September is National Library Card Sign-up Month! If you don’t have a library card, there’s never a better time to get one than right now. All you need is a photo ID and a local address – a Baton Rouge driver’s license covers both! If your ID is from out of state or from another parish, you can also show a piece of mail that’s been delivered to you at a local address. Library cards are free, and with them, you can check out any of our physical items and access everything in our digital library. Sign up today!
Category: EBRPL Website
Website Design 101
Are you interested in learning how to build a website for fun or work purposes? Join other adults and teens at the Greenwell Springs Road Regional Branch at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 25, for a FREE two-hour workshop on website building led by Dr. Anjayi Anwansedo. A limited number of laptops will be provided by the Library, but attendees should feel free to bring their own.
Dr. Anwansedo formerly taught at Southern University as a computer science professor, and holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, as well as a Doctorate in Information Systems and science and math education. She introduced coding to the Boys and Girls Club of Baton Rouge, taught elementary school students during summer courses, and works as a coding instructor with local STEAM education and workforce development program the Futures Fund.
Registration is required. Please call the Greenwell Springs Road Regional Branch at (225) 274-4440 to register.
After the class, check out the library’s free computer programming resources to learn more: Treehouse! Hoonuit! Lynda!
Self-Publishing @the Library
Get that novel out of the drawer and self-publish it for free at the library!
We’ve got several electronic platforms that, individually or in concert, will be perfect for your creative brainchild. If you want to standardize your book’s digital formatting and make sure it reads the way you want, check out Pressbooks! You can upload a file or even just copy and paste what you’re working on, and export a shiny new file in the format of your choice when you’re finished.
From Pressbooks, you can send your book to SELF-e for publication in the library’s ebook collection! SELF-e is an ebook submission platform managed by Library Journal. It’s completely free to submit to, and if your book is selected for publication (almost all are), it will be included in the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Biblioboard collection. They’ve recently revamped the submission process to make it easier and more streamlined than ever!
Your book could even be chosen as 
a Library Journal Select Title,
meaning it would be shared with collections across the country – or anywhere a library has signed up for the Biblioboard service. We’ll be able to feature it in a variety of collections. You can use your profile on Biblioboard to grow your readership and support your new career as a published author!
Get started today!
Historical Software Collection
Visit the Historical Software Collection online and play PacMan the way it was made to be played – via a software emulator right in your computer browser!
SEE – the original 8-bit graphics in all their glory!
HEAR – the sounds of whatever early-childhood video game memories you’ve most been missing! We’re pretty partial to the Mario universe, but oh my gosh The Hobbit get out of the way —
This is just another of the wonderful projects brought to you by the Internet Archive. Check out all the weird things previous generations used to have to do to use computers! Experiment with old time management software! Try to write anything in green text on a black background! And then go and thank someone for the screen you’re using to read this document, you hooligans.
If you are one of the people who made this great age of technology possible, we thank you for your dedication. Godspeed.
Go play some video games!
Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers
Black Quotidian is an excellent resource for anyone interested in African American history and culture. Each day, a newspaper article from that date in history is posted from sources like the Atlanta Daily World, Baltimore Afro-American,Chicago Defender, and Philadelphia Tribune, along with summary of and short commentary on the events discussed or the period in history from which the article is taken.
While the articles tend to have a focus on historical events, particularly when the date has historical significance, curator Matt Delmont also includes human interest pieces on everything from beauty pageants to homecoming dances. The project is intended to bring attention to the depth and variety of information available through African-American newspapers and to encourage their use in the classroom. Articles are posted as PDFs and include any photographs published with the original issue.
Black Quotidian is a fascinating project worth investigating by anyone with an interest in history, culture, or journalism, particularly that with an African-American focus.
The Last Mission to the Moon
Man’s last mission to the moon was Apollo 17. The spacecraft launched on December 7th, 1972; all astronauts returned safely to Earth on December 19th. You can travel along with them at Apollo 17 in Real-Time, where all 300 hours of audio, 22 hours of video, and 4200 photographs have been released to the public.
Start off with the beginning of the launch, or join in wherever the playback is now. The interface looks like this:
The squares on the far right are images and videos that match the timestamps of the sound recording that’s playing, but you can click or scroll through as you like. You can follow along with the transcript, take a guided tour of the site and of the events, or read commentary on the mission.
This site is an amazing resource for anyone who’s ever looked up at the stars and wondered what it’s like to go to them. If space is what fuels your imagination, head to the library to check out items like these:
- In the Shadow of the Moon
- For All Mankind
- Cosmos (both the Carl Sagan and the Neil deGrasse Tyson versions)
- Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration
Treehouse Is Back!
Treehouse is available in our Digital Library again! In order to use this fantastic training resource, simply complete the form located under Treehouse in our Digital Library. If you used Treehouse through EBRPL in the past, you’ll still need to set up an account in the new system. Please contact 231-3750 or your local branch if you have any questions.
Open Data BR Launches
Digital Initiative Opens Public Access to City-Parish Data
Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden announced this week the launch of his new Open Data BR initiative, a state-of-the-art digital platform that will dramatically improve how the City-Parish approaches data management and digital engagement. Open Data BR – publicly accessible and downloadable today at data.brla.gov – is the first in a series of key digital initiatives highlighted in Mayor Holden’s recent State of the City address to provide a more transparent and accessible City-Parish government. “The launch of Open Data BR is a critical step toward growing a strong, vibrant digital economy here in Baton Rouge,” Mayor Holden said. “We believe this initiative will truly revolutionize how the public interacts with our City-Parish data.”
Previously, much of the data was kept in information silos within separate agencies, where public access was limited. The new initiative represents a targeted effort by all of the City-Parish departments to work together, reduce those data silos and embrace technology as a tool to make government more efficient, effective and accessible.
The first phase of the Open Data initiative, available today, includes data sets such as fire and police data, employee salaries and detailed property information. Additional data sets will be added to the platform while existing ones will be maintained and updated. “Our eventual goal is to create an open government at all levels by publishing each and every City-Parish data point that may be of public interest,” Mayor Holden said. The Open Data BR initiative, led by the Mayor’s Department of Information Services, also follows the recommendations in IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge Grant last year.
“When IBM sent in its team of experts to study Baton Rouge and recommend how to improve our internal operations, one of the main points they kept going back to was data – both improving how we manage our data and how we then support the public’s interaction with it,” said Interim Information Services Director Eric Romero. “While we were already working on this effort, IBM’s recommendations served as validation that we were on the right track.”
Over the past year, Romero and his staff studied a number of other cities that are leaders in the “open data” movement, including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Raleigh. In many instances, software developers in these areas have used this new level of access to data to produce applications with a civic or public-sector focus.
“We believe this initiative will serve as a catalyst to engage the software development community to leverage our data – provided at no cost to the public – and work with us to develop technology-based solutions to public-sector problems,” said Romero.
In other cities, developers have utilized data from a number of public sources such as new building permits and new business licenses to build websites that are useful for new residents or new businesses. Other applications use city data to track which streets have been cleared of snow during major snow events. In Baton Rouge, similar technology could be used during emergency situations such as heavy rain, icy road conditions and hurricanes, when knowing the real-time availability of key roadways can mean the difference between life and death.
EBRPL on Social Media
Start the new year off right and follow EBRPL on social media! You’ll get to hear all about the latest and greatest going on around the parish. Not to mention all the cool kids are doing it.
Check us out on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. We’d love to hear from you too – just remember to use #ebrpl!
North Platte Canteen Online Exhibit
Have you ever heard of the North Platte Canteen? The Canteen began in North Platte, Nebraska, on December 17, 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 17, 1941, families and friends of the local Nebraska National Guard unit (Company D) came to the North Platte Depot to give them their Christmas presents, and then blossomed into one of the largest volunteer efforts of World War II.
The North Platte Canteen met its first troop train on December 25, 1941, and met every single troop train that passed through the town thereafter, greeting an estimated six million soldiers throughout the war. Townspeople from all around the state gave their ration cards to the cause, volunteering their time, preparing food for the soldiers, and giving anything they h ad all to ensure that each train carrying American troops was greeted with friendly faces and free food, magazines, and coffee.
The Lincoln Historical Society has a great online exhibit dedicated to this heartwarming chapter in American history. Check out Bob Greene’s book Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen from the library for more on this amazing volunteer effort.
