Lily King’s “Euphoria” has won the first-ever Kirkus Prize for Fiction.  The award is one of three new $50,000 prizes announced on October 23, 2014 by the publishing industry journal Kirkus at a ceremony in Austin, Texas.  New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast won the nonfiction prize for her illustrated memoir, “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?”  The prize for Young People’s literature was awarded to Kate Samworth’s “Aviary Wonders Inc.:  Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual.”  King’s “Euphoria” — her fourth novel and her first historical novel — is based on an incident in the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead.  The Kirkus judges cited its “perfect construction, its economy and originality, and its fearlessness.”  In June, it was announced that director Michael Apted and producer Paige Simpson plan to turn the novel into a movie.  Samworth’s “Aviary Wonders,” for readers 8-11, is designed to look like a futuristic catalogue of bird parts from which customers can order up and design their own feathered creatures.  The judges called it “by far one of the most creative books we have ever encountered.”  Kirkus is joining a very crowded field of literary awards, but its trusted name and the enormous value of these new prize offerings — first announced in May — should help attract attention, at least within the industry. (All that cash comes from Herbert Simon, the real estate magnate who bought the then-fading journal in 2010.)  All books published from Nov. 1, 2013 to Oct. 31, 2014 that received a starred review in Kirkus — more than 1,000 titles — were eligible for consideration.  Eighteen finalists for this year’s prizes were announced last month.  Ron Charles  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/10/23/wins-first-kirkus-prize/

A library card is instant access to a world of resources.  Both offline AND online.  That might surprise you, but here are 5 reasons why you want a library card to be a great researcher. 

1.   Access to online paywall content.  My local library gives paywall access to Ancestry.com, Morningstar, online journals, and more.   It also provides Hoopla video (https://www.hoopladigital.com/ for downloads, and many free music downloads (lots of popular music, some of which really surprised me—this is free?  Yes!).  It also provides many different database services:  a small listing includes, Academic Onefile (journals, magazines, books, audio – great subject browser), InfoTrac (news and periodical.Updated daily.)   Can filter by type, sort by date.  General One File  and MasterFile Complete (EBSCO).   Many libraries have all this, and more. 

2.  eBooks.  Yes, just like physical books, many libraries support borrowing ebooks and e-magazines, typically with time restrictions on how long you can keep them, and sometimes twitchy software, but free’s free—I’ve read many books that I knew I only wanted for a short time. 

3.  Local archives.  Many libraries have archival content that’s never going to make it online (at least in our lifetimes).  If you’re doing research on a particular location, visiting physically is often the best thing to do.  But if you can’t get there, checking out the online library can often lead to content that you won’t be able to find via search engines.  (Go figure.  For some reason, many local libraries have put great content online, but then set it up so the search engines can’t index it, making it effectively offline.   On the other hand, if you connect via the library, you can often browse that content.)  

4.  Classes.  I teach at libraries. So do lots of other people with great skills.  Local libraries are especially good on local history, genealogy classes, general internet skill tutorials, and basic computer skills (such as the common applications).  Sometimes libraries put these classes (at least the lecture parts) up on YouTube.  

5.  Reference Librarians.  They’re excellent resources of information and a source of research skills.  When you go to your public library, be sure to chat with the reference librarians.  They are, in essence, professional SearchReseachers.  They know all kinds of things that are key to finding information (both online and offline) in places and in ways you might not have thought about.  (Better yet:  Many of them are available via IMs and email.  Remember the superb “Ask-A-Librarian” service at http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ is always available.  They might take a day to get back to you, but they’re very, very good.)   Daniel M. Russell  Read more at http://searchresearch1.blogspot.com/2014/10/5-reasons-you-should-have-library-card.html

Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era.  Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent underlie south-west Great Britain, and the eastern coast of North America.  It is the source of many of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States.  Avalonia is named for the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland.  Avalonia developed as a volcanic arc on the northern margin of Gondwana.  It eventually rifted off, becoming a drifting microcontinent.  The Rheic Ocean formed behind it, and the Iapetus Ocean shrank in front.  It collided with the continents Baltica, then Laurentia, and finally with Gondwana, ending up in the interior of Pangea.  When Pangea broke up, Avalonia's remains were divided by the rift which became the Atlantic Ocean.

See graphics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalonia

The Latin root word ject means throw.  Do you remember when your classroom teacher used a projector, which ‘threw’ images up on a screen for a presentation?  Sometimes students would object to this, or ‘throw’ their thoughts against it.  Often students feel subjected to too many presentations, being too often ‘thrown’ under their boring burdens.  Do you remember as a child getting an injection at the doctor’s office, where a nurse would ‘throw’ medicine into your arm with a shot?  You might have tried to reject this attempt by ‘throwing’ it back at the shot giver.  Interestingly, our word jet comes from ject as well, for a jet plane is ‘thrown’ through the air by its engines. Jets often follow trajectories, or the paths across which they are ‘thrown.’ Sometimes a jet, or more often a ship at sea, is forced to jettison unwanted baggage, thereby ‘throwing’ it overboard.  Another word for ‘throwing’ something out is ejecting it, such as ejecting a DVD or CD-ROM from a computer.  Sometimes during a test we have to make a conjecture, or guess that is ‘thrown’ together based on the best available evidence.  f we don’t guess correctly, we might become dejected, that is, ‘thrown’ or cast down, thus becoming depressed or blue.  http://membean.com/wrotds/ject-thrown  Other ject words:  abject, interject, project

The Latin root word sect means cut.  Some sect words:  dissect (cut apart piece by piece), bisect (cut into two equal parts). intersection (place or point where two things cross each other).  https://www.learnthat.org/pages/view/roots.html  Other sect words:  sector, section

Seven players share the National Football League record of seven touchdown passes in a single game.  See names, pictures and dates at http://www.profootballhof.com/history/stats/seven_touchdowns.aspx

See chart of NFL single game passing touchdowns leaders at http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_td_single_game.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1209  October 27, 2014  On this date in 1682, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was founded.  On this date in 1810, the United States annexed the former Spanish colony of West Florida.