Valentine's Day Quiz with Cinema Image Gallery

If you're looking for inspiration for some romantic movies this weekend, try a search in Cinema Image Gallery for romance, using the genre dropdown list.

That's what we did in compiling today's quiz, where we're asking you to name these romantic movies. The answers are all in Cinema Image Gallery, or you can wait until later today when we will tweet them. 

Stormy Friday quiz with Omnifile

Ejiri by Hiroshige Ando

With Australia being battered by storms and severe weather fronts sweeping across the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, today's quiz is all about storms. You will find all the answers to today's quiz in the Readers' Guide database in Omnifile (search for storms), or wait until later today when we will tweet them. 

(Pictures come from Art Museum Image Gallery.)

1) Before the private-sector organization AirDat began using its wallet-sized, airplane-mounted Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting sensors, how was atmospheric data usually gathered?

a) Weather balloons released twice a day.

b) Sensors on top of tall buildings and high mountain peaks.

c) Gases collected from rainwater.

2) According to Greg Carbin of the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma, what is considered "good advance notice" of where a tornado will strike?

a) It is impossible to give advance notice.

b) 2 - 3 hours.

c) 20 - 40 minutes.

Payaguas Indians of Paraguay scare off a hurricane

3) Which year of the 21st century saw an unprecedented number of storms during the Atlantic storm season, including 27 named storms, 15 hurricanes, 3 Category 5 storms, and the most intense storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin?

a) 2005

b) 2001

c) 2009

4) What is a lahar?

a) A glacier that is suddenly melting due to climate change.

b) A massive debris flood that can make changes to the landscape.

c) A large boulder that has been dislodged by a storm.

5) When did meteorologists start assigning unique names to hurricanes?

a) The turn of the 20th century.

b) During the cold war.

c) World War II.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Wilson Omnifile

Firing crackers in honor of kitchen god

Celebrations for the Chinese Year of the Rabbit begin tomorrow, and Omnifile has a number of articles on the festivities that are sure to give you and your patrons some ideas for marking the occasion.

In an article from Yankee (January/February 2008), Boston restaurateur Joanne Chang offers a recipe for Chinese dumpling and soy dipping sauce, which is an ideal party food that is also sociable to prepare. For a Taoist approach to preparing a New Year's feast, find inspiration in an article from Sunset (February 2002), where a full  yin-yang menu including hot-and-sour soup, rock sugar ginger chicken, steamed sole with black bean sauce, stir-fried garlic lettuce, and steamed sponge cake is provided.

Rabbit by Nathan Oliveira

Remember that patrons can not only print out these articles to read, but also save them to an MP3 player to listen to at their leisure (they can opt for either a male or a female voice for the playback), which can be helpful when compiling a shopping list or cooking the recipes.

Those looking for some apt words for the occasion might consider a short speech from actor Nicolas Cage. After years of believing himself to have been born in the year of the dragon, he later discovered he was really a rabbit. You can read his whole speech in Los Angeles (January 2002).

(This entry is illustrated with pictures from Art Museum Image Gallery.)

Happy New Year!

Tennis quiz with Biography Reference Bank

This weekend sees the final of the Australian Open, one of the world's most renowned tennis tournaments. It's a truly international affair, with Scottish player Andy Murray taking on Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the men's final, and Belgian Kim Clijsters playing Na Li, the first Chinese player ever to reach a grand-slam final.

(These players, by the way, are well profiled in Biography Reference Bank.)

To mark the occasion, today's quiz will be all about tennis, with the answers available in Biography Reference Bank or later today in a tweet.

1. On September 6, 1975, my request for asylum in the U.S. was granted, and although I had a rocky year in 1976, I bounced back in 1977 to bcome the first female tennis player to earn $100,000 in one year. Who am I?
a) Evonne Goolagong
b) Martina Navratilova
c) Andrea Jaeger

2. I was born in the U.S., but my father was an Armenian who boxed for Iran in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Who am I?
a) Andre Agassi
b) Ivan Lendl
c) Boris Becker

3. In January 1997, at the age of 15 years 11 months, I became the youngest person ever to compete in the Australian Open. Who am I?
a) Llayton Hewitt
b) Sebastian Grosjean
c) Tim Henman

4. In addition to having won numerous singles and doubles titles, including the 2002 Australian Open Women's Doubles prize, I also speak six languages and am a classically trained pianist. Who am I?
a) Anna Kournikova
b) Ana Ivanovic
c) Daniela Hantuchova

5. A pioneer practitioner of power tennis, I was the first player to win the Grand Slam: Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. Who am I?
a) Arthur Ashe
b) Don Budge
c) Gene Mako

Downton Abbey and Costume Dramas on Cinema Image Gallery

In its 40th year on PBS, Masterpiece has scored another critical and popular hit with Downton Abbey, the story of those who lived and worked above and below stairs in one of Britain's great houses at the beginning of the 20th century.

Everyone loves great costume drama. It makes for excellent entertainment and can be a great teaching tool too. So, to mark this popular movie and television form, today's quiz asks you to name these classic period dramas. All the answers can be found in Cinema Image Gallery, or you can wait till later today when we will tweet them.

ALA Midwinter quiz with Biography Reference Bank

In honor of ALA Midwinter's recent gathering in San Diego of librarians, administrators, library service providers, and other members of the library community, our quiz this week is all about librarians.

All the answers are in Biography Reference Bank, or you can wait till later today when we will tweet them.

1) Born November 4, 1946, I was working as a librarian at Dawson Elementary School in Austin, Texas, when I agreed to a first date with the man who would later become my husband and president of the United States. Who am I?
a) Hillary Clinton
b) Michelle Obama
c) Laura Bush

2) Born July 19, 1904, I was president of the Special Libraries Association in its 50th year (1958-1959) and greatly expanded the activities of the library of the American Iron and Steel Institutes. Who am I?
a) Margaret Fuller
b) Ellen Mac Gregor
c) Flora Belle Ludington

3) Born May 9, 1906 I was a librarian and writer of children's books, many of which I also illustrated, including The Moffats and The Hundred Dresses. Who am I?
 a) Anne Carroll Moore
b) Julia Gunther MacKaye
c) Eleanor Estes

4) Born December 23, 1937, I worked in libraries for 25 years before becoming a full-time children's author. I have published over 60 books including Things that Sometimes Happen and the serial Keep Your Eye on Amanda. Who am I?
a) Dr. Seuss
b) Avi Wortis
c) Thornton Burgess

5) Born April 7, 1816, I was a lexicographer and bibliographer known for my Critical Dictionary of English Literature, published in three volumes from 1858 to 1871. Who am I?
a) Samuel Austin Alliborne
b) George Shields
c) Carl Hastings Milam

6) Born May 7, 1892, I won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, 1953, and again in 1959, and I served as a Librarian of Congress. Who am I?
a) Ronald Brunless McKerrow
b) Archibald MacLeish
c) George Henry Moore

North Korea allows screening of British soccer movie Bend it Like Beckham

On Friday, December 31, the Guardian newspaper reported that the British soccer movie Bend it Like Beckham had become the first foreign movie to be screened on North Korean television. The version shown was heavily edited, with a running time of just one hour instead of its original 112 minutes, but the decision shows how the North Korean love of soccer and leader Kim Jong-Il's love of movies have combined to give North Koreans a rare glimpse of the outside world.

Kim Jong Il, from Biography Reference Bank

Wilson Omnifile features a number of articles about North Korea, including one (from New Republic, 2004) written by a Hong Kong-based journalist who gained unprecedented access to North Korean residents because he played soccer for Beijing Celtic, a team of expatriates working in China, and the team was invited to North Korea to play in a 2004 tournament. The database also features an article (from Macleans, 2010) about Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's fascination with North Korea and his invitation to the North Korean soccer team to train in Zimbabwe ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, an in-depth article (from Foreign Policy, November/December 2009) about the challenges facing the North Korean leadership in the near future, and many more. Subscribers can search using a variety of keywords, including North Korea soccer, Kim Jong Il, and use the Content Discovery Keys to broaden their search without losing their original focus.

The lobby card for Bend it Like Beckham is just one of 21 images for this movie in Cinema Image Gallery, and you can also find detailed biographies of Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung in Biography Reference Bank.