Movie Time

Do you want to find out more about Oscar-nominated films? Along with library subscription databases, the St. Louis County Library Research page has a curated list of useful websites, such as Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Fans of 2013's top movies can find a wealth of information from the library's home page.

Which Best Picture nominee received the highest rating from users of  IMDb? Was it American Hustle, Gravity, Captain Phillips, or Dallas Buyers Club? The highest rated film by viewers was Gravity with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Did you know that the movie is 90 minutes long, the same time that it takes the International Space Station to orbit the Earth?

IMDb also has links to biographical information for actors, directors, producers and others involved with films. An intrepid user can use IMDb to locate similar films to favorite ones ("People who liked this also liked" feature).

For those actors who are deceased, the database American National Biography offers authoritative biographies, along with a bibliography of books about the subject.  The listing for Bob Hope features nine book references and the date of his New York Times obituary. The database Biography Reference Bank features both living and deceased celebrities. The Historical New York Times database and the General OneFile and Masterfile Premier magazine databases allow for exhaustive research on a film or celebrity. With the library's tools at hand, the movie buff will impress all at Oscar time.

--Harry C., Reference

Personalized Reading List

In August, the Reference Department launched a new Readers’ Advisory service called Personalized Reading List for Adults. This service helps readers find the most suitable and most enjoyable reading materials to match their needs and interests. You can find the form on the left side of the “Books, eMedia, & More” webpage on the SLCL website.

The form lets you indicate genre, format, and page limit preferences, as well as tell us about your author and title likes and dislikes or other personal information that may influence your reading choices. An email address is required, but a library card number is not necessary. You will receive your customized reading list, of three to five titles, via email within a week.

So the next time you are looking for a read-alike for your favorite author, or want to explore a new genre, try our Personalized Reading List service.

--Peggy D. and Sarah S., Reference

LearningExpress Library

LearningExpress Library will soon be launching a new platform. The old platform will continue to work until June 30. You will not be able to access any practice tests, resumes, etc. that are saved in the old LearningExpress Library after June 30 date so be sure to save anything that you would like to keep.

Name: Tourist. Destination: Home.

My New Year’s Resolution is to explore the great city of St. Louis in 2014. There couldn’t be a better year than the 250^th anniversary of St. Louis’s birth to see what sights are in store. When I arrived home after living away for some years, I came back to a city in transition. The Grove sprang up overnight. Washington Avenue and downtown living was a reality. Food trucks took over Tower Grove Park. The Peabody Opera House was resurrected.

It’s impossible to go a weekend without finding something interesting to do in this town. Check out your local St. Louis County Library for free events and classes or take a guidebook home. Browse our collection of links to all things St. Louis under the topics: Art, Entertainment, and St. Louis. Some of my favorites include - 

• St. Louis Art - Links to galleries, artists, events and groups in St. Louis. This site does a great job breaking down art by medium, with links to artist websites, venders of fine art, and events throughout the year.
• Explore St. Louis - The official website of the St. Louis Convention and Visitor's Commission, this website features complete travel information for St. Louis visitors and resources and planning assistance for group tour planners and meeting planners.
• St. Louis Zoo - One of my favorite places to visit, this site has all the events and showtimes for the world famous St. Louis Zoo, complete with links to educational resources.

Join us in celebrating St. Louis this year by traveling your hometown! Meet me in St. Louis! For more information about STL250 events, visit the official site.

--Anna H., Jamestown Bluffs

ProQuest Digital Microfilm

Did you know that ProQuest Digital Microfilm provides instant, online access to digitized images of actual microfilm from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and New York Times? It is available through the Research link on the library homepage and the News, Sports and Weather subject guide or the Databases A-Z link 24/7. ProQuest Digital Microfilm provides cover-to-cover page images from both newspapers including all graphics, advertisements and other features of the print edition, but does not provide searching capability. You must select a newspaper (click on select at the top left of the page), then choose a year, month and day. When these are selected, the viewer automatically opens to page 1 of the issue selected. It is perfect to look up a story when you can recall the specific date. It’s like looking at the actual newspaper! It can also be used in conjunction with ProQuest Newsstand which indexes both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and New York Times to obtain the citation information needed to view specific page images. Pages can be viewed, image readability adjusted, downloaded in PDF or printed. You can view images from the newspapers from 2008 to present, with an approximate three to four month delay.

If you have any questions about ProQuest Digital Microfilm or any of the St. Louis County Library electronic resources, please contact the Reference Department at extension 2050.

--Maria D., Reference

Reference Quick Tip: American National Biography

--Tiffany D., Reference

Pulitzer, Carnegie and Caldecott - Oh My!

There are a number of literary awards given each year, so how do you stay on top of this  information? With the NoveList database, you can easily find award winning and notable books by award name or genre.

To get started, first go to Research from the library’s homepage. Then, choose Literature and scroll down to find NoveList Plus. On the right side of the NoveList home page, you will find a list of resources.  Award Winners is the first choice listed under Professional Resources. The most common awards are listed first; organized by materials for adults, teens and children.  You can view all award winning and notable book lists by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.  Lists are sortable by award name or by genre.

Since I am an avid horror reader, I wanted to locate great books in that genre. After navigating to the awards page, I selected “horror” from the genre list on the right side of the screen. Fortunately for me, there are 18 lists of award winning horror titles.  Not only was I able to read about each award, but I found several titles to sufficiently scare me the rest of the year!

--Stacey L., Reference