Mercer County Library Blog

How exactly does a hyperlink enhance your already brilliant PowerPoint presentation? Say you are creating a PowerPoint presentation on the Running of the Bulls during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. Sure you have put all the information regarding this custom in your PowerPoint slides. But wouldn’t it be great to insert a hyperlink to a website, which contained all the minutiae, in one of the slides in your presentation? Then during your slide show you can click on the hyperlink to go to the website for all the details, or to reiterate a point, then switch back and continue with your slide show presentation. It’s easy to insert a hyperlink in one, or all, of your slides - way easier than running with the bulls! Not only can you create hyperlinks to a website or to an email address, but you can also use hyperlinks in your PowerPoint presentation to connect a slide to another slide in the same presentation or use a hyperlink to connect to another presentation. Here’s how to i...

In the wake of Stieg Larsson ’s bestselling novels, readers are discovering the rich trove of modern Scandinavian crime fiction. Coming from the region I am welcoming the trend, but I am also fascinated how reviewers describe the region: "world of bleak twilights and tortured souls, world of cold dawns and dour sleuths, world of frozen lakes and repressed detectives, a world of winters and losers" (Julia Keller, Los Angeles Times). Indeed, the region which is cold and dark for half the year has proved to be very fertile for the genre. Much of the credit for success of Nordic crime fiction also goes to plain and realistic writing, which suits the genre well. Lead detectives in these thrillers mirror the landscape: they tend to be gloomy and cantankerous: divorce, alcoholism, preferring solitude are common traits, but they are also skilled and complex individuals and it is interesting to read how they evolve as each series progress. Hakan Nesser’s Inspector Van Veeteren, ...

As the holidays approach, we geeks often get quizzed by friends, family, and co-workers about the newest tech toys and, sometimes, just what the heck their favorite teen really wants or needs. The good news is, you don’t have to know everything about every model to make wise choices and you also don’t have to break the bank. Instead, try keeping a few rules of thumb in mind when you embark on your next shopping trip. Know the user . This is probably the hardest part of your research, trying to figure out what the gift recipient will use the gadget for so you can match their needs with the right product. When buying a laptop, you might want to know if it is going to be used for internet and homework (economy laptops are fine), games and entertainment (might need a larger screen, good video card, or bigger hard drive), or to take to class or meetings (a smaller netbook works well). Similar questions can be asked about tablets and eReaders, as a tablet would be too much for someone w...

The next installment of Jeff Kinney’s popular series, Cabin Fever comes out on November 15. Click here to get on the hold list now. If you can’t get enough of Greg try these: Other Journals: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger: Can a paper finger puppet use the Force to tell the future? The students of McQuarrie Middle school compile hilarious firsthand accounts in the form of journal entries and cartoons. Attack of the Mutant Underwear by Tom Birdseye: 5th grader Cody wants to improve his reputation at a new school, but is off to an embarrassing start Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter by John Gosselink: Thaddeus decides to fight the many charges that threaten to send him to detention for the rest of 7th grade. Early Middle School: Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading by Tom Greenwald: Charlie promises “short chapters and shorter words” to demonstrate the fantastic lengths needed to avoid reading. Liar Liar: the theory, practice, and destructive properties of d...

The big Nor’easter of October 29th put a sudden end to the lingering memories of summer and as I watched the vibrant Fall colors enveloped in a thick blanket of snow it inevitably brought up happy thoughts of hot cocoa, wrapped up presents and Holiday festivities just around the corner. To get an early start on your Holiday gifts here is a selection of nonfiction books covering varied topics from biography to science to travel, management and current affairs. Books could make the best gift for just everyone on your list from your favorite aunt to your best friend. Also keep in mind next month’s edition of Books to Get You Thinking which will include titles from both fiction as well as cooking and entertaining. That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum Friedman, the well known columnist ...

With the exception of the Chinese collection at West Windsor, ably managed by Jean Chou, most of the foreign language materials in the Mercer County Library System are spread around the different branches. These materials do not circulate as well as they deserve, perhaps because patrons are only aware of the holdings in their local library and don’t realize that they can request items from the other branches. In order to access the full range of foreign language holdings it is necessary to use the catalog and be prepared to put holds on items in other system branches. While this blog refers to Spanish-language materials, the content applies to all the smaller language collections: French, German, Korean, Hindi, etc. The easiest search is a title search, if the title is known. Simply choose Title from the drop-down menu, type the title in the search bar, and click on Search or press the Enter key. Finding works by a known author is just as simple. Choose Author from the drop-down me...

During November and December, our usual line-up of computer classes will be supplemented by four additional classes on a variety of topics for patrons interested in learning more about our array of electronic resources available free of charge in the library or at home. The four are: Tuesday, November 22, 3-4:30 p.m.: Databases Need to find an article from Consumer Reports, Time Magazine, Popular Mechanics or the New Yorker? How about information on businesses in central New Jersey, a biography of your favorite author, suggestions for future reading, or health information? Come and find out how you can get access to these and other information resources through the Mercer County Library website, where you’ll find such databases as Academic Search Premier, ReferenceUSA and Corfacts, Health Reference Center, and Literature Resource Center. Tuesday, November 29, 3-4:30 p.m.: Job and Career Accelerator If you or someone you know is actively engaged in searching for employment or a chan...

Here is a simple bracelet you can make: DIY Double Wrap Bracelet Materials: 44 inches of 1.5mm leather cord 30 inches of thin plastic cord (fishing line also works well for this) Beads 58 inches of waxed linen cord 1/4" hex nut A pair of scissors Step 1: Fold the length of leather cording in half to form a loop that is big enough to fit around the hex nut, as this will be used for the clasp. Knot the plastic cord around the base of the loop. Then, wrap around the base of the loop (wrapping over the knot) with the waxed linen several times to secure it around the leather. Step 2: String the beads onto the plastic cord and tie a knot at the end so they do not fall off while you are wrapping. Line up a bead against the middle of the leather cord and wrap the linen around it tightly. Step 3: Continue wrapping until the desired length is reached. Keep in mind that this is a double-wrapped bracelet so you will wrap it around your w rist twice; measure the length against your wri...

Say you are writing a letter or creating a flyer and you want to do some fancy formatting. You can use the Drop Cap feature in Word at the very beginning of a paragraph and add some zing to your document’s appearance. When you use Drop Cap , the first letter in the paragraph will be formatted to appear larger and will “drop down” into the text. First type your text as you would normally. Then click the Insert tab, and from the text group, click on Drop Cap . Make sure your insertion point is at the very beginning of the paragraph since when you use Drop Cap, the first letter will be formatted. Drop Cap offers two choices: you can have the first “dropped” letter spill into your text, which will displace the first few lines of your text, or you can place the dropped letter in the margin so it doesn’t shift the rest of your text. When you use Drop Cap, it’s not like you are just changing the size of the first letter and making it larger. The Drop Cap command formats your text and actual...