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!

At $1.50 for the first page and $1 per additional page for outgoing domestic faxes (international faxes are $4.95 for the first page and $3.45 per page thereafter), Canton Public Library offers self-serve faxing at reasonable rates. But did you know that in many cases, you can scan and email your document(s) for free — avoiding fax charges altogether? Canton Public Library has flatbed (letter-size) scanners you can use at no cost. Once you have your scanned documents, simply send them to the recipient from your web-based email account from the same computer you used for scanning.

Update [8/31/2010]: As of September 1, 2010 we no longer offer one-on-one appointments with a librarian.

Get one-on-one assistance from a librarian on reference projects, Internet use or other library services. Make an appointment and our librarians can help you post a resume to a job hunt site, learn to navigate the web and set up email, obtain in-depth reference assistance, research a health topic, learn to use a database, and more. It’s your own private consultation with a reference librarian. Ask at the Reference Desk to set up your appointment.

Join journalist Greg Melville and his college buddy Iggy as they set out to be the first people to drive from Vermont to California in a "french fry car" - a beat-up 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon powered on vegetable oil collected from restaurant grease dumpsters along the way.  Greasy Rider : Two Dudes, One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future is the story of two adventurers determined to take on the last great driving challenge and join our nation's fight against petroleum addiction.

Have you ever noticed the current state of the world and wondered...WHY?  Visit Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonist Index for a different view of today's events.

[Update: YouTube released YouTube EDU this week]
While YouTube is great for entertaining videos, you have to dig pretty deep to find educational stuff (or know what you're looking for). Below is a short list of educational video sites:

Academic Earth - Selected lectures from top professors at Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Subjects range from Astronomy to Religion.

R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was the architect, mathematician and inventor who popularized geodesic domes. Chosen by many today for energy efficiency, domes can be a fun do-it-yourself project. Want to build your own clubhouse? Check out Domes by David MacCaulay then make your own geodesic dome with these instructions.

Wireless and remote printing to the library's printers is now available. Send print jobs from your laptop here in our building or from any place with internet access - like your home office. Your job will remain in the Copy Center print queue until the close of business on the day it's sent.

Tuesday, March 10 (9:30-11:30AM)

Transfer photos onto a computer, use MS Photo Editor to crop, rotate and resize pictures, plus email them. Visit print processing websites too. Please leave your camera and photos at home. Prerequisite: Mouse and keyboarding skills.

Google can be used to find just about anything on the web, but that's not good enough for the Mountain View company.

Miss Video Game Community is a great place to connect with other girls who love video games!  You can create a profile, add statistics, and participate in tournaments.  This site includes a blog but you don't just have to post about gaming, things like make-up, boys, and books were all topics that are currently being talked about.

We have added new computers in the Children's Library:


These eight stations are for kids and their parents, and have the Microsoft Office suite as well as games and Internet access. Kids and parents can surf with or next to each other, or parents can get things done while kids play games or do homework.

Lifehacking is, in simple terms, "anything that solves an everyday problem in a clever or non-obvious way." If you subscribe to the most popular lifehacker blogs, you'll find articles on anything ranging from setting up a TiVO to making a fake wallet in case you get mugged.

Here are ten ways to get the most out of your library:

You may or may not be aware that we now circulate video games in the library.  We have many platforms including Game Cube, Wii,

Both the House and the Senate have recently voted to delay the switch from over-the-air analog signals to digital from February 17 to June 12, 2009. President Obama has promised to sign the legislation, granting a reprieve to the as many as 10 million consumers who are still unprepared for the digital transition. The government's $1.5-billion program to send $40 coupons to analog TV owners toward the purchase of a converter ran out of money last month. It is estimated that there about 3.2 million coupon requests on the waiting list. For more information go to dtv.gov.

Parents – are you mystified by MySpace? Unsure of all the hype surrounding social networking?

iGoogle is a version of the Google home page that allows you to add boxes, called Gadgets, to display the weather, stocks, Gmail, Facebook, and more. To get started with iGoogle:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/ig
2. If you already have a Google Account for their other services, just sign in.