Phone Troubles

Some City of Takoma Park phone lines -- including the Library's -- are not working properly. If you call an office during Monday-Friday business hours and receive a continuous busy signal, please call 301-891-7100 and request to be transferred. Other city offices affected by the phone problem are: City Manager, City Clerk, Housing and Community Development, Finance, Information Systems, Recreation, and Communications. All Police Department and Public Works numbers are working normally. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope that our provider will resolve the problem soon!

Community College?

Tuesday, October 4th, 7 PM
Camille Scott, Montgomery College

• Why choose community college?
• Programs of study
• Student life
• Financial Aid
• Transfer opportunities

Please register now.
We offer these college orientation programs just once a year.

See also: The Maryland Transfer Advantage Program

Listen to a Good Book

This one is for adults, or almost-adults. Over a thousand streaming, unabridged audiobooks, no waits, no holds, unlimited simultaneous access for our library patrons. You just need a device with an Internet connection and a browser with a fairly up-to-date flash plug-in. Headphones or speakers of course.
The recordings are professional and come from some of the major audiobook producers. The emphasis is on classic literature, although you will also find non-fiction, children's books, and a substantial collection of books narrated in Spanish.

Feeling guilty because you never finished Moby Dick? Now you can listen to a great Blackstone recording. Bookmark your place because this is going to take a few days. (And protect your bookmark cookie.)

Hint: If a book doesn't start up very quickly, close it and start it again. Don't sit around waiting. It should only take seconds to start.

Mango

Little Pim is our language program for small children. Mango is our offering for adults and older children. Both are free for all our library cardholders.
When you enter Mango (the adult version) from our library site you will see a log in screen with three choices:

• enter with just your library card number
• create a profile so that in subsequent sessions you can just pick up where you left off
• log in with your e-mail address and password if you've already created a profile

Start by learning a bit of Pirate. That will show you how Mango works and what to expect. Look for the extras such as grammar hints or cultural tips.

Remember that you need to enter from our website. Bookmark our language page, not Mango itself.

You can use Mango for English practice. In addition to the current 34 languages offered (we aren't counting Pirate), separate English lessons are available for speakers of 26 languages.

Plug in a microphone to test your pronunciation...

Using a microphone with Mango:

1. Test to be sure your microphone is working. You may need to fiddle with your sound options.
2. When you see a little microphone icon to the left of a little speaker icon, click it. (If you are on a page that has a clock running, click on Show the Answer first in order to find the microphone icon.)
3. You then will see two rectangles, the top one "Narrator's Voice" and the bottom one "Your Voice".
4. Click the top one, the narrator's sample, first. We don't know why. We just discovered that this didn't work for us if we went straight to the red record button.
5. Then click on the red record button next to the bottom box (you may be asked to authorize recording the first time) and record your voice.
6. Now you can flick back and forth, comparing your pronunciation with that of the narrator. Yes, we know this is embarrassing and awful. Just be sure no one else is about.
7. You can replay the same page to try again, or go on to the next part of the lesson.

How to find out if your microphone is working:
Windows: start > all programs > accessories > entertainment > sound recorder
Press record, say something to the mike, look at the green box. Anything happening?
Mac: system preferences > sound > input tools
Select your microphone from the list. Say something and look for movement in the level indicator box.
Linux (Ubuntu): applications > sound & video > sound recorder
Did you find the red dot? Try it.

If nothing is happening, look at the plug. You should be using the red/pink one for a microphone, not the green one which is for your speakers or headphones. Or, if it is a USB microphone, be sure it is plugged into a USB port.

BTW, to modify your mike setting in Ubuntu try
system > preferences > sound > input
You may need to do this if you are switching back and forth between regular and USB microphones (don't ask). Windows has something similar in the control panel.

Our New Toys

Please experiment with these five online treasures. We are captivated, and hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.

Little Pim: Online language learning for very small children.
(see Karen's blog post.)


Mango: Language lessons for older children and adults.
(more information)


Tumblebook Library: Story books and more for children up through age 9 or so.
(please read the introduction)


Audiobookcloud: Great streaming audiobooks.
(more information)


Tumblereadables: Online e-books, primarily for middle and high students, large text and extra features.
(more information, more than you need)

All require a more-or-less up-to-date version of flash and an Internet connection. They work just as well on Linux computers/pads as they do on Windows and Macs.

The Friends of the Takoma Park Library has given us these 1 year test subscriptions as a gift. Thank you to:

— Everyone who donated books for the book sales, or came and bought them.

— Everyone who gave donations directly to the Friends of the Library.

— Everyone who played golf at the Morrisey Tournament or joined in the evening party. The Morrisey Tournament has been our biggest fund-raiser.