April 12th - D.E.A.R. Day (Drop everything and Read Day)

April 12 has been named national Drop Everything and Read Day, in honor of author Beverly Cleary's 90th birthday. Cleary's spunky character Ramona Quimby is the day's spokesperson because it was in Cleary's 1981 book, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, that Ramona's school started having D.E.A.R. time. Several organizations have joined with HarperCollins to establish this nationwide initiative, meant to encourage families to take at least 30 minutes a day to put aside all distractions and enjoy books together. Resources and ideas for celebrating the day are available here. Printed materials, including a poster and reproducible handout, can be obtained by contacting HarperCollins.

Books for your dolls house

A dolls house cannot be complete without books. Here are instructions on how to create them for your own dolls.

With formats becoming obsolete so quickly, how will we preserve documents in the future?

Fading fast Deep inside an abandoned iron mine in upstate New York, forklifts move pallets of sealed containers around an atomic storage centre. The facility was set up during the Cold War to protect millions of government and corporate documents.The Iron Mountain Atomic Storage Centre is now part of a vast network of archive centres - a lot like the warehouse that became the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Each is an Aladdin's cave of priceless treasures storing millions of historic documents that have been painstakingly catalogued, many shrunk onto microfilm and sealed into airtight containers to preserve them for centuries.In an era exploding with digital formats it seems that microfilm has become the last back-up, a simple strip of celluloid film that only needs a torch and a magnifying glass to access it. Read the whole article

Is Google being a fair use user?

by Bessie Mayes Some technology revolutions can be very subtle in the beginning. Perhaps you have noticed that the number of computer commercials outnumber commercials for television products, with the exception of the Super Bowl season of course. The technology markets are driven by the consumer’s desire for convenience, relaxation, and saving time. There are many new technological surprises these days to accommodate those masses too. For instance, Sony Corporation has a new product that may change the way we read books in the future. You are familiar already of course with email, e-journals, and e-commerce, but are you aware of e-paper? Sony’s new device will allow the user to read up to eighty books on a device they call the Sony Reader. The company developed this reader last year, and is now marketing it to the public. The device weights only 9 ounces, and looks just like a book with a LCD screen. The Sony Reader is adjustable, meaning you can manipulate fonts, and is easy to carry around. Just think, instead of thumbing through a paper copy of your favorite novel, you now have the luxury of pressing a button to flip to the next page. However, my question after reading about this new item was how could I acquire a digital book that could interface with this device and how much would I have to pay? What if I told you that someday in the future, you may be able to download your favorite book into your Sony Reader directly from a library’s website? Read the whole article

Talk doesn't come cheap when you're high profile

Celebrities net thousands on lucrative public speaking circuit TALK doesn't come cheap when you're a high-profile journalist, politician or celebrity. Read the whole article from the Irish Independent

wannalearn.com - free instruction on the web

Over 350 categories of free, first-rate, family-safe online tutorials, guides and instructionally oriented Websites!  Visit the site

Conused about copyright? Looking for public domain content?

by Marilyn P. Arnone
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The purpose of this TIPS column is to provide a brief introduction to three types of copyright issues and provide suggestions of where you can find some public domain sites for acquiring photos, clipart and other media for use in your S.O.S. lessons.  Read on …