Lillian H. Smith / Northern District

Apple's New Product Uses ePub

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Apple just launched a new product - a handheld gizmo like a large iPod Touch or iPhone. But it also can be used for eBooks, using the same format that our Overdrive books use. Is it a serious competitor for Amazon's Kindle? Apple also launched an eBook store. It seems that eBooks may be making a leap forward.
Interested in knowing more? Check out this article
or this from New York Times
or Google for epad epub

Business databases

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:39:00 +0000

I don't know about you but I don't know a whole lot about using our business databases. And I certainly don't know about those that are at TRL and Central only. Well, help is at hand!

The Career and Job Search Help blog has some great posts on how to use some of the best job search and company information databases.

Scott's Business Directories online - all branches
Mergent - available everywhere
Business and Company Resource Center - available everywhere
Financial Post Advisor - available everywhere
Associations Canada - R&R only
MarketLine - R&R only

Check out the job search blog at torontopubliclibrary.ca/jobhelp

December is the Most Wonderful Month of the Year!!!

noreply@blogger.com (tpl girl) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:06:00 +0000

We welcome this great month of December by putting up a glorious festive tree in our main foyer. Also, check out our December Programs calendar.

The tree is beautifully adorned with colourful ornaments and ribbons. Look! There are pretty wrapped presents peeking from underneath the tree.

And right behind the cheery festive tree, there stands a golden reindeer wearing his matching tinsel scarf!

To get into the wintery mood, we have some cozy books and music (including Bing Crosby's finest) to snuggle up in front of a fireplace with a mug of warm cocoa on a blistery snowy evening.

For those who prefer to cook up a wonderful celebration feast for this season, we have many cookbooks available so that you can craft your magnificent meals with some guidance from the very best chefs of the world.

We are continuing to celebrate King Tut's arrival! Here is a fun children's outside display to get your children in the mood if your family decides to head to the Art Gallery Of Ontario and see King Tut in real life!

Children love this season more than anybody else and we have a wonderfully colourful display to bring out this holiday cheer.

The staff wish you a happy holiday season and a great New Year in 2010!

November Displays

noreply@blogger.com (tpl girl) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:17:00 +0000

King Tut and Egyptology Display

With the "King Tut and the Great Pharohs" event happening at the Art Gallery of Ontario, we have created a King Tut and Egyptology display.

We are happy to see that the display is thoroughly used. Also, if you were here to witness it, this display hid a special secret--one of the King Tut's was posted upside down!

War Memorial Book Display

November is the month that we remember those who have fought and given their lives for our freedom. We have a War Memorial display to commemorate these soldiers` bravery.

'Lest We Forget' Display

We also want to remember the men and women who have served in the First World War.

The display shows an image of Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918), his poem, In Flanders Fields, the Soldiers' Tower stained glass window portraying the poem in bright colourful glory, a field of poppies, the jacket DVD cover of, Passchendaele, a film by Paul Gross, and a selection of books of that historical time period.

Many people have dropped by to view the display, read McCrae's poem, and pay their respects.

Children's World Display

To end on a happy note for November, we have a fun book display that shows books of children from all over the world connected together in friendship and hope.

Chinese Best Bets!

noreply@blogger.com (tpl girl) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Most Toronto Public Library branches have a Best Bets collection--which is a collection of books that are in high demand that you can borrow for a period of 7 days. This collection is offered in English.

At the Lillian H. Smith Library, we also offer the Best Bets collection in Chinese. Please come and check this collection out and enjoy the selection.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

noreply@blogger.com (tpl girl) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Saturday, October 3, 2009 was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival!

At the Lillian H. Smith Library, we celebrated the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival by reading (in English and Mandarin) stories from the book, "The Moon festival: a Chinese mid-autumn celebration," by Arlene Chan.

The program featured a puppet show on the story of Chang O, the Moon Goddess. I noticed that the parents smiled as they remembered this story too.

We also featured games to win paper lanterns, festive moon books on display, and Moon Festival greeting cards for the children to create, colour and adorn.

Overall, the children and parents enjoyed the program.

"Park" this site in your bookmarks...

noreply@blogger.com (CCP) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:04:00 +0000

If patrons are asking for the location of the nearest municipal parking lot, try this site: http://parking.greenp.com/

Type in your address or intersection, and it'll show the nearest "Green P" lot. A "Street Parking Info" link also gives the various rates for metered parking in the nearby blocks.

Chinese Education Delegation visits LHS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:58:00 +0000

Last week, LS staff, in partnership with LSP staff, delivered a library introduction and tour for 36 principals and school trustees from Beijing and Qindao. The group was very impressed by the services we provide to newcomers and children.

As a parting gift, they gave us this beautiful screen, showing characters from the Peking Opera.

Scott's Online

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:41:00 +0000

Scott's Directory is now online through the Ingenieum menu (TPL is looking at getting it externally in future.)

For a brief overview, see the Career and Job Search blog article by business department staffer, Lily Leung.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:29:00 +0000

July 2009
How can you resist stopping by the Walk into Health window display? While you're at it, borrow a pedometer to "kick" off your new walking regime.

Doors Open Toronto 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Saturday, May 23, 2009

11 am: Jennifer Cown read from Earthgirl

After her reading, Jennifer spoke about writing for teens using an environmental theme. The book had a section that featured Kensington Market. She was very engaging and spoke easily about the writing process.

12 noon: Vivian Meyer read from Bottom Bracket

Vivian’s book centres in Kensington Market. After her reading, there was time for only a couple of questions before the next author was to start.

12:30 pm: Ellen Jaffe reading from Feast of Lights

Ellen began her presentation by playing a piece of an old Jewish lullaby on a CD to give some context for her novel. Ellen spoke about writing her story by transplanting her own roots from New York City to Kensington Market.

Following the readings, the last two authors organized the guests to set out on a walking tour of Kensington Market.

Arlene Chan: Tracking the Toots - A History of the Chinese in Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:57:00 +0000

May 23, 2009

Arlene Chan: Tracking the Roots - A History of the Chinese in Canada

Lillian H. Smith hosted former TPL librarian Arlene Chan for an Asian Heritage Month event. Ms. Chan began her presentation with a discussion of things Chinese that are common in our North American lives. By projecting images of primary documents and photos, Ms. Chan illustrated the experience of the Chinese from their first arrival through the gruelling building of the railroad to the head tax.

She showed a moving DVD In the Shadow of Gold Mountain created by Karen Cho, a fifth-generation Canadian. It described the fate of Chinese immigrants as the Canadian government imposed laws to keep Chinese out of Canada.

Jan Wong on Heritage and Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:09:00 +0000

May 2, 2009

Jan Wong gave a thoughtful account of her experiences as a third generation Canadian as well as her personal experiences studying and living in China.

Ms. Wong is a former journalist with the Globe and Mail newspaper. She described her final days with that organization and her life since.

Ms. Wong is the author of four books on her personal experiences in China: Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong's China: Reports From A Not-So-Foreign Correspondent, Lunch with Jan Wong, and Beijing Confidential: A Tale of Comrades Lost and Found.

Audience members asked her questions that spanned the contents of her books and also her experiences with the Globe and Mail.

Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:57:00 +0000

May 31, 2009

Braving windy gusts, Lillian H. Smith librarians Barbara Baillargeon and Patrick Herman and settlement worker Stanley Teo set up a high exposure display at this year's kick off of Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market.

We brought along as much program and collection information as we could. We created 4-colour posters of our AV holdings, Overdrive database, and best sellers for adults.

The fact that we have an adult department was a surprise to some people.

Fellow LHSers came to say hello.

You'll notice that there are always two hands holding the display. It was the only way to keep it from becoming airborn.

Reading or e-Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:10:00 +0000

An interesting blog post that my daughter sent on to me.

How does e-reading affect the reader

Agree or disagree? Post your comments!

Google on Career and Job Search Help blog and more!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:28:00 +0000

There is now a Google search box (left side menu). You can quickly search the full-text of the blog posts.

Also some of the most frequently recommended resources by librarians at TRL and NYCL business departments - databases, Yellow Pages, etc. are featured on the homepage, right side. Watch for new additions.

We also added Quick Subscribe buttons for our RSS feed for keeping up with new content. Easy to add this to Bloglines or Google Reader.

And remember our easy URL: torontopubliclibrary.ca/jobhelp

Please promote the blog! And if you have any stories to tell about job searchers, tools, websites, etc., please post a comment. We would really appreciate it.

Website on Lillian H. Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:56:00 +0000

A link to remember when someone asks about the history of our branch and Lillian Smith.

Lillian H. Smith

Bibliography, links, Boys and Girls' House, "in her own words" and more.

We'll get it in the VRL!

Worth a thousand words...

noreply@blogger.com (CCP) — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:26:00 +0000

A wonderful website for images, from the folks who brought you Eyewitness Books: http://www.dkimages.com As expected, both the quality and range of photos are excellent.

I'll try to remind staff of this at the beginning of the school year, as it might help to cut down on school project-related vandalism.

Visual searching / visual content

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:30:00 +0000

A neat interface for Wikipedia content. Retrieves articles but also videos, pictures, etc.

Check out this on earth. Scroll down for related topics. And see the videos.

For an overview, see this video.

And note this from the author:
Please Read: All article text on this website (VisWiki.com) derived from Wikipedia, is licenced under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Article images, with the exception of video thumbnails, are entirely from Wikipedia, and their copyrights should follow accordingly. All videos and video thumbnails shown on this site are from YouTube. Other visual/semantic contents are mine.

Word processing tip - .docx files

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:59:00 +0000

.docx is the new file extension that Microsoft Word 2007 uses when it saves documents, instead of the more familiar .doc

Patrons cannot open files with the extension .docx on our computers since we do not have that version of MS Word.

Here's a suggestion: direct the patron to the online word processing application Zoho (www.zoho.com). Zoho recently added the ability to open docx files and has long had the ability to save document in the older doc format. Patrons will have to sign up for a free account, but the form is short and the process relatively fast and painless. After opening their document in Zoho they have the option either to save is as a .doc (regular Microsoft Word document) and open it on our computer or to continue and edit it using Zoho itself.

Zoho also provides storage space and this would be useful for those lacking removable storage (thumb drive) on which to save their work. Google has a similar service but as yet does not support .docx. When it eventually does, Google will likely be a better option.

From Ian, a librarian at Malvern Branch

Google News Timeline

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:13:00 +0000

A new cool device in Google.

You can see news stories over time - days, month, years, centuries! The Help screen describes it this way:
Google News Timeline is a web application that organizes search results chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline. Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies.

I did a search for "Karlheinz Schreiber" and saw the first mention in 1991 and then June 23, 1993. Click through to the articles. The default search includes Time Magazine and Wikipedia. Untick them to exclude them. I don't think Time magazine is necessarily linked to the keywords. Nifty, though.
Google News Timeline

Want to find it again? In Google, go to More, then Even More and choose Labs.

Here's something for you to do! Can you save the search?

eBooks and eAudiobooks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Lots of new job hunt eBooks in Overdrive. Check them out. Not all are in the library catalogue yet though.

Some eAudiobooks are iPoddables and these are popular!

The Career and Job Help blog posts links to some of our eContent.
Check it out:
Job Help blog

What's hot on Wikipedia!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Another blogger posted about Wikirank.

Wikirank, available at http://wikirank.com, allows you to search for topics and get a chart of how many views their Wikipedia pages have gotten. Furthermore, you can compare different pages against each other to see which is more popular.

Check out the post from Research Buzz.

Photos of Lillian H. Smith (the librarian) and children's libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:48:00 +0000

I found this great online display from the City of Toronto when I was looking at Yahoo Image search (some blogger was saying it had been improved).

Take a look at Playing By The Rules - check out the 13 photos of children's libraries.

Career Cruising available in French

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:59:00 +0000

Attention, Francophiles!

Select Francais from the top right in the website. Some information is not translated, depending the language of the university or college. However the Matchmaker questionnaire is and so is quite a lot of other content. Unfortunately, the little career videos are in English but the text of the presentation is in French.