Quill Book Awards
 “Is
that Elmo over there with Erica Jong?” Such was the whispered gossip on
October 11, 2005, when the Quill
Book Awards hosted its inaugural celebration. Established by The
Quills Literacy Foundation as its flagship event to draw attention to
the literacy crisis facing the United States (see the National Endowment
for the Arts’ 2004
Reading at
Risk report), the Quill Book Awards are the veritable Oscars of
the publishing world.
A first in many ways – first televised, first voted on by the public –
the Quill Awards leverages media to get the word out: through
television, co-sponsored by NBC; through the Internet, with special
features on MSNBC.com; and bolstered by corporate sponsors, Borders
Books and Barnes & Noble.
Through the media coverage, by involving the public and with the
association with celebrities — other attendees, besides the
aforementioned Muppet and feminist, included Jon Stewart, Kim Cattrall
and Deepak Chopra — these awards bring a new attention to publishing and
literacy that just isn’t accomplished by the Pulitzers or the Man Booker
Prize.
Voting begins for the second annual Quill Book Awards on August 22, when
the nominees are announced, through September 30. The public can weigh
in on their favorites from 20 categories, including Debut Author,
Graphic Novel and Book of the Year. Winners will be announced on October
10th in New York City. The Quill Awards television special will be
carried on the 14 NBC-owned stations and via syndication on Saturday,
October 21, 2006.
View a list of other
award
winning books.
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Elvis Quiz
 Elvis
Presley died on August 16, 1977, and now every year thousands
mark the middle of August as Elvis week, which is celebrated
both at Graceland and beyond. Elvis is recognized throughout
the world, has sold more albums than anyone else world
wide, and his home has been recently designated a
National Historic Landmark. While you might be able
to name a few Elvis songs, and even hum a few, how much do
you really know about the legend?
- Elvis lived most of his life in Memphis, Tennessee, and was influenced by the
different styles of music there, but he wasn’t a native to Memphis.
Where was Elvis born?
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Tupelo, Mississippi
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Elvis made his debut on January 28, 1956. On which show did
he appear?
- The Steve Allen Show
- The Tonight Show
- Stage Show
- The Ed Sullivan Show
- How many number one hits did Elvis have?
- 100
- 9
- 42
- 18
- Elvis made 31 films as an actor. His first film is also the name of his
fifth number
one song. Can you guess what it was?
- Heartbreak Hotel
- Love Me Tender
- Jailhouse Rock
- Blue Suede Shoes
- Elvis was notorious for giving away Cadillacs, but he took charitable giving
seriously. In 1961 he performed a concert with all the proceeds benefiting which memorial, igniting renewed interest in the fund
raising effort?
- The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor
- The Mississippi Veterans Memorial
- The Thomas Jefferson Memorial
- The Red Cross Memorial
- Elvis only performed in one other country outside the United States. Which
country did Elvis grace?
- Canada
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Elvis died on August 16, 1977 and shocked the world. Where was Elvis when he died?
- Backstage in Las Vegas
- On tour at Madison Square Garden
- Home at Graceland
- In Hawaii
Information from
www.elvis.com
Answers to
this quiz can be found at the bottom
of this newsletter.
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could It Get
Any Hotter?
 Actually,
yes. August is one of the hottest months in south Texas, but it could
get even hotter in the coming years. While climate change is part of the
earth’s natural cycle, the increasing temperatures in the last 50 years
are happening at an accelerated rate due to human activity.
The greenhouse effect is a natural one. Carbon dioxide and other gases
emitted from activities on earth get trapped by the atmosphere, creating
a planet with mild temperatures that make it habitable. The problem is
that excessive burning of fossil fuels, combined with deforestation, is
increasing our output of these gases at an unnaturally rapid rate.
Fossil fuels are burned by driving a car or truck, cooling and heating a
home, and from powering factories. These three activities combine for
98% of the carbon dioxide emission in the United States, the leading
producer of carbon dioxide emissions.
The 10 hottest years on record happened in the last 15 years, with 1998
being the hottest ever recorded. With these changes happening now and in
the future, ice caps melt and sea levels rise. Extreme weather,
including flooding, drought and fires, will be more prevalent. These
changes in the long run can irrevocably alter our forests, crop yields,
coastal areas, wildlife habitats and our water supply.
Things you can do to help reduce global warming:
- Be aware of your energy footprint.
- Reduce, reuse and recycle!
- Buy household products with the Energy Star label.
- Drive an energy conscious car, or take public transportation.
- Eat locally produced food.
- Switch to fluorescent light bulbs (which also last longer!).
- Dry your clothes in the hot Texas sun.
- Turn it up! Turn your thermostat up just a couple more degrees in
the summer.
- Plant a tree.
- Insulate your home, tune up your furnace and turn down your water heater.
For more information, please visit the
Environmental Protection Agency.
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FEATURED
Database |
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Some Day We'll Find
It, The...
Why are there so many books about mystery-solving cats? Fiction
Connection can’t answer that question, but it can point you toward
approximately 800(!) titles to satisfy your curiosity about the
sub-genre.
This reader’s advisory tool – provided by R.R. Bowker, “the
global leader in bibliographic information management” or, as I like
to think of them, “the ISBN guys” – is an essential aid to anyone
interested in fully exploring literary genres or who need an answer
to the question, “What do I read next?”
One strength that sets Fiction Connection apart from other
reader’s advisory products is the Aquabrowser – a visual search of a
bibliographic database that shows alternate searches related to the
original search. The Aquabrowser displays a word cloud of
relevancy-ranked terms, related foreign words, spelling variations,
and synonyms that upon a click, re-sorts the title list with the new
preferred search. In short, the Aquabrowser enables the user to flit
over the landscape of fiction metadata like a bee going flower to
flower.
Even without this visual search tool, Fiction Connection’s use of
other refining criteria – genre, location, setting, timeframe,
character traits, reading level, award, topic, and media mentions –
offers a helpful a la carte approach to selecting a title.
When in doubt, or if you’re in a hurry, there is always the “find
similar” button.
Once you have found what you are looking for, you can email the
results (to yourself or a friend) for later viewing. Because each
title in a set of results is one click away from the SAPL catalog,
it’s a snap to find your next read and immediately place a hold.
Fiction Connection also links to several online retailers if you
prefer to buy the book.
Currently, coverage of titles only goes back to 1997, but Bowker
intends to extend this further back. While the publisher includes
some older titles and classics, a quick search of popular classic
fiction (Jules Verne, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allan Poe, Harper Lee)
sometimes ended with no results or with incomplete authors’ canons.
You may want to complement this tool with other reader’s advisory
databases, such as the SAPL-provided Novelist, or librarything.com.
Our
databases are available at your library branch or from your home
computer.
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We urge you to call your library before heading out for a special
program. Although we verify all information, cancellations do
occasionally occur. |
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