PVLD Adult Services Blog

With your PVLD card, you can access the Morningstar and Value Line subscription databases from your home computer — authoritative financial information right at your fingertips!

Visit the library’s homepage at www.pvld.org, go to the Online Resources tab here, then under Business & Investing, click on the Morningstar Investment Research Center & Value Line links on the right.

And don’t forget that print subscriptions of these publications can be found at the libraries.  Please ask the reference librarians for assistance if needed.

 Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times (1881-1987) 

Use your PVLD library card to access our historical newspaper databases. Read firsthand accounts of life in the area dating back to the nineteenth century. All from the comfort of your home or tablet computer!

From our homepage, go to Online Resources, then ”Newspapers and Magazines” — or click here. 

Enjoy!

People around the world have celebrated the start of each new year for centuries. Ancient Romans gave each other gifts of branches from sacred trees. Ancient Persians gave gifts of eggs, which symbolized productiveness.  Today, most festivities for the new year begin on December 31 (New Year’s Eve) and continue into January 1 (New Year’s Day).  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 312 million Americans are ready to greet 2012. A hundred years ago,  nearly 94 million Americans were ready to greet the new year.

The Adult Services Reference Department at PVLD is pleased to have had a productive 2011, and look forward to another productive year in 2012. It is a great pleasure to serve the Palos Verdes community, and we wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Former Czech president and writer Václav Havel died Sunday.  Imprisoned by the Communist regime for four years, Havel led the 1989 Velvet Revolution which precipitated the end of totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia.

Several of the plays Havel wrote satirized the Soviet-backed leaders of his country.  During his presidency, Czechoslovakia joined NATO and the European Union, but Havel was unable to prevent the nation’s split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Library resources: writing by and about Havel

The American Institute of Architects last week announced that Steven Holl would receive its 2012 Gold Medal.  The New York City-based architect has taught at Columbia for almost 40 years, and designed projects in Europe, the United States, and China.

One critic has written that “you don’t just walk through a Holl building.  You embark on a dreamlike journey.  Stairs and ramps curve or vanish into a mysterious distance, where some unseen light beckons you onward to new discoveries.”

One of Holl’s current projects is a new library in Queens, New York.  The design includes study terraces that step up the building, with city and water views.  The terraces are stacked with books to reinforce the “primacy of the printed page.”

Library resources– Steven Holl: Architecture Spoken

One of Venice’s most famous attractions was unveiled Wednesday following a three year $3.74 million restoration.   This marked the first time in a century that the 400 year-old Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) had undergone renovation.

The project attracted some controversy, as the scaffolding placed at the site had been covered with paid advertising.  Venice’s mayor defended the practice, saying that it ensured that the work would be funded completely from private sources, with no public monies used.

The bridge, connecting the Doge’s Palace to a prison, was given its name by the 19^th century poet Lord Byron.  It came from the suggestion that as prisoners were led across it they would sigh as they glimpsed Venice, perhaps for the last time.

Library resources: Venice

The 62^nd annual National Book Awards were presented in New York City Wednesday evening.  Jesmyn Ward received the fiction award for her Hurricane Katrina novel Salvage the Bones.   “As the storm approaches, the Batiste family’s story takes on the resonance of one of the Greek myths.”   Stephen Greenblatt won the nonfiction prize for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, “a dramatic account of the Renaissance era rediscovery of the Latin poet Lucretius.”

The poetry prize went to Nikky Finney for Head Off & Split, “an impassioned summation of African-American history.”  The prize for Young People’s Literature was awarded to Thanhha Lai for Inside Out & Back Again, about a Vietnamese girl who is forced to leave her Saigon home for America, “the classic immigration tale, powerfully and beautifully shared by an authentic narrator.”