Too Busy to Pick Up Your Reserve?
Closure of Bookdrops at Baldwin Shopping Center and LIRR Station
E-Mail Delivery of Library Notices
Video Games
Playaways
New Acquisitions
New Audio-Visual Acquisitions (now includes CDs)
Readers' Advisory
Atrium Displays

TOO BUSY TO PICK UP YOUR RESERVE?

In an effort to provide better customer service, the Library will now allow patrons to authorize another person to pick up a reserved item for them. The patron must sign a permission slip, naming one or more adults who are authorized to pick up reserves for them. The authorized person must be over the age of 18 and show current photo ID.This is applicable for reserves only. The material will be checked out to the reserver's library card. Click here for a copy of the permission slip. You may also obtain one at the Circulation Desk.

BOOKDROP CLOSURE: BALDWIN SHOPPING CENTER AND LIRR STATION

The Library has removed the book drops at the Baldwin Shopping Center and the LIRR due to their poor condition and vandalism problems. They will not be replaced. Please use one of the remaining book drops or return your items directly to the Library.

E-MAIL DELIVERY OF LIBRARY NOTICES

There is now a system-run program for e-mail delivery for all library notices. These library notices include reserve pick-up notices, overdue notices, bill notices and courtesy notices.

If you would like to receive library notices by e-mail, check that your e-mail address is listed in your library account. If you prefer to be called or receive postal notices, you cannot have an e-mail address listed in your library account.*

E-mailed reserve pick-up notices are free. If you don't have an e-mail account, you will be called when a reserve is ready for pick-up. This service is also free. If we do not get a person or an answering machine, we will send a postcard and there will be a 30 cent charge. You can also choose to receive pick-up notices by postal mail. There will be a 30 cent charge for all postcards mailed by the Library, even if the item is not picked up.

Please remember...if you opt for e-mail notification, all library notices will be e-mailed. Add notices@baldwinpl.org to your contact list, and check your e-mail account often. If you have any questions, please call the Reference Desk at 223-6228.

We hope you enjoy this service.

*To access your library account information:
1. Go to www.alisweb.org/patroninfo. The system will ask for your library card number and PIN** (Personal Identification Number).
2. When you are in your account, the screen will have a link "Modify Personal Info." Enter the e-mail address where you want e-mail notices sent and click "Submit."

**PIN (Personal Identification Number):
The first time you log onto "My Account," you need to select a PIN, which is any combination of letters and/or numbers of your choice (we recommend that you use at least four characters). At this time, enter your library card barcode and the PIN you want. Click "Submit." Another page will open and you will be asked to type the PIN two more times to verify the information. Please call the Reference Department at 223-6228 if you are having difficulty setting your PIN.

VIDEO GAMES

The Library now has video games to lend! We have games for the following platforms: PlayStation2, PlayStation3, XBOX360 and Wii. Games are available in the Children's Room and the Adult Department. Games may only be borrowed on Adult cards, by Baldwin residents. The loan period is 7 days--games may not be renewed. Some of our newest adult titles include MLB 10: the Show and Final Fantasy X-2 for PlayStation 2, 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa and 3D Dot Game Heroes for PlayStation 3, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii and Guitar Hero 5 and Alan Wake for XBOX 360.

PLAYAWAYS

The Baldwin Public Library is proud to announce the addition of Playaways, the newest technology in audiobooks, to our collection. Playaway is the simplest way to listen to an audio book on the go. It comes preloaded with one book on it. No cassettes or CDs. No downloads. Simply plug in earphones or a car adaptor to Playaway’s universal jack and enjoy! And at a mere 2” x 3 ¼”, the Playaway is the ultimate in lightweight portability. Playaways may be borrowed for 28 days. Look for this new collection of best-selling titles in the Audio Books area. Read more about them here.

NEW ACQUISITIONS

CHECK HERE FOR NEW NON-FICTION ACQUISITIONS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
(THESE TITLES ARE LOCATED IN THE NEW BOOK GALLERY)

The Price of Stones: Building a School for My Village
by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with Susan Urbanek Linville (972.1826 K)

So many people die of AIDS in Uganda that at times bodies are stacked in city mortuaries like firewood. Moved by the plight of more than one million AIDS orphans in a nation with a population of 30 million, Kaguri, a human rights advocate returning home after studying at Columbia University, decided to build a school for children who had lost one or both parents to the syndrome. Kaguri and his American wife used their modest resources and contributions from friends and churches to open the two-classroom Nyaka AIDS Orphans School and initiate advocacy campaigns to counteract the superstitions that have stigmatized HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Anecdotes about the students, the author's family—-his own brother and sister died from the disease—-and his dealings with donors and corrupt officials, reveal Kaguri to be at once vulnerable and ferociously determined. Written in simple, straightforward style, the book is an affecting and accessible tribute to the difference one person can make in the world.

Source: Publishers Weekly

Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Mary McDonagh Murphy (813.54 M)

To Kill a Mockingbird may well be our national novel. It is the first adult novel that many of us remember reading, one book that millions of us have in common. It sells nearly a million copies a year, more than any other twentieth-century American classic. Harper Lee's first and only novel, published in July 1960, is a beloved classic and touchstone in American literary and social history. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary McDonagh Murphy reviews its history and examines how the novel has left its mark on a broad range of novelists, historians, journalists, and artists.

In compelling interviews, Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, Oprah Winfrey, James
Patterson, James McBride, Scott Turow, Wally Lamb, Andrew Young, Richard
Russo, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Bragg, Lee Smith, Rosanne Cash, and others
reflect on when they first read the novel, what it means to them—then and
now—and how it has affected their lives and careers. This is a lively appreciation of the many ways in which the novel has made—and continues to make—a difference to generations of readers.

Source: Book jacket description

Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
by Bruce Watson (323.1196 W)

In this mesmerizing history, Watson revisits the blistering summer of 1964 when about 700 volunteers arrived in Mississippi to agitate for civil rights and endured horrific harassment, intimidation, and persecution from racist state and private forces. The largely white, college student volunteers and the largely black trainers and organizers, SNCC veterans of previous campaigns, were fed and sheltered by the impoverished black community members they had come to serve and secure suffrage for. Their path was two-pronged: the Freedom School's challenge to a power structure...that confined Negro education to 'learning to stay in your place' and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge to Mississippi's all-white delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Familiar figures (e.g., Lyndon B. Johnson, Stokely Carmichael, Fannie Lou Hamer) take the stage, but Watson's dramatic center belongs to four ordinary volunteers, whose experiences he portrays with resonant detail. The murdered Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner cast shadows over all, haunting Watson's account of how the volunteers, organizers, and the black Mississippians who dared seek political expression lifted and revived the trampled dream of democracy.

Source: Publishers Weekly

Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)
by Stan Cox (306.46 C)

Cox provides the first-ever book-length look at the consequences on our
environment and on our health of air-conditioning in this enlightening study. He documents how greenhouse emissions increased and ozone depletion skyrocketed once air conditioners became prevalent, and presents staggering statistics: the amount of electricity Americans use for powering their air conditioners alone equals the same amount the 930 million residents of Africa use for all their electricity needs. Cox reveals some surprising information as he explores air conditioning as a potential spreader of contagions—of asthma and allergies and possibly even sexual dysfunctions. He offers a reality check to proposed solutions that have fatal flaws (and may be worse than the problems they attempt to solve) including dematerialization, improved AC energy efficiency, and clean energy options. In addition, he provides a list of changes that will help: reducing indoor heat, using fans, utilizing cool roofs, and increasing vegetation. Well-written, thoroughly researched, with a truly global focus, the book offers much for consumers, environmentalists, and policy makers to consider before powering up to cool down.

Source: Publishers Weekly

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr (612.8028 C)

Carr—author of The Big Switch (2007) and the much-discussed Atlantic Monthly story “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”—is an astute critic of the
information technology revolution. Here he looks to neurological science to gauge the organic impact of computers, citing fascinating experiments that contrast the neural pathways built by reading books versus those forged by surfing the hypnotic Internet, where portals lead us on from one text, image, or video to another while we’re being bombarded by messages, alerts, and feeds. This glimmering realm of interruption and distraction impedes the sort of comprehension and retention “deep reading” engenders, Carr explains. And not only are we reconfiguring our brains, we are also forging a “new intellectual ethic,” an arresting observation Carr expands on while discussing Google’s gargantuan book digitization project. What are the consequences of new habits of mind that abandon sustained immersion and concentration for darting about, snagging bits of information? What is gained and what is lost? Carr’s fresh, lucid, and engaging assessment of our infatuation with the Web is provocative and revelatory.

Source: Booklist

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at
Work and at Home
by Dan Ariely (153.4 A)

Ariely (author of Predictably Irrational) expands his research on behavioral economics to offer a more positive and personal take on human irrationality's implications for life, business, and public policy. After a youthful accident left him badly scarred and facing grueling physical therapy, Ariely's treatment required him to accept temporary pain for long-term benefit—a trade-off so antithetical to normal human behavior that it sparked the author's fascination with why we consistently fail to act in our own best interest. The author, professor of behavioral economics at Duke, leads us through experiments that reveals such idiosyncrasies as the IKEA effect (if you build something, pride and sentimental attachment are likely to give you an inflated sense of its quality) and the Baby Jessica effect (why we respond to one person's suffering but not to the suffering of many). He concludes with prescriptions for how to make real personal and societal changes, and what behavioral patterns we must identify to improve how we love, live, work, innovate, manage, and govern. Self-deprecating humor, an enthusiasm for human eccentricities, and an affable and snappy style make this read an enriching and eye-opening pleasure.

Source: Publishers Weekly

97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in
One New York Tenement
by Jane Ziegelman (394.1209 Z)

In 97 Orchard, Jane Ziegelman explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York's Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century—a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life. Through the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard Street, she takes readers on a vivid and unforgettable tour, showing how immigrant cooks brought their ingenuity to the daily task of feeding their families, preserving traditions from home but always ready to improvise. While health officials worried that pushcarts were unsanitary and that pickles made immigrants too excitable to be good citizens, a culinary revolution was taking place in the streets of what had been culturally an English city. Along the East River, German immigrants founded breweries, dispensing their beloved lager in the dozens of beer gardens that opened along the Bowery. Russian Jews opened tea parlors serving blintzes and strudel next door to Romanian nightclubs that specialized in goose pastrami. On the streets, Italian peddlers hawked the cheese-and-tomato pies known as pizzarelli, while Jews sold knishes and squares of halvah. Gradually, as Americans began to explore the immigrant ghetto, they uncovered the array of comestible enticements of their foreign-born neighbors. 97 Orchard charts this exciting process of discovery as it lays bare the roots of our collective culinary heritage.

Source: Book jacket description

Seized: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters
by Max Hardberger (364.164 H)

In this heart-stopping account of his work recovering stolen (or otherwise
illegally-seized) ships from "hellhole" ports, commercial captain Hardberger proves himself tough as a tank and articulate as a poet. An airplane pilot, teacher, and lawyer besides, Hardberger never turns down an assignment, no matter how perilous-from surreptitiously repossessing huge ships at midnight to transporting a fleet of old airplanes across East Germany in a perilous airborne convoy. Facing down foes that include gangsters, corrupt judges, and, of course, pirates, Hardberger proves a formidable hero. Equipped with a seafarer's gift for atmospheric storytelling, he layers details to create a sense of place, history, and foreboding. Full of the suspense that comes from ripping off the bad guys and making a daring escape, often aboard less-than-reliable craft, Hardberger's escapades make undeniably fun reading.

Source: Publishers Weekly

Heroes for My Son
by Brad Meltzer (920.02 M)

When Brad Meltzer's first son was born eight years ago, the bestselling writer and new father started compiling a list of heroes whose virtues and talents he wanted to share with his son: Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Jim Henson, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, and so many more, each one an ordinary person who was able to achieve the extraordinary. The list grew to include the fifty-two amazing people now gathered in Heroes for My Son, a book that parents and their children—sons and daughters alike—can now enjoy together as they choose heroes of their own.

From the Wright Brothers, who brought extra building materials to every test flight, planning ahead for failure, to Miep Gies, who risked her life to protect Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II, Heroes for My Son brings well-known figures together with less famous ones, telling the inspiring, behind-the-scenes stories of the moment that made them great. They are a miraculous group with one thing in common: each is an example of the spectacular potential that can be found in all of us.

Source: Amazon.com book description

Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France
by Daniel S. Pierce (796.72 P)

In this history of the stock car racing circuit known as NASCAR, Daniel Pierce offers a revealing new look at the sport from its postwar beginnings on Daytona Beach and Piedmont dirt tracks through the early 1970s when the sport spread beyond its southern roots and gained national recognition. Following NASCAR founder Big Bill France from his start as a mechanic, Real NASCAR details the sport's genesis as it has never been shown before. Pierce not only confirms the popular notion of NASCAR's origins in bootlegging, but also establishes beyond a doubt the close ties between organized racing and the illegal liquor industry, a story that readers will find both fascinating and controversial.

Source: Book jacket description