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.

If anyone you know will be writing research papers this year, be sure to tell them about Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. From Animal experimentation to War crimes, from Global warming to Same sex marriage, it's hard to imagine a topic not covered here, and hundreds of articles can be accessed.

Another of our gold-mine databases is General Reference Center Gold where as of today you will find 42,575,731 articles "updated as recently as recently as Sept. 11, 2007."

This is not a zigzag bladderwort, it's a Blanchard's cricket frog, one of the more than 600 rare plants and animals featured in the new Michigan Rare Species Explorer. The curious of all ages can search by habitat, location, name, best time to view or browse the beautifully illustrated entries for all the species. Kudos to the team at the Michigan Natural Features Inventory for this wonderful new resource.

Afraid you may be losing your perspicacity*? An opportunity to test yourself is just hours away. But what if the questions come from a guy who, according to an article in the New York Times, “has a tattoo of the phonetic vowel chart on his back”? Steve Kleinedler, owner of the aforementioned tattoo, will be presenting a Define-a-thon at the Ann Arbor Book Festival on Saturday, May 19. According to the article, Define-a-thons, sponsored by Houghton Mifflin’s American Heritage Dictionaries, are sweeping the nation, and attracting huge crowds to witness contestants battling for largest lexicon. I, for one, am relieved not to be competing—I had to keep dictionary.com open while reading the article—tintinnabulation, anyone?

*The first person to correctly identify this reference gets a prize**!
**The prize is the receipt of my approbation and obeisance.

Considering a career or a career change? The experts at Manpower will discuss the do's, the don'ts, the strategies for successful job interviews. Learn how to prepare, how to interact, and how to follow-up with savvy and style. Join us Thursday, April 5th, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. in the Downtown Branch Freespace. Please call 327-4525 to register.

The staff at the library recently had a visit from local professional organizer, Carolyn Anderson-Fermann, who helped us to see that some of us are “innies” when it comes to organizing (we like things out of sight), and others are “outies” who’d prefer things out in the open… (and all over the floor).

For those of you who join me in the innie category, it’s time to squeal with delight: Martha the omnipotent has returned with a new book, sure to solve all our household woes: Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook. Clocking in at over 700 pages, the Handbook is getting great customer reviews on Amazon, where you can read portions of the text, and even take a peek at Martha’s Golden Rules of Kitchen Organization.

Innies, please join me in a cleansing deep breath.

Local governments provide a cornucopia of information for residents on the Internet. Here’s one that will help you make informed decisions about eating out. Washtenaw County provides Restaurant Inspection Reports for local restaurants, bars, night clubs, school cafeterias and more. Then you can check out the restaurants section at Arbor Web and leave those pots and pans for another night.

Weekend Warriors- There's still time before Summer's gone to get those honey-do lists done.
If you can’t figure out how to actually add that electric circuit, plumb that fixture, build that deck, etc. then check out some of the popular guides that you can get at the Library. I’ve always turned first to the Reader's Digest Do-It Yourself Manual for a good overview on the home. However,I recently discovered Renovation by Michael Litchfield in it’s 3rd edition. I'm very impressed with the accuracy and depth of information presented in this book.

Well check out the many interesting fact books that the New York Public Library has published! To start off we have the fascinating series of New York Public Library answer books for kids. This series includes books such as The New York Public Library amazing African American history : a book of answers for kids and also Amazing women in American history : a book of answers for kids. Other books in the series provide answers about Space, Hispanic American History, Native American History, and Mythology.

Are you an adult? Do not be dismayed! This wisdom isn't only available for kids. The New York Public Library also published interesting materials for adults, such as The New York Public Library book of twentieth-century American quotations and The New York Public Library literature companion.

Amazing how many people love to network socially on sites such as Facebook and Myspace - millions of you. John Cassidy nails this trend - and the companies it supports - in his article "The Online Life: Me Media: How hanging out on the Internet became big business," in the May 15 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Read this article - virtually - from General Reference Center Gold electronic database, or actually from the actual May 15 issue of The New Yorker magazine at the library.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research

FirstSearch provides access to databases and full text articles for academic research in the humanities and sciences.

AADL Select Sites:Reference Tools

A fantastic site for the curious, How Stuff Works sheds light on inner workings of daily life, from the complex to the mundane. Wonder how your cell phone works, or how it got its name in the first place? Perhaps you’re curious about the new hybrid car sitting in your neighbor’s driveway.

The entries aren’t limited to the electronic, however. Satisfy your desire to learn how coffee and chocolate are produced, and find practical information about health insurance and not-so-practical overviews of facelifts and liposuction.

Finally, after your own desires for explanations have been quenched, check out the questions other people have asked. Should that leave you craving more, there’s always a trip to the library for the classic, The Way Things Work.