National Career Readiness Tests

Individuals can earn the NCRC by taking three tests. In the library, search catalog.wccls.org for 3 titles.

• Locating Information
• Reading for Information
• Applied Mathematics

Brush up on your Oregon Trivia

The Oregon Encyclopedia

The Oregon encyclopedia is an authoritative and FREE resource on all things Oregon, from the expected to the unexpected. All entries are reviewed by experts and checked for accuracy. ~Portland State University

Finding your birthparents

 Here are a couple of books that might be useful to anyone trying to find their birthparents.

Adoption Records Handbook
Teresa A. Brown
2008

The Adoption Searcher's Handbook
Norma Mott Tillman
2010

The Ultimate Search Book: Worldwide Adpotion, Genealogy & Other Search Secrets

Lori Carangelo

2011

New Business Prospecting

New Businesses are a lucrative list. Salespeople, job hunters, and investors like to follow trends in employment numbers, market size, and other factors related to new businesses coming out. To get information on new businesses in the whole of the USA, the Washington County Library provides you with Reference USA. There is a feature in Reference USA that allows you to isolate new businesses.


To get information on new businesses in Oregon, you can find that in www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/ats and dropdown and select one of these actions: Expanding firm, Reduction in Employment, New Firm, Closure, Rehire, Hiring Freeze, Labor dispute, Sale/Merger/Acquisition, Relocation, Future Impact, Education/Training, Stimulus, Other,



 

The Snow Child

We may not know it but when we start reading a book we are either drawn in to it or forced away from it for different reasons and those reasons are called, in library lingo, Appeal Factors. These factors can be as varied as: Characterization, Plot/Storyline, Setting, Language, Genre, Time Frame, and Pacing.


Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, drew me into her superb tale using two appeals, Language and Setting, rolled into one. Her novel is a mystical tale of a young child who is created out of a "snow-child" by a childless couple who are learning how to deal with the rigors of homesteading in 1920 in the Alaskan wilderness.


From the beginning of her tale her use of language and her choice of setting "ensnared" me so that it was very difficult for me to put the book down in between readings. I felt the cold of the winter nights as if I was the one who had slept in the cabin where the cracks encouraged the cold to sneak in and endured the intensity of the summer sun that caused Mabel to be drenched with sweat as she worked in their vegetable field for the first time.


This tale is Ivey's debut novel and I for one anticipate the appearance of her next creation and wonder what mysteries and locales she will offer us next.

Treats From India

It seems that everything these days is coming up India. We see Bollywood musicals, we eat at Indian cafes, we argue with Indian call-centers about our credit card bills, but most particularly we read Indian authors. Like Indian food; these books are often scrumptious. Here are some examples:

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie

The Guide by R. K. Narayan

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

This is just a very small sample. Search under the subject heading “India fiction” @ www.wccls.org for a more complete listing of all that is available

Not Buying it: My Year without shopping.

In "Not Buying it: My Year without shopping", journalist Judith Levine involves her partner Paul in a quest to evaluate their consumerism by giving up shopping for a year. During the year they try to find out why they buy the things they do and what do they really get out of the stuff they bring home. In this book Judith's ambivalence about her shopping and shopping in our culture in general via her journalistic skills. She offers us a window into what that year looked like for them along with information on topics such as the "household storage" and "out of household storage/self-storage" industries. According to the author, in 2006 there were 37,000 self-storage facilities in the United States that averaged from 80-90 percent of occupancy.


If you are not already questioning your spending, this book may spark some discussion as to how you too could survive a year without shopping.

Sew Lovely

March is National Craft Month. If your bent is sewing ( and even if it's not) Simple Modern Sewing by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha will inspire you to dust off your sewing machine. The author presents eight simple, elegant designs upon which to build a wardrobe. Two pattern sheets are included.

One Simple Act

Debbie Macomber is best known for her wonderful fiction works, but she has also written several non-fiction titles.  One Simple Act:  Discovering the Power of Generosity is an eye-opener in the sense of how a simple act of generosity can have lasting effects on not only the recipient but also on the giver as well. She gives examples of true stories from everyday life and also includes motivating messages of how giving the gift of time, hope, prayer, hospitality, laughter, encouragement and sometime even forgiveness can be life-changing.

Consumer Reports Does not Rank Everything.

To have a complete list of things that Consumer Reports hasn't ever ranked, or that they ranked four or more years ago, go here: http://tinyurl.com/3ptdjb . You will not find recent rankings of furnaces, hearing aids, automobile stereo equipment, herbal supplements, radar detectors, mattresses, tires, power blowers, power drills, golf equipment or many other very popular things in Consumer Reports. I say rankings. But you can find buyers advice.