The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ Youth Pages
3/ Greenacres Branch Closed Sept 1-3
4/ Useful Web Links Section Highlight
5/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the August issue of Books & Bytes. This month, we will provide an overview of our Youth Pages. We will also notify you about a branch closing and another area of our Useful Web Links.

We hope you enjoy receiving Books & Bytes. Please let us know what you think of our publication by writing to: webmaster@pbclibrary.org

2/ Youth Pages

Children have always been important at the library, so it should be no surprise that they are also an important focus on our web site. In fact, they have their own area, the Youth Pages.

Our Youth Pages contain five sections, each providing valuable information for kids, teens, and parents.

Kid’s Pages: Designed for fun and knowledge, the Kid’s Pages contain four paths.

- Homework Help provides useful web links to sites that locate valuable information for school projects.

- Fun Stuff provides links to entertaining and informative locations such as Children’s Butterfly Garden and Sports Science.

- The Reading Corner provides lists of favorite books to read for reports or simply for fun, along with valuable reading lists, such as the Sunshine State Readers and the Caldecott, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King Award winners.

- Our Writer’s Corner contains the latest work produced by children in our summer Young Writer’s Workshops, including stories, poems, and original artwork.

Teen Pages: Designed with the high school student in mind, this section also contains four paths:

- Homework Help provides teens with web links to assist in gathering facts for reports and information on how to write those reports.

- Reading Corner provides some great suggestions for reading, including favorite books at the library and award winners.

- Fun Stuff links to friendly sites with useful yet entertaining information for teens such as How Stuff Works and Teen Hoopla.

- Finally, as teens get older they may turn their focus towards our College and Careers section which contains important information on life after high school.

Parenting Pages: There are many distractions that take children away from reading. Our "Reading Tips" section is designed to make reading fun so children will read because they want to, not because they have to. "Parenting Resources" provides parents and caregivers with links to general sites, health services, educational sites, and Internet guidelines for Parents.

Search the Web: This section lists three kid-friendly search tools - Ask Jeeves for Kids, KidsClick, and Yahooligans - that provide results fit for the whole family.

Internet Safety: The Internet is a big place, so children may need help staying safe online. We have provided tips and advice on how to stay safe online.

With the new school year underway, we encourage all children, teens, and parents to visit our Youth Pages.

3/ Greenacres Branch Closed September 1-3

Greenacres Branch Library will be closed for recarpeting Saturday, September 1 through Monday, September 3. The branch will reopen on Tuesday, September 4. (No materials due on these days; you may return materials in the book drop.)

4/ Useful Web Links Highlight

It is amazing how much information is available on the World Wide Web. Nowadays, it seems that the answer to any question can be found online. The greatest challenge is to locate the right web site.

As a regular feature each month, we will examine one section of our Useful Web Links. Our web directory is compiled by librarians who apply their knowledge and experience of the Internet to locate the best web sites for each topic.

This month, we will give you a sampling from our "Telephone and Address Locators" section.

One of the most popular questions we receive at the library concerns telephone numbers. People often need contact numbers for local businesses or friends in distant towns. The library provides an excellent database called the "Axiom InfoBase Phone Directory" which contains over 100 million business and residential numbers. Also, we provide links to web sites such as the "GTE SuperPages" and "Switchboard".

Another common situation is for a person to have a telephone number with no name attached to it. Therefore, we provide links to reverse directories such as the "Findlaw Reverse Directory" and the "Freeality Reverse Lookup".

Our links are even international in scope. We provide access to two Canadian directories, "Canada Yellow Pages" and "Canada 411", plus we have pointers to "PhoneNumbers.net" and "Infobel" to locate international telephone numbers.

In addition to our telephone directories, we have supporting links which provide driving directions at "Mapquest" and information to Postal Codes and rates through "PostInfo".

So the next time you are looking for a telephone number, glide on over to our "Telephone and Address Locators" section.

5/ Next Month in Books & Bytes

In our next issue, we will examine "Library Services," where you can locate information about our branch libraries and our Outreach Services section.