Mercer County Library Blog

It’s been about a decade since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act which mandated that test scores rise consistently in each school year and all students gain sufficient proficiency in math and reading by 2014. As we look ahead, almost ten years after the legislation, both the K-12 system and the universities seem to be far from achieving their goals of empowering students with the knowledge and skills that would allow them to compete in the 21st century. Presently many state school officials are seeking exemptions from several parts of the legislation’s accountability requirements particularly the requirement of bringing 100 per cent of students to proficient levels in reading and math and efforts continue to rejuvenate and overhaul the education system. Education is perhaps the single most dominant factor that can help the United States stay competitive in the global economy and the importance of extending the educational opportunities to all, thereby leveling the acade...

Mercer County Library System is happy to introduce EBSCOHost Mobile and the EBSCOhost iPhone App to our patrons! Thanks to the New Jersey State Library , Mercer County patrons have access to reliable, authoritative, and quality information resources, such as Business Source Premier, NoveList +, and other EBSCOhost databases , at their fingertips. EBSCOhost Mobile If you want to access these valuable resources using your Smartphone, iPhone, or iPad, you'll need a username and password for EBSCOhost Mobile . Visit the Reference Desk at any one of the Mercer County Library branches to ensure you get the proper login information. With the username and password in hand, you're ready to go! On your Smartphone, iPhone, or iPad, enter the address ( http://m.ebscohost.com/ ) for the EBSCOhost Mobile site ; Login with the username and password; and Start searching any of the statewide EBSCOhost databases. MCL has put together a helpful guide to assist you in using EBSCOhost Mobile ...

Do you have a preschooler who turns cartwheels when a book is taken from the shelf? Or a child, conversely, who can’t sleep without a book beneath their pillow? There is a genre of out of the box books all about books for the young and the young at heart. We have some irresistible books for your out of the box kid or any kid! Book, Book, Book! by Deborah Bruss When the children go back to school, the farm animals are bored, so they go into the library in town trying to find something to do. The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers Henry loves to eat books, until he becomes quite ill and decides that maybe he could do something else with the books he has been eating. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg This book presents a series of loosely related drawings each accompanied by a title and caption which the reader may use to make up his or her own story. It’s a Book by Lane Smith Two readers compare a print to digital media and learn books are still valuable...

WordArt is a feature that allows you to create special effects for your text. If you want to make your text look decorative, WordArt is just the thing. You can create slanted, curved, or even three-dimensional text by using WordArt. Adding WordArt to your document is not only fun but it’s an easy way to add flair to your document and make your title or heading look visually arresting. WordArt is available in most of the Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel PowerPoint and Publisher. To use WordArt, open any of the aforementioned Microsoft programs, and click on the Insert tab. Then from the Text group, click on WordArt . Regardless of which MS Office application you use, the icon for WordArt is the same – it’s a slanted A ! Clicking on the WordArt icon will bring up a preset gallery of WordArt designs for you to choose from. You also have the option to choose either horizontal or vertical WordArt. Click on the design you like and a dialog box will appear asking you to type Y...

Last month we discussed how to search in the updated catalo g. This month we’ll take a quick look at the My Account features and preview some more changes that should be coming soon. First, one thing you should know about the My Account section is it actually runs on a secondary piece of software and is not yet full integrated into the updated catalog. While most people don’t notice this, you will if you place a lot of holds at one time and need to log in for each hold you place. The good news is, our software vendor is finishing an update that will bring the My Account features over to the new catalog for a more seamless interface and eliminate the disparity between the systems. Getting Started To log on to your account, you’ll need your library card barcode number and PIN. The barcode number is on the back of the card and when typing it in, you can skip the spaces. The PIN is set to be the last four digits of your home phone number. Once logged in, you will see the My Account o...

Who says you can’t illustrate a children’s book? These clever books use only dots to tell story and inspire young authors. Press Here uses only painted dots in three colors. It asks the reader to try different activities to move the dots around the page like clapping or shaking the book. School Library Journal calls it “the most interactive picture book of the year”. Here are some other great books that use only dots to tell a story: Make your own dot story! Create some dot pictures and tell a story about them. Where to get dots: hole punch, stickers, markers, ink and a pencil eraser, fingerprints, bingo markers Dot pictures from the library: Abstract picture with bingo markers and hole punch scraps More representational design with paper and buttons Sticker and tape, bingo marker Don’t worry if dots don’t work as planned Give a paint blob googly eyes and you have a unique main character just like Splotch the bird in the Roly Poly Egg . - Miss Emily

Be honest, how many of you really read all those assigned stories, books and plays during your school years? We all had required reading in school. We either struggled through it or we skimmed enough to pass, some of us even enjoyed reading some of the books and plays. No matter what we thought of these works and assignments it was a part of school. I’m suggesting we go back and reread those books, give them another chance to share their value that we may have missed as kids. Plays Every year of high school it seemed we had to read a few plays and at least one of them was a Shakespeare play. While the majority of my classmates struggled with them, I enjoyed reading those and other plays. While reading a play is a chance to let your imagination run wild. You control everything in your head, from the different voices of each character tot he action playing out on stage. I suggest reading plays by Shakespeare , Arthur Miller and Oscar Wilde just to name a few of my favorite playwrights...