The Teaching Company brings engaging professors into your home through courses on DVD and other formats. Since 1990, great teachers from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted over 250 courses for lifelong learners like you. It's the adventure of learning without the homework or exams.
These DVDs just added to our collection:
Art across the Ages is a mind-broadening survey of Western visual art designed to familiarize you with its basic history, acquaint you with major artists and styles, and provide you with a broad foundation for deeper exploration. (4 parts)
In A Brief History of the World, you'll survey the expanse of human development and civilization across the globe. (3 parts)
Classical Mythology is an introduction to the primary characters and most important stories of classical Greek and Roman mythology. (2 parts)
Greek Tragedy - Professor Vandiver has designed these lectures to give you a full overview of Greek tragedy, both in its original setting and as a lasting contribution to the artistic exploration of the human condition. (2 parts)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tax Forms
It's hard to believe that tax season is just around the corner. One big change that you will notice this year is the fact that Beaverton City Library will no longer be distributing Oregon tax forms. This is not a decision that we made, but rather a decision made by the Oregon Department of Revenue. In a letter sent to Oregon public libraries, the Director of the Oregon Department of Revenue cited the need to reduce their printing budget and the fact that taxpayers are relying more on online filing. Therefore, they will no longer be distributing tax forms to public libraries for distribution. The forms can be accessed online through the DOR website at http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/forms.shtml. We will continue to distribute Federal forms as long as they make them available to us.
life abroad
Living abroad can be challenging, frustrating, and rewarding. Living as a minority, expatriate or foreigner in another country is a fascinating experience and reading about it serves to remind us of what is like for people from other cultures trying to find their way in the United States.
Here are a few suggestions about other peoples experiences in other countries that might make you laugh and scratch your head at the same time.
A Year in Provence
Author: Mayle, Peter
Check our catalog for this title
An advertising executive and his wife flee England for a pastoral life in the Provence region of France. Their romantic notion of buying and renovating an old farmhouse runs into a stonewall of procrastinating local handymen as lovable as they are eccentric. Through all the trials and tribulations of finding their way in this foreign culture Mayle and his wife come to appreciate the joys of the Provencal cuisine that for the locals is everyday fare.
I'm A Stranger Here Myself
Author: Bryson, Bill
Check our catalog for this title
Sometimes coming home is a foreign experience as well. Author Bill Bryson spent almost twenty years living in England. In this collection of columns about his repatriation he reflects on life in England as well America after he returns twenty years later. Humorous, sentimental, and gently critical, Bryson nudges the reader to examine the way we live here and how strange that can sometimes seem to the outsider.
Here are a few suggestions about other peoples experiences in other countries that might make you laugh and scratch your head at the same time.
A Year in ProvenceAuthor: Mayle, Peter
Check our catalog for this title
An advertising executive and his wife flee England for a pastoral life in the Provence region of France. Their romantic notion of buying and renovating an old farmhouse runs into a stonewall of procrastinating local handymen as lovable as they are eccentric. Through all the trials and tribulations of finding their way in this foreign culture Mayle and his wife come to appreciate the joys of the Provencal cuisine that for the locals is everyday fare.
I'm A Stranger Here MyselfAuthor: Bryson, Bill
Check our catalog for this title
Sometimes coming home is a foreign experience as well. Author Bill Bryson spent almost twenty years living in England. In this collection of columns about his repatriation he reflects on life in England as well America after he returns twenty years later. Humorous, sentimental, and gently critical, Bryson nudges the reader to examine the way we live here and how strange that can sometimes seem to the outsider.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Oregon Geology
For all who love Oregon and Geology, this map tool link is worthy of checking out.
The purpose of the Oregon Geologic Data Compilation <--click here to go to the site (OGDC) project is to assemble the best available geologic map information for the entire state by integrating the work of many individual geologic mappers into a vector digital dataset. The data are stored in a geographic information system (GIS) format with links to a relational database. The compilation is thus a "living map" that can change as new geologic information and mapping becomes available.
What is it?
The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) has completed (May 2009) a six-year project to digitally compile geologic data for the entire state. This effort brings together the best available geologic mapping from state and federal agency sources, student thesis work, and consultants.
To view the map, your browser must must be JavaScript enabled, and, if you are using Internet Explorer, allow ActiveX controls. The map itself is image intensive. Users with slower internet connections may find that resizing the browser window to a smaller size will help the map image load faster.
You can view Oregon stratigraphy, rock type, and rock property theme maps on topographic and shaded relief backdrops along with faults, formation boundaries, and USGS 7.5' topographic quadrangle outlines and names. You can drag a portion of the map, and it recreates the map in a closer view. You can see fault lines, and there are pop up keys to determine geologic information.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Books on the Economic Meltdown
The list of books related to the economy have been flying off the presses in the last two years. The list is so long that it can't fit on this blog, but there are longer lists available lists in the library. Here is a snapshot of four titles from the 2009-10 list:
House of Cards by William D Cohen. c2009 332.66 COH
On March 5, 2008, at 10:15 A.M., a hedge fund manager in Florida wrote a post on his investing advice Web site that included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co., the nation's fifth-largest investment bank: "In my book, they are insolvent." This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns was about to announce profits of $115 million for the first quarter of 2008, had $17.3 billion in cash on hand, and, as the company incessantly boasted, had been a colossally profitable enterprise in the eighty-five years since its founding. Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed, and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun. How this happened - and why - is the subject of William D. Cohan's superb and shocking narrative. Cohan's minute-by-minute account of those ten days in March makes for breathless reading. -Publisher
In Fed we trust : Ben Bernanke's war on the great panic by David Wessel c2009 332.1109 WES
"Whatever it takes" --That was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's vow as the worst financial panic in more than fifty years gripped the world and he struggled to avoid the once unthinkable: a repeat of the Great Depression. Brilliant but temperamentally cautious, Bernanke researched and wrote about the causes of the Depression during his career as an academic. Then when thrust into a role as one of the most important people in the world, he was compelled to boldness by circumstances he never anticipated. (Award winning author.) –Publisher
The Match King by Frank Partnoy c2009 364.168 PAR
Ivar Kreuger, the best-liked crook that ever lived, was a Swede who operated on Wall Street during the 1920s, and his apparent suicide in 1932 coincided with the collapse of his businesses, bankrupting millions of investors. Partnoy’s research on Kreuger reveals how he cornered global markets in safety matches by raising money in the U.S. and loaning it to European governments in return for monopoly control of production and sales; he devised and sold complicated financial products, and with questionable accounting methods structured a long list of murky deals. Partnoy explains that Kreuger, while a crook, was an attractive one who created substantial wealth, revived much of post World War I Europe, and generated real profits for investors before his empire collapsed. With the current arrest of Bernard Madoff for stealing more than $60 billion from investors, we are reminded that history repeats itself. This is a timely and excellent book. -Booklist
Tyranny of dead ideas: letting go of the old ways of thinking to unleash a new prosperity by Matthew Miller c2009 330.973 MIL
If "Fortune" columnist Miller's eerily prophetic book had come out earlier, it could have served as a wakeup call for Wall Street and Washington, D.C. before the failure of several venerable financial institutions required government bailouts. The author's prescient observations make a case for how an American attitude of entitlement and outdated beliefs about government, education, taxes, corporate excess and health care threaten our national well-being and our position as a world leader. Beliefs such as Your Company Should Take Care of You, and The Kids Will Earn More than We Do are traced to their origins in the past, and are now strategies that strangle the same corporations at the expense of global competitiveness. This book offers a fair-handed critique.-Publishers Weekly
House of Cards by William D Cohen. c2009 332.66 COHOn March 5, 2008, at 10:15 A.M., a hedge fund manager in Florida wrote a post on his investing advice Web site that included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co., the nation's fifth-largest investment bank: "In my book, they are insolvent." This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns was about to announce profits of $115 million for the first quarter of 2008, had $17.3 billion in cash on hand, and, as the company incessantly boasted, had been a colossally profitable enterprise in the eighty-five years since its founding. Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed, and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun. How this happened - and why - is the subject of William D. Cohan's superb and shocking narrative. Cohan's minute-by-minute account of those ten days in March makes for breathless reading. -Publisher
In Fed we trust : Ben Bernanke's war on the great panic by David Wessel c2009 332.1109 WES"Whatever it takes" --That was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's vow as the worst financial panic in more than fifty years gripped the world and he struggled to avoid the once unthinkable: a repeat of the Great Depression. Brilliant but temperamentally cautious, Bernanke researched and wrote about the causes of the Depression during his career as an academic. Then when thrust into a role as one of the most important people in the world, he was compelled to boldness by circumstances he never anticipated. (Award winning author.) –Publisher
The Match King by Frank Partnoy c2009 364.168 PARIvar Kreuger, the best-liked crook that ever lived, was a Swede who operated on Wall Street during the 1920s, and his apparent suicide in 1932 coincided with the collapse of his businesses, bankrupting millions of investors. Partnoy’s research on Kreuger reveals how he cornered global markets in safety matches by raising money in the U.S. and loaning it to European governments in return for monopoly control of production and sales; he devised and sold complicated financial products, and with questionable accounting methods structured a long list of murky deals. Partnoy explains that Kreuger, while a crook, was an attractive one who created substantial wealth, revived much of post World War I Europe, and generated real profits for investors before his empire collapsed. With the current arrest of Bernard Madoff for stealing more than $60 billion from investors, we are reminded that history repeats itself. This is a timely and excellent book. -Booklist
Tyranny of dead ideas: letting go of the old ways of thinking to unleash a new prosperity by Matthew Miller c2009 330.973 MILIf "Fortune" columnist Miller's eerily prophetic book had come out earlier, it could have served as a wakeup call for Wall Street and Washington, D.C. before the failure of several venerable financial institutions required government bailouts. The author's prescient observations make a case for how an American attitude of entitlement and outdated beliefs about government, education, taxes, corporate excess and health care threaten our national well-being and our position as a world leader. Beliefs such as Your Company Should Take Care of You, and The Kids Will Earn More than We Do are traced to their origins in the past, and are now strategies that strangle the same corporations at the expense of global competitiveness. This book offers a fair-handed critique.-Publishers Weekly
Look for forthcoming titles soon:
Comeback America by David Walker c2010
Freefall: America, Free Markets by Joseph Stiglitz c2010
Good Value by Stephen Green c2010
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