Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

New York’s renowned Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has digitized a bunch of its out-of-print publications and made them available on its website–for free! Many of the books are exhibition catalogs from the ’50s and ’60s, but there are several fairly recent publications as well. The books can be accessed in multiple formats via the Internet [...]

Crossword puzzle dictionaries are a staple in most reference collections.  Two of the most popular are the Random House Webster’s Crossword Puzzle Dictionary (Random House Reference, 2006) and The American Heritage Crossword Puzzle Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2003).  As helpful as they are, they don’t always have the answer to every cruciverbalist’s query.  OneAcross.com is the [...]

Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University began the Legacy Project  eight  years ago.  He and his researchers have interviewed more than  1,500  people over seventy.  They were asked about life experiences, both positive and negative, and how these experiences have enriched their life.   The answers, some with video, are divided by broad topics – love and marriage, [...]

Epicurious and TasteBook have both digitized Random House cookbooks.  Cooks who already have an Epicurious recipe box may add to it through seventy-five digitized cookbooks.  The cookbooks are copied so they appear exactly as they look in hard copy.  Books cost from $10 to $25 dollars and may be previewed before purchase.  Once purchased they [...]

Skyandtelescope.com is the web site for the magazine of the same name which has been published since 1941. The web site has “This Week’s Sky at a Glance” which is a good resource to discover what you may see in the clear night sky.  On Saturday of this week (December 10) there will be a [...]

Reviews of new magazines that ultimately will be included in the next edition of Magazines for Libraries are now available online.  Here is the link where you sign up for the reviews:  http://www.serialssolutions.com/magazines-for-libraries.

Penguin Classics app is an annotated listing of  “the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.” So wherever you are you may find annotations for over 1,400 classics.  Searching is by author and title with additional searching by subject, genre, time period and region.  Looking for fiction in the 20th century in Boston [...]

With Thankgiving on Thursday no doubt there are a few nervous cooks who have NEVER COOKED A TURKEY!  If you know of someone who needs assistance, Butterball.com is the site.  First there is the Holiday Planning Guide – fresh or frozen turkey, how long to thaw, how many pounds, the method of cooking, how long [...]

The following is from the blog “Table Hopping” written by Steve Barnes.  It appears in the Times Union (Albany NY). Table Hopping Eat, drink and be candid By Steve Barnes | E-mail | About Table Hopping Thanksgiving by the numbers November 17, 2011 at 11:26 am by Steve Barnes, senior writer Some stats, courtesy the [...]

The Feline Health Center is one many useful websites produced by Cornell University.  A general information page gives cat owners ideas about choosing and caring for a cat, health hazards, etc. There is additional information on aging, cancer and other health issues, behavior, spaying and neutering and of course nutrition and weight control.  Both online [...]

The Wirecutter.com is a new site with the sub-title “the list of best gadgets.”  Brian Lam launched the site in September after stepping down from Gizmodo.com in June where he had been editorial director. The site has evaluations and recommendations of smart phones, cameras, laptops, televisions, tablets, wireless speakers, e-book readers, etc. that are all [...]

The 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty was last Friday, October 28 and a part of the celebration on Liberty Island was 125  people from 46 countries taking the citizenship oath and becoming citizens of the US.  Another exciting event was the launching of four webcams -  the torch, harbor, crown and Lady Liberty [...]

“Hold the world in your hand” begins the description of this app and that is what happens.   Google Earth is  available on desktops but walking with the world in your hand is amazing. The app will zoom into the street view of your current location as well as in many other parts of the world.  [...]

Today is “Dictionary Day,” celebrating the “achievements and contributions of Noah Webster, the father of the modern dictionary.”  My favorite online dictionary is still Merriam-Webster.com but another good source is the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, a part of Yahoo/reference.  This is a clean site devoid of flashing advertisements, etc. which [...]

The Drudge Report has been around since 1997 and the simple design of the site has changed very little.  It is described as a “news aggregation” website.  The originator  is Matt Drudge who is considered a conservative but there are links to articles that provide a variety of news and opinions from around the world.  [...]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has just updated their web site.  There are now over 340,000 entries for paintings, sculptures, costumes and photographs in the museum many with images.  For the prospective visitor, floor plans of over 375 galleries  are clickable and zoomable.  There are suggested itineraries for a half day, [...]

After reading David Tyckoson’s recent blog on “Reference Sources That We Once Loved…,” it reminded me of one of my favorites, Taking Sides. For those of you who don’t remember or are new to reference (before the internet),  TS is a multi-volume set arranged by broad topics and then includes popular issues of the day [...]

…but no longer use. Each day as I walk to the reference desk, I see the bright red and blue colors of the spine of the Encyclopedia of Associations. That work is dear to my heart because it was one of the very first — if not THE first — reference source that I learned about [...]

Battery Go! Plus is an updated version of Battery Go.  It was free, but at the present time is $1.99. It is well worth the money for those who worry about battery life of their  iPhone, iPad, etc.  The app has questions about the device and usage habits of the owner – type of devise [...]

FEMA.gov (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has been in the news in the eastern US during the last week.  First there was the earthquake in Virginia which was felt  along the coast from Georgia to Massachusetts.  Then over the weekend hurricane Irene came up the coast devastating towns and cities in New Jersey, New York and [...]