Tuesday, November 21, 2006

BookNews

The Tom Green County Library System has introduced BookNews, a new online service for readers. This new reader's advisory service gives readers access to free electronic newsletters about a wide variety of books via the library system's newly-revamped Web site, www.tgclibrary.com, or delivered directly to their e-mail address.

Readers can access the service via the BookNews link from the home page of www.tgclibrary.com, and select the newsletters they wish to read. They can also elect to receive the monthly newsletters via e-mail on the 15th of each month.

Readers can select electronic newsletters based on genres, including new fiction, new non-fiction, mystery, classics, business books, home and garden books, and science fiction books. The newsletters are also categorized by books that have received awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize for History and a newsletter about works for children that have received the Caldecott Medal for illustration. Other categories include age (such as books for children and teens), large-print books, audio books and other interests.

The newsletters include reviews, descriptions and author commentaries. Links within the newsletters take subscribers directly to the Tom Green County Library System catalog, so they can easily see if a title is available at their local library or anywhere in the library system.

BookNews is just one feature of the system's new Web site, which features a number of other services. The site provides access to full-text articles in thousands of magazines and newspapers, selected Internet sites for research, electronic books from NetLibrary, the "Ask a Librarian" online reference service, and more.

For more information on library services, contact the Tom Green County Library at (325) 655-7321, see the reference staff at any Tom Green County library, or visit the library system's Web site at www.tgclibrary.com.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Love to Read Books, But Just Can’t Find the Time?

The librarians at Tom Green County Library have just discovered the secret for finding the time to read a good book again…and they’re just itching to tell you about it.

The Tom Green County Library has gone high-tech and they’re now offering the latest, hottest idea for people who want desperately to read, but just can’t find the time. Tom Green County Library delivers portions of books to you in your email. Each day, Monday through Friday, the library emails subscribers a portion of a book that takes about 5-minutes to read. By the end of the week, subscribers have read two to three chapters from the book and if they like it, they check it out of the library. New books are featured every week.

There are 11 book clubs to choose from. Something for every age and taste: Fiction, NonFiction, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Good News, Horror, Business, Teen, and Audio books (that you can listen to in your email) and a special sneak preview Pre-Pub Club that lets you start reading books that aren’t even published yet.

You don’t even need a library card to sign up and start reading. Library Director Larry Justiss says, "This service makes it easy for people to get back into the habit of reading. It’s fun, it only takes 5-minutes-a-day and the books are delivered to you right in your email. At your home, work or even in your PDA."

Texas Heritage Online

Texas Heritage Online provides unified online access to Texas' historical documents and images for use by teachers, students, historians, genealogists, and other researchers.

You can learn about the Texas Heritage Digitization Iinitiative, a cooperative project to identify, describe, digitize, preserve, and make broadly accessible special collections of history and culture held by archives, museums, historical societies, and uther institutions in Texas.

Texas Heritage Online is available at above link or from the Library Database page on the web.