All of Your Questions Answered!

 

    Struggling with back to school?  Check out the Park Ridge Public Library 24/7 resources, here to help you all day every day with research, questions, homework, and more.

Research tools

Check out our online Premium Resources to find magazine and newspaper articles and more at our web site www.parkridgelibrary.org .

Night Owl Reference

Call (847) 825-3123 and press #2 during the hours listed to have your questions answered by a librarian while the Library is closed.

Hours:  Mon-Fri 9:00 p.m. – Midnight; Sat and Sun  5:00 p.m. – Midnight

Live Chat Help

Ask a librarian for help with our live chat services, available anytime day or night through Ask? Away.  http://www.askawayillinois.info/

     Live Homework Help

         Work with a real-life tutor online. Help is available grades K -12 and intro to  college. See our web site  at http://www.parkridgelibrary.org

Teen Tech Week Contest Results

During Teen Tech Week (March 4-10) we asked Park Ridge teens to tell us “What technology can you not live without?”

Here’s what you said:

“Computers.  I can’t live without computers for three reasons.  First, you can type… Next, if it’s an apple computer, I can draw using Appleworks.  Then I can print out the drawing I made.  Last, and most important, computers have the Internet.  One the Internet I can play games, plus on Google I can search images.” –Christine

“My iPod, because I would have nothing to do in my spare time, music is my life, and there are a lot of good songs I listen to.”  –Tony

“The Internet.  The Internet is a huge resource of information for me.  Without it I would have a very hard time finding information quickly and at home.  Reports would be impossible! Also, the Internet provides games.”  –Austin

“TV.  I would be bored to death.”  –Dylan the villain

Teen Tech Week 2007

This week, March 4-10, is the first-ever Teen Tech Week!

 The Park Ridge Public Library is celebrating this week with contests and programs.

 For more information on the national event, see the American Library Association web site.

PS3: All Hype?

The PS3 is out… and reviews are lukewarm.

 Gamespot.com says:

NYT not impressed with PS3

Sony’s new console “just isn’t that great” according to The New York Times; online service, emphasis of power over entertainment cited as flaws.

 but hundreds of people still lined up in cities such as New York and Los Angeles to be first in line for the new console.

 Leave a comment and tell us what you think about either of the two new consoles.

Nintendo Wii is Coming!

One of the big releases of the season is almost here.  The Nintendo Wii will hit stores and homes this Sunday.  Will it live up the hype?  Can it compete with the PS3?

Here’s what people are saying:

 Gamespot: “When the Wii arrives in stores on Sunday, it will do so without some of its promised functionality. Nintendo today announced that users looking to surf the Web, check the weather, or peruse the news on their Wii systems will need to wait a while.”

FoxNews: “When Nintendo’s Wii home video-gaming console debuts in North America early Sunday morning, it will put to rest any fears that it won’t be able to compete with Sony’s super-powered PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s already established Xbox 360.”

DDR Tuesdays

Whether you’re a Dance Dance Revolution pro or you’ve never played it in your life, DDR Tuesdays at the Park Ridge Public Library is made for you. 

Tuesdays from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m., September 26, October 3 and 24, and November 28

We project the game onto a giant drop-down screen, haul out our heavy-duty metal game pads, and pump up the surround-sound music for a DDR experience unlike any you’ve had before.    Signups are every 5 minutes and you can play as many times as you want—and we have online gaming computers and board games for when you’re waiting.  And in October, sign up to compete in our DDR Mini-Tournament and you could win fabulous prizes.  **If you have no clue what all this “DDR” thing is… check out this site from “DDR Freak” where they break DDR down to its basics.

FEEDs

No, I’m not talking about the book by MT Anderson (though you should read it! It’s a great sci-fi book).  I’m talking about RSS feeds.  And in case you don’t know what those are, check out the headlines on the left side of the page.  Right now I’m pulling content straight from GameSpot and MTV, but I can pull content from almost anywhere that offers a “feed.”  So if you have a great news or entertainment site or anything else that you’d rather see, comment here or email mhommel@prpl.org.  I need input!  What are you interested in:  Gaming? Technology? Books? Graphic Novels? Local events?  Other?

And for more info on RSS feeds, try Wikipedia’s explanation (although beware:  anyone can update at Wikipedia so you have to be skeptical about what you read)

Also, try out these feed readers, which are free if you register, and will allow you to gather the RSS feeds you’d like to know about:

 www.feedster.com

www.bloglines.com