If you have a Fauquier County Library Card,
you can use encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, find magazine and newspaper articles,
get literary criticism through the Bloom's Literary Reference Online for reports, download Legal Forms, take college test preparation previews, learn about the college application process through the Testing and Education Resource Center, and research your ancestors from the convenience of your home, any time, day or night.
From the library's website, just click on Databases and Links from the menu on the left side,
click on any of the databases listed, enter your card number and you have your own research library in your computer.
This includes the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, the World Book Encyclopedia, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, thousands of magazine and newspaper articles through FinditVa Periodical and Newspaper Indexes, going back for many years, and HeritageQuest census data for genealogy research.
If you don't have a Fauquier Library card, and you live or work in Fauquier County, own property or attend school here, you can apply online for one right here:
Application info
PS: September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Your Library Card-a virtual library in a pocket
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Local Area Magazines
The Library has a number of regional journal subscriptions, including:
Blue Ridge Country
Northern Virginia (new)
Soul of Virginia
Southern Accents
Southern Living
Virginia Business
Virginia Capitol Connections
Virginia Forests
Virginia Home Educator
Virginia Review: journal of Virginia Government
Virginia Wildlife
Washington Business Journal
Washington Consumer Checkbook
Washingtonian
Please check our online catalog for locations and availability:
Fauquier Library Catalog
Friday, August 18, 2006
New eAudiobook Titles for August
August eAudiobook Titles
Phantom Waltz by Catherine Anderson
Plain Brown Wrapper by Karen Grigsby Bates
Windward West by Matt Braun
Solitary Envoy by T. Davis Bunn
Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke
Crisis by Robin Cook
First Impressions by Jude Deveraux
DiMaggio: The Last American Knight by Joseph Durso
Getting to Yes by William Fisher
Drinking Life by Pete Hamill
King of Lies by John Hart
Betrayed by David Hosp
Trouble Man by Travis Hunter
Slim and None by Dan Jenkins
Le Mariage by Diane Johnson
Preacher’s Daughter by Beverly Lewis
Up Jumps the Devil by Margaret Maron
Within the Shadows by Brandon Massey
Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence
by Michael Masterson
Sins of the Wolf by Anne Perry
Guilt Trip by Ben Rehder
Lying Awake by Mark Salzman
Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
First Salute by Barbara Tuchman
Forgotten by Elie Wiesel
Lone Star Café by Lisa Wingate
Monday, July 31, 2006
Complete New Yorker on DVD
A treasure-trove of American literature, humor, and social history from the famed weekly is now available for use in the Warrenton Branch reference collection.
Every cover, cartoon, illustration, article and advertisement in the New Yorker magazine from February 1925-February 2005 is included on 8 DVD-ROM discs (for computer use only), plus a booklet describing highlights of the magazine's history. That's over 4,000 issues and half a million pages.
James Thurber, E.B. White, Joseph Mitchell, Truman Capote, Roger Angell, James Baldwin, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Garrison Keillor, John Updike, Vladamir Nabokov are just some of the names which appeared regularly over the years.
Searching for those obscure J. D. Salinger short stories that weren't in his published anthologies? You'll find them here, plus poems by Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, Seamus Heaney, cartoons by Charles Addams, George Booth, columns from Calvin Trillin, and fifty years of letters from Paris by Janet Flanner.
Theatre, dance, and film reviews from 1925 onward; a horse-racing column, The Race Track, that ran from 1926-1978; and "Talk of the Town" gossip provide an overview of the
culture, sophisticated and popular, through the decades.
Quite a few books began as published articles in the pages of the New Yorker, including reportage from Jonathan Schell, Neil Sheehan, Rachel Carson, and Seymour Hersh.
The New Yorker's weekly slice of life from the Roaring 20's through the disco 80's into the 21st century is distinctive, distinguished, and entertaining.
Complete New Yorker
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Safe Driving
If you have a teenager or student driver in your household, here are several new resources that address the more complex issues of driving in today's fast-paced, heavy commuting environment:
Crashproof your kids: making your teen a safer, smarter driver
This is a guide for parents, and discusses developing defensive driving skills, road emergencies, basic car maintenance and responsible driving habits.
Driving Survival: how to stay safe on the roads
Covers a wide variety of situations and how to handle them, such as coping with road rage, night driving, and avoiding crashes.
License to Drive
Prepared by the Alliance for Safe Driving, in addition to covering the usual basics, it has a section on "Challenging Driving", such as driving in bad weather, reduced visibility, road conditions and terrain.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Tales of Turkmenistan and Greek Legends
The travel section in Sunday's Washington Post (July 16) profiled the book Unknown Sands by John W. Kropf, who is a resident of Fauquier County.
Subtitled "Journeys around the world's most isolated country", it recounts his experiences in remote Turkmenistan.
Listed as a "hardship post", Mr. Kropf spent two years on a diplomatic mission there, traveling throughout the land which Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan and few intrepid Western adventurers had passed.
Geographically, Turkmenistan is bordered on the south by Iran and Afghanistan, and to the north by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and opens onto the Caspian Sea to the west. In the center of the country is the Kara Kum Desert, which covers 80% of the country.
It has been a route of the Silk Road, and part of the former Soviet Union.
A copy of his book is available at the Fauquier Library.
For more information:
Unknown Sands
Another local author, John Latka, has recently published a novel,
Staten Island Memoirs, a fantasy tale of lost love involving an elderly man named Paris Polanski, remembering a chance encounter 43 years earlier, with a beautiful woman he calls Helen after "Helen of Troy." Zeus intervenes to arrange a meeting.
Mr. Latka was born in Brooklyn, but currently resides in Warrenton.
Staten Island Memoirs
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Baby Einstein DVD's expanded
Recent additions to the Children's collection includes more Baby Einstein on DVD.
Baby Monet playfully journeys through the four seasons in art work of Monet and the music of Vivaldi
Baby Newton presents concepts of shape through real objects, plus puppets and an animated clown
Baby Wordsworth explores language with words from around the house, plus a bonus feature with phrases in sign language from Marlee Matlin
For the 11 titles available, see Baby Einstein
All items may be requested at any branch location.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Midsummer Night Reads
To while away summer evening hours dreamily ...
For Children
Midsummer Magic: a garland of stories, charms, recipes J 398.2 GRE
Mad Summer Night's Dream E Bro
Night Owls E Den
Cat's Midsummer Jamboree E Khe
Midsummer night's faery tale JF Fro
Midsummer Night's Death JF Pey
Midsummer Night's Dork JF Gor
Stage Fright on a summer's night JPB Osb
For Adults
Midsummer's Eve Philippa Carr
Midsummer Magic Catherine Coulter
Love in Idleness Amanda Craig
Midsummer Suzanne Jenner (LP only)
Midsummer Night's Scream Jill Churchill (Mys)
Door into Summer Robert Heinlein (Audio CD only)
For Everyone
William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer night's dream" 822.33 SHA
Friday, June 09, 2006
New Teaching Company titles have arrived!
Fauquier library has many fans of the Teaching Company, and a new batch of titles are available, some on audio CD and some on DVD.
On Audio CD
Plato's Republic
Vikings
Francis of Assisi
Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
On DVD
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age
High Middle Ages
Italian Renaissance
Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear
Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos
From Monet to Van Gogh: a history of Impressionism
Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance
For a complete list of their courses at the library,
you can do a search under
Teaching Company in the online catalog.
The collection includes audio cassette and video format as well as audio CD's and DVD of their courses on art, music, literature, history, science, mathematics, economics, philosophy, religion, mythology, psychology, on aspects of world culture through over 70 titles.
For more information about the Teaching Company, go to their website:
http://www.teach12.com
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Intentional Living
Sometime in one's life, there rises a dream of shared purpose, for a community of shared values, or just shared cooking and meals -
The Communities Directory: a comprehensive guide to Intentional Communities and Cooperative Living provides a starting point to take that first step to seek alternatives to suburbia.
Published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, based in Rutledge, Missouri, the directory lists over 600 communities in North America such as ecovillages co-ops, communes and cohousing projects, plus 130 international communities.
Based upon responses to survey sent out, communities are listed in multiple ways: geographically by state, alphabetically by name, with distinct sections for those who provided more detailed information, and those with just short directory information.
Many communities list their visitor policies. There is an keyword index, so you can search by agriculture, arts, activism, simplicity, social change, stewardship, sustainability, service, specific religious groups, lifestyle groups, environmental, family-oriented, those that have guest facilities and many other options.
There is a giant cross-reference chart that indicates each groups policies on alcohol and tobacco use, dietary practices, size of membership, year formed, finance and labor policies, etc.
This is the fourth edition of the directory. More than just directory listings, it includes advice about what works in community life, contacts for networks of intentional communities, resources for starting your own community, how to be a good visitor at a community, the differences between cults and intentional communities, and how to discern them.
The directory is available in the Warrenton Branch reference collection (REF 307.77 COM)
For more information about Intentional Communities,
check their website http://fic.ic.org/
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Dancing through Time
Participating in Costume balls, historical plays, Renaissance Faires, and other festivities?
Do you have a desire to find out just what is a Quadrille, how to present a "Grand March", how to dance the Mazurka or the Minuet, the intriguing "Nest of Love"?
The library's DVD collection includes the 6 part set "How to Dance through Time"
Each volume covers a particular time frame: Baroque Social Dance, Renaissance, Ragtime, Victorian, and 19th Century Ball and 19th century couple dances (think Jane Austen).
Programs range from 35 to 50 minutes in length and provide information about costumes, period drawings, and aspects of their social etiquette as well.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Health Choices on DVD
The latest DVD series at the library includes 11 programs that examine the array of choices available in medical therapies and treatments.
Confronting Cancer...an integrated approach follows a young woman of 30 battling progressive breast cancer through treatment at major cancer centers such as Sloan-Kettering, and UCSF. She also has, with support from her doctor, used energy healing, acupuncture and herbs.
Spiritual healing reviews research in spirituality and healing, and includes interviews with
Dr. Kenneth Pelletier, author of The Best Alternative Medicine, Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madronna, a psychiatrist of Native American heritage and knowledge, Dr. Deepak Chopra, and Naomi Judd who has stuggled with Hepatitis C.
Othe program topics include genetic research, chronic pain, the aging process, herbal medicines, the mind/body connection, and sickle cell anemia.
Each program is approximately 30 minutes long. The series is available at the Bealeton and Warrenton branches.
For more information from the catalog:
Health Choices DVD Series
Monday, April 17, 2006
Pulitzer Prizes Awarded
Literature Prizes awarded today include:
For Fiction
March by Geraldine Brooks. Not to be confused with E. L. Doctorow's novel by the same title, which was also nominated for a Pulitzer-
In a story inspired by the father character in "Little Women" and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott's father, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his beliefs challenged by his experiences.
Reading Group Guide
For Biography
American Prometheus: the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. A portrait of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, discusses his role in the twentieth-century scientific world, as well as his roles as family man and head of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. This book also was a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.
For General Non-fiction
Imperial Reckoning the untold story of the end of empire in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
Reveals how the British colonial government detained more than one million members of Kenya's largest ethnic minority in prisons and work camps where many met their deaths as a result of a British attempt to stop the Mau Mau uprising.
For a complete list of prizes and nominations:
http://www.pulitzer.org/
Monday, April 10, 2006
Poems, Poets, Poetry
To help you rediscover poetry --if you've lost it ... (After all, April is National Poetry Month)
Roger Housden shares his ideas on 10 Poems to change your life, 10 Poems to Last you a lifetime, 10 Poems to open your heart, 10 poems to set you free, and more
Ten Poems, etc
With Voice of the Poet series on Audio CD, you can hear over 20 American poets, including Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsburg, Robert Frost, and e.e. cummings share their poems aloud.
Billy Collins , former U.S. Poet Laureate, has done much to promote the awareness of poetry in America. He's been heard of NPR, PBS, and the library has several of his books.
The Poet Laureate position in the U.S. began only in 1937. A number of notable Southern poets have served as Laureates, including Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, Randall Jarrell, and James Dickey.
For more poetry news,
Library of Congress Poetry Place
Academy of American Poets
Teacher Resources for National Poetry Month
Anti-National Poetry Month by Charles Bernstein
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Cherry Blossoms, Kites, Origami
Did you know that April is National Kite Month?
Check out the website:
National Kite Month
For books about kite flying, building, stories and such, see the library's catalog listings:
Kites
The Cherry Blossom Festival continues through April 9. Despite wind and rain, there may be some blossoms left to see. Look at the official website for the festival's calendar of events, including the parade on Saturday, April 8
Cherry Blossom Festival
The National Park Service also has a site about the Cherry Trees in Washington:
National Park Service Cherry Trees
Origami resources at the library include books, videos and DVD's for adults and children:
Origami as Keyword
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Today's Homeowner DIY Series on DVD
Thinking of remodeling a kitchen or bath?
Converting a carport or garage?
Doing something with driveways? decks? room additions?
From flooring to roofing, over 20 episodes of Today's Homeowner series, hosted by Danny Lipford, are now available to borrow from the Warrenton Library.
For more detailed information, here is a list of titles:
Today's Homeowner DVD Series
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
National Geographic Bee State Finals on Friday
State Level competitions for the National Geographic Bee will be held on March 31.
Winners will go on to compete nationwide this year from May 23-24 in Washington DC.
Awards on the National Level are scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.
Students and homeschoolers from grades 4-8 are eligible to enter, with some qualifying rounds.
The annual registration deadline is October 15.
There is also a World Championship held every two years.
In Summer 2005, the event was held in Budapest, Hungary, with Alex Trebek moderating.
Start preparing now for next year's Bee by checking out some recent additions to the
children's collection:
Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: Country Facts that helped me win the National Geographic Bee
National Geographic Bee Official Study Guide
For registration requirements, sample questions and FAQ's about the Bee, go to
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographybee/index.html
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Weather or not
March 23 is proclaimed World Meteorological Day by the United Nations.
If you've ever wondered
what is that weatherman talking about, here are a few guides:
Meterology Demystified
Extreme Weather: a guide and record book
Skywatch West: the complete weather guide
The National Weather Service site is
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
Some other useful sites are
UM (Univ. of Michigan) Weather Underground
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/
UN World Weather
http://www.worldweather.org/
Weather 101: A resource for Teachers and Students
http://ggweather.com/101.htm
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Albert Einstein's Birthday
March 14 , 1879 the future Nobel Prize Winner and genius was born at Ulm, Germany.
To learn more about the man and his theories, consider these resources:
Einstein for Dummies
Einstein's Cosmos: How Einstein's vision transformed our understanding of space and time
Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the world through the language of mathematics
Einstein's relativity and the quantum revolution (video)
An essay written by Einstein, from the American Institute of Physics site:
The World as I see it
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Latest E-Audiobooks
The Diezmo
