Down Under: Florida

If you are into Genealogy and live in the Tampa Bay area this video may be of interest to you. It is set in the Oaklawn Cemetery of Tampa Florida. There are also inside shot of the History and Genealogy Department of the John F. Germany Library.

POTUS and New World Book Interface

In case you have not had time to look over the Databases and Websites page lately I wanted to point out two helpful tools. POTUS http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ free website for Presidents of the United States has been add to several pages. You can find it under the free links on the Education, Biography, and History pages. Hope this helps with your kids when doing reports. Also we recently added a new additional interface in the World Book Online Reference Module. It is the World Book Advanced interface . When you get to the main page you will then select Advanced interface in the right corner.

This is a great addition for your older students going up through the first two years of college. It give you primary and secondary source content in one interface and also allows you to build your own bibliography right off the page. Check it out I think you will be impressed.

Tina
Reference Coordinator

Online Training Videos

Did you know that you can watch training and instructional videos online through the Databases & Websites section of the library's Webpage?

The Auto Repair Reference Center (in the Home & Auto subject guide) has hundreds of car repair and mantenance videos. Click the AutoIQ tab for a complete list.

The Health & Wellness Resource Center ( in the Health & Medicine subject guide) has brief information al videos on health and medical provided by Healthology. You can get a complete list by clicking Related Topics in the Health Highlights section.

eLibrary (in the Fast Facts subject guide) also has many video and audio clips from educational and news broadcasts on a wide variety of topics. Make sure to have the Audio/Video box checked before you do a search.

You can also find plenty of "how to" instructional videos on the Web. Some of the best sites include: Expert Village, Wonder How To, eHow and TeacherTube.

Take a look at Mashable.com's list of the 10 Best Palces to Find How-To Videos.

New in Oxford Reference Online

The latest update to Oxford Reference Online includes four superb titles, containing plenty of fascinating and scholarly content, focusing mainly on quotations and world history and politics.
There are two new titles — The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics and The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations — which both contain outstanding content, boasting comprehensive and authoritative coverage of Australian political life and thought, and a rich array of American quotations.

There are also two new editions — The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and A Dictionary of Contemporary World History.

Three fantastic new Timelines have been added to Oxford Reference Online as well --Settlements of North America, The American Revolution and The American Civil War. These provide a chronological account of events in North America from 1200 BCE to 1877, with each moment linked to an entry in a trusted Oxford reference titles.

You can find Oxford Reference Online as part of the library's collection of Databases & Websites on the library's Website - hcplc.org.

Financing College

Many students in their last semester of high school have the same question, “Where do you want to go to college?” Parents are usually asking, "How are we going to pay for this?"

In the last ten years the average cost of tuition and fees has risen by 57% at private four-year colleges and 69% at four-year public colleges These figures from the College Board may have you feeling a little light-headed, but the costs can be managed thanks to the power of compounding interest.

Since every family’s situation is different, you’ll need to find a savings method that works for you. In doing so, you’ll want to consider factors like your tax bracket, child’s age, how much financial aid you expect to receive, etc. Then, you can use these helpful college financing calculators to figure out how much you’ll need to save.

Once you’ve determined this figure, you need to decide on a savings vehicle. In addition to mutual funds, brokerage accounts, and bank savings accounts, there are also some tax-advantaged alternatives available to help.

Here are some options:
-529 Plans
-Prepaid Tuition Plans
-College Savings Plans
-Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
-Custodial Accounts
-Savings Bonds

And remember you don’t necessarily have to save for the entire four years. Grants, loans, and scholarships can help make affording college a little easier.

Here are some resources to get you started:

For Students
-Studentaid.ed.gov
-Students.gov
-Student Educational Resources from USA.gov
-FastWeb.com

For Parents
-Parents’ Educational Resources from USA.gov
-Fact Sheet: College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007

Don't forget to check out the Education subject guide on the Databases & Websites section of the Library's Web page - hcplc.org. Also, check out some of these books at your local library on financing college and scholarships.

This information was reposted from Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog.

Ask A Librarian Goes Mobile!

You don't just need a librarian when they're sitting in front of your computer. You need us when you're driving across the state, or ordering dinner in a restaurant, or playing Trivial Pursuit with friends.

We proudly introduce Ask a Librarian Mobile, which allows you to access Ask a Librarian from your cell phone, PDA or any other Web-enabled handheld device.

We’ve been working hard to take our service to the next level, and we're excited to offer just one more way for you to take advantage of our valuable service right when you need us. Currently, only our email service is available through Ask A Librarian Mobile.

The URL for the mobile interface is http://www.askalibrarian.org/mobile/ or http://www.askalibrarian.org/m.

Our next step is to implement the live chat service. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Here's some Ask A Librarian Mobile FAQs.