Category: EBRPL Cool

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine!

The Wayback Machine allows you to view archived web-pages preserved just as they were on the day they were published.  Want to see CNN.com on August 24, 2000? EBR Library homepage on December 7, 2000? You can! It’s a trip down memory lane and it’s pretty cool to see the difference in quality of webpages from then compared to now. 

There are over 150 billion pages you can look at dating back to 1996. It’s great fun, unfortunately you can’t go back and recover the time you may waste browsing around the Wayback Machine!

Police Box

Periodic Table of Videos

This site is both weird & wonderful. The University of Nottingham has created a series of videos to compliment the elements in the periodic table.

Periodic Table of Videos

Some of them are informative, some instructional, and some don’t discuss the element at all, but rather the person the element was named after. These videos are pretty cool, take a look!

Color Chart: Reinventing Color

Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is a journey into the use of color in art. The works of forty-four artists including Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol are presented in luminous high quality.  Each image is accompanied by a description of the piece and details of its background (also available in audio).

The collection can be browsed by timeline, artist or by medium. The mediums represented include photographs, sculptures, installations and paintings. It’s a fascinating and vivacious online exhibit. Enjoy!

MoMA

Ways Patrons Used the Library After Hurricane Gustav

In times of crisis, access to good information is critical. In the days and weeks after Hurricane Gustav blew through the Baton Rouge area, patrons turned to the library for their needs. Here are some of the questions we answered and services we provided.

  • Patrons wanted to know if we were open and had Internet access so they could check their email.
  • Patrons were calling about the status of Hurricane Ike (coordinates, projected path, local wind speeds). We turned to the National Hurricane Center website and Weather Underground for up-to-date tropical weather information.
  • A patron called wanting to know which hotels in Baton Rouge were “FEMA approved”. FEMA approved hotels in Baton Rouge can be found at this website: FEMA Evacuee Hotel List.
  • Patrons wanted to know where they were on the Entergy power restoration map.
  • Patrons wanted to know how to apply for emergency food stamps.
  • One patron was looking for murder mysteries to watch since their cable was out. We showed her the series we have on DVD: Inspector Morse, Miss Marple, Murder She Wrote etc.
  • Patrons wanted to know where they could get MREs and tarps in Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes. Information about MREs and tarps, along with a lot of other information could be found at http://emergency.louisiana.gov/.
  • Patrons have wanted to use our computers to apply for FEMA aid and to check on the status of their applications.
  • A patron who evacuated to Mississippi was traveling through Jackson to come back home. But she desperately needed to find a Chik-Fil-A in Jackson. We found two and gave her the phone numbers and addresses. (Everything doesn’t have to be an emergency, does it?)

New Main Library in the Park Concept Plans

After numerous meetings and workshops over the past few months, three site concept plans have been developed for the new Main Library in the Park. The library invites you to view each plan and to make comments and observations about them.

Click on the link to find the site concept plans and other items relating to the new Main Library in the Park.

Main Library in the Park Concept Plans

Main Library in the Park Concept C