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Brad Czerniak's Blog

Living Book: Rebecca Havenstein-Coughlin


Rebecca Havenstein-Coughlin is the Adult Services Department Head at Canton Public Library. She is also an avid Scrapbooker and Card Maker. In this interview, Rebecca shows us her scrapbooking room and tells us about her hobby.

Meet Rebecca and ask her your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.
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Sep 10, 2010

Living Book: Anthony De Orio


Anthony De Orio is Co-President of PFLAG Detroit. PFLAG is "Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays." In the interview, he tells us how he got involved with PFLAG, and what the organization does.

Meet Anthony De Orio and ask him your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

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Sep 08, 2010

Living Book: Malkia Newman


Malkia Newman, a Mental Health Educator and advocate, talks about her life experiences as a person diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.

Meet Malkia Newman and ask her your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

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Sep 02, 2010

Google Apps Work for You

Google is the biggest search engine in the world, but offers much more. Want to learn more about Google and how its [generally-free] technologies can increase your productivity?

Register now for our Google Apps class, to be held on Tuesday, September 14, from 7:00-8:30PM. We'll cover search, docs, Gmail, and many lesser-known tools that work well for you or your business.

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Sep 02, 2010

Hackers Wanted

Update [11/15/2010]: A large selection of LEGOs will be available for creative play at the event courtesy of Bricks for Brains. Also be sure to bring blank CD-Rs if you're interested in Free and Open Source software provided by Metro Detroit Linux Users Group.

On November 20 from 1:00-5:00PM, Canton Public Library will host some of the most creative hackers in the Metro Detroit Area. Our Community Room will be full of demonstrations and presentations of hacks ranging from robotics to web apps to personal productivity hacks to modded IKEA furniture to crafts.

If you or someone you know is a 'hacker' in a special field; if you have ingenious and/or unconventional workarounds and solutions, then consider doing a presentation or having a demo table at Hack Day. Time slots and planning discussion can be found at the Hack Day CantonWiki page.
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Sep 01, 2010

Living Book: David Tennies


David Tennies is a Civil War Living Historian and reenactor. Unlike many reenactors, Mr. Tennies portrays a civilian role, as Michigan Senator Jacob M. Howard.

Meet Mr. Tennies and ask him your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

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Sep 01, 2010

Living Books Teaser


We'll be kicking off our Living Books program on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM in the Community Room.
This program lets you "check out" a person with a specialty or other interest to learn more about the subject. It's going to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. See you there!
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Aug 26, 2010

And Don't Call Me Shirley

Looking for a lighthearted comedy movie? If you're browsing our feature film section you don't have to get very far into the 'A's to find Airplane! This absurd classic, a near shot-for-shot parody of the 1957 not-meant-to-be-a-comedy film, Zero Hour!, has the big-punch appeal of hilarious lines along with elaborately-detailed gags.

Check it out today. And if you have the choice of steak or fish, spring for the lasagna.
Aug 12, 2010

Ze Frank's Reading List

Ze Frank recently sought reading recommendations from friends reading his blog. If Ze sounds like a familiar name to you, you may remember How to Dance Properly, the show, youngmenowme, or chillout. He's a fascinating guy. What follows is the first five pages of his crowd-sourced reading list in our catalog:

The time traveler's wife : a novel by Audrey Niffenegger

Naked lunch : the restored text by William S. Burroughs ; edited by James Grauerholz and Barry Miles

Black swan green : a novel by David Mitchell

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Aug 04, 2010

Google Options

At today's Google Business Center program, we went over many mostly-free products offered by Google that provide value to your business. All of them are listed at google.com/options and google.com/services (if only I remembered that a few hours ago!). Below is a brief listing of products highlighted today and what they do:
  • AdWords — Run search-based ads for your business and increase traffic to your products
  • AdSense — Get paid to place ads for other businesses on your website
  • Google Places — Claim you business's listing in Google search and maps
  • Google Analytics — Detailed website statistics with minimal effort
  • Google Merchant Center — Make your products appear in Google's shopping results
  • Google Apps — Affordable, custom online productivity tools for your business
  • Gmail — Free email with great productivity features
  • Google Docs — Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and more from any browser, collaborative, available anywhere, and free. Awesome
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Jul 28, 2010

Local Listings for Businesses

As we'll discuss at the Google Business Center program tomorrow, local listings and reviews are a great way to increase website traffic and foster healthy customer relationships.

When you list (or claim, or check in) your business on these sites, you have some control over what information appears. Having a listing is the first step toward engaging people and in turn having them engage their social circles.

Here are some examples of a familiar local venue's listings on various sites:
Jul 27, 2010

Friday Links

Do you keep up with the fun stuff on the web? If not, here's a quick overview of this week:Seen anything cool on the web this week? Post it in the comments for everyone to enjoy!
Jul 23, 2010

Farmers Market Storytime

Join us at the Canton Farmers Market this Sunday!
  • We'll have M is for Mitten storytimes at 11:00AM and 1:00PM
  • Related crafts immediately after each storytime
  • Kids can play "I Spy" for the Market bird and get a sweet treat!
Check in at the information gazebo for details.

Canton can be a lot of fun! Check out, 'like', and follow these pages to keep up with great events:
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Jul 16, 2010

Car Insurance and Credit Scores

Last Thursday (July 8, 2010), the Michigan Supreme Court brought down a 4-3 decision allowing insurance providers to use credit score data when calculating premiums for automotive and marine vehicle insurance. This practice has been explicitly legal in Michigan since 1997, and has been a matter of administrative, legislative, and legal scrutiny since at least 2002.
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Jul 16, 2010

Free Web Tools

Computers can often be a pain. Library computers perhaps more often; after all, you can't usually use the same computer every time and all your files wouldn't be there even if you could. A USB flash drive makes things easier — but what happens when the keyring breaks? When you forget to unplug it and take it with you? Plus, you can't install software on library computers.
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Jul 09, 2010