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Tumblebooks:
I've been awake a few too many hours right now. This is because I got
up early to attend a webinar from the State Department about the uses
of e-books in American public libraries, especially those in New York
City. Christopher Platt was the presenter. Yes, he is from New York,
which is in the same timezone as mine, but the presentation was so
early because he was presenting from Rome, where it was afternoon.
NYPL may be the largest library providing general interest e-books to
their patrons as items that can be checked out. It was very
interesting. The NYPL e-book site uses Overdrive as a backend, as do
many other libraries. This is a new technology, a new type of service,
and there is still a lot of room for growth, especially with how to
find the books.
New York Public Library: E-Books:
Overdrive:
But enough of that. More about the presentation will go into my
ETechLib blog. Here, I wanted to talk about Tumblebooks, which was my
favorite of the morning. I've been collecting kiddylit since before I
had children. My kids had to get permission to borrow my kids books.
Later I started what I believe to have been the first website for
preschool children, the Mother
Goose Pages which I began in 1995. At that time, several people
made fun of me, saying it was a dumb idea since everyone knows
preschool kids can't read and don't use computers. Well, everyone knew
it then. Not so true now, eh? What I found was that the site was used
by parents of young children, especially those stationed in other
countries, teachers of English as a Second Language, pastors
researching sermons, grandparents, people researching either the
rhymes or the history or cultural context, musicians, and many others.
This doesn't surprise anyone now, I'm sure. When my son was small we
acquired an astonishing variety of interactive books on CD-ROM, with
great artwork, charming music, vibrant narrations, engaging humorous
surprises built-in, animations, jokes, "easter eggs", intellectual
puzzles and challenges, etc. I've been rather sad that while the
CD-ROMS were well preserved, most of them no longer work on today's
computers.
TumblelBooks to the rescue! "TumbleBooks are created by adding
animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in
order to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or
have read to you." They have a nice
selection, books in multiple languages (English, Spanish, French),
picture books and chapter books. They also offer games and teaching
resources. They have reasonable pricing for libraries and schools, but
no option for personal subscriptions.
Now, to be fair, since I usually highlight free resources, I feel
compelled to share some free ebook resources for children.
Read.gov (US government):
NOTE: Literacy promotion with many wonderful resources.
StoryOnline:
NOTE: The Screen Actors Guild Foundation members read aloud famous
children's books like Stellaluna and The Polar Express.
Archive: Children's Library:
NOTE: Archive.org has many of the greats of classic children's
literature collected here, complete with full illustrations in various
formats to support most (and possibly all) current e-book devices.
Best of all, they are all free and quite searchable. Almost 3,000
titles in just this part of the collection, with vastly more in the
adult and literary sections.
Inventor Tim Jenison attempted to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer (“Girl with a Pearl Earring”) manage to paint so photo-realistically. Tim’s Vermeer: Tim Jenison Close-Up is an exhibition of Mr. Jenison’s process work on display at Kennedy Library.
St Wendreda, March, Cambridgeshire
The church sits in the medieval village centre, more than a mile south of the modern town centre at the Nene crossing. Architecturally a fabulous church, one of the most harmonious and exciting exteriors of any of the large Cambridgeshire churches, with grotesque-bedecked aisles and clerestories leading to an elegant spire reaching to heaven.
You step into the south door past the 'Church Open ' sign (curiously, the north door is locked and has a keyholder notice!) into what appears at first to be a large Victorianised interior, and then you look up. March has one of the four best angel roofs in England along with Knapton, Woolpit and Needham Market. Pevsner thought it the very best one of all. Betjeman thought it was 'worth cycling 40 miles into a head wind to see', and I felt a little guilty for only having done a little over half of that to get here, and not all of it into the wind. Inevitably, the architecture and the roof are so spectacular they put everything else here rather in the shade. There is some good late 19th/early 20th Century glass, but that isn't what sticks in the memory.
Curiously satisfied despite having visited six locked-no-keyholder churches before I got to this one, I headed north towards the town centre and the equally open church of St Peter. March is one of my favourite small East Anglian towns. it's a proper place, remote enough to have far more life to its centre than its population of barely 20,000 might suggest, but not stuffily self-important in the manner of nearby Wisbech and Ely.
There are no historical buildings other than the parish church. March was an industrial town, and only exists in its current form because of the coming of the railways.
The population at the time of the 1851 census was just 4,000. But March became an important railway junction, with two railway companies' lines from Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich, Lincoln and Kings Lynn meeting and merging here. There was a massive house building programme of terraced streets to accommodate the railway workers, and the great majority of March's men worked for the Great Eastern Railway and the Great Northern Railway by the end of the 19th Century. March still has the character of a railway town today.
In the 20th Century, March became the centre for the distribution of the agricultural produce of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and west Norfolk to the London markets, the industrial cities of the North and the east coast ports. The marshalling yards at Whitemoor to the north of the town were the largest in Europe. March was a typical example of why railway stations in East Anglia are almost always a trek from the town centre, because the system grew to serve agricultural produce rather than passengers.
From the First World War until 1965, March was the county town of the former county of the Isle of Ely, before it was fused with Cambridgeshire to form a single unit. March reached its highest point of importance during the Second World War, when the marshalling yards were used by the Army and the RAF as the centre of its military distribution network. But changing patterns of agriculture after the war, and especially of distribution, sounded the death knell for March.
The rise of easy road transport, and the thuggish cuts brought about by the Beeching Commission, meant that rail freight was no longer able to compete. Privatisation came, and by the early 1990s the marshalling yards were closed. They were extensively built on, most famously by the government for HM Prison Whitemoor, now Britain's main top security gaol for terrorists and full life sentence servers. There is also a vast industrial and commercial estate, ironically home to major road distribution firms, although Network Rail also have their supply depot here.
March town centre is one of England's best preserved examples of a Victorian urban heart. Very little has been done to disturb the late 19th Century architecture and street pattern. The High Street passes the large town square, crosses the Nene and meets Station Street in a perfect busy example of what those sleeves-rolled-up Victorians thought all small towns might be like one day.
Summer Internship Program Closing Celebration and Final Presentations. by Jay Baker at Annapolis, MD.
Friday, November 11, 2022 featured Technology in Teaching (TnT) and Professional Development (PD) workshops. Photo by Bradford Lee.
While having my tea in the Urak Valley, Balochistan, I came across this beautiful presentation of cold drinks at a side hotel in the valley. This presentation of bottles is not only attractive, but soothing to the eyes.
I am not a cold drink person otherwise i would definitely have gone for one :)
His Excellency the Ambassador Mr Werner Matias Romero of El Salvador presents a member of the Salvadorian Embassy to The Queen at Buckingham Palace, 16 March 2010.
Find out about engagements and events from the royal calendar, including Presentation of Credentials, in the special exhibition The Queen's Year at the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace, 27 July - 1 October 2010.
Ian Jones Photography
not for reproduction