Rijksmuseum Digital Collection

The Rijksmuesum in the Netherlands hosts some incredible pieces of art from Dutch Master artists such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. Fortunately for us, you no longer have to travel all the way to Amsterdam to see them with the Rijksmuseum Digital Collection.

On the Rijksmuseum Digital Collection you can search and browse by artists, subjects and types of work. The images are high-resolution and the zoom function allows you to see incredible detail. It’s fascinating to be able to zoom in to the point where you can see brush strokes and small deterioration with age.

After setting up a free account on the site you can create your own online gallery collection by selecting different works. You can also download images and share your collection.

Download Videos from Overdrive

Did you know that we have almost 1300 videos available for download through Overdrive? Part of this collection is a large catalog of PBS titles.  Video titles are always available, which means no waiting lists!

Overdrive videos include documentaries, music, feature films, short films, TV shows, instructional videos, and children’s collections. All you need to do is download the Overdrive Media Console and you can even transfer videos to supported mobile devices.  Here are a sample; check Overdrive for more.

Top InfoGuides of 2012

The results are in and these are the top ten most visited InfoGuides. Not sure what InfoGuides are? They are a wide variety of subject guides highlighting library resources, links, contacts, media and books. Take a look!

Get Started With Overdrive 30,437 visits
Sights and Sounds: DVDs, Blu-ray, Music & More 25,323 visits
Genealogy 10,832 visits
Main Library Construction Project 7792 visits
Find A Good Book 6260 visits
About Baton Rouge & EBR Parish 5561 visits
Government 4547 visits
Genealogy Databases 3849 visits
Arts & Culture visits 3203 visits
Great Reads For Teens 3160 visits

InfoGuides Homepage

History of Scotlandville High School

By Peggy Carter.

This past school year, the students from a class at Scotlandville Magnet High School were assigned the task of writing the history of their school. They soon discovered that there was very little written information about their school. So Pamela Donaldson, a Library Technician who works with the Black Heritage Room at the East Baton Rouge Parish Scotlandville Branch Library, and Elva Jewel Carter (Peggy), the Reference Librarian at Scotlandville Branch Library, decided to research the subject so that we would have some written history about the school. We decided to create an InfoGuide on a useful topic.

We gathered information from a variety of sources: newspapers, newspaper archives, books, and people. It took a long time to get all the information and check for accuracy since the school began in 1952 and changed many times to fit the needs of the community. Scotlandville Magnet High School started as a junior high school, evolving into a junior/senior school, a senior high school, a magnet high school and finally a three-tier school with educational programs for magnet and community students as well as an engineering curriculum.

The final result of our research can be accessed through this The History of Scotlandville High School InfoGuide.

Scotlandville High School Info

Healthy BR

HealthyBR.com has a mission “To identify and coordinate efforts aimed at healthy living and an active lifestyle into a unifying commitment to better health.”

The site is broken down into areas of focus, for example sections on healthy eating, projects, and being physically active. There is also a section listing local health services.

A great feature on the site is the calendar, which has a listing of healthy activities and related events taking place around the city. It makes getting involved much easier, from free exercise classes to getting healthy food from the farmers market.

A really valuable resource promoted on the site is MedLineBR, a 24-hour hotline staffed by registered nurses. They can provide free, quick and easy medical advice, suggest treatment options and refer callers to physician offices.

The MedlineBR phone number is 225-765-6906.

Gris Gris Archive 1973-79

Want to relive your misspent youth? Check out our newest local history database, the Gris Gris Archive 1973-79 (the golden years of Gris Gris). In it you’ll find articles and commentary about BR, state politics, the people and the events that made Baton Rouge one of the coolest cities in the South. Yes, BR really WAS cool back then.

Revisit the stores where you shopped (remember the General Store?), the concerts you went to (Rolling Stones!!!), and the people (hippies) who were making news. The Gris Gris Archive is an exciting blast from the past and great fun to read if you spent your high school and college years in Baton Rouge. Check it out, man.

Gris Gris

Author Focus: Jen Lancaster

by Louise Hilton

Jen LancasterNeed a break from holiday preparations? Curl up with one of Jen Lancaster’s books for a good laugh. Covering everything to adjusting to life in the big bad city (Chicago, for the record) to her hilarious year-long attempt to introduce culture into her life (think a little less Real Housewives and a few more nights at the opera), her memoirs are not to be missed.

Try Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office, her cringe-inducing true-life account of how she went from earning a six-figure salary to being evicted from a low-rent apartment in a span of two years.

Her other books include Bright Lights, Big Ass:  A Self-Indulgent, Surly Ex-Sorority Girl’s Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who Are All These Idiots and Why Do They Live Next Door to Me? and My Fair Lazy; One Reality Television Addict’s Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black; Or, A Culture-Up Manifesto, as well as a novel called If You Were Here.

Her latest memoir, Jeneration X; One Reluctant Adult’s Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It’s Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner, is another hit. She also has a new novel, Here I Go Again, coming out in January, so be sure to check your local library for it.

I recommend Jen Lancaster for fans of Celia Rivenbark, Jenny Lawson, and Laurie Notaro.

For more on Lancaster, visit her at http://www.jennsylvania.com/.

Jeneration X My Fair Lazy Pretty in Plaid