Ordinary Time

With our trips to Windermere and Manhattan behind us, it's back to the daily round for the foreseeable future.  Work and the chores & comforts of home.  Sunrise, sunset.

It's been cool and clear for weeks here.  I am having to water the plants and keep the bird bath and outside water dishes topped up.  Hurricane-like weather has been bowling up the east coast this year, with very little to speak of in the Gulf.  The acorns are dropping and the squirrels are feasting.

High school History Fair projects are keeping us busy this week.  The students' project proposals are due very soon.  They must name both book and journal sources.  The books are soon gone, and I confess I am almost always disappointed when I show them our Gale journal databases.  I helped students today who wanted material on suffrage legislation for African Americans after the Civil War, and on the Equal Opportunity Employment provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  A co-worker had a request for material about the currency debate in the Gilded Age.  A couple of good sites for American History:  The American Memory Project at the Library of Congress, and the American Heritage magazine archive.

Internet use seems to be heavily weighted toward job searches and school enrollment.  It is tough out there, and we are helping people with all kinds of applications, for school and jobs, as well as for public assistance.  I've demo'd our Learning Express test prep database to a lot of people this week.