You are invited to the first meetup for CantonWiki, which will be on Tuesday, November 10 from 7:00pm-9:00pm at the Canton Public Library in Group Study Room A. Please RSVP on CantonWiki.

CantonWiki is a city wiki for Plymouth and Canton, Michigan, which aims to provide a comprehensive reference for anything and everything in the area.

Did you know Canton Public Library's three public-use copy machines also double as document scanners? Because the machines have auto sheet feeders, they are great (and fast) for scanning and saving multi-page documents in either pdf or tiff format. You'll need to have an email address, because scanned files are sent electronically to the email address(es) you enter. The Copy Center also offers two letter-size flatbed scanners, which work well for photos and other graphics because you can save your scans in the popular jpeg or a variety of other formats. The flatbed scanners also have OCR (optical character recognition) capabilities, which allow you to scan text pages that convert easily to Word documents so you can edit them. There is no fee to use any of the Copy Center scanners.

The wind turbine pictured here is one of 32 harnessing clean electricity on Harvest Wind Farm in Elkton, MI. (I took this photo during a summer trip to the Thumb Area.) Michigan Wind 1, with 46 turbines, is another wind farm located just north of Elkton in Ubly, MI. Major energy companies like DTE and Consumers Energy are tapping into these and other wind farms in Michigan to supply electric power to their customers. Combined, both wind farms generate about 122 megawatts of electricity — enough to power roughly 35,000 homes.

Wind, solar and geothermal are among the most promising methods to generate clean, renewable energy. You can learn more about a clean energy future by reading Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman, best-selling author and Pulitzer-prize winning columnist from The New York Times.

TIECon Midwest 2009 will take place Friday, October 23 at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, MI. The conference is designed for entrepreneurs who "think creatively, innovatively and resourcefully to create their own future regardless of economic conditions and uncertainties."TiECon Midwest 2009 will focus on four vertical educational tracks including: Cleantech, IT, Healthcare and Emerging Concepts.

Many parents use web monitoring software to keep track of what their children do online - it's the next best thing to being there, right? Maybe not. The Associated Press reports that several major brands of this type of software offer kids' chat message logs to businesses hoping to tailor their marketing messages to children. There are some software companies that do not sell information to other businesses - you may want to check to see what practices your web monitoring software engages in. CPL also has lots of resources for parents and kids on Internet safety.

A new machine at the University of Michigan Shapiro Library turns downloaded digitized books into bound, printed copies which you can buy and take home with you. Mainly for out-of-print or copyright-expired books, here is a synopsis: "With the installation of a state-of-the-art book-printing machine at one of its libraries, the University of Michigan stands at the new frontier of 21st-century publishing, offering printed and bound reprints of out-of-copyright books from its digitized collection of nearly 2 million books, as well as thousands of books from the Open Content Alliance and other digital sources." You can find out more from the U of M video.

Have you ever wished that you could do more with your MySpace or Facebook pages? Have you ever wondered how people customize their pages beyond the given capabilities or make those really cool apps? Well, we have a number of books that can help you do just that. Check out our selection of books for both MySpace and Facebook and get creative!

RSS

If you'd like to see the newest items in our collection without constantly checking the New Materials lists, you can subscribe to updates via RSS.

Now you can scan multiple pages to your e-mail from the copiers in the Copy Center, for free! (Color scans from the color copier will be $0.25 per page.) See the Copy Center staff for assistance.

What better way to learn to download ebooks from CPL's vast digital collection! Hop on the 18-wheeler of a bookmobile to get acquainted with the latest process and gadgetry! Come today, July 29, Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You'll be in for a new experience, and also have a chance to win an iPod Nano!

You remembered to cancel the newspaper and mail delivery and to turn off the coffee pot and shut the garage door. What you forgot to do was...return your DVDs! Don't fret - you can renew library materials online at any time, from your hotel or vacation cottage. Or call (734-397-0999) during normal business hours to speak with someone at the Checkout Desk. (Our direct-dial automated renewal line is no longer available and the automated service will be discontinued September 1, 2009.)

It is remarkable that 40 years ago - prior to cell phones, Blackberry's, and laptops - the mission to send men to the moon was accomplished with astronauts who carried sliderules.   Astronaut Buzz Aldrin writes about his journey as the second man to step foot on the moon in his book, Magnificent Desolation.  It begins with his trip to the moon in 196

What has premium sound, 74 feet of high-tech interactive gadgetry and can really motor? The Digital Bookmobile and it’s cruising toward Canton for a July 29 visit to the Canton Public Library.

The Digital Bookmobile is a high-tech upgrade of the traditional bookmobile housed in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. Instead of printed books, you’ll experience broadband Internet-connected PCs, high definition monitors, a premium sound system and a variety of portable media players. Interactive learning stations give visitors an opportunity to search the library’s digital media collection and sample supported mobile devices like MP3 players, smart phones and eBook readers.

Follow the Digital Bookmobile's tour of the U.S. as it works its way to Canton.

The Aug/09 edition of CR offers valuable comments on many kitchen appliances.  If you are "redoing" your present kitchen or just upgrading certain items...Consumer Reports is a good first step.  CR is available on the Adult magazine shelf, at the Adult Reference desk and the "magazine express" spinners

Google Wave, a product announced last week at Google's developer conference, appears to be the way everyone will communicate in the near future.
Wave eliminates the redundancy and errors of communication typically present in email; combining email's best features with those of chat, wikis, and mashup applications.
Developers will be able to extend Wave's capabilities to include games and many functional tools for productivity.
Lastly, Google plans the project to be open source and interoperable, making it a solid contender to eventually replace conventional email.

The digital TV transition happens on June 12! If you still haven't purchased your converter box or are still confused as to what's happening, go to dtv.gov for the answers. If you think you're ready but not sure, all Michigan television stations are conducting a final test to let you know if your television is ready. It is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9 at 7:59 p.m. The test will be conducted simultaneously on every over-the-air station. If you see a green "PASS" screen you're all set. However, if you see a red "FAIL" screen, time is running out! Check Michigan DTV for Me for more information.

We recently launched many new features on the site that you should check out:

Community

In the Community section, you'll find the Community page, with all content made by Canton users. From there, you can go to our Forums, which are a great place to start a conversation with local people about whatever interests you.

We also revamped our local business and club database, Everything Canton. Now you can add your own entries and edit them at your leisure. If you look through the database and find something you like, you can add a star rating and comment.

May We Suggest?

The May We Suggest service provides you with personalized book recommendations. In the future, all such recommendations can be viewed at the May We Suggest blog.

Text This

From any item in the catalog, you can now send a text message to your phone with the Call Number and Title of the item you're viewing. This is useful if you want to look for it later.

Tweet This

All of our blog posts now have a 'Tweet This' icon, so you can quickly tweet about the blogs you like on Twitter. Learn more about Twitter here.

Please let us know how we can improve the site to better fit your needs!

Social networking is all the rage and President Obama is among those getting in on the act.  In addition to the Briefing Room Blog you can follow all the happenings at The White House on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook as well as several other sites.  It all adds up to a fun way to feel connected while keeping up on current events!

Did you know that you can read stories online from our Children's Website?

Click on the Tumblebooks link on the right side. If you go to the Language Learning link, there are even stories offered in French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Russian. There are also games and puzzles to play online. So find a computer here at the library, or check out our website at home, and tumble into a great book!