Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Enjoy the first book in the new trilogy by Ken Follett in book form or on audiobook.
Author, Ken Follett writes: "In Fall of Giants, I follow the destinies of five interrelated families – one American, one Russian, one German, one English and one Welsh – through the earth-shaking events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.
The second book in the 'Century' series, due to be published in 2012, will feature the children of the characters in Fall of Giants as they live through the Depression and the Second World War. The third book, due out in 2014, will be about the next generation during the Cold War."
Ken Follett has a website: www.ken-follett.com/

Check out the NewsBank

The library is pleased to announce the immediate availability of its new digital newspaper collection. The “America’s News” collection is free to library patrons and is updated daily. It provides Web-based access to current and archived issues of thousands of full-text newspapers, including the Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review, Mesabi Daily News, and the Duluth News Tribune.


“America’s News” enables library patrons to easily search and browse current and archived news articles, editorials, reviews, birth and marriage announcements, obituaries and a variety of special sections. Patrons can use this resource for general reference or to research local and national issues, events, people, government, education, arts, business, sports, real estate and much more. In addition to using workstations in the library, patrons can access the collection remotely from a home computer with a valid library card.

Just visit the library's web page and following the links or click here to preview database now.

Quiet Time at the Library

Pre-school story time and Toddle time have ended for the season. They will resume the last week in January.


Stay tuned for information about the Winter reading program!

The Great Movies III by Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert writes: "I believe good movies are a civilizing force. They allow us to empathize with those whose lives are different than our own. I like to say they open windows in our box of space and time."
Read through some of the reviews that interest you and watch the movies.
Read The Roger Ebert's Journal where he writes movie reviews, essays on humor, science and spirituality. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/

Name Your Favorite Holiday Movies

What are your favorite movies?

Happy Holidays!

The Retreat: Hitler’s First Defeat by Michael Jones

The author writes, “On 15 December 1941, German soldier Heinz Otto Fausten fled from a Soviet tank attack on his retreating column. Risking his life, he later returned to one of the baggage carts to retrieve his diary. Fausten was in an elite Wehrmacht unit – the 1st Panzer Division – the troops who had spearheaded Adolf Hitler’s assault on Moscow. Now, as the unit collapsed all around him, in a hellish retreat in extreme winter weather, Fausten felt his experience to be so remarkable that he should record and preserve it.”


In December 1941, Joseph Stalin launched a counter offensive and drove the German armies from Moscow making this the Wehrmacht’s first failure of World War II. Read the dramatic story here. Michael Jones plans to follow this book with a companion volume, Total War, telling the story of the fighting from Stalingrad to Berlin.

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

The mother and son writing team have written the second book in the Bess Crawford series. Bess is a nurse stationed in France to take care of the wounded during World War I. While returning with a troop of injured soldiers, she observes the wife of a soldier she helped transport saying a tearful goodbye to a man not her husband. The same day, the wife is murdered and within a week the injured soldier and husband is dead by suicide.

Bess provides what little information she knows to an inspector at Scotland Yard. With the help of her family and friends, she is determined to find out the tragedy behind the murder and suicide of two strangers who have touched her life.
Charles Todd has a website: http://www.charlestodd.com/
Charles Todd is best known for his series set after World War I, England, featuring Scotland Yard Detective Ian Rutledge.

Federal Student Aid Resources

We all know that most colleges and universities today carry a huge price tag.  Don't let the cost of continuing your education stop you.  Remember that significant opportunities are available to college graduates.  The importance of a college education has become quite evident in terms of earning potential within today's economy.

The Department of Education offers many free resources to today's student.  They are definitely worthwhile sites. 

Federal student aid resources for students can be found at:

Student Aid on the Web
In-depth information on federal student aid programs, applying for financial aid, and repaying student loans:

• conduct college and scholarship searches
• estimate your college costs
• track and compare financial aid awards letters

YouTube

• More than 60 videos
• Inspirational videos from peers
• advice from current college students
• students can submit their own experiences and advice

FAFSA
The official site of the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid".  Every student needs to fill this out.

Facebook

• Weekly tips, info, and links
• More than 20 videos
• More than 12,500 "likes"

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

...but libraries are so delightful!

For those ready to weather the big storm, remember to stop by at 10am on Tuesday, December 21st  for Holiday Story Time. Songs, stories and a craft are great ways to beat cabin fever.

What is the cryosphere?

Some places on Earth are so cold that water is a solid—ice or snow. Scientists call these frozen places of our planet the "cryosphere."
While many people think Northern Minnesota is cold, there are colder places on earth and you can read all about them here at The National Snow and Ice Data Center: http://nsidc.org/index.html

Twilight Rails: The Final Era of Railroad Building in the Midwest by H. Roger Grant

Published by the University of Minnesota Press, Twilight Rails, takes us through the history of the twilight railroad network built across the Midwest during the early 1900s. The author, H. Roger Grant states: "Prior to all-weather roads and the triumph of internal combustion vehicles, railroads were magic carpets that bound localities and the nation." Read about the decline and fall of the twilight carriers in American railway history.

How to Take the Stress Out of Your Holidays

Bookmark and Share

Check out this information from the Federal Citizen Information Center.

Holiday Story Time

Story Time and Toddle Time may be finished till January, but there is still an opportunity for story time fun at the library!

On Tuesday, December 21 at 10:00am, the library is happy to present a special holiday story time.  Come on down to the kid's room for favorite holiday books, songs and a craft.  And wish Boo a merry Christmas.

What a great way to soak up some last minute holiday spirit!

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz

Author and historian, Sean Wilentz writes: "On occasional pleasant Sundays, we'd take family strolls that almost always included a stop at the Folklore Center, which was crowded wall to wall with records and stringed instruments and had a little room in the back where musicians hung out. My first memories of Bob Dylan, or at least of hearing his name, are from there - Izzy (Israel Young) and my dad would talk about what was happening on the street, and I (a son who wanted to look and act like his father) would eavesdrop. Only much later did I learn that Dylan first met Allen Ginsberg, late in 1963, in my uncle's apartment above the bookshop."
We have the book and the audiobook available for checkout.
Check out the official website: http://www.bobdylan.com/

Into the Storm by Reed Timmer with Andrew Tilin

Reed Timmer started his college career in 1998 by choosing the University of Oklahoma in Norman in the middle of tornado alley. Choosing to study meteorology, tornadoes became his passion. In order to follow tornadoes as close as possible, Timmer naively chased storm cells by randomly guessing where the tornadoes would appear. Then he got smarter and started following storms cells by using the Internet. He soon found out that reading conditions outside was as important as understand the laws of thermodynamics and bookmarking the best forecasting websites.

Reed Timmer stars in the Discovery television series Storm Chasers. Reed has storm footage on his website: http://www.tornadovideos.net/.

To Tipple a Prince

If you are interested in Hibbing history we would like to recommend Daniel Lynch's new title, "To Tipple a Prince".  Mr. Lynch recently spoke to the Hibbing Historical Society about his new book and it is now available for check out at the library.

Hibbing was founded in 1893. In the space of twenty-five years, it had grown to the quite sizeable population of around 12,000. Its businesses and citizens were thriving. Life looked good, the town was stable, and the future looked undisturbed. But Hibbing sat on a treasure, and it was unaware of it: a giant deposit of iron ore. This is the story of how Mike Godfrey and the Oliver Iron Mining Company deceitfully managed to move the village, how they managed to recreate Hibbing two miles away, how much it cost, where the money came from, and why the “great guardian of the people,” ten times mayor Vic Power, said virtually nothing critical about all this. Once it was all over, the man who planned, executed, paid for and directed the entire operation disappeared.

I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron writes: "I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound, doesn’t it?”

Read the short anecdotes about everyday life as experienced by Nora. Find the book under 814.54 EPHRO in the new book section.

Books on display in the kid's room: Newbery Winners

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. It was the first children's literary award in the world and is named for John Newbery, an 18th century English publisher of juvenile books. The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States.


In addition to the Newbery medal, the committee awards additional citations referred to as the Newbery Honor to worthy runners-up. Though the Newbery Honor was initiated in 1971, specially cited runners-up for the Newbery Medal from previous years were retroactively named Newbery Honor books.

The books will be displayed till December 10, 2010.

Ebooks for free from Hibbing Public Library and Arrowhead Library System

New to downloadable media? Using this service is easy! To help you get started, please take a guided tour. In just a few minutes, you can learn how to browse, check out, and download the titles available at this site!
http://arrowhead.lib.overdrive.com/BC15F3DD-E4A0-49C1-8C01-828A1017A4ED/10/431/en/Tour.htm

When Christmas shopping for yourself and others, check out these devices to use the Arrowhead Library Digital Media Catalog.
http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/

Check out the new releases here:
http://arrowhead.lib.overdrive.com/BC15F3DD-E4A0-49C1-8C01-828A1017A4ED/10/431/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=22849660