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LibraryPoint Blog

Keep up-to-date with the latest news about the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
eSequels Database: A New Resource for Book Lovers
Adriana Puckett, Books, LibraryPoint Blog, Reader's Advisory, Sequels, Reading Room Blog
06/07/2010 - 10:57am

The eSequels database, a new addition to the CRRL database offerings, is a great resource for book lovers. eSequels is "a reader's guide to novels in series," and allows you to browse by not only author and title, but also by character, location, and subject, allowing you to identify any series easily.

Series are also listed in the correct reading sequence, and annotations do not reveal any spoilers. The keyword search is a wonderful tool for discovering new series. The listings include only adult titles.

To access eSequels, click on the database title in the listing and then enter your 14-digit CRRL barcode on the main page.

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2010 Music on the Steps Starts June 7
LibraryPoint Blog, Samantha Thomason, Arts Blog, Music
06/07/2010 - 12:22pm

Music on the Steps, CRRL's popular summer concert series, starts on Monday, June 7, with Blues woman Ann Rabson.

All Music on the Steps concerts are held on Mondays at 7pm, on the steps of the Headquarters Library in downtown Fredericksburg. The Free Lance-Star recently published an article on the series.

Other performers include:
June 14 - Laurie Rose Griffith and Pete Mealy
June 21 - Dixie Power Trio
June 28- Trent Wagler & the Steel Wheels
July 12 - The Company Store Band
July 19 - Homegrown String Band

Find out more about Music on the Steps and this year's performers.

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The Rappahannock Film Club Presents . . . The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Christie Hoerneman, foreign films, German films, LibraryPoint Blog, Rappahannock Film Club, Silent films, Arts Blog
06/04/2010 - 10:38am

Come join the Rappahannock Film Club and the Central Rappahannock Regional Library as we present the silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at the Headquarter's Library on Saturday, June 5th at 2:00 pm.

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Local Doctor's Hours of Heroism
18th century, American Revolution, Barbara Crookshanks, Brooke family, Caroline Street, doctors, Fredericksburg (Va.), History Feature Articles, John Paul Jones, Laurence Brooke, LibraryPoint Blog, naval battles, Smithfield (house), Spotsylvania County (Va.), History Blog, History, Virginia History
06/03/2010 - 5:10pm

The time was sunset on Sept. 23, 1779. A full moon was rising. The place was the bloody deck of John Paul Jones’ ship the Bon Homme Richard. There a young Spotsylvanian named Laurence Brooke would show the stuff of which heroes are made.  At age 21, he was the lone surgeon on the Bon Homme Richard as it engaged the 50-gun HMS Serapis in the North Sea off Scarborough, England. The burning Serapis surrendered after a 3 1/2-hour battle during which John Paul Jones proclaimed: “I have not yet begun to fight!”

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Searchable Port Records
19th century, Adriana Puckett, Fredericksburg, LibraryPoint Blog, ports, Ships, History Blog
06/03/2010 - 9:45am

Fredericksburg port record information, collected by historian John "Jack" Johnson, is now available for searching and browsing through the CRRL history Web site.

Discover ships and captains making port in this bustling sea town or conduct a general search to get an idea of the commercial activity. For instance, on Christmas Day, 1816, a half dozen ships made port from as far away as Boston, Massachusetts, and as close as Richmond, Virginia, bringing undisclosed cargoes!

Searching the port records can be done by year, ship name, captain name, OR combinations thereof.

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New England Run Pictures
LibraryPoint Blog, Samantha Thomason, Stafford County (Va.)
06/02/2010 - 2:52pm

Check out our Flickr slideshow for the latest England Run pictures. Our newest branch, located in Stafford county, will be opening in fall 2010!

England Run - May 28, 2010

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New eAudiobooks: May 2010
LibraryPoint Blog, New eAudiobooks, Samantha Thomason, Reading Room Blog, Books and Reading
06/01/2010 - 4:31pm

Each month we receive new downloadable audiobook titles. In May we added 31 adult titles, 25 of which are are available in MP3 format (suitable for iPods, iPhones, iPads, etc.). We also received 7 new children's/young adult titles (4 available in MP3). Check out our most recent additions!

Browse our newest downloadable audiobooks in the library catalog,  or go directly to the NetLibrary web site (free account needed) or Media Center (install required) to download. If you don't have a NetLibrary account, follow these simple instructions to create one.

New eAudiobooks: May 2010

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Creeps from the Deep
Caroline Parr, Children's Book Columns, LibraryPoint Blog, Reading Room Blog, Books and Reading, Science and Technology
05/28/2010 - 9:52am
          The Gulf oil spill, terrible though it is, has focused attention on one of the least-known environments on earth. Scientists used to believe that the deep ocean was uninhabited. As scientist Tim Flannery explains, “The eternal dark, the almost inconceivable pressure, and the extreme cold that exist below one thousand meters were, [scientists] thought, so forbidding as to have all but extinguished life. The reverse is in fact true....(Below 200 meters) lies the largest habitat on earth.”
 
          While less than 10% of this area has been explored by humans, what we have discovered to date has found its way into children’s books filled with tantalizing glimpses of ten-foot-long red worms and the enormous clams, crabs and tube worms that thrive around deep hydrothermal vents. 
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Two new free iPhone apps include CRRL listings
LibraryPoint Blog, Samantha Thomason, Tech, Tech Answers, Science and Technology
06/09/2010 - 2:40pm

If you love to try out new iPhone apps (and who doesn’t, when they’re free?), you’ll want to download two new apps that now include CRRL’s results. Called pic2shop and Book Bazaar, the apps are free and help you find library books when you’re out shopping. For example, if you’re at a bookstore and wondering if we have a title, scan the barcode with your phone and pic2shop will tell you if we have it. (Pic2shop is also great for comparison shopping for other items.) With Book Bazaar you can type in the title, author, keyword or ISBN. Either way, both apps are free and downloadable through Apple’s iTunes App Store.

This short video shows Pic2shop in action at a Border's book store.

If you've already purchased the RedLaser app ($0.99 in iTunes App Store) you can also get results from our library.

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LOL with Maggie Stiefvater: Local Author Visits and Inspires
author visit, Ballad, Christine Carlson, Forever, Lament, LibraryPoint Blog, Linger, local author, Maggie Steifvater, Shiver, unRequired Reading Blog, Teen Blog, Books and Reading
05/25/2010 - 10:56am

 It was a dark and rainy night . . . but that didn’t stop fans from coming out in droves to hear Maggie Stiefvater at the Salem Church Library, this past Monday! Books clutched in hands, hoping for an autograph, teens and adults alike were eager to hear this famous local author speak about reading, writing, and authorship.

     Ms. Stiefvater is the author of two popular young adult series, The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Books of Faerie, as well as a talented artist and musician. A subsidiary of Warner Brothers has even purchased the movie rights for one of her more recent books, Shiver. Ms. Stiefvater arrived despite the gloomy weather and entertained the audience of nearly forty teens and adults for over an hour. Her honest, open, and easy-going style quickly relaxed the audience who kept her busy with questions for most of her time there. From publishing tips, to writer’s block advice, to detailed queries about her books and their characters, there was hardly time to pause, but Ms. Stiefvater jumped energetically around the stage (and occasionally onto her chair), keeping her audience laughing, often nearly in tears. One of her funniest tales was about how the titles for her books were chosen, as she acted out the various interpretations of, Still Wolves Watching, her original title for, Shiver.
 
     One of the ideas that kept returning when Ms. Stiefvater described authorship was that writers should write what they know and what they themselves like to read. Thus, she tends to write about, “homicidal faeries, angst, and kissing.” She also told anecdotes from her childhood writing efforts and college experiences, encouraging writers in the room to never take no for an answer unless it comes from their own heart. Turns out, she was a history major who had faith in herself and kept her passions alive by doing them on the side. The results can be seen not only in her published books, but in her music and artwork, which she has succeeded in as well. For inspiring examples, check out her book trailers, whose beautiful artwork and haunting music she arranged, created, and performed.
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