Like magazines? ……Have you tried Zinio?

       If you enjoy reading magazines, you’ll want to try an exciting resource that recently became available to Fountaindale Public Library District cardholders. It’s called Zinio. To access this digital magazine streaming service, go to our library’s website at http://www.fountaindale.org and then go to the left hand side of the webpage. Scroll down a bit and you will see the links to Zinio on the left. You can access a step-by-step guide to help you set up your account by clicking on the link that says: “Click here for user guide to ZINIO.” We recommend you read and use this guide as you set up your Zinio account. The link just above this one will take you to the screen that is used to either create a new account or use to login to Zinio, once you have your account established.

More than 170 separate titles are available in Zinio. Users can stream magazines simultaneously to their computers, laptops, or tablets.  A few exceptions are Apple  devices, because Zinio requires Flash, and the Nook, because Barnes & Noble does not currently have an app for Zinio.

Zinio also gives customers the option to download magazines to their devices. Once downloaded, the magazines can be read without the need of wi-fi. Apple product fans will be happy to know that their devices are compatible with downloading from Zinio.

Unlike using some of our electronic databases that may only provide the text of a magazine article, Zinio gives you the complete content of the magazines that you are looking at… full color, text, pictures, charts, etc.

Below are examples of how Consumer Reports appears in Zinio. In addition to the content, Zinio provides easy to use tools and tips for searching, printing, and maneuvering through the magazine that you’re reading.

Interested? Go have a look at Zinio and give it a try. I’m sure you’ll find more than a few titles that you will want to read!

- Tom D.

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF is an occasional feature of the FOUNTAINDALE LIBRARY REFERENCE BLOG. Postings will highlight titles that you might find of interest, but haven’t yet picked up to read and explore.

Say it isn’t so! I certainly would like to, but the reality of the details in my post about BIRD TALK magazine is that this monthly publication, which has survived into it’s 30th year, is no longer going to be available as a printed magazine. The library has carried this informative magazine, whose motto is “Dedicated To Better Care For Pet Birds,” for at least ten years and it has been very popular with our customers. The September 2012 issue shown here will be the last print issue.

I had received word from our magazine supplier at the end of July that Bird Talk was no longer going to published, but they did not provide details. It wasn’t until I heard an interview on National Public Radio a few weeks ago that more information came forth. The NPR News segment, on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, was hosted by Audie Cornish. The piece was called ‘Bird Talk’ Magazine Folds Its Wings After 30 Years and was an interview with Susan Chamberlain, a longtime columnist and writer for the magazine. The demise of the print version of Bird Talk had gone the way of a number of long lived publications that ceased to exist over the past several years…economics…it was no longer profitable for the publishers to continue printing the magazine.  Shrinking advertising revenue was a main contributor. The readership was there. If anything, more people than ever are pet bird owners, according to Ms. Chamberlain.

I wondered what readers would do to get the same type of information from the columns that they regularly went to for tips like “How to give your bird stress-free nail trims” and “How to promote healthy skin and feathers on your pet.” Well, there is a silver lining to this grey, bleak cloud.  Some of the content of Bird Talk magazine will now be going online on BirdChannel.com

The solution to moving content online is not a perfect one. Not everyone has Internet access.  Some people just like the feel of holding a real print magazine in their hands. Anyway, pets and their caregivers are resilient. Most will make the best of the transition and continue doing what they enjoy most…being in each other’s company.

- Tom D.

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF is an occasional feature of the FOUNTAINDALE LIBRARY REFERENCE BLOG. Postings will highlight titles that you might find of interest, but haven’t yet picked up to read and explore.

If you happen to be a fan of books and enjoy reading reviews and articles about authors and their works in the Chicago Tribune, you may have seen notices about some new publications from that newspaper earlier this year. The new publications are PRINTERS ROW JOURNAL and PRINTERS ROW FICTION. The library now subscribes to both. They come out each Sunday and can be found in our Magazines and Newspapers area on the 2nd Floor, with the magazines.

Among the features of PRINTERS ROW JOURNAL are book reviews, author profiles and essays, book club guides and reports, and news from Midwest publishing circles. PRINTERS ROW FICTION presents original short works of fiction (around two dozen pages, in booklet form) by Chicago authors. The pictures in this post show a recent sample of each of the publications.

Also on the radar of book fans in the Chicagoland area is the major event coming up this weekend, June 9 and 10. Returning for its 28th year is the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest. It’s the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest. Among this year’s headlining authors will be noted cookbook celebrities Rachael Ray, Rick Bayless, and Daisy Martinez. Also on hand will be former news reporter, Dan Rather and sports writer, Frank DeFord, among others. In all, close to 200 authors will be at the Fest.

The event draws book lovers from across the country and will feature more than 200 booksellers who will be displaying and selling new, used, and antiquarian books. For a more complete listing of what’s happening, check out this link: Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest.

- Tom D.

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF is the first installment of a new feature of the FOUNTAINDALE LIBRARY REFERENCE BLOG.  Many of our customers are familiar with the popular general interest magazines that our library carries. What these postings will highlight will be titles that you might find of interest, but haven’t yet picked up to read.

SKY & TELESCOPE has been published since 1941 and is written in a style that has appeal to both amateur and professional astronomers. Among the types of things this monthly publication covers are: current happenings in astronomy and space exploration, events in the amateur astronomy community, reviews of astronomical equipment, books and computer software, amateur telescope making, and astrophotography.

The April 2012 issue features an intriguing article titled Did the Moon Sink the Titanic?  by Donald W. Olson, Russell L. Doescher & Roger W. Sinnott. I was tipped off about this by a piece written by Jim Forsyth in the March 7, 2012 issue of the Chicago Tribune. New research done by forensic astronomers indicates that the moon’s unusually close approach to the  earth on January 4, 1912 may have produced  high tides strong enough to cause  a large number of large, fully grown icebergs to break away from Greenland and float into the north Atlantic shipping lanes by April, when the Titanic made her ill-fated maiden voyage.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the article sheds light on some data that many have never known about and adds more intrigue to the sinking of the ship that many said was unsinkable.

You may find the April issue of Sky & Telescope in our Magazines and Newspapers area on the 2nd Floor of the library.  You can also access it, with your Fountaindale Library card, in our InfoTrac electronic database.

-Tom D.