What is Project Gutenberg?

Michael Hart (see photo on your left) began creating electronic versions of public domain documents way back in 1971. That was the beginning of Project Gutenberg, an archive of 32,000 books that can now be read online or from portable electronic readers.










Every one of the books availble through Project Gutenberg was previously published on paper by bona fide publishers and digitized by them with the help of thousands of volunteers.

And, like a good library, Project Gutenberg has made all of its books easily searchable.

Attention Bibliophiles!

Are you a book lover looking for something to do as our weather keeps us indoors? You're in luck! There happen to be two book festivals taking place soon in our "neck of the woods".


Wisconsin Book Festival (Oct. 7-11, 2009 Madison, WI)
http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/

Wisconsin Book Festival History The first-ever Wisconsin Book Festival, a program of the Wisconsin Humanities Council, was held in the capital city in October, 2002. Since its debut, the Festival has established itself as a beloved fixture in Wisconsin's rich cultural landscape. Through a unique partnership between the public, private, and academic sectors, the Wisconsin Book Festival celebrates our state's rich literary heritage, brings some of America's finest writers to the people of Wisconsin, and encourages Wisconsinites of all ages to read widely and to read well.The Festival has attracted an eclectic mix of accomplished writers, including: Billy Collins, Grace Paley, Tim O'Brien, Edwidge Danticat, Edmund White, Richard Bausch, Charles Baxter, Audrey Niffenegger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Harvey Pekar, Nell Freudenberger, Colson Whitehead, Heidi Julavits, Stuart Dybek, Peter Straub, Jim Shepard, Anthony Doerr, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Elizabeth Berg, Judith Claire Mitchell, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Tenaya Darlington.The Wisconsin Book Festival is the state's largest literary festival, with approximately 15,000 annual attendees, and one of the largest in the nation. This unique event inspires book lovers from across the region to spend a weekend in downtown Madison and transforms State Street into a vast, public literary salon. In short, the Wisconsin Book Festival is a high-energy, high-profile, public literary arts and humanities program that makes an impressive cultural and economic impact each year.

Milwaukee Book Festival (Oct. 9-18, 2009 Milwaukee, WI)

http://sites.google.com/site/milwaukeebookfestival/

The latest edition of the Milwaukee Book Festival premieres this October, starting October 9 and concluding October 18, and includes events at a variety of venues around the greater Milwaukee area. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry -- readings, talks, discussions -- there's truly something for everyone. Get out your calendar now and start planning!

Henry Box Brown's Narrative

How do you get a nickname? Some people earn them. Such was the case for Henry "Box" Brown, a man who escaped slavery in a wooden box which measured three feet long, 2 1/2 feet deep, and 2 feet wide. Although conductors of the Underground Railroad like Harriet Tubman are now getting the recognition they deserve, Henry Box Brown pulled off what was at that time the most celebrated escape in the history of American slavery.

In Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, Brown tells the story of his famed escape and also of the harsh realities of slavery and his effort to make it in the white American and British cultures as a free man.
Added on June 24th: After reading the book I have this to add:
Parts of the Brown's life are repeated again and again. I would encourage interested persons to skip the introduction which gives away parts of the story that you may rather read about in the narrative itself. Read pages 51-96 first and then read other parts of the book if you're still interested.
The narrative clearly gives the reader insight into the lies and hypocrisy that were part and parcel of the slave system in the old south. The introduction and other parts of the book - although they'll repeat a lot of what you already read - will also be valuable to many readers.

Gale Virtual Reference Library: E-book Collection of the Week

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is another great electronic book collection which is available through some Libraries. You can search this collection using your library card number on campus or at home, 24/7.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs and specialized reference resources which cover a number of subjects. These subjects include history, law, medicine, science and technology. A few of the book titles included in this collection are: Encyclopedia of Food & Culture, Crime and Punishment in the United States, Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery, Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment & Recovery, Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Real-Life Math and The Tools for Successful Online Teaching.

This collection offers different ways of searching. You can do a basic keyword search, search within a certain publication, search by document type (such as biography or brief article) and you can further narrow down your search by author, publisher, target audience (academic, general or trade) and even limit to documents that have images. The best approach to take is to experiment with the basic, subject and advanced search options and see which one suits you!

Preferences may be changed while you search: you can change the color of your font, the style of font, but most importantly, you can change the default language from English to Spanish, French or Portuguese.

Explore this e-book collection at: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=mptc_main&authCount=1&u=mptc_main

Once again, if you're having trouble accessing this collection, call your library.

MPTC books on "going green" and the environment...(how all of us can help!)

Happy Earth Day! Here are a few books that are available for check-out through the Moraine Park Technical College Libraries:

• Green Development: environment and sustainability in a developing world




• Greening your office: from cupboard to corporation: an A-Z guide




• Hot, flat, and crowded: why we need a green revolution--and how it can renew America




• Power: ethical debates about resources and the environment




• What is the impact of e-waste?




• Green IT reduce your information system's environmental impact while adding to the bottom line

• Hands -on Environmentalism

Visit one of our libraries in West Bend, Beaver Dam or Fond du Lac to check out these and other materials on this very important topic!

Fox Cities Book Festival

Think Spring!

Celebrate the pure joy of reading and make plans today to attend the Fox Cities Book Festival, which will be held April 14-19, 2009.
The festival will connect readers and writers and offer an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the literary arts. It will also reach across all generations and genres with activities spanning the entire Fox Cities.


Interested? Go to http://www.focol.org/bookfest/ for more information.