Dragon's Pages

Spotlight: Thankful for our pages

As Thanksgiving draws near it is important to take the time to stop and think about the things we are thankful for. I'm thankful for 60 degree weather in November, the new John Ajvide Lindqvist novel I  downloaded on my nook, the well deserved break we all get next week, and of course the pages who work so hard in the library. They cover the box loads of books we get all year, label everything that needs labeling, work at the desk assisting fellow students, reshelve our books and so much more! They are a wonderful assett to the library and we are grateful for all their hardwork. Thanks Pages!!

  
Tatianna W. '11 searches our online catalog.                Ale B. '12 expertly covers a paperback book.

 

Shelby D. '13 helps us type up spine labels.

Spotlight: Bhutan gets a second library!

The tiny country of Bhutan recently opened its second library in the village of Ura. Bhutan is a tiny country sandwiched between China and India and sits high in the Himalayan mountains. It is one of the few places in the world that has  avoided western influences and globalization. The non-profit organization Read Now helped to open this small library, and was met with mixed reactions. Some think the library is a wonderful resource for the villages children, while some parents fear that the books will be ruined and they will have to pay for them. Read Now is hoping to open more libraries across the country over the next year. Check out the entire article here  and watch the video of the new library.

                                     

Spotlight: Information Literacy!

I just found out that October is National Information Literacy Awareness month! Who knew?! So for all of you avid researchers out there (especially all you Skills 9 students) rest assured that there is now a month dedicated to being information literate. Check out what President Barack Obama says about information literacy in his proclamation from last October.  

                                                                                

Spotlight: Celebrate Banned Books

It's that time of the year again! It's Banned Books Week (Sept. 25th-Oct. 2) Time to celebrate our freedom as readers and pick up a banned or challenged book. Every year ALA (American Library Associaton) compiles a list of books that have been banned or challanged in schools and libraries. Can you believe people are still trying to get books banned?! Some of you may be familiar with books that have been banned or challanged, they might even be your favorite book! Making the top ten list this year are (drumroll) TTYL by Lauren Myracle (taking the number one spot on the banned books list!) Some other popular titles on the list include My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky and the ever popular Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. Some other classics (and personal favorites of mine) include Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. Come on down to the library and check out the Banned Books display. Better yet, read a banned or challenged book and find out why some people don't want you reading them.

 

Spotlight: Reunion!

This weekend the library has been transformed into a giant museum filled with memorabilia, architectural models, movies, pictures, and cool facts about Dana Hall over the years.  For example, did you know that in 1970, Dana Hall participated in an exchange with then all-boys school St. Paul's?  I didn't!  Members of this class (and many more!) will be celebrating their reunion right here on campus this weekend.  Activities in the library and with the archives this weekend include "Dana Through the Decades," a discussion and afternoon tea with Caroline Erisman our terrific Head of School (Friday, June 18th 2:00-3:15pm), and a historical trolley tour of Dana's buildings and houses (Friday, June 18th 3:30-4:30pm).  The library and archives will be open until 5pm tonight, and from 9am-4pm on Saturday.  Here are some pictures of how we have redecorated the library for this weekend: 

 This weekend, be as cool as these ladies (aside from their obvious coolness, it is very hot and we've got AC!) and stop by the library to take a look at your old yearbook picture!  If you weren't able to make it (we'll miss you!), but still are interested in seeing some of the photos from our archives, check out The Digital Quilt, our online archive! 

Spotlight: Graduation Tent 2010

As I've said in earlier posts, we have prime real estate, scenery-wise!  Today's show was the assembly of the giant graduation tent.  Every year, I am completely amazed and amused by how unbelievably quick the crews get that behemoth standing.  This year, in the interest of both science and interest, we photographed the process from our library windows in fifteen minute intervals.  The supremely scientific findings below:

June 9, 2010 11:45AM EST

June 9, 2010 12:00PM EST

June 9, 2010 12:15PM EST

June 9, 2010 12:30PM EST

 
June 9, 2010 12:45PM EST

A close up of the tent:

I mean - call me crazy, but putting up a huge tent in just an hour is pretty impressive!  We really do have some of the best views on campus!  Scientifically speaking, of course.

Spotlight: Most popular movies 2009-2010

If you have ever set foot in the Dana Hall library on a Friday afternoon, you probably already have a good idea of how popular our DVD collection is.  For those of you who haven't, just take a look at the lifetime checkouts on some of the items on the list and think about when those movies came out on DVD (hint: we're talking a year to three years ago for many of them!).  Finally, this list only shows how many DVDs were officially checked out - not how many times they were seen in the library! 

The moral of the story: Dana Hall loves DVDs. 

Most Popular Movies at Dana Hall 2009-2010

Rank	Title	Call #	Checkouts 2009-2010	Lifetime checkouts
1	The Jewel in the crown	VIDEO F JEW v. 1-4	18	24
2	Rent	VIDEO F REN	15	20
3	Sydney White	VIDEO F SYD	12	12
4	The Reader	VIDEO F REA	11	13
5	She's the man	VIDEO F SHE	11	26
6	21	VIDEO F TWE	10	10
7	The Notebook	VIDEO F NOT	10	48
8	A History of European art	VIDEO 709.4 HIS v.1-4	10	10
9	Sunshine Cleaning	VIDEO F SUN	9	9
10	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.	VIDEO F CSI	9	19
11	10 things I hate about you	VIDEO F TEN	9	47
12	Love Actually	VIDEO F LOV	9	9
13	The Duchess	VIDEO F DUC	9	9
14	The Hurt Locker	VIDEO F HUR	9	9
15	17 again	VIDEO F SEV	9	9
16	Shakespeare, the animated tales	VIDEO 822.33 H SHA	9	9
17	Mad Men	VIDEO F MAD	9	9
18	Little Dorrit	VIDEO F LIT	8	9
19	Hannah Montana	VIDEO F HAN	8	8
20	Jefferson's blood	VIDEO 973.46 JEF	8	20

Spotlight on: Most popular nonfiction 2009-2010

And now for the most popular nonfiction books in the Helen Temple Cooke library during the 2009-2010 school year.  Drumroll please...

Most Popular Nonfiction Books at Dana Hall 2009-2010

Rank	Title	Author	Call #	Checkouts 2009-2010	Lifetime checkouts
1	Searching for Hassan	Ward, Terence	955.05 WAR	6	6
2	Sharon and my mother-in-law	Amiry, Suad	956.9542 AMI	5	5
3	Seize the story	Hanley, Victoria	808.02083 HAN	5	5
4	The cardinal's hat	Hollingsworth, Mary	282.092 HOL	5	5
5	Events that changed Germany	Thackeray, Frank W.	943.08 EVE	5	6
6	The competent woman	Barnett, Rosalind C.	155.633 BAR	4	4
7	Producing fashion	Blaszczyk, Regina Lee	746.92 PRO	4	4
8	911	Cart, Michael	810.8 NIN	4	4
9	Columbine	Cullen, David, 1961-	373.7888 CUL	4	4
10	How to attract the wombat	Cuppy, Will, 1884-1949.	814.52 CUP	4	5
11	Dancing in the dark	Dickstein, Morris.	973.91 DIC	4	4
12	Century of struggle	Flexner, Eleanor, 1908-	305.490973 FLE	4	6
13	The Purposes of pleasure	Hawley, Richard A.	613.8 HAW	4	4
14	Hispanic American struggle for equality	Jensen, Jeffry, 1950-	305.868073 JEN	4	4
15	America's war on drugs	Johnson, Joan (Joan J.)	363.45 JOH	4	5
16	Anastasia	Kurth, Peter.	947.08092 KUR	4	7
17	Drugs in America	Long, Robert Emmet.	363.45 DRU	4	6
18	The Oxford history of the British Empire	Louis, William Roger, 1936-	909.0971241 OXF v.4	4	4
19	Hispanic Americans	McCaffrey, Paul, 1977-	305.8968073 HIS	4	5
20	Contemporary world architecture	Pearman, Hugh	724.6 PEA	4	11

Spotlight: Most popular fiction titles 2009-2010

The following list shows which fiction books were checked out the most in the past year.  Have you read any of them?   If not, being checked out a lot generally means something is a good book (in librarian language!).  

Most Popular Fiction Books at Dana Hall 2009-2010

Rank	Title	Author	Call #	Checkouts 2009-2010	Lifetime Checkouts
1	The help	Stockett, Kathryn	F STO	8	8
2	The sea of monsters	Riordan, Rick	F RIO	6	10
3	When you reach me	Stead, Rebecca	F STE	6	6
4	Elsewhere	Zevin, Gabrielle	F ZEV	6	21
5	The Hunger Games	Collins, Suzanne	F COL	5	9
6	Along for the ride	Dessen, Sarah	F DES	5	5
7	13 little blue envelopes	Johnson, Maureen	F JOH	5	7
8	The evolution of Calpurnia Tate	Kelly, Jacqueline	F KEL	5	5
9	The Titan's curse	Riordan, Rick	F RIO	5	9
10	The Last Song	Sparks, Nicholas	F SPA	5	5
11	A girl made of dust	Abi-Ezzi, Nathalie	F ABI	4	4
12	The lost symbol	Brown, Dan	F BRO	4	4
13	Don't judge a girl by her cover	Carter, Ally	F CAR	4	4
14	Catching fire	Collins, Suzanne	F COL	4	4
15	Lock and key	Dessen, Sarah	F DES	4	9
16	Loving Frank	Horan, Nancy	F HOR	4	8
17	Greetings from planet Earth	Kerley, Barbara	F KER	4	4
18	Dirty little secrets	Omololu, Cynthia Jaynes	F OMO	4	4
19	Half broke horses	Walls, Jeannette	F WAL	4	4
20	Love & lies	Wittlinger, Ellen.	F WIT	4	4

Spotlight: Return your library materials by Friday!

Friday is the last day to return your books, movies, video cameras, Kindles, laptops, CDs, books on tape, etc. etc. etc.

We do it a bit early so we can make sure we've got everything we started with back in September. 

Most importantly, students, you'll want to return your checked out items by Friday to avoid being billed for replacement costs.  (That's a conversation you don't want to have to have with Mom and Dad to start off your summer vacation, trust us!)

Thanks!