Category Archives: Reference

Using Books to Deal With Tragedy

In a world where it seems at times that there is more tragedy than good, people sometimes turn to books for comfort and understanding.  A recent article from Galleycat highlights books and online resources to help families explain tragedy to children.  Another article from The Guardian’s Helen Humphreys lists her top ten books on grieving and how each book can relate to different types of grief experiences.   Perhaps, having the right book at a very wrong time is just what is needed to make things a little bit easier.

Introducing the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

On April 18, the first beta version of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will be launched.  What is the DPLA?  In simple terms, it is a network of comprehensive online resources that draws on the nation’s living heritage from libraries, universities, archives, and museums to provide broad access to educational resources. “In its first iteration, the DPLA will combine a group of rich, interesting digital collections, from state and regional digital archives to the special collections of major university libraries and federal holdings.  The DPLA will demonstrate how powerful and exciting it can be to bring together our nation’s digitized materials, metadata (including catalog records, for instance), code, and digital tools and services into an open, shared resource.”  For much more in depth information from Library Journal on the DPLA, click here.