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…the 225th anniversary of one of the early battles of the War of Independence. Technically, the British won, but the reason we celebrate the battle is because it proved once and for all that Americans could fight, and that the war wasn’t going to be a cakewalk for the royal army. The British captured Bunker Hill, which was their objective, but at horrific cost:  out of 2,300 British troops, 828 were wounded and 226 killed.

Actually at SPL we’re only about two and a half miles from the site of the battle, which has a monument that provides a great view of Boston. It’s free so go check it on a day when the weather’s nice.

The American Revolution is the subject of some fascinating books, many of which we have here at SPL. Let’s start with two of my personal favorites. Stacy Schiff’s A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America, is a masterful account of the diplomacy and intrigues that secured French aid for the United States and made American victory possible.  Schiff’s book provides an evocative picture of eighteenth-century Parisian society, a riveting account of the espionage and double-crosses undertaken by French, British and American spies, and a revealing portrait of the 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin, elder statesmen, internationally renowned scientist, and (lucky for us) a born diplomat.

Very different but equally compelling is Christopher Hibbert’s Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes. For an American, it’s an eye-opening account of the other side of the story, if you’ll forgive the cliche. You’ll find out what British intellectuals such as Samuel Johnson (who wrote a pamphlet entitled “Taxation No Tyranny”) thought about the American revolt, get a revealing look at the infighting of the British political establishment, and learn about the plight of Americans whose only crime was to remain loyal to the only government they had ever known.

I haven’t read it myself, but I have friends who would lynch me if I didn’t recommend David McCullough’s John Adams.  McCullough always felt Adams has been under appreciated, seen as “that little fat fellow between the two Virginians, Washington and Jefferson,” as he told the New York Times. To McCullough, Adams was a lively, passionate man of outstanding moral courage, without whom American independence would not have happened. People I know say this biography is compulsively readable. If you’re in the mood for TV instead of reading, we also have the HBO series based on the book in AV.

If none of those titles sound appealing come by and browse our section on the Revolution, the call numbers that begin 973.3

If you’re interested in learning more about local events during the War of Independence, come by and sign in to use our Local History Room. We’ve got a file of articles on events that happened in Somerville in 1775, and also some titles that might be of interest. The 1811 Memoir of His Own Life by R. Lamb is a British sergeant’s autobiography that includes an account of his military service in America. The rather elaborately entitled Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress: written during the war between the United Colonies and Great Britain by His Excellency, George Washington is exactly that, and The History of the Rise and Progress of the war in North-America from the time of General Gage’s arrival at Boston in May 1774 is a 1780 history of the Revolution by a British M.P. sympathetic to the Americans. None of the books in Local History can leave the library and they will require careful handling, but don’t hesitate to come by and peruse them here.

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird.  First published in 1960, the book went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and became an Oscar-winning film in 1962.  With more than 10,000,000 copies sold since its first publication, To Kill a Mockingbird remains one of the best-selling novels of all time.  To date, Mockingbird is Lee’s only published novel and she has remained fiercely private with the press and media, politely refusing to make public appearances or to speak about the novel.  In 1962, the novel was adapted into film, with the Academy Award-winning screenplay written by Lee’s friend Horton Foote and produced by Alan Jay Pakula.  The film, starring Gregory Peck, won 2 other Oscars for Best Actor (Peck) and Best Art Direct-Set Direction, Black-and-White.  Harper Lee was pleased with the movie and was quoted saying, “That film was a work of art.”  If you haven’t yet read this classic Southern novel - a novel loaded with warmth and humor, memorable characters (Atticus Finch, Scout, Boo Radley) and serious issues of rape, racial inequality, class, courage and compassion - this is a great year to do so!  We have copies of the book and the movie, but read the book first!

The Library has great CD collections, and we’re adding to them all the time. Here’s a small sampling of some of the new music we have for you to borrow. And as always, we’re open to your suggestions - let us know what you’d like to see on the shelves!

Pop
She and Him, Volume Two
Jason Derülo, Jason Derülo
Broken Bells, Broken Bells

Rock
Jakob Dylan, Women and Country
MGMT, Congratulations
The White Stripes, Under Great White Northern Lights

Jazz
Norah Jones, The Fall
Chris Botti, In Boston
Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, Five Peace Band

Country
Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
Gretchen Wilson, I Got Your Country Right Here
Alan Jackson, Freight Train

Classical
Zuill Bailey, Bach Cello Trios
Evgeny Kissin, Prokofiev Piano Concertos 2 & 3
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein Mass

We also have bluegrass, rap, children’s music, folk, gospel, reggae, opera, world music, local music, new age, holiday music, soundtracks from movies and musicals, and more - hundreds and hundreds of CDs, old and new, in every genre you can think of. Come check some out!

June 4, 1919: Finding themselves with time on their hands now that World War I is over, the U.S. Marines invade Costa Rica. As President Wilson said, “It keeps them off the streets.”

June 6, 1844: The Young Men’s Christian Association is formed in London. Founder George Williams is heard lamenting, “If only we could think of a catchy song.”

June 9, 1790: The Philadelphia Spelling Book is the first book copyrighted under the new U.S. Constitution. Even less entertaining volumes soon followed.

June 18, 1959: Louisiana Governor Earl Long is committed to the state mental hospital. But since he’s still governor, he fires the hospital’s director and appoints a new one who promptly releases him. Public office has its perks.

June 19, 1865: Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Texas are finally told they’re free. Hey, no sense in rushing things.

Today is the day we remember those who have given their lives in our country’s service. But let’s also think about those soldiers who are serving now.  The organization Soldier’s Angels assembles and ships care packages to soldiers–everything from books and crossword puzzles to toothpaste and lip balm. At Adopt A Platoon you can find out how to get started writing to a soldier and provide much needed moral support, and the website for the United Services Organization provides information on donating, becoming a corporate sponsor, or volunteering to assist the outfit that entertains troops abroad.

It’s important to honor the fallen. But living soldiers need our help.

Last time we discussed limiting your search to specific types of sites, file types and limiting your site to searches with images. All well and good, but those are only a few of the tricks you can use to get optimal results when you use Google. Here are some more:

One way to refine your search results is to exclude words. To continue with one of our examples from last time, let’s say you recall this really great PowerPoint presentation on time management, and you would like to review it and take notes.  However, the time management presentation that crops up a lot when you do a Google search is one by your annoying co-worker Collins, and you don’t want that. Simply type in your Google search box “time management” -Collins filetype:ppt. The minus sign before “Collins” tells Google to eliminate all files that contain that word from your search results.

Broaden your search by telling Google to include synonyms. Suppose you’re feeling uneasy about drinking bottled water, and you’re wondering how much pollution that generates. You know Google can be too literal sometimes, and you don’t want exclude good information just because of your word choice. Type “bottled water” ~pollution. The tilda (yes, that’s what that’s called) tells Google to include documents that contain synonyms for pollution in the search results.
Limit your search to a specific time period. Suppose when you’re doing the search described above you want only the latest information. Click on the little blue link immediately to the right of the search box that says “Advanced Search.” On the new screen, type your search terms in the top box, then go to the bottom of the screen and click on the link that says, “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more.” Immediately below you’ll see some pulldown menus. Click on the one labeled “Date,” and choose “past 24 hours,” “past week,” “past month,” or “past year.”

Easy, no?

Natalie Babbitt is an author and illustrator of children’s books whose work has given me a great deal of pleasure over the years. She’s best known for her novel Tuck Everlasting, which is widely acknowledged as a classic. While I agree that it’s a wonderful story, it’s far from my favorite Babbitt book. Here’s a short annotated list of some of this beloved author’s less familiar novels and stories.

The Search for Delicious: In a nameless, timeless kingdom, the Prime Minister is writing a dictionary, but he runs into trouble trying to define “delicious.” He thinks that delicious is fried fish, but other people think it’s apples, nuts, beer, or Christmas pudding – and that’s just at the dinner table in the royal palace! Eventually, 12-year-old Gaylen sets out on his pony with orders to poll the entire kingdom (3 towns and a few farms) and find out which food gets the most votes. But no two votes are alike. In no time at all the people split into factions (Squashies and Crisps) and civil war looms. Meanwhile, Gaylen’s travels through forests, mountains, and lakes uncover mysteries he never dreamed of and raise questions. Who is Ardis? Why does she grieve? And what, in the end, is the true definition of delicious?

Goody Hall: Hercules Feltwright had to give up being an actor because he constantly misremembered his lines:

“Where the sea bucks, there buck I,
In a proud ship’s bell I lie,
Dum da de dum, de dum dum,
Dum da dum, I forget this part.
Mariner, mariner shall I live now,
Under the mosses that hang on the prow.”

One morning he turns up at Goody Hall - a pleasant, if isolated mansion - and offers himself as a tutor to young Willet Goody, who lives there with his mother. But what of Willet’s absent father, Midas Goody? Is he actually dead? What’s really in the family crypt? And what does any of it have to do with notorious thief Mot Snave?

The Eyes of the Amaryllis: Thirty years ago, the ship Amaryllis went down with all hands, including Geneva Reade’s husband, the Captain. Geneva continues to wait by the shore for his spirit to send her a message of some kind. And she waits alone since her only child, George, has come to loathe the sea - he moved inland long ago. This summer, however, Geneva’s 11-year-old granddaughter Jenny comes to visit and becomes enmeshed in the strange power struggle between Geneva, a mysterious person called Seward, and the sea itself. This tale’s subtly suggested 19th-century New England setting helps to create an atmosphere that is haunting, moody, and memorable.

Herbert Rowbarge: Herbert Rowbarge is an unhappy man. All the joy went out of his life when, at the age of 3 months, he was separated from his twin. Ever since then he has felt – but not comprehended – that an important part of himself was missing. He achieves great wealth as the proprietor of an amusement park, and he has a devoted wife and twin daughters, but none of this can fill the hole in his life that he is at a loss to understand. Tragically, he remains unaware that his longed-for twin is very close by, and that time and again they just miss meeting one another.

Babbitt has also written a few books of short stories that are every bit as good as her novels.

The Devil’s Storybook and The Devil’s Other Storybook each contains ten comical stories of the Devil’s adventures in Hell and in the land of the living. The Devil schemes, disguises himself (the better to pester and trick people), sometimes succeeds and is sometimes outwitted, but he is never less than amusing. Why is there a camel named Akbar in Hell? What happens when the Devil decides that he wants harps like they have in Heaven, or when one of his minor demons becomes obsessed with growing a rose - a thing that the Devil would never allow in his domain? And who but Natalie Babbitt could have come up with an opera singer named Doremi Faso?

Jack Plank Tells Tales: Jack Plank loses his job as a pirate and comes to the town of Saltwash to find some other kind of work. He boards with Mrs. DelFresno and her little daughter Nina, who tries to help out by suggesting possible jobs. Unfortunately, there’s always some reason why the jobs don’t suit Jack, and in each chapter (Not a Farmer, Not a Baker, Not an Actor, etc.) he entertainingly explains why. Eventually Nina come up with the perfect career for a beached sailor who may not be able to cut hair, make jewelry, or tell fortunes, but who can most definitely spin a yarn - a gift he shares with his creator, the talented and remarkable Natalie Babbitt.

The number of webpages and documents on the Web often seems more like a  curse than a blessing. There are probably at least 21 billion indexed web pages, which means that while what you want probably is out there, you might have a hard time finding it unless you’re a skilled web searcher. Fortunately, Google (which for good or ill is the default search engine for most of us) offers a number of tools to make your search more precise.

Narrow your search by file extension: Suppose you saw a Power Point presentation on time management you thought was really great a few weeks ago, and now you’re wishing you had taken better notes?  You think the presenter was named “Collins” but you’re not really sure. A simple Google search for “time management Collins” nets about 2,000,000 hits. But you’re definitely sure it was a Power Point Presentation. Go to the Google search box and type “time management collins filetype:ppt” That narrows your results down to a mere 1,500. Add a keyword such as the name of the meeting or conference, or a date, and you’ll improve your odds of finding that presenation enormously.

Narrow your search by top-level domain: Top-level domain is the part of a website address that indicates what type of organization maintains the website (”.gov” indicates a government agency, “.edu” indicates a college or university, “.com,”  a for-profit company). Suppose you’re a regular consumer of bottled water and you’ve begun to have doubts about the habit. Is tap water just as safe? Maybe safer? Doing a search for “bottled water site:edu” retrieves only sites from educational institutions, which increases the odds you’re getting reliable information.

Limit a search to sites with images: Suppose you want a website on a specific topic with pictures. Google Image search a) doesn’t work that well and b) won’t necessarily lead you to a related site.  All you have to do is a normal Google search on a topic of your choice and on the left sidebar of the results screen is a list of options. Under “All results” click “sites with images” and all sites without pictures are eliminated from the results.

I’ll be back in a few days with some more Google tips, tricks, and resources. ‘Bye for now.

Did you know that the Somerville Public Library runs on less than 1% of the City’s total budget? Annually, the Library spends less than the cost of one hard cover book per resident to make the entire Massachusetts public library system (370 libraries, networks, and regions) available to everyone in Somerville. These resources include books, movies and music, magazines and newspapers, free Internet access, online databases, friendly assistance from skilled, professional librarians, and much more - an abundance of resources that inform, educate, entertain, and enrich the lives of Somerville residents.

The Library provides great value for your tax dollars and saves you money each time you borrow materials, utilize computer resources, or attend programs. Use the calculator provided below to find out exactly how much money you would you spend out of pocket for the free services provided to you by the Somerville Public Library.

This calculator is used with the permission of the New York Library Association.