Month: April 2017

Weekly Recommended Listens: April 2017: Week 1: Sixties Rock: Soul Music

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, this week we’re kicking off a month long look at sixties Soul Music.

And just to refresh our memories, each weekly recommended music posting features the following sections:

I. Brief Artist Bios
II. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week (streaming music)
III. CD Music Recommendations Of The Week
IV. Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups
V. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation Of The Week
VI. References (for those who’d like to know a bit more about the artists of the week).

Our spotlighted artists for this week are Sam Cooke, Ray Charles & James Brown.

I. Brief Artist Bios:

Sam Cooke: Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on January 22, 1931. He was one of eight children born to a Baptist minister and his wife and grew up in Chicago. Cooke showed exceptional singing talent as a boy and began his singing career by singing in the choir at his father’s church. As a youth Cooke sang with the Gospel group The Soul Stirrers before kicking off a solo career in the late nineteen fifties.

Cooke had a very smooth voice, a smart pop songwriting style and blended traditional Rhythm and Blues and the power of Gospel with Pop Music to help create a new sound, which has since become known as “Soul Music.” Those us of who came of age after the nineteen sixties don’t remember an era without Soul Music. However, in the early sixties this was a new style of music lighter than traditional Rhythm & Blues and yet, a bit heavier and more substantial than most of the pop music of the day.

Cooke’s first solo hit was You Send Me released in 1957. The record sold more than two million copies which was a huge number for the time. By the dawn of the sixties, Cooke was just hitting his musical stride! He released a number of great soul songs in the early sixties including: Everybody Likes To Cha Cha Cha, Only Sixteen, Chain Gang, Twistin’ the Night Away, Having A Party, Another Saturday Night and the posthumously released A Change Is Gonna Come.

And no doubt, Cooke would have become an even more prominent figure of sixties Soul Music if not for his untimely death. Cooke was shot to death in a suspicious incident at the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles in 1964. He was only 33 years old.

Ray Charles: Charles was born in Georgia in 1930 and grew up in Florida. He was born with sight but lost his sight as a child. Charles was musical from an early age. He studied piano at The St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind, moved to Seattle in 1948 and formed his first band in 1954. Like Cook, Charles blended traditional Rhythm & Blues, mixing it with Gospel and Pop to become another founder of the new music genre – Soul.

Charles started his recording career in the nineteen fifties and began to cement his role as a founding pillar of soul when his 1959 hit What I’d Say broke through to the mainstream American audience hitting number 1 on the R&B Chart. Charles’s sixties hits include: Georgia On My Mind, One Mint Julep, Hit The Road Jack, Unchain My Heart, I Can’t Stop Loving You, You Don’t Know Me, Busted, Crying Time and In The Heat of the Night.

By the end of the sixties this new genre of music – Soul – was a bona fide genre in its own right, thanks in no small part to Ray Charles. Charles continued to record and perform until his death in 2004 and was the subject of a biographic movie released that same year and simply titled Ray.

James Brown: Brown was born in South Carolina in 1933. Brown, like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, started out singing Gospel music. And Brown, again, like Cooke and Charles, became a founding pillar of the new musical genre of Soul Music by blending traditional Rhythm and Blues music with Pop and Gospel. However, Brown, with his flamboyant style and passionate singing, took it a step further and also set down a couple of foundation stones for a musical genre that came of age in the nineteen seventies – Funk. And as the musical style of Funk falls outside our discussion of sixties Soul Music I’ll just provide a link to an AllMusic overview of Funk music – you can access the overview by clicking on the following link: https://goo.gl/mwEJaF

Getting back to James Brown, his sixties hits include: Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag (Part 1), I Got You (I Feel Good), Cold Sweat, I Got The Feeling and Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud (Part 1).

The sixties were Brown’s most prolific era as far as mainstream popularity goes. Brown continued to tour and record during the seventies and eighties, during which time he had a series of minor hits and one last big hit, the top ten hit Living In America, which was released in 1986. He died in 2004

Freegal Notes:

To access Freegal Music from a desktop or laptop simply click on the following link: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

The Freegal Music Catalog homepage will display — it looks like this:

The Freegal Music app can be found in your app store and it looks like this:

II. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week:

1. Sam Cooke The Best of Sam Cooke:

This greatest hits collection contains Cooke’s best known songs including: You Send Me, Only Sixteen, (What A) Wonderful World, Chain Gang, Twistin’ The Night Away, Having A Party and Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha.

Here’s a link to stream The Best Of Sam Cooke album:
https://goo.gl/E6KtWr

Also by Sam Cooke – Night Beat:

For those who want to dig a bit deeper into the music of Sam Cooke, whose music is, unfortunately, less well known to those of us who came of age after the sixties than the music of Ray Charles and James Brown, this is a great album to check out! Night Beat was released in 1963 and has Cooke being backed by a small band that sets down a great foundation to show off his stunning vocals. The album includes the songs: Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,  Mean Old World, Please Don’t Drive Me Away, Get Yourself Another Fool, You Gotta Move and a super cool version of the classic blues song Little Red Rooster which features a neat organ compliment to Cooke’s vocals.

Here’s a link to stream the Night Beat album: https://goo.gl/zTA6MA

Ray Charles, Jazz Masters Deluxe Collection:

None of Ray Charles’s sixties studio albums are available in the Freegal Music Catalog. However, there are several greatest hits/best of collections that give you a good idea of what Charles’s music sounds like.

And despite the fact that we’re talking about Soul Music in this posting, and that the title of the album I’m about to recommend has the word “Jazz” in it – it is notable, that Ray Charles played and recorded all kinds of music including R&B, Pop, Country and Jazz – basically, he was a great musician who could play any style of music. And this album, despite the title, really features more of Charles playing and singing a mixture of the foundation styles of Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues, with Big Band and Pop Music influences mixed in for good measure.

The album includes several of his best known songs including: I Got A Woman, Hit The Road Jack, Georgia on My Mind, Ruby, Mess Around and a neat version of the song Blues Is My Middle Name that lets you hear what a big fan Charles was of the great Nat King Cole!

Here’s a link to stream the album Ray Charles, Jazz Masters Deluxe Collection:
https://goo.gl/KZyj9d

James Brown – 16 Original Hits:

This album is a great place to start to hear Brown’s sixties releases. The album includes the songs: Give It Up Or Turn It Loose, It’s Too Funky In Here, Doing It To Death, Try Me, Get Up Offa That Thing, Hot Pants, I Got The Feelin’, Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, Please, Please, Please, I Got You (I Feel Good) and more! Check it out!

Here’s a link to stream the album 16 Original Hits:
https://goo.gl/mvgkMI

Bonus Freegal Suggestion:

Ain’t No Sunshine: Classic Soul and R&B, Vol. 1 by various artists:

I stumbled across this album while researching Soul albums in the Freegal Music Catalog. This is a festive collection of vintage R&B and Soul songs by Al Jarreau, Carla and Rufus Thomas, The Drifters, Ray Charles, Little Joe Curtis, Sam & Dave, Cissy Houston and more. Check it out!

Here’s a link to stream the album Ain’t No Sunshine:
https://goo.gl/1Melct

Freegal Wild Card Streaming Pick Of The Week:

Funk Nights by various artists


This various artist collection features a slice of seventies Funk Music! Included in this collection are the songs Ladies Night by Kool & the Gang, Dance Your Pants Off by Sly Stone & The Mojo Men, Crazy About You by Edwin Starr, Do the Funky Chicken by Rufus Thomas, Brick House by Clarence Carter and more!

Here’s a link to stream the album Funk Nights: https://goo.gl/gKVTyy

III. Compact Discs Recommendations:

Sam Cooke – Sam Cooke Forever:


This European import set features 72 of Cooke’s best songs including the popular Soul hits You Send Me, Twistin’ the Night Away, Wonderful World, Cupid and Chain Gang. Additionally included are a number of the Gospel songs he recorded with The Soul Stirrers including: Peace in the Valley, Nearer To Thee, Were You There and Come And Go To That Land – this is a great collection check it out!

Here’s a link to request the CD set Sam Cooke Forever via StarCat: https://goo.gl/CfYTri

Ray Charles – Ray Original Soundtrack:


This album offers a great overview of Charles’s work and is a good place to start listening to Charles’s music if you’re not familiar with it. And if you are familiar with Charles’s work – this is still a great album to listen to!

The soundtrack includes the original recordings of  17  of Charles’s early hits including: Mess Around, I Got a Woman, Hallelujah I Love Her So, Drown in My Own Tears, (Night Time Is) The Right Time, Hard Times, What’d I Say, Georgia on My Mind, Hit the Road Jack, Unchain My Heart, I Can’t Stop Loving You, Bye Bye Love and more!

Here’s a link to request the Ray soundtrack on CD via StarCat: https://goo.gl/gErSSr

Live At The Apollo by James Brown


And I can’t say it better than Rob Bowman did in his AllMusic review – so here is his review of the James Brown album Live At The Apollo: “An astonishing record of James and the Flames tearing the roof off the sucker at the mecca of R&B theatres, New York’s Apollo. When King Records owner Syd Nathan refused to fund the recording, thinking it commercial folly, Brown single-mindedly proceeded anyway, paying for it out of his own pocket. He had been out on the road night after night for a while, and he knew that the magic that was part and parcel of a James Brown show was something no record had ever caught. Hit follows hit without a pause — “I’ll Go Crazy,” “Try Me,” “Think,” “Please Please Please,” “I Don’t Mind,” “Night Train,” and more. The affirmative screams and cries of the audience are something you’ve never experienced unless you’ve seen the Brown Revue in a Black theater. If you have, I need not say more; if you haven’t, suffice to say that this should be one of the very first records you ever own.”

Just a little StarCat note: The StarCat record for this album lists the title as “The Apollo Theater presents, in person, the James Brown show.” However, the album is usually referred to by music fans as simply Live At The Apollo.

Here’s a link to request CD Live At The Apollo via StarCat:
https://goo.gl/jOH6hJ

Wild Card CD & DVD Picks Of The Week:

Ella Fitzgerald – Best of the Songbooks


This CD collection by Ella Fitzgerald, an extraordinary Jazz vocalist with the nick name The First Lady of Song. contains three albums: The Best of the Songs Books, The Best of the Song Books: The Ballads and Love Songs and The Best of the Verve Song Books.

Songs in this collection include: Something’s Gotta Give, Love Is Here To Stay, Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, Oh, Lady Be Good!, It Was Written In The Stars, I’m Beginning To See The Light, The Man I Love, Prelude To A Kiss and more!

Here’s a link to request the Best of Songs Books CD set:
https://goo.gl/rbDGJi

IV: Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups:

Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke Live Twistin’ the Night Away 1963

Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come (1964) HD

Ray Charles:

Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rEsVp5tiDQ

Ray Charles – What’d I Say LIVE

James Brown:

James Brown – Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag – I Feel Good

James Brown – I Got The Feelin’

Bonus YouTube Video Clip Suggestion: Cream Members Hanging In 1993
This video clip has nothing whatsoever to do with Soul Music – just the fact that I didn’t clear out my browsing history since the last time I went to YouTube! And that was last week, when I went to look for video clips for the final Blues Rock posting in our 2017 series! So today, I went to YouTube and was treated to a bunch of suggested videos that all relate to Blues or Blues Rock. And one of those videos is a fun 8 minute clip of the members of Cream rehearing a bit and just hanging out prior to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1993 – when they were inducted in to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame – here’s a link to that clip which is titled Cream reunites at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rehearsal – 1993:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOVRU5Ijw3s

V. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation Of The Week:


Hard Hitting Songs For Hard-Hit People Compiled by Alan Lomax, Notes On The Songs by Woody Guthrie, Music Transcribed & Edited & With An Afterward By Pete Seeger.

And wow, what a long title for a great book! As you might expect this book is a folk fan’s favorite! It features many historical protest songs from the early twentieth century, with an emphasis on songs of the nineteen thirties, including several written by Guthrie himself. And the songs chronicle the hard times of the working class experienced during that era. The book was put together by the great musicologist Alan Lomax. The book even has a preface written by Woody’s daughter Nora so if you like folk music and folk songs this is a great book to peruse as it offers a bit of history interspersed with dozens of classic folks songs that Lomax helpfully put into categories. The categories include: Hard Luck On the Farm, You’re Dead Broke, So You’ve Got To Hit The Road, And You Land In Jail, Old Time Songs From All Over and more! Selected songs from the collection include: The Boll Weevil, The Farmer Is The Man, Seven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat, Collector Man Blues, No Job Blues, Starvation Blues, The Old Chain Gang and 66 Highway Blues.

Here’s a link to request the Hard Hitting book:

https://goo.gl/8GEY28

VI. General References & Artist Specific References:

General References:
Ella Fitzgerald Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ella-fitzgerald-mn0000184502/biography

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

Sixties Rock: A Listener’s Guide by Robert Santelli (Contemporary Books. Chicago. 1985.)

Recommended Artists Specific References:

James Brown & His Famous Flames / James Brown
https://goo.gl/d3RH7l

James Brown Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger
https://goo.gl/v5Yg80

James Brown, the ‘Godfather of Soul,’ Dies at 73 By JON PARELES. DEC. 26, 2006. Accessed April 4, 2017.
https://goo.gl/oaGsk6

Ray (Original Soundtrack) AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
https://goo.gl/zdqyP7

Ray Charles Biography by Richie Unterberger
https://goo.gl/WPbl1E

Ray Charles, Bluesy Essence of Soul, Is Dead at 73 By JON PARELES and BERNARD WEINRAUB. JUNE 11, 2004. Accessed April 4, 2017.
https://goo.gl/xAiFQ1

Sam Cooke Biography by Bruce Eder
https://goo.gl/VpM3fJ

Sam Cooke’s Family Approves Biopic Focusing on Singer’s Murder
https://goo.gl/rh10kp

Sam Cooke Biography Songwriter, Singer (1931–1964)
https://goo.gl/Q6rwO

Music: 1964: Sam Cooke dies under suspicious circumstances in LA
https://goo.gl/v4dgCr

SAM COOKE SLAIN IN COAST MOTEL New York Times – December 12, 1964. Accessed April 4, 2017.
https://goo.gl/gvnBpJ

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713.

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and including our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York. Library cards are free and at our library you can obtain one by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features both your name and your current address.

Daily Print & Digital Suggested Reads: Friday, April 7, 2017

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.

Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:

The Watchman: Joe Pike Series, Book 1 by Robert Crais:

At last, the enigmatic partner of Elvis Cole (The Two Minute Rule) takes center stage in this pulse-racing thriller. When Joe Pike is charged with safeguarding a wealthy heiress, he discovers protecting the sole witness to a crime is nothing compared to protecting an LA party girl from her own self-destruction…

Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Then suddenly she sees another car’s metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident and, dazed, finds herself the single witness in a secret federal investigation.

For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But in doing so she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the US Marshals and the finest security money can buy can’t protect her, Larkin’s wealthy family turns to the one man money can’t buy―Joe Pike.

Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He’s an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep the uncontrollable Larkin alive.

Pike commits to protecting the girl, but it becomes clear someone in their circle is selling them out. Taking matters into his own hands, Joe drops off the gird with Larkin and follows his own survival rules: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises, Pike’s biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life…and love.

Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/286900

And our physical format suggestion for today is the print book:

Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar:

“A must-read about an American patriot whose courage and determination will have a lasting impact on the future of our Armed Forces and the nation.”—Senator John McCain

On June 29, 2009, Air National Guard major Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar was shot down while on a Medevac mission on her third tour in Afghanistan. Despite being wounded, she fought the enemy and saved the lives of her crew and their patients. But soon she would face a new battle: to give women who serve on the front lines the credit they deserve…

After being commissioned into the U.S. Air Force, MJ Hegar was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, finished at the top of her class, then served three tours in Afghanistan, flying combat search-and-rescue missions, culminating in a harrowing rescue attempt that would earn MJ the Purple Heart as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device.

But it was on American soil that Hegar would embark on her greatest challenge—to eliminate the military’s Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which kept female armed service members from officially serving in combat roles despite their long-standing record of doing so with honor.

In Shoot Like a Girl, MJ takes the reader on a dramatic journey through her military career: an inspiring, humorous, and thrilling true story of a brave, high-spirited, and unforgettable woman who has spent much of her life ready to sacrifice everything for her country, her fellow man, and her sense of justice.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

https://goo.gl/UBxMDR

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

April Finding Voice Program – The Women’s March & The Movement

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, just a quick FYI the next program in the Finding Voice series, The March And The Movement, will be held in the Community Room at the library on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

Here’s additional info:

Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Time: 5:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Location: Southeast Steuben County Library Community Room

The March & The Movement: Ann Madigan Campbell, Louise Richardson, Trecelle Sweet & Debra Kerwan, all organizers of local bus trips that took people to the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, will speak about the reasons they organized the trips, why they went to Washington and where they see the new Women’s Movement going from here.

An open mic forum will follow, offering all attendees to pose questions, concerns or observations related to this topic and other topics that attendees would like to discuss.

“Finding Voice” is designed to be a safe space for all voices. A series co-hosted by the League of Women Voters of Steuben County & The Southeast Steuben County Library.

Join us – everyone is welcome!

For more information on this program, or The Finding Voice series, contact Linda Reimer at the library, by phone: 607-936-3712 x 212 or email: reimerl@stls.org

You may also sign up to receive emails regarding upcoming Finding Voice programs by sending a request email to: southerntierfindingvoice@gmail.com

Please feel free to forward, print and share this information!

Have a good day,
Linda Reimer
Southeast Steuben County Library

Daily Print & Digital Suggested Reads: Thursday, April 6, 2017

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.

Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:

An Obvious Fact: Walt Longmire Mystery Series, Book 13 by Craig Johnson:

In the 12th novel in the New York Times bestselling Longmire series, Walt, Henry, and Vic discover much more than they bargained for when they are called in to investigate a hit-and-run accident involving a young motorcyclist near Devils Tower
Craig Johnson’s The Highwayman is now available from Viking.

In the midst of the largest motorcycle rally in the world, a young biker is run off the road and ends up in critical condition. When Sheriff Walt Longmire and his good friend Henry Standing Bear are called to Hulett, Wyoming—the nearest town to America’s first national monument, Devils Tower—to investigate, things start getting complicated. As competing biker gangs; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; a military-grade vehicle donated to the tiny local police force by a wealthy entrepreneur; and Lola, the real-life femme fatale and namesake for Henry’s ’59 Thunderbird (and, by extension, Walt’s granddaughter) come into play, it rapidly becomes clear that there is more to get to the bottom of at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally than a bike accident. After all, in the words of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Adventures of Sherlock Holmes the Bear won’t stop quoting, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2504491

And our physical format suggestion for today is the book:

Ice Diaries: An Antarctic Memoir by Jean McNeil:

What do we stand to lose in a world without ice?

A decade ago, novelist and short story writer Jean McNeil spent a year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, and four months on the world’s most enigmatic continent — Antarctica. Access to the Antarctic remains largely reserved for scientists, and it is the only piece of earth that is nobody’s country. Ice Diaries is the story of McNeil’s years spent in ice, not only in the Antarctic but her subsequent travels to Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, culminating in a strange event in Cape Town, South Africa, where she journeyed to make what was to be her final trip to the southernmost continent.

In the spirit of the diaries of Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, McNeil mixes travelogue, popular science, and memoir to examine the history of our fascination with ice. In entering this world, McNeil unexpectedly finds herself confronting her own upbringing in the Maritimes, the lifelong effects of growing up in a cold place, and how the climates of childhood frame our emotional thermodynamics for life. Ice Diaries is a haunting story of the relationship between beauty and terror, loss and abandonment, transformation and triumph.

Here’s a link to StarCat to request the book:

https://goo.gl/4c8Qgg

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Print & Digital Suggested Reads: Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.

Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:

Moon Chosen–Tales of a New World by P. C. Cast:

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the House of Night series, P.C. Cast, brings us a new epic fantasy set in a world where humans, their animal allies, and the earth itself has been drastically changed. A world filled with beauty and danger and cruelty…

Mari is an Earth Walker, heir to the unique healing powers of her Clan; but she has cast her duties aside, until she is chosen by a special animal ally, altering her destiny forever. When a deadly attack tears her world apart, Mari reveals the strength of her powers and the forbidden secret of her dual nature as she embarks on a mission to save her people. It is not until Nik, the son of the leader from a rival, dominating clan strays across her path, that Mari experiences something she has never felt before…

Now, darkness is coming, and with it, a force, more terrible and destructive than the world has ever seen, leaving Mari to cast the shadows from the earth. By forming a tumultuous alliance with Nik, she must make herself ready. Ready to save her people. Ready to save herself and Nik. Ready to embrace her true destiny…and obliterate the forces that threaten to destroy them all.

Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2589574

And the physical item for today is the print book:

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Thomas M. Nichols:

People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and by increasing access to every level of education. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.

As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement.

Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy-or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age.

Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the book:

https://goo.gl/9ReyGY

You can also requests books simply by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Pew Cyber Security Quiz

Hannah of SSCL

We heard of this excellent Cybersecurity Knowledge Quiz given by the Pew Research Center and we want to share it with you and your friends:Cyber


http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/cybersecurity-knowledge/

 

For the quiz results, visit:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/22/what-the-public-k
nows-about-cybersecurity/

Thanks to our assistant director and Southern Tier Library System for bringing this quiz to our attention!

Daily Print & Digital Suggested Reads: Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.

Our digital suggestion for today is the downloadable audiobook:

Island in the Sea of Time by S. M. Stirling:

It’s spring on Nantucket and everything is perfectly normal, until a sudden storm blankets the entire island. When the weather clears, the island’s inhabitants find that they are no longer in the late twentieth century…but have been transported instead to the Bronze Age! Now they must learn to survive with suspicious, warlike peoples they can barely understand and deal with impending disaster, in the shape of a would-be conqueror from their own time.

Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/198640

And the physical item for today the print book:

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan:

A landmark work of science, history and reporting on the past, present and imperiled future of the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes―Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior―hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.

For thousands of years the pristine Great Lakes were separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the roaring Niagara Falls and from the Mississippi River basin by a “sub-continental divide.” Beginning in the late 1800s, these barriers were circumvented to attract oceangoing freighters from the Atlantic and to allow Chicago’s sewage to float out to the Mississippi. These were engineering marvels in their time―and the changes in Chicago arrested a deadly cycle of waterborne illnesses―but they have had horrendous unforeseen consequences. Egan provides a chilling account of how sea lamprey, zebra and quagga mussels and other invaders have made their way into the lakes, decimating native species and largely destroying the age-old ecosystem. And because the lakes are no longer isolated, the invaders now threaten water intake pipes, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure across the country.

Egan also explores why outbreaks of toxic algae stemming from the overapplication of farm fertilizer have left massive biological “dead zones” that threaten the supply of fresh water. He examines fluctuations in the levels of the lakes caused by manmade climate change and overzealous dredging of shipping channels. And he reports on the chronic threats to siphon off Great Lakes water to slake drier regions of America or to be sold abroad.

In an age when dire problems like the Flint water crisis or the California drought bring ever more attention to the indispensability of safe, clean, easily available water, The Death and the Life of the Great Lakes is a powerful paean to what is arguably our most precious resource, an urgent examination of what threatens it and a convincing call to arms about the relatively simple things we need to do to protect it.

Here’s a link to the request page in StarCat:

https://goo.gl/k9XPnj

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Print & Digital Suggested Reads: Monday, April 3, 2017

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.

Our digital suggestion for today is the streaming video:

The Congress (2012):

Ken Burns profiles a durable American institution in his elegant, penetrating portrait of the U.S. Congress. Narrated by David McCullough, the film uses historic footage and interviews with “insiders” David Broder, Alistair Cooke, and Cokie Roberts to detail the first 200 years. The film chronicles careers of notable members and charts the continuing growth of the Capitol building, in readings from diary entries, letters, and famous speeches.

Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/778568

And the physical item for today is the print book:

Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority by Steve Phillips:

* NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER * Despite the abundant evidence from Obama’s victories proving that the U.S. population has fundamentally changed, many progressives and Democrats continue to waste millions of dollars chasing white swing voters. Explosive population growth of people of color in America over the past fifty years has laid the foundation for a New American Majority consisting of progressive people of color (23 percent of all eligible voters) and progressive whites (28 percent of all eligible voters). These two groups make up 51 percent of all eligible voters in America right now, and that majority is growing larger every day. Failing to properly appreciate this reality, progressives are at risk of missing this moment in history–and losing.

A leader in national politics for thirty years, Steve Phillips has had a front-row seat to these extraordinary political changes. A civil rights lawyer and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Phillips draws on his extensive political experience to unveil exactly how people of color and progressive whites add up to a new majority, and what this means for U.S. politics and policy. A book brimming with urgency and hope, Brown Is the New White exposes how far behind the curve Democrats are in investing in communities of color–while illuminating a path forward to seize the opportunity created by the demographic revolution.

Here’s a link to the request page in StarCat:

https://goo.gl/vr5Olv

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.