Flu and Flu clinic information

Looking for a Flu Clinic?  Click here to search for flu clinics in Massachusetts by zip code, town name, or map location. Some clinics offer pneumococcal (“pneumonia”) immunizations as well as seasonal flu immunizations. When clinics begin providing H1N1 swine flu immunizations, that information will also be listed.  Information on Newton flu clinics, as well as other information specifically for Newton residents, can be found here.

Flu.gov (from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) has many resources for information on both seasonal and H1N1 flu, including a new H1N1 Flu Self-Evaluation guide for adults 18 and older and a Flu Myths and Facts section.

Both the Massachusetts Department of Health and the CDC also have websites with constantly updated flu information.

Are you searching for a job or new career?

The Newton Free Library can help!  Check out the resources in our online Career Center, read our Job Search blog, or use our online databases to explore careers, research businesses, or take practice tests.

We also offer a class in Applying for a Job Online (if you can’t make it to a class, you can view the class handout here.)

And of course we have plenty of resume, cover letter, and job exploration books, magazines, and audiovisual materials.  Ask for help at the Reference Desk.

Adoption resources

We add new websites to our resource pages on a regular basis, and our newest addition is a page of resources on adoption.

If you want to learn more about this topic, check out these websites:

Adoption – Child Welfare Information Gateway
	Resources on all aspects of domestic and intercountry adoption, including adoption from foster care, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Adoption – Office of Health and Human Services
	Information on adoption and foster care from the Mass. Office of Health and Human Services.
Adoption Guide
	Information on all aspects of adoption, from Adoptive Families Magazine.
Adoptive Families Magazine
	Includes selected articles from the current and past issues, as well as links to other adoption information.
American Academy of Adoption Attorneys The American Academy of Adoption Attorneys has members throughout the U.S. and Canada who are experienced in the complexities of adoption law as well as interstate and international regulations surrounding adoption. Foster Care – Office of Health and Human Services
	Information on foster care services and licensing information, from the Mass. Office of Health and Human Services.
Intercountry Adoption
	Information on adopting a child from overseas, from the Office of Children’s Issues, U.S. Department of State.
Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange
	Information on adopting children in foster care.

DTV Day: Are you ready for digital TV?

Tomorrow (Tuesday, December 9) is “DTV Day” in Boston, and more than a dozen local broadcasters and data service providers are working together in a three-pronged community awareness program to test the Boston TV market’s digital transition readiness, with:

* Intermittent daylong crawls on all outlets promoting DTV information on a single station (WGBH-TV analog)
* Daylong, uninterrupted DTV information on a single, destination station (WGBH-TV analog)
* Three, 2-minute ‘Virtual Shutdown’ readiness tests on all outlets at 5:15 a.m., 6:15 a.m., 5:15 p.m.

Congressman Ed Markey’s office has more information on “DTV Day” here, WGBH-TV explains the digital transition here (with  information on digital TV and video captioning here), the FCC has information here, and you can get converter box coupon information here.

Looking for a job?

The library’s free class, “Applying for a Job Online,” will be offered twice in December, and three times in January (January sign-up begins on December 15th).  In our hands-on workshop, learn about the wealth of online and print resources available to guide job applicants, and learn the terms you need to understand when you go online to apply for a job: “scannable resume,” “job bank,” “keywords,” ”guerilla resume.” Classes will be held:

December 9 (Tuesday), 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
December 11 (Thursday), 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
January 9 (Friday), 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
January 14 (Wednesday), 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
January 26 (Monday), 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Space is limited, so call (617) 796-1380 to sign up today!  And we have other computer classes, too!

If you can’t come to the class, you can view the course materials here (as well as material from some of our other classes).   And don’t forget our Job Search Blog, with links to other online resources and job search news, as well as our list of career-related databases and websites.

Music for election night

Maybe someday we’ll have catchy McCain and Obama songs.  But for now, if you’d like to take take a historical approach to election night, our music database American Song (Home Access | In Library Access) has some interesting selections to listen to on your computer.  Much better than TV ads, “Winners & Losers: Campaign Songs from the Critical Elections in American History” (Vol. 1 & 2) has hits like “Get on the Raft with Taft,” “Row, Row, Row with Roosevelt,” and “Marseillaise for Tilden.”  There’s more on the albums “Election Songs of the United States,” and “Presidential Campaign Songs, 1796-1996.”

If you’d like to play the music yourself, the Library of Congress’s online Performing Arts Encyclopedia has sheet music for 29 pieces–click on “Presidential Campaign Songs” in the center column of the page.

And if you want still more patriotic music, the “Patriotic Melodies” collection from the Library of Congress will provide you with not just sheet music, but sound clips, history, bibliographies, and web links for popular tunes such as Yankee Doodle Boy, the Star Spangled Banner, and Fanfare for the Common Man.

And finally, do you want your rendition online for all to hear?  Boston.com wants you to sing a patriotic song in honor of election day!  (Words are provided.)

For last-minute voters…

If you’re still making up your mind on the Presidential election, here are some websites to help:

FactCheck.org
Check the claims made by candidates and outside groups in ads and debates.  From the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

PolitiFact.org
“Truth-O-Meter” ratings in a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly.

FactChecker from the Washington Post

Commission on Presidential Debates
What did the candidates say in the debates?  Read the debate transcripts, both from 2008 and from past debates going back to Kennedy-Nixon in 1960.

CNN Issues Center
Pick from their menu of major issues, and read what the candidates have proposed, what they’ve said, and how they’ve voted.

Websites from the Presidential candidates:
John McCain-Sarah Palin
Barack Obama-Joe Biden

For your polling place, ballot info, and list of your elected officials, see the Secretary of State’s website.

What’s new in our collection?

See our monthly lists from July 2006 to the present here.  Click on any title for availability information, “Reviews and More,” or to reserve the item.  DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, and children’s materials are included.

Olympics 2008

For news on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, try these websites:

Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Schedules, results, and athlete, team and venue information.  Also includes records and background information.

NBC’s Olympics coverage
TV listings, results & schedules, news video, photos, medal standings, and country, sport, and athlete profiles.  Sign up for live alerts of breaking news and other information via email or text message.

NPR’s Olympics coverage
Articles (including athlete profiles and reports about China), video, and audio (check out the National Anthem sampler).

New York Times Olympics 2008 page
Issues, multimedia, and articles.

Xinhua News Olympic coverage (in English)

NewsBank’s 2008 Summer Olympics page
News articles and background information.

U.S. Olympic Committee

International Olympic Committee

Time to do the taxes!

The AARP® Tax-Aide™ Foundation will have trained volunteers at the main library on Saturdays from 1:30-3:30 pm each week beginning on February 16 and ending on April 12. The volunteers, who are trained by the IRS, will be ready to answer questions and fill out basic (non-business) tax returns, and their help is FREE. 

Both Federal and State tax booklets and copies of many tax forms are available on the first floor of the library (just beyond the Reference atrium), while supplies last.  If you can’t find the form you need, you can copy from our book of reproducible forms, or the Reference librarians can print them from the IRS and Department of Revenue websites (10 cents per page).

For forms and more information, go to: 

U.S. TAX FORMS & PUBLICATIONS
http://www.irs.gov
(800) 829-36762007 MASS. TAX FORMS & PUBLICATIONS
(800) 392-6089