Calling bird-lovers everywhere!

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology needs your keen eye and quick fingers! They have live cameras positioned at active bird nests all around the country. Since 1999, they’ve archived more than eight million images from these Nest Cams

To help sort through the images, they developed CamClickr—an online tool you can use to view the images and sort them into albums, then tag each image by the type of behavior you see: preening, eating, feeding chicks, etc.

What’s in it for you? NestCams allow you to peek into the nests of Barn Owls, bluebirds, Wood Ducks, and other birds for an up-close look at fascinating bird behavior. CamClickr will appeal not only to bird lovers, but to people who enjoy testing their skills with online games. When you help sort and tag the camera images, you collect points and compete for prizes such as binoculars, DVDs, books and posters. It's easy and fun!

Why do they need your help? By using CamClickr to help tag and sort the NestCam images, you help scientists studying breeding bird behavior. The more they understand about bird behavior, the better equipped they are to understand how birds are responding to threats in their environment.

Just visit www.camclickr.org to create an account. This allows you to chat in the NestCam forums, tag photos, and track your stats in CamClickr anytime. You can check your rankings in “my sessions” to see how you stack up against other taggers. The redesigned CamClickr home page also provides the latest Twitter feeds. You can even watch videos of fascinating nesting behaviors from the Lab's Macaulay Library.

Thanks for helping the birds!

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a membership institution interpreting and conserving the earth's biodiversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. Visit their website at www.birds.cornell.edu.

Be Your Own Film Critic

Do you ever wonder if a movie is worth seeing? Sometimes it's difficult to find a way to objectively review films, but there are some places that can help. A couple of good resources are the websites for MetaCritic or the American Film Institute. For children's films, you could try Kids First! or Parents' Choice. There are many more, but these can get you started on the path to being a great film critic, even if it's only for yourself and your family!

Diana LeBlanc, Reference

National Archives launches YouTube channel

Can't make it to DC? Let the National Archives come to you! To coincide with their 75th Anniversary, on Friday, the National Archives launched their very own channel on YouTube, the popular video-sharing website. They plan to showcase popular archived films, inform the public about upcoming events around the country, and bring National Archives exhibits to the people. Every week they will roll out a new film on one or more of its YouTube channel playlists. These include the following:


From the Archives to the Moon: This video playlist features footage from the start of the space race through the landing of a man on the moon.



Favorite Things: What’s at Your Presidential Libraries: Over a series of 14 videos, directors from 12 separate presidential libraries discuss their ‘favorite things’ from their respective Presidential Libraries including Air Force One and the famous rooftop staircase from the embassy evacuation in Vietnam.



Tracing World War II: Released in chronological order, these War Department reels follow American progress through World War II from the bombing at Pearl Harbor to Armistice.



Touring 1930s America: Combining well-crafted, first-hand accounts from the Great Depression and sweeping footage from the Department of Interior taken in the 1930s, this playlist guides viewers through Depression-era America.


For more information about the National Archives, visit www.archives.gov

Beautiful Boy: a father's journey through his son's addiction

I had heard about this book while watching Oprah interview David Sheff and his son as they related their story of his son Nic's struggle to overcome his methamphetamine addiction. In a way, it helped to have seen them both on television looking healthy and hopeful about the future because when you read the book it is hard not to feel discouraged about the outcome as Nic spirals downward into his addiction.

David Sheff writes with such clarity and feeling as he relates the early years of raising Nic, who he describes to be a very bright, thoughtful, out-going and by all outward appearances, happy boy growing up in California. Though his parents are divorced when Nic is three, both father and mother are careful to give him love and attention and to provide what they perceive to be a healthy environment for his personality to flourish.

David's gradual awareness that Nic is using drugs comes about very slowly as he and Nic both deny the seriousness of his growing addiction. Sheff has done a very thorough job of relating the latest research on methamphetamine and, using his skills as a researcher, has sought out as much information as he can get to try to understand how the drug works on the brain.

...drug users often binge and increase their dosages in an attempt to recreate the initial high, but for meth addicts, with the depletion of as much as 90% of the brain's dopamine, it's no longer possible. As with many drugs, the dopamine deficiency causes depression and anxiety, but it's often far more severe with meth. This compels the user to take more of the drug, causing more nerve damage, which increases the compulsion to use - a cycle to both addiction and relapse. (p.133)

Based on his experience with Nic in repeated relapses and recovery, he is able to give advice to parents about how to proceed to get help for a loved-one's addiction, though he is clear to say that every addict is unique and responsible for his own recovery despite how much a parent may want to help. It is an eye-opening and revealing story and finally a hopeful one.

Nic Sheff has written his own book called Tweak, describing his struggle to overcome his addiction. I need a breather before I delve into the story again...but I am sure I'll read it just to learn his perspective on the events in the story.

Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian

Download audiobooks to your iPod!

The new version of Overdrive means that you can now download mp3 audiobooks to your iPod or iPhone! You don't have to visit the library to use Overdrive. Just use your barcode and pin number to log in to Overdrive and download whatever you need!

Don't have an iPod? You can still download audiobooks to your computer and listen to them while you work, or burn them to CD to listen to later. Both the WMA and mp3 audiobooks can be played on non-iPod mp3 players. Many new titles are added each month!

Polaris Upgrade Complete

Good Evening,

The Polaris library system upgrade has been completed and all services have been restored. Everything is running well, however if you run into any problems, don't hesitate to let us know right away.

Thank you for your patience during this upgrade, we hope to see you in the library soon.

Best Regards,

Cindy Mazza
Reference & Adult Services Librarian

Polaris Upgrade Underway!

Today, June 10th, is the day our Polaris Library Information System is being upgraded. We are underway and so far things have been progessing well.

As we have stated in previous notices, there are limited services for patrons, but you still can come in and browse or ask any staff member for assistance finding books to check out.

Our public computers are still available to patrons and our databases can be accessed from within the library.

Once the upgrade is complete, we will post the details on our blog and website.

Any questions, don't hesitate to comment on our posting or contact the library.

Thanks for your patience,

Cindy Mazza

Reference and Adult Services Librarian
wmlref@wadleighlibrary.org
673-2408