LibraryPoint Blog

Genealogical research is a profession for some and a hobby for many.  With the advent of TV shows such as “Who Do You Think You Are?” and the multitude of resources available online, there are some interested novices entering the field who need a little help knowing where to start.  The following brief overview is for these beginners.

One of my daughters enjoys math, science, and thinking about seemingly abstract concepts in practical terms. I brought home the picture book Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford, thinking it would be particularly suited to capture her interest. In it, a young girl named Uma stares at the night sky dotted with stars and asks how many there are. Maybe as many as infinity? And then she begins to wonder how other people imagine infinity.

She performs her own research, asking her friends, Grandma, school staff, and ponders their unique responses. Her friend Sam introduces her to the infinity symbol and Grandma explains how infinity reminds her of their family tree. Other ideas about infinity make her head hurt, like her music teacher's idea of infinity as music that goes in a circle and never ends.

R is a zombie. He can’t remember his name so he is down to one letter. R lives in an old airplane and collects pieces of his crumbling civilization.  He loves Frank Sinatra and the Beatles and listens to them on old vinyl records. He reminds me of Pixar’s Wall-e. R is in the early stages of decay so he doesn’t look too bad, but he does eat brains. He grunts and groans, he shrugs, and he shuffles in classic zombie fashion. A typical male, he is a man of few words. Although it is hard to be a fan of the walking dead, Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies charmed me and also made me think about what it means to be human. We sometimes need monsters to remind us of our humanity.

Congratulations to Virginia Johnson, CRRL's Web Content Librarian, for winning Virginia Press Women’s 2013 first-place and second-place communications awards for her library blog entries! Read her award winning entries here:

1st place: Blogs: Non-profit, government, or educational
"The Seventeenth Child" and "Natalie Babbitt: Truth in Fairy Tales"

2nd Place: Specialty articles: Reviews
"The English Monster" and "The Uninvited Guests"

Congrats also to other local women who won awards:  Marty van Duyne, Falmouth writer and photographer; Cathy Jett, assistant business editor at The Free Lance-Star; K.J. Mushung, Stafford County writer and photographer; and Donna Harter Raab, executive director of the University of Mary Washington’s Advancement Campaign Initiative.