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the big house library is now the proud owner of ipods! :)

we loan them out preloaded with whatever audiobook you need to read.

the only catch is that you're responsible for replacing it if it gets damaged or disappears.

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we also still have portable cassette players for the titles in the collection that we don't yet have on iTunes, and we'll gladly let you borrow these, too. :)

we'd like thank our district's generous voters. measure c/measure k makes projects like this possible. :)

 
 
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Thanks to the Sonoma County Library, you can practice for all your important tests for free, from anywhere, anytime.

Peterson's Testing and Education Reference Center (from Gale) has practices tests for all the APs, the ACT, the SAT, the PSAT, the SAT Subject Tests, the CAHSEE and more, plus test taking tips and strategies and other resources.

All you need is your Petaluma Public Library card barcode number to login. If you don't have a public library card, you can pick up an application at the library circulation desk.

Good luck and hope this helps! :)
  
 
 

without a lot of fanfare this year, we acknowledged teen read week at the big house library.

all i did was i laid out  pieces of poster paper on tables and asked students to write the titles of books they've read and loved on them.

i also begged/bullied a bunch of random students who were studying into saying "happy teen read week" on camera (see video above). :)

what surprised me was how excited students were to write the title of their favorite book and tell anyone standing nearby why it they loved it.

i was also surprised to see them reading books they're not getting from our library and loving books they read in their english classes.

i'm glad we did something for teen read week, even if it wasn't anything much. :)

 
 
 
Every year in Petaluma, the superintendent of our school district comes to each campus to honor employees for their years of service.

Pins are given for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and so on years of experience.

This video celebrates those educators being honored this year.

Congratulations to all 12 wonderful recipients and thank you for your 295 years of service! :)
 
 
 
During Banned Books Week in the United States, libraries across the country commemorate our freedom to read.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans intellectual freedom.

You can read whatever you want whenever you want, and basically, libraries aren't allowed to rat you out.

Here at the Big House Library, we support your right to read.

So, act out, read a banned book today. :)

P.S. Thanks to Paul Yakovlev, Casa's Video Production Club, Miss Helen, and our library's awesome TAs for their help making this totally wonderful video.
 
 
 
Since our local libraries in Petaluma don't have access to every book on every topic,
we really love Google Books! :)
 
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With Google Books, you can find ebooks (magazines and journals, too) on almost any topic and read them online immediately.

To learn how to use this awesome resource, check out our Google Books page or go to books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html.
 
 
 

yup, that's right, casa's freshmen were podcasting during their first week back in school after summer break! :) pretty high tech, huh? :)

well, their computer literacy teacher, mrs. donna reed, wanted them to have a tour of the big house library. :) i thought they should do something techy while they were there. so we pulled out the digital audio recorders and watched them have fun recording their reactions for posterity.

in almost no time at all, mrs. reed and i brainstormed the questions and developed the rubric. it's hard to believe how fast and easy it was to pull off a lesson like this. i hope more casa teachers will try it. :)

curious to know what the students had to say?

you can listen to all of their podcasts at:
http://casacomplit1011.pbworks.com/project-1-library-tour-podcast

 
 
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The Big House Library just joined the third largest nation in the world: Facebook. If you like us, please give us your thumbs up. Thanks. :)
 


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don't be bored this summer. read! :)

borrow a big bag of books from the big house! :)

***no late fees all summer***

[contact ms. koval to see when you can stop by]