Louisiana Libraries

Did you know that according to the latest Light Stream Home Improvement Survey, 58 percent of Americans poured money into home improvement projects in 2018 and that more people are willing to pay $5,000 to $10,000 on loans and credit cards to beautify their homes?

Do you want to conduct do it yourself home improvement to your own home to save money? The Union Parish Library lets patrons have access to the Home Repair Reference Center. They offer a link to the Home Repair Reference database at http://www.unionparishlibrary.com. 

Click on links and arrow down until you are able to click on Home Repair Reference Center. That link will take you to web.ebscohost.com. These services can be accessed from the Union Parish Library or you can access it at home as long as you have your library card number to log in. 

Once you get to the page, there are four links: A to Z Topics, Decorating, Electrical, Maintenance, Outdoor Plumbing, Remodeling and Woodworking.

A to Z topics lets a patron select anything such as above cabinet lightning to automatic water shutoff valves where you can click on above-cabinet lighting to install above cabinet lights. It gives four directions on how to install the lights, but always remember to turn the power off to the circuit! My favorite A to Z topics is How to Install a Vanity because it looks very interesting to do! Installing a vanity has five directions on how to do it which can save a person money. 

Decorating lets you click on accessories where you can build an arbor, brick barbecue, cobblestone fountain, fire pit, garden pond, raised garden and wash tub fountain. My favorite is raising a garden bed because I love fresh fruit and vegetables! You will need a saw, stakes, string, timbers, nails, landscape, fabric, galvanized roofing, topsoil, plantings, mulch and wood sealer protectant.

Kitchen has remodeling advice for cabinets, countertops, designing and planning fixtures, painting and wall covering. Electrical lists the basics of wiring, circuit layouts and wiring diagrams. I really like the common mistakes to electrical circuits which includes rust being found on the service panel, a bad fuse and recognizing a bad wire. It gives you solutions on how to fix the problem because wiring is very dangerous! 

Maintenance lets you choose how to fix an air conditioner, clothes dryer, dishwasher, gas furnace, hot water dispenser, ice-maker, ranges, refrigerator, washing machine and water heater. My favorite is the water heater because it tells you how to put new parts on a water heater since the old parts worn out. Flooring lets a person repair carpet and shows what to look for when there is damage to the floor coverings. 

Outdoor has arbors, bird, and pet projects gazebos, children’s play projects and decks. I like the bird and pet projects most of all because it lists a diagram and materials on how to build a bird and dog house out of wood. 

Plumbing has background information such as the home plumbing system, planning your project, tips for installing, understanding the water cycle and glossary of terms. Repairs and maintenance both relate to frozen pipes and sink drains. Installing a sink is my favorite because it lists the different type of faucets to work on. 

Remodeling lists attics, bathrooms, closets, flooring, home carpentry, home libraries, painting and making shelves. Installing floors is my favorite because it gives you ten steps on how to install laminate flooring which is very interesting! 

Woodworking involves making decks, gazebos, home furnishings, outdoor projects and kitchens. Installing a new countertop is my favorite because it shows the specialty tools and supplies that I did not know about! 

Tools has how to videos, conversion charts, glossary of terms, Homeowners journal and Working with Contractors. My favorite is working with contractors because it mentions that if you have large-scale repair work then you can look for a contractor and it gives you tips on how to find the right one. 

I really like looking at the Home Improvement Reference Center because it provides home repair guides for people that want to save money. Everybody will like the Home Improvement Reference Center because it will make them interested in learning more about carpentry.   Today’s home owners are willing to tackle DIY (Do It Yourself) projects if it will save them money in the long run and thanks to the Union Parish Library, information on the how-to DIY is literally just a click away! 

Tonya Bolden presents a very fascinating story to her Pathfinders: The Journey of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls Book. Throughout the centuries, untold numbers of African American men and women have achieved great things against the odds. This book is a collective biography of sixteen diverse African American men and women of African descent who made their mark on American history in the 18^th to 20^th Centuries. People like these African American men and women dared to dream, take risks and create goals not only for themselves, but for others and they also made society even better by creating everlasting change.

Bolden starts her story off by discussing Venture Smith who was born Broteer Furro. He was captured and imprisoned in a slave castle’s dungeon then confinement to a slave ship. Robinson Mumford bought Broteer for four gallons of rum and a piece of calico. Mumford changed Broteer’s name to Venture. Venture was able to buy his freedom from his fifth owner, Oliver Smith Jr. It took Venture four years to do so and he was able to free his wife and children. He wrote his own memoir: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa. Maybe you have heard of his memoir?

James Forten signed on as a powder boy with a privateer, the Royal Louis. What was so unique about the Royal Louis was that it aided the Continental Navy. After the war, he became a successful maker of sails and owned his own business. 

Do you like magic? Richard Potter joined the circus to become a magician. He entertained audiences in halls and taverns in Boston, Salem and Newburyport Massachusetts, in Providence, Rhode Island in New Haven, Connecticut. Potter became prosperous because he bought his own land and had a family.

Have you heard about James McCune Smith? At age eleven, he welcomed General Lafayette to New York City’s African Free School that was open to both free and enslaved children. He graduated high school and wanted to become a doctor. After taking Latin and Greek tutoring sessions, James applied to Geneva College in New York, but like many universities at the time, he was denied admittance because of his race. Smith applied at the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland and was accepted! He earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and then in 1837 his medical degree. Dr. Smith opened his practice in Manhattan and became one of the city’s preeminent physicians and pharmacist. He died in 1865.

The one thing that I did not know was that on June 30, 1995, more than 150 years after her birth Mary Bowser was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. She was described as “one of the highest-placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War.” Bowser was given her freedom as a little girl and she was adopted by Mrs. Van Lew’s daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Van Lew gave secrets to the Union and she advised Mary Bowser on how to spy on Jefferson Davis. She fled the city in 1865 because Jefferson Davis knew there was a spy in the house! Bowser had aliases such as Mary Richards, Mary Jones, Mary J.R. Gavin and Richmonia R. St. Pierre. 

One of my favorite pathfinders in the book is Eugene Bullard who left his native Georgia and fled to Europe where he eventually went to Paris, France. He joined the French Foreign Legion and saw action as an infantryman. Bullard was awarded the Cross of War medal for bravery. Bullard later joined the French air force’s Lafayette Flying Corps, an all-American volunteer outfit. His mastery behind the cockpit led him to become the first African American combat pilot in the world. He earned his wings in May 1917, twenty-four years before the first Tuskegee Airmen took flight. The 2006 movie Flyboys loosely portrayed Bullard and his comrades in World War I and it was very good! My favorite picture in the book is Bullard and the rest of his unit from the French Army’s 170^th Infantry. 

Do you like math? Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson became a research mathematician at NACA and it later became NASA in 1958. Johnson was instrumental to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. manned spaceflights. Her time at NASA became the focus of a 2016 movie titled Hidden Figures and featured other African American mathematicians such as Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson. That movie was very good!

If you are interested in wanting to learn more about the African Americans who helped bring everlasting change to the United States then I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and check out Pathfinders: The Journeys of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls. That particular book is featured in our Union Parish African Americans in Healthcare theme for Black History Month. It will leave you with a feeling of admiration and awe for the African Americans who changed the course of history for the United States.  

Did you know that less than 20 percent of U.S. teens report reading a book, magazine or newspaper daily for pleasure while more than 80 percent say they use social media everyday according to research published by the American Psychological Association? Professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of the book: I-Gen, Jean Twenge mentioned that compared with previous generations, teens in the 2010’s spent more time online and less time with traditional media such as books, magazines and television. Time on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching television.

Have you heard about Teen Read Week, Poetry Slam and Teen Summer Reading? Teen Read Week was held on October 12, 2018 and it had a theme: “It’s Written in the Stars.” The Union Parish Library gave away Star War Books, milky ways, star crunch ice cream and the highlight of the week was to recognize one student from each school in the parish who is the STAR teen reader of that school. Poetry-Slam was held on April 10, 2018 and it encourages students to write poetry. Teen Summer Reading was held on July 10, 2018. The students created book bags for a mission in Mexico and the bags included books and coloring pages in Spanish. 

Those three programs were designed for teenagers to make positive choices by reading and making change happen throughout the community, state and world no matter how big or small the task is. 

Jiame Brown can help teenagers make change happen because she is the library’s Teen Outreach Coordinator that does all sorts of things besides working with the teenagers for Teen Read Week, Poetry-Slamand Teen Summer Reading.

Brown reads to the pre-k students with a program titled “1,000 Books before Kindergarten” at the Union Parish Elementary School in the 21^stcentury after school program. 

Last week Brown did not visit the Union Parish Elementary School because the students had a Valentine’s Day program, but she will be at the elementary school at 3:00 p.m. today to read to the students. She works part-time so she usually goes to the Union Parish Library to pick up a few books to read to the children. 

Brown will also visit Union Parish Elementary School on Thursday to do a “Black History Day” program and she will also read and talk to the kids from 8:40-10:20 a.m. 

The Union Parish Library is fortunate to have Jiame Brown on the staff at the library because she also helps other people by working as the Drug Free Communities Grant Project Coordinator for U-ACT with the Children’s Coalition for NELA. She is a community outreach coordinator for Union General Hospital and a Behind the Wheels Driver Instructor for Union Station. She also contracts work for other agencies. Having four jobs like that is why she is so good at reading to children, teenagers and doing programs like Teen Read Week, Poetry Slam and Teen Summer Reading. Brown loves reading herself because her favorite book is Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield. 

If you are interested in learning more about Teen Read Week, Poetry Slam and Teen Summer Reading or the pre-k students 1000 books before Kindergarten program then I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and ask for Jiame Brown. Whether it’s the reading programs or reading to children in general, Brown knows how to get children and teenagers interested in reading. Be sure to look for her as she travels around the parish because she may be coming to the Union Parish Elementary School very soon or wait to participate in one of those programs that the Union Parish Library offers!

If you ever thought about being an English knight rescuing a maiden in distress or a lady waiting for her prince to dance with her at the ball then I suggest you take a look at the Romance genres at the Union Parish Library! They have 4,251 Romance books, 2,334 Romance-fiction books like authors by the name of Debbie Macomber who wrote 16 Lighthouse Road. What about Christian Romance? They have 634 of those novels. There is also 476 Adult Romance, 444 Young Adult, 229 Romance suspense by authors such as Nora Roberts who wrote Born Wild and 27 Romance movies.

The Romance genre is very old and novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people and must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Romance is a term used to describe a type of novel by Sir Walter Scott as a “fictitious narrative in prose or verse” which shares a common interest about marvelous and uncommon incidents.

One thing that I did not know was that the genre of literary classical works dealing with romantic love existed in classical Greece. Only five ancient Greek romance novels have survived to the present day in a state of near completion.

Chareas and Callirhoe, Leucippe and Clitophon, Daphnis and Chloe and The Ephesian Tale and The Ethiopian Tale. Modern popular romance can also be found in the novel Pamelaor Virtue Rewardedby Samuel Richardson which was published in 1740. 

Jane Austen has a very important influence on romance genre fiction because she wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1813 and many people consider it the best romance novel ever written. It was also made into a movie in 2005. Sir Walter Scott published Ivanhoe in 1819 which was set in 12^th Century England with colorful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws and a witch trial. That particular book has been credited for increasing interest in romance and medievalism. It is one of my favorite books of classic literature!

Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre in 1847 which is a coming of age story that is the most memorable theme of the novel. Romance novels started to become very popular after the first World War. In 1919 E.M. Hull’s novel The Sheik was published in the United Kingdom. That novel was so popular that it was adapted into a 1921 movie starring Rudolph Valentino.

Modern romance genre fiction became even more popular in 1972 with Avon’s publication of Kathleen Woodiwess’s The Flame and the Flower which was one of the first single title romance novels to be published as an original paperback rather than being first published in hardcover.

Publisher’s Weekly had reported that the “Avon Originals” had sold a combined 8 million copies. The genre continued to expand in 1984 with a novel by La Vyrle Spencer that featured a middle-aged hero who had to make drastic changes to his lifestyle to win the heroine. Jayne Ann Krentz’s 1986 novel Sweet Starfire became the first futuristic romance combining elements of traditional romance novels and science fiction. 

Jane Devereaux became the first romance author to transition from writing original mass market paperbacks to being published in hardcover. Her novel, A Knight in Shining Armor became a natural best-seller. The covers had begun to evolve in 2000 from featuring a loving couple to instead showing a view of the landscape featured in the novel which is one thing I did not know!

Fantasy romance started becoming popular in 2005 when Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007) and Breaking Dawn (2008). The novels were made into a Twilight Saga film series from 2008-2012.

Do you know the most popular subgenres of romance books? There is category romance, historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, romantic suspense and inspirational romance.

Category romance is very short usually no more than 200 pages. Historical romance is a broad category of fiction which involves the plot taking place in a historical setting like Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Contemporary romance is set after World War II and over half of the romantic fiction published in the United States in 2004 were of this sub-genre. Nicholas Sparks is one such contemporary romance author. 

Paranormal romance blends the real with the science fictional. Romantic suspense involves an intrigue or mystery and inspirational romance combines Christian themes with the development of a romantic relationship.  

Romance continues to be very popular today because it is the second largest category of fiction outselling science fiction, fantasy and the classics.  If you are interested in any of the romance novels or into movies, I suggest stopping by at the Union Parish Library and checking out numerous titles of books and movies on romance. Pick an author and pretend you are a knight saving a princess from a Saxon chief or trying to find love in a post-apocalyptic world. Either way these books will make you daydream of that happily ever after!

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Did you know that more than 169 million American adults read a newspaper within the last month? That number means that newspapers reach 69 percent of the total U.S. population in a month. Print remains the most popular format with 81 percent reading that particular format. Half of the respondents which is 51 percent read only print and the other half read the newspaper on one of the digital platforms. 

The digital platforms are scanned from microfilm into pdf, gif or similar graphic formats and many of the graphic archives have been indexed into searchable text databases utilizing optical character recognition technology. 

Do you want to look up old news, marriage announcements or an obituary of a deceased family member or friend? Researching for old news is beneficial for everybody because it makes them realize just how important newspapers really were in the middle of the 20 Century especially during World War II. The Union Parish Library lets patrons have access to the Gazette newspaper database at no charge. They offer a link to the Gazette newspaper database at http://www.unionparishlibrary.com. 

Click on links and arrow down until you are able to click on Union Parish News (1880-2014). That link will take you to community history archive which is unionparish.advantage-preservation.com. These services can only be accessed from the Union Parish Library or you can bring your laptop and stay as long as you want! Once you get to the page, there are four links: Home, Resources, Advanced Search and Contact Us. Home lets you conduct a search for people, places or events from January 1, 1888 to December 31, 2014 which is exactly 52, 974 pages of digital archives for your viewing pleasure. You can also browse by year and pick a decade that you want. 

Resources has a collection of tips, tricks, explanations, articles and various tools. It gives patrons an introduction to the community history archives to familiarize themselves with the layout, tools and functionality of the website. Advanced Search lets a patron search by first and last name. You can also narrow your results by selecting the United States, then select state, city and publication title. Choosing a date lets you select a particular date that you like. If you have a question, comment or concern, you can click on Contact Us to send community history archive an email. Simply type in your first and last name, your email address and simply state your message. 

The thing that I love most about community history archive is they let you browse by year to find your favorite Gazette article sooner. I love American History so I clicked on the decade: 1940 to 1949 to look up news articles related to World War II. I clicked on 1941 and typed in Pearl Harbor in the search engine and found a picture titled: “Theater of War Between U.S. and Japan.” It showed a map of the US and Japan detailing how far San Francisco was from the islands in the Pacific that Japan controlled at the time. There is also a local news article about Louisiana farm products being shipped daily to the Allies which I thought was very impressive. 

I wanted to research deeper so I clicked on 1918 and found an article titled “1,019,115 American troops are overseas.” There were 30 American divisions in France at that time. Other news included German loses at 250,000. Looking up old news like that really amazes me! 

One of my favorite articles is one titled “Men in Service” that lists soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. That soldier was SSG Robert G. Rogers who was awarded the Bronze Star medal for heroism in connection with military operations against the enemy. Patrons can print out these classic newspaper articles at the Union Parish Library for 25 cents a page.

Another article that amazed me was a sales advertisement for Don’s Foods dated January 4, 1968. I love this advertisement because it shows a can of Admiration coffee for 67 cents, Blue Plate mayonnaise for 59 cents, Hunts ketchup for one dollar, Kraft cheese for 53 cents and Bayer Aspirin for 69 cents! Maybe people reading this can remember buying their groceries at Don’s Foods in Farmerville? Patrons will also love union parish advantage preservation for the old advertisements.

I really like looking at union parish advantage preservation because it is where the past comes alive with historical news, obituaries, marriage announcements and classic advertisements. Everybody will like union parish advantage preservation too because it will make them interested in learning more about American History. Technology has gone a long way since people read the newspapers thanks to the technological advances the Union Parish Library has adopted! 

We are not sure if Christine Heinrichs knows the answer to the classic joke, “why did the chicken cross the road?”  But we do know that she has a wealth of experience in raising poultry and has penned the book, “How to Raise Chickens: Everything You Need to Know”   Any individual that wants to raise 5 chickens or 50 in the country or on a 40-foot city lot can do just that by following this FFA licensed guide. The reader will look at numerous breed types by obtaining stock, housing, feeding, flock management, breeding programs, incubation, showing healthcare and the legal aspects of raising chickens. 

Heinrichs starts off by mentioning chickens are a part of American farm life and the past decade has brought them back to suburban backyards and even city parks.  4-H has 6.5 million members and over 60-million Americans are 4-H alumni and of that audience, 27 percent live in rural areas and 39 percent live in rural farm areas.  Nearly every human culture has raised chickens except Eskimos! 

Did you know that that chickens are very social? They form flocks and organize themselves according to a dominance hierarchy in the pecking order. And they even have a place in history and our economy.  The post-World War II poultry industry replaced the economics of agriculture with those of business and industry because industrial producers wanted the most favorable conversion of feed into meat and eggs which is the salable end products.

Do you know the history of chickens? Scientists say that birds descended from dinosaurs 150 million years ago and the obvious similarities are that they lay eggs, have scales on their legs, have an S-shaped neck and an erect stance with feet positioned directly below the body.  One interesting fact about chickens is that their feathers started showing up on dinosaurs about 145 million years ago on Archaeopteryx, a crow sized bird fossil found in Germany. Fowl ground-nesting birds eventually led to the jungle fowl, Gallus- gallus of Southeast Asia from which modern domestic chickens arose. 

Do you know how to choose a chicken to raise? Chickens have been categorized as meat birds, egg birds and dual-purpose birds. Leghorns are the most acknowledged leaders in egg production, but many other breeds such as the Polish, Hamburg and Spanish lay very well. Modern hybrids such as the Bovans and Gingernut Ranger have become very popular backyard layers and are often used in organic egg operations.

The Cornish and New Hampshire are becoming the most preferred traditional breeds for meat production today at Heritage Foods USA. Cornish/Rock hybrids are the most dominant commercial chicken. The Dominique and the Wyandotte were popular in American history while the Columbian Wyandotte became popular in 1905. Interest continued throughout the twentieth century with the blue variety being recognized in 1977. Size is important to consider because large fowl can grow up to 2 ft tall and they require more space than the smaller Bantam breed. 

The one chicken that I find the most intriguing is the dorking chicken because the Romans brought that particular breed to England in the first century AD where the Celts and Picts had chickens but kept them for fighting rather than food. The Roman influence changed that and chickens started becoming popular livestock around the world.

Once you have decided what breed you want, you can start looking for stock. Starting with eggs or chicks allows the birds to establish their social order from the beginning. Purchase poultry from hatcheries because they are sufficiently devoted to their birds and always attend a poultry show before you start raising your preferred chicken breed.

Heinrichs keeps the reader interested by mentioning how to select eggs to hatch. The best shaped eggs have a large and a small end while some hens lay double yoke eggs. Did you know that baby chicks do not require food or water after they hatch? It is because they are still absorbing yolk. Many backyard flocks are housed in a chicken house with a small fenced yard while the chickens are protected until they are allowed out of the enclosed yard to roam. 

The size of the chicken house and exercise yard depends on how many birds it needs to house, but never overcrowd chickens because it leads to pecking and even cannibalism which is one thing that I did not know! 

Did you know that chicken digestion is not like mammal digestion? It is because they have a crop-filled with gritty sand that grinds up their food along the way to digestion. One of my favorite pictures in the book is a diagram of the seven different standard male combs of the rooster that can take many shapes and sizes. Comb styles are inherited so breeders pay close attention to them in selecting breeding birds. 

A USDA study of urban flocks in 2010 found that only 25 percent of backyard flock owners had reported any health problems, most of them minor. Backyard chickens are among the most biologically isolated critters in the world because they can contact microorganisms that can make them sick. A good diet, clean living conditions and lots of fresh air and sunshine are the best basics for a healthy flock. 

Chickens have taken hold of American hearts and they have become the mascot of the local food movement, consumers growing interest on nutrition, sustainable agriculture and energy consciousness. 

If you are interested in wanting to learn about the different chicken breeds and how to raise them then I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and check out How to Raise Chickens: Everything You Need to Know. That particular book is featured as one of our new releases for 2019 and it will leave you with a feeling of knowledge about chickens so much that you want to start raising them yourself!

Everyone knows that a library is typically a building filled with books, but what you may not know is that the library also provides many “programs” that promote it’s mission of “providing recreation, education, information, and culture to the residents of Union Parish.”   These are programs the library provides outside of the normal delivery of books.  

Have you ever heard of a Makerspace (STEM) kit? It is a collaborative work space inside a school or library for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools. These spaces are open to kids, adults and entrepreneurs. A makerspace area can be cardboard legos and art supplies. These spaces are helping to prepare those who need the critical 21^stCentury skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.   Through a grant from Operation Round-Up and Claiborne Electric, the library has over $3000 worth of Makerspace kits that are complete with activities, lesson plans, and fun ways to introduce math and science to students.   Patti Odom is the library’s new “Makerspace” coordinator at the library.  She has provided programs this year to Downsville, UCA, DWCS, and Union Parish Elementary School.  Makerspace kits are also available for check-out by any Union Parish teacher!  

Recently, Odom visited Union Christian Academy on February 4^th to bring science-based fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Rapunzel and Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the classrooms. The students made castles and houses out of lego blocks and wood to resemble the homes of the fairy tale characters. Odom will also visit Union Parish Elementary School next Wednesday to bring numerous Makerspace (STEM) kits to the students so they can learn how to build a house, solve problems and be on a team! 

Odom also leads a “Craft Club” program for 3^rdgraders once a month where the students learn to make things. She will be working with our Afterschool Adventures on February 13^th  and students will be making designer first aid kits to coincide with the library’s medical theme this month for Black History Month.  There are about 20 students that attend Craft Club each month and it’s targeted to 3rd grade students, but any student is welcome to attend.  

Do you Homeschool your child?  Odom has just started working with our Homeschool families providing resources and programs as well.  The Homeschool U group meets once a month on the Third Mondays at 10:00.  Homeschool U provides featured speakers, hands on activities and library resources that are intended to compliment the curriculum of Union Parish Homeschool families. January was Animal Rescue month where Leslie Albritton talked to the Homeschool U group about “Animal Rescues” and she brought a pet goat. That event was enjoyed by all.  This month, the Ag Center will present a program about “Organ Annie” and will learn about the human body and food! 

Did you know that the library provides for senior citizens through the program Porchlight Outreach Services that assists seniors living in nursing homes by bringing them books to read and puzzles to put together?  On Fridays, Odom visits Arbor Lake Nursing Home because the Union Parish Library with the outreach program called “Porch Lights” that provides books for patrons that are in nursing or assisted living homes. 

The Union Parish Library is fortunate to have Odom on the staff part-time at the library because she comes with a wealth of knowledge that are assets to library outreach.  One of the reasons that she is so good at helping the elderly and school students is because she is a former homeschool mother/teacher. She also taught school in Spain when her husband was in the U.S. Army. 

If you are interested in learning more about a Makerspace (STEM) kit, Homeschool U, Craft Club, or Porch Lights, I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and ask Patti Odom.  Whether it’s lego building, arts/crafts, puzzles, or animal visits…Odom knows how to make libraries fun!   So look for her as she travels around the parish, she may be coming to a school, daycare, or senior adult program near you soon!   

Every business seems to have one.  That one employee that is always cheerful, full of joy, always smiling and joking with each other.  Never ever in a bad mood!   The Union Parish Library has one too and her name is Sandy Dean.

Dean lives in Farmerville and she does not list reading as one of her favorite hobbies probably because she’s either moving or talking not necessarily in that order.   As part of her duties working at the Union Parish Library, Dean helps patrons check in books, check out books, put books up, send faxes and assist with any computer questions. If you ask her why she likes working at the library she will say “I love working with people.” You will agree once you meet her. Every library employee will agree that it is the people that make working at the library fun! And ironically before working at the library, she worked as a Bindery Supervisor at Associated Business Printing and her main role was to make sure the printing jobs were finished.  So in a way, she is still in the printing business of making copies and sending faxes for library patrons.  

Dean has worked for the Union Parish Library since 2017 and other than working at the library, she does like to travel or dream of travel when she cannot actually go herself!  That just shows that she is a person that loves to be active and enjoy life! Dean has 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy) and they are all very close as a family.  

Three of her main hobbies include: going to church, walking in the woods, and dancing. She goes out to eat once a month with a few friends and they love to dance!  You can tell that Sandy Dean loves what she does because she smiles, talks to patrons and is always lending a helping hand to everyone she meets and you never really know what you will see library staff doing.  Last week, she was sitting down at a table counting jigsaw puzzle pieces because the Union Parish Library sends those puzzles to the nursing homes throughout the parish.

She does a terrific job at the Union Parish Library so please stop by to meet Sandy Dean and we are sure that she will find a way to make you laugh! 

If you ever thought about extraterrestrials invading Earth or wanted to see how a robot really worked then I suggest you take a look at the science fiction genres at the Union Parish Library! They have 1,311 science fiction books and 117 juvenile literature books like authors by the name of Suzanne Collins who wrote Catching Fire which is her second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy and HG Wells who wrote The War of the Worlds. Did you know that many people believe that Jules Verne was the inventor of science fiction? He wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea was made into a Disney movie in 1954 starring Kirk Douglas and was very good!

Science-fiction is a genre of speculative fiction typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction stories were first written in the 2nd Century A.D. by the Hellenized Syrian satirist, Lucian: A True Story. A Hellenized Syrian is one that was influenced by ancient Greek culture. That particular story contained many themes that are characteristic of modern science fiction including travel to other worlds. 

The development of modern science itself led to Johannes Kepler’s “Somnium” being written in 1634 about a boy discovering an island 50,000 miles away from earth. Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was written in 1726 and is considered to be his best-known work and a classic of English literature. He himself claimed that he wrote Gulliver’s Travels to “vex the world rather than divert it.” It was made into a Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1934 where Mickey plays Gulliver and goes to the fictional town of Lilliput to save the city from a giant spider. It was one of my favorite Mickey Mouse cartoons as a child!

Voltaire’s Micromegas are some of the first true science fantasy works and Issac Asimov who wrote 22 science-fiction books considered Somnium the first science fiction story which depicts a journey to the moon and how the Earth’s motion is seen from there. The 18^th century development of the novel as literary form began when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) which helped define science fiction as a genre. Frankenstein was made into a 1931 film starring Boris Karloff who was primarily known for his role in horror films. 

Even Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories including one about a trip to the moon. Jules Verne was known for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy especially Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which predicted the modern nuclear submarine. Like many science-fiction authors, Verne was ahead of his time!

One of my favorite authors of science-fiction, H.G. Wells is one of science fictions most important authors and many people call him “the Shakespeare of  science fiction.” His notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). His science fiction novels imagined alien invasion, invisibility and time travel. 

War of the Worlds was most dramatized in a 1938 radio program that allegedly caused public panic among listeners who did not know the Martian invasion was fictional. The novel is one of my favorites because the Martians were defeated by an onslaught of earthly pathogens to which they had no immunity thanks to God. 

It was made into a movie in 2005 starring Tom Cruise and was very good! 

In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American Science Magazine in which he wrote about appreciating the science fiction works of Jules Verne, HG Wells and Edgar Allan Poe and how their stories supplied instant knowledge to their readers.  

Issac Asimov started his Foundation series in 1942 which tells the rise and fall of galactic empires in the universe. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship troopers marked the most influential examples of military science fiction and introduced the concept of powered armored exoskeletons. 

A new wave of science fiction began to emerge with Solaris by Stanislaw Lem which had the characters studying an ocean on a newly discovered planet. Phillip K. Dick’s best -known novel: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was published and it is the literary source of the film Blade Runner. Television shows such as Star Trek, Twilight Zone and My Favorite Martian became very popular in the 1960’s. William Gibson’s first novel Neuromancer helped popularize cyber punk and the word “cyberspace” is a term he mentioned in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome. 

Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park in 1993 which tells the story about the collapse of an amusement park showcasing genetically recreated dinosaurs. Crichton must have been influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote The Lost World in 1912 because it is also a novel about dinosaurs. 

One of the most popular science fiction books of the 21^stCentury is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which is a trilogy of young adult novels. Collins also wrote Catching Fire in 2009 and Mockingjay in 2010. The Hunger Games Trilogy was made into a movie in 2012 starring Jennifer Lawrence while the other sequels were released in 2013 and 2015. 

Science fiction continues to be very popular with the male population according to a Google survey and sales have doubled 48 percent since 2010. If you are interested in any of the science fiction novels or into movies, I suggest stopping by at the Union Parish Library and checking out numerous titles of books and movies on science fiction. Pick an author and pretend you are descending into a volcano or taking an amusement park ride and seeing genetically engineered dinosaurs roaming the earth, either way these books will keep you entertained! 

Did you know that the global K-12 online tutoring market by assessment is expected to reach 77.23 billion by 2021?  In other words, more students rely on online tutors now than ever before.   Services like “Tutor.com” and other professional tutoring services charge a fee for participants.  However, through the Union Parish Library, patrons can get these services literally right on their desktop and all at no charge to the student!

Making good grades in high school and preparing for and doing well on the ACT are two of the primary ways a student can gain scholarships for college tuition.   The Union Parish Library offers both student prep assistance in the form of books that can be checked out, but for technology users, they also offer a link to several databases that can help at www.unionparishlibrary.com.

Click on links and arrow down until you are able to click on Homework Help. Those services can be accessed from the Union Parish Library, your home computer or from your mobile device.  Homework Help is actually “tutor.com”, but through this link it is provided at no charge for patrons. The wonderful thing about Homework Help is that the online program connects the student with content specialists in each subject area from chemistry to math to English.  It’s convenient and easy to use for beginners and once you are at the site you just click to get started.  

The first step is creating a free account so that you can access extra features such as your favorite tutors, my sessions, practice quizzes, write tutor reviews and virtual locker which lets you store documents like composition papers and resumes.  There are some great tutorials and study aids at this site as well.  Do you need help with High School Equivalency Test Prep, job help or Citizenship Tests? If you are looking for High School Equivalency Test Prep, it will ask you to select a subject such as English, Math, Science and Social Studies.  It also lets you check if you want a tutor with voice chat capabilities, but all you really have to do is ask a question and then your tutor gives you a response! 

The Job Help section lets you select either job search, job application, cover letter-resume and interview prep. Citizenship tests lets you select US Citizenship or Canadian. 

The student homework help is available K-College: Sun-Thur., 2.p.m.-midnight. The Adult Education and Career Center is available Sun-Thu. 10 A.M. -midnight. Job seekers such as myself will love this site because you can get help finding a job.  They will review your current resume and make suggestions.   I connected with a tutor online and she told me that my best job fit would be in sales/marketing and as an administrative assistant. 

I wish I had access to Homework Help when I was preparing to enter college, but students today can prep for the ACT/SAT by clicking on either Prep for the ACT or SAT. It allows you to take practice tests before you take the real thing! The one thing I found beneficial of all is the Citizenship tests for immigrants wanting to become American citizens. 

Is Algebra a problem for you like it was for me? Well you can drop off a math question and expect to receive an answer from your tutor in a matter of minutes. Using Homework Help for job advice makes me wish I knew about it sooner and you will start thinking the same thing! If you are having trouble writing a paper, you can connect with a tutor, drop off a paper for review and search for writing tips. 

The Practice My Skills category lets users connect with a tutor, take a practice quiz and search for worksheets which lets students learn math as they progress from one marking period to the next. The interactive educational math activities for grades K-12 lets students play games to improve their math skills. 

I really like the Access Your Account category because it lets patrons review previous sessions, connect with a favorite tutor, manage files in your locker which allows you to save documents that you sent to your tutor. Everybody will like Homework Help because it is free and patrons on the site can always seek help from a professional tutor about any subject as long as they check for appropriate times. 

Technology has come a long way since teachers started staying after school and tutoring students on chalkboards! Chalkboards today are disappearing in many U.S. schools and computers now are the norm, but tutors have not disappeared thanks to Homework Help.

The Union Parish Library is providing this service for patrons to get help with school work such as writing a composition paper and preparing for a college entrance exam while job seekers are helped with anything job related. All you have to do is set up an account with a name, password and click on connect with a tutor. Help the online tutoring market expand by getting the help you need! This type of technology is just one of the many ways the Union Parish Library reaches out to patrons in need.   Don’t you want to try it?