

AADL Select Sites : Ann Arbor / Washtenaw County

Use Ann Arbor’s page on craigslist to find a job, an apartment, or an antique, milk glass parlor lamp (see photograph) and more. You can look for love on the personals pages, and even post messages on the missed connections page, in hopes of recreating the special moment from last Tuesday with that super cute barista at Starbucks on State and Liberty.

Craigslist is user-friendly and no frills, and best of all, it’s free. You don’t even have to register with them to send or read postings (hello, annoying digital camera picture websites!), and a flagging system helps keep out the inappropriate and sneaky commercial stuff. Craigslist can even be entertaining—check out best of craigslist for reader-nominated posts of variable merit—everything from misspelled rants to stunningly off-target personal ads.

Happy craigging!

AADL Select Sites : Reference Tools

A macabre site for the morbidly curious, Dead or Alive? features the vital status of “reasonably famous people” from all walks of life: sports stars, scientists, politicians, movie stars and more. A mysterious administrator obsessively updates the site, which to date catalogues 7430 people, more of them listed alive than dead. View site statistics and deaths arranged by cause (more “reasonably famous” people have been killed by volcanic eruption (3) than balloon crash (1), for example), or compare the status of people in different fields. If perusing the lists does not prove addictive enough, the site features quizzes that regenerate every 15 minutes.

Should accuracy concern you, the site claims to have made only one confirmed mistake in the status of a person in three years.

AADL Select Sites : Kids

Yahooligans—Yahoo’s site for kids—is packed with news, info pages, links, and, perhaps most importantly, free games kids can play online!

There are loads of links on all kinds of subjects—from Sports and Recreation to Arts and Entertainment, school subjects, and more. Find out which famous artist shares your birthday or what the Peruvian flag looks like.

Kids can Ask Earl, a sort of cyber-librarian, whatever questions they desire, or browse questions others have asked before. Discover, for example, the name of the first video game ever invented, or the height of the famous escape artist, Harry Houdini.

Last, but not least, concerned parents and curious teachers can check out the Parent’s Guide to Safe Surfing or the Yahooligan’s Teacher’s Guide.