Friday, February 26, 2010

Just in time for awards season: new additions to Cinema Image Gallery

If your library is planning any activities to tie in with this year's movie awards season, H.W. Wilson is here to help. Cinema Image Gallery is already bursting at the seams with posters, photos, and movie clips, and now we're adding 8,082 new images to the database.

Among the additions are

100 images from Twilight: New Moon
59 from True Blood
60 from Couples Retreat
47 from Avatar
47 from Where the Wild Things Are
47 from Sherlock Holmes
41 from Men Who Stare at Goats
39 from Invictus
39 from Nine
39 from Zombieland
36 from The Informant!
18 from Up In the Air
14 from District 9
 
Admittedly, some of these movies and shows are more award-worthy than others, but that just proves how all-encompassing the database is.
These new additions will be available to subscribers very soon. If you are already a subscriber, look out for them. Images like these are invaluable for patrons doing project work, looking for costume or interior design ideas, or just browsing for fun.
 
If you want to be a subscriber, why not try a free trial?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Presidents Day for Omnifile subscribers


Although Presidents Day was originally designed to pay tribute to George Washington, it has often been expanded in recent years to include other presidents, and some states have officially included Abraham Lincoln in Presidents Day.

An article in Scholastic Update, Teachers' Edition, from January 1998, suggests that alongside Washington and Lincoln, the holiday should honor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In your library:

Public libraries could run a poll to see which president their local community would like to see alongside Washington and Lincoln in the Presidents Day honor roll. One starting point for this project could be "A Leader From the Start," an article in U.S. News and World Report, June 2009. In this article, the writer discusses five presidents who have had the most far-reaching first 100-day periods in U.S. presidential history.

Elementary school libraries could take ideas from an article in the January-February 2007 edition of Instructor, in which teacher Trina Gunzel describes four of her favorite ideas for students to share what they have learned about Presidents Day.

And for other school libraries, the February 2008 edition of Arts & Activities has an article in which the writer outlines an activity that teaches mainstream and learning-disabled students and adults about the creation of busts throughout art history. The writer points out that holidays like Presidents Day are often over looked by art teachers, when in fact there is a wealth of presidential art material available.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Groundhog Day


Although Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania enjoys one of the country's best-known Groundhog Day celebrations every year, other towns and communities around the nation have also made the day their own.

For example, since 1988, when Lieutenant Governor Bill Nichol officially proclaimed Unadilla the Groundhog Capital of Nebraska, the stuffed groundhog Unadilla Bill has been proferring his annual weather prediction on the main street of that small town, and has become the centerpiece of the Groundhog Festival.

Unadilla's festival usually takes place on the first weekend of February every year.

According to an article in the February/March 2005 edition of National Wildlife, however, the idea that groundhogs, or woodchucks, emerge in early February to check the weather might be incorrect. A biology professor in Pennsylvania has suggested that instead, male groundhogs wake up in February to initiate bonding sessions with potential mates prior to emerging from hibernation completely in March.

The information in this article comes from Omnifile Full Text Select and General Science Full Text. The photo is from Cinema Image Gallery.