New & Noteworthy @ WHPLibrary

Of the numerous tempting offerings on the Library of Congress's list of Digital Collections, a favorite of ours is "The National Jukebox" featured under the listing "Early Sound Recordings."

This ever expanding collection rests on its original foundation of 10,000 recordings made between 1901 and 1925. As you ready yourself for a journey back in time, be sure to turn up the volume on your computer! Sounds of the past are at your disposal as you make your selections from lists of music, comedy routines, historic speeches, dramatic scenes, monologues and more.

What a great way to imagine what it felt like to be alive in America 100 years ago! For example, you can hear the actual voice of William Howard Taft discussing the important political issues of his presidency. Waste no time. Go to www.loc.gov/jukebox/ and dive into history the fun way.

We'll be back next month with more on this subject.

(This article was written by M.Cole)

The first United States Census was conducted on August 1, 1790. At that time, there were 3,939,326 people living in the 16 states and Ohio Territory. The 2010 census shows 308,745,538 people living in the U.S.

Interested in genealogy? Want to find your ancestors in the census? Come to the library and use Ancestry Library Edition. You can also use HeritageQuest from home. All you need is your library card and a computer.

New books are available by bestselling authors C.J. Box and Douglas Preston.

In Back of Beyond, by C.J. Box, we meet Cody Hoyt, a brilliant cop who is an alcoholic struggling with sobriety when his AA sponsor Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like the suicide of a man who's fallen off the wagon, but when Cody takes a closer look at the scene of his friend's death, it becomes apparent that was murder. When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a wilderness horseback trip into Yellowstone National Park - a trip that includes his son Justin - Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild.

Cold Vengeance, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, is the 11th book in the Pendergast series. Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution. As he stalks his wife's betrayers - a chase that takes him from Scotland to New York City to Louisiana - he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past. And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own murder. Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy goes back generations and is more monstrous than he could have imagined - and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, may be a horrific lie.

You may reserve these or any other books by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

New bestsellers are now available by W.E.B. Griffin, Julie Garwood and Linwood Barclay.

Victory and Honor, by W.E.B. Griffin, is the sixth book in the Honor Bound series. Just weeks after Hitler's suicide, Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS find themselves up to their necks in battles just as fierce as the ones just ended. The first is political - with every department grabbing for its covert agents and assets. The second is on a much grander scale - the possible next world war, against Joseph Stalin and his ambitions. To get a jump on the latter, Frade conducts a secret operation, one of great daring - and great danger.

In An Ideal Man, by Julie Garwood, Dr. Ellie Sullivan has just completed her residency at a large urban hospital. While jogging in a park, she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of wanted criminals, a couple identified as the Landrys. Ellie is the only person to see the shooter's face. Agent Max Daniels takes over the Landry case. A no-nonsense lawman, he's not the ideal man that Ellie has always imagined, yet she's attracted to him. When Ellie heads home to Winston Falls, South Carolina, to attend her sister's wedding, Max Daniels arrives to tell her the Landrys have been captured and she'll be called to testify. But they've been captured before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence - or disappear before they can take the stand.

In The Accident, by Linwood Barclay, Glen Carver is left with a daughter to raise and a head full of questions when his wife dies in a drunk-driving accident - one that she caused. Sheila wasn't a drinker. Sheila wasn't even supposed to be on the road where she died. A conspiracy is forming around Glen, one that involves virtually everyone he knows, and makes him wonder how well he knew the woman he married. If Carver is going to find out what really happened to his wife, he's going to have to seek a truth that could get him killed.

You can reserve these or other books by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

Family Service League is offering a FREE
12-week computer literacy class to Nassau County Veterans. There are NO geographical or income restrictions associated with this class.

Students will be given instruction in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, keyboarding, and basic Internet applications that can be utilized in office positions. Whether you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate, or advanced student, do not hesitate to apply - your current skill level will help to determine the instructional level of the classes!

The classes will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from September through December from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kornreich Adult Computer Literacy Center in Roslyn. Upon successful completion of the class, students will receive a certificate of completion for the specified training course of study.

To register, or for more information, please call Lori Brennan at 631-427-3700, extension 302.

West Hempstead Public Library patrons who are travelers or appreciate history, architecture, and libraries should read the Sunday 7/31 NY Times article describing libraries in Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Prague, Seville and Vienna as great European sanctuaries.

History buffs will appreciate the nearly 900 year old Prague Strahov Monastery and Library

and the Paris Bibliotheque de France which was created in 1368 for Charles V's manuscripts. Travelers interested in the history of the discovery of the Americas will find the Seville Archivo General de Indias fascinating. Nearby in Seville they can also visit the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

Each library's architecture is worth a visit. The Austrian National Library in Vienna includes frescoed ceilings, marble statues and ornate bookcases while the Amsterdam Centrale Biblioteek is a beautiful 10 story structure built in 2007. The National Library of Ireland in Dublin has a domed ceiling and a floor mosaic with the motto "Sapientia", Latin for wisdom.

Libraries are always great places to visit while traveling, and as the article suggests, they are often free of crowds. So if you visit any beautiful libraries in Europe or elsewhere, be sure to take a few pictures where permitted and share them on our Facebook fan page.

This article was reported on by B.Koehler, with weblinks added by L.Joe.

Where would we be today without the IBM PC?

IBM introduced its first PC (Model 5150) on August 12, 1981. Its secret code name was 'Acorn" and it used a processor from Intel and an operating system from Microsoft.

Time Magazine that year named the computer "Man of the Year".

Come to the library to read more about computers.

We are all anxiously awaiting Hurricane Irene, by monitoring the National Weather Service and local news services, stocking up on batteries, and tying down our trash cans and lawn furniture!

We have been advised by our web hosting service that they are taking precautionary measures to minimize damage, so our library website (www.whplibrary.org) will NOT be in-service from 5 pm on Saturday, August 26 through sometime on Monday August 28, depending upon local conditions.

If you want to know if the library is CLOSED, please call us at 516-481-6591 and press #1 for the Hours. We will post a message on our answering machine. We will also post our status to the Events Calendar on our website and to Facebook and Twitter once our status is known. Remember that these services will only work if the electricity is running both at our location AND at the hosting service, so please be patient!

If you are calling to see if an adult or teen program has been CANCELLED, please wait until an hour or two before the scheduled start time, and ask for the Reference Desk 516-481-6591 x22. For children's programs, call x32.