Jerome the Library Gnone!

This is Jerome, the library gnome. He has been hiding around the Children's Room this summer as part of the 'Dig Into Reading' theme. Kids who find Jerome tell a library staffer, then get a prize from the treasure chest. A lot of kids have found Jerome, even though he moves around every day. Sometimes it's a very tricky search. Some kids come into the Children's Room and look for Jerome before they do everything else, so Jerome has agreed to keep up the game until the end of August. Come see if you can find him!

July App of the Month: Shazam

Shazam lets you identify, discover, and explore music that’s around you. Whether you’re listening to a song on the radio, in a restaurant, or on TV, Shazam can identify the title and artist of the song with one tap. The app also links to the song’s YouTube video, information about the artist, and your device’s online music store for easy download.









Apple users, download it here!  
Android users, download it here!
Website: www.shazam.com 

how it works...

When you’ve come across a song that you’d like to identify, open the Shazam app and tap the button in the middle of the screen.

Shazam will identify the title and artist.

To explore more about the artist, scroll to the bottom of the screen.

Here you can find links to the song’s YouTube video, iTunes or Amazon MP3 store, lyrics, and more.
Once you’ve identified a song on Shazam, that title, along with the other titles you’ve identified, are stored for later review. To access these saved songs, or tags, tap on My Tags.

Shazam also has a social component. After signing in to your Facebook account, you’re able to see what songs and artists your friends are tagging.


Exploration ideas…

The Shazam app can be fun to use alone or with your friends.

Try these ideas:

• While traveling on a road trip in the car as a passenger, try scanning the radio stations in the area every once in a while. Shazam songs you’re unfamiliar with.
• Head to a local music show or concert and try Shazamming a live performance to see if the band’s or artists’ songs appear.
• Watching a commercial and trying to pinpoint that song in the background? Shazam it!
• Link your Shazam account to Facebook and encourage your friends to as well. Check and see what songs everyone is Shazamming. Are there any similarities? Try listening to what your friends have tagged to discover new music.
• Shazam an artist you’re familiar with, and then try to guess what will show up in the “Artist’s popular songs” section. Check to see if you’re right!

Jo's Picks for July

July has some great new books coming out that readers will be looking forward to reading. New books by Alex Kava and Daniel Silva I highly recommend to readers. Silva’s is titled The English Girl and Kiva’s is Stranded. I am also picking The White Princess by Philippa Gregory for fans of English history. Other new books include The Highway by C.J. Box, Death Angel by Linda Fairstein and James Lee Burke's The Light of the World. As the Readers Advisor readers are always recommending authors to me and I am always happy to pass on their suggestions. Recently one of our readers told me that he had been reading John Hart who writes mysteries. He said that The Last Child by Hart was one of the best mysteries he has ever read So I thought I would pass this along to those of you who are always looking for a new author to read. Hart’s other books are The King of Lies and Down River. While I can’t read everything readers recommend to me I am always happy to hear when they have discovered a new author. Nothing pleases me more than to hear from a reader who tells me that they have loved an author I have recommended to them. Enjoy the rest of summer with a good book!

-Jo

All the public libraries in the United States

Via The Atlantic, comes this wonderful map of every public library in the United States. The data was collected by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. On a makes-you-feel-good-about-humanity note, there are more public libraries in the United States than McDonalds or Starbucks locations. Read more about this wonderful map here.

-Matthew