All eyes will be on Indy for the next week. There will be thousands of people from all over the country coming to your hometown to participate in the festivities.  While the majority of us will not be in Lucas Oil for the big game there are plenty of things to do and most of them are free. Whether you are a sports fan, music lover, a gamer, or a fan of the arts there is something for you.

The heart of the madness will be the Super Bowl Village that opens January 27th. It will be crazy down there, but there are many park and ride options. You should plan ahead,though, if you want to enjoy the festivities. Get out there and take advantage of it because this could be a once in a lifetime experience.

The Indianapolis Super Bowl Page has all the information you need to plan your trip. It also has a wealth of information about all the events that will take place during Super Bowl Week. In addition check out the initiatives organized by the host committee to enrich and improve Indianapolis. From 46 murals
that were painted on buildings downtown to the community effort that planted 2012 trees on the near eastside. There really is a lot more than just football to the entire event.

While you’re waiting for the big game, check out these football stories from the library.

 

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school’s rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. 

 

 

  

 

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.

 

    

 

Leverage by Joshua Cohen

High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

 

  

  

 

Shooting Star by Fred McKissack Jr.

Jomo Rogers, a naturally talented athlete, starts taking performance enhancing drugs in order to be an even better high school football player, but finds his life spinning out of control as his game improves.

 

 

 

  

 

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
Fed up with the increasingly violent rivalry between the football and soccer teams at Hamilton High, Lissa and other players’ girlfriends go on strike, but the girls will succeed only if their libidos can be controlled longer than the boys’ can.

Does everyone know about the e-books and audiobooks that you can download from our website with a library card? If this is news to you–if you just got an e-reader as a gift–and you’re interested, you can click on the earphoned guy on the left and be taken to some questions and answers about how to go about it.

There are also classes at the library about how to download–you can click here for a schedule of classes–and it’s always possible to email the Webmaster with a question. Click here to do that.

The answer to Question 1 on that list is a biggie–it tells you how to find the directions for downloading materials to your device.

But there are a few other answers I’d like to mention.

  

 Number 2, for example. Can I use the web catalog instead of OverDrive to do my searching?
A: You can. But not all the downloadable content appears in the web catalog, and everything you find on Overdrive is circulated through that site. If the OverDrive browsing is driving you crazy, be aware that the site includes an Advanced Search.

 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a tragic case. This is one of our most popular downloadable e-books at the moment, but if you search for that title in our regular catalog, you find only the paper copy.   

  

 

 

There are lots of books that the library has only on paper, but this isn’t one of them. To find the e-copies, you can go to our downloadables site at http://ecollection.imcpl.org/, and do an Advanced Search for your title.

 

 

 

 

You can pick a format if you like, for your e-book or audiobook. If you don’t, you’ll get all the downloadable versions of that title.

 

The cover art for Miss Peregrine above takes you to the ebook versions, but an audiobook version is available, too.

 

 At the moment, you would need to place a hold request on this title. If Miss Peregrine’s unavailability confuses you, please refer to Question 18.
If it is electronic, why aren’t titles always available for checkout?
A: The Overdrive ebooks and the ebooks from EBSCOhost are purchased by the library. The publishers of these ebooks and the vendors who sell them are working on a print-book model. They want us to buy multiple copies if we intend to circulate them to different users at the same time.

  

Here are a few other popular e-titles. Unlike Miss Peregrine, these can be found by searching in our regular catalog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

If you do find an e-title in the catalog, though, you need to go to our downloadables page to check it out or make a hold request.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

  

 

 

When you’ve opened up the e-book’s full record in the catalog . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

click where it says “Full text” . . .

 

    

 . . . and you’ll be taken to the book’s record on the downloadables page. We may change that “Full text” language to something more recognizable. 

  

So look the list of questions & answers over.

If you still have questions, contact the Webmaster.  And remember that the library is giving classes about downloading.

The Slammin’ Rhymes Challenge VI provided an opportunity for teen poets to show off their talents.  Presented as part of Fall Festival, The African American History Committee of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library sponsors this event for Marion County students in grades 9-12. 

The top 10 student poets were invited to perform their winning entries on Saturday, November 19, 2011 at Central Library, Clowes Auditorium.  Each work was judged for its originality, quality of writing, theme development and they each had to be clean, absolutely no profanity was allowed. Prizes included participation gift cards and certificates.  

The challenge this year was to write with the inspiring thoughts of:

“PUSHing Towards Success” (Breaking Chains with Change)

You can click on the picture above to slightly enlarge it. The top ten students and the schools that they represented- In no particular order:

Chanteil   Thomas Carr Howe Community High School
Alexis   Arsenal Technical High School
Jakob   Arsenal Technical High School
Robert   Arsenal Technical High School
Shilia   Arsenal Technical High School
Lexi   Christel House Academy
Kadiesha   Lawrence North High School
Patrick   Thomas Carr Howe Community High School
Melanic   Lawrence North High School
Daiyawn   Arsenal Technical High School

Congratulations to all!

Mike Mullin

 

Ashfall

After the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano destroys his city and its surroundings, fifteen-year-old Alex must journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Illinois to find his parents and sister, trying to survive in a transformed landscape and a new society in which all the old rules of living have vanished.

 

 

  

Christine Johnson

 

Claire de Lune

On her sixteenth birthday Claire discovers strange things happening and when her mother reveals their family secret which explains the changes, Claire feels her world, as she has known it to be, slowly slipping away.

 

 

 

 

   

 

Nocturne

After the tragic events of the summer, Claire wants to worry about nothing but finding the perfect dress for the Autumn Ball, but her worst nightmares come true when someone learns that she is a werewolf, placing everyone she knows at risk.

 

 

 

  

   Helen Frost

 

Hidden

When fourteen-year-olds Wren and Darra meet at a Michigan summer camp, both are overwhelmed by memories from six years earlier when Darra’s father stole a car, unaware that Wren was hiding in the back.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Saundra Mitchell

The Vespertine

It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions that offer glimpses of the future. When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos.

 

   

 Julia Karr

 

XVI

Preparing to receive a government-mandated tattoo declaring her sexual readiness to the public at sixteen, Nina is shattered by a brutal attack on her mother, who before dying reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past.

 

 

  

 

  

Truth

A sequel to XVI continues the story of Nina Oberon, who joins a teen Resistance group to end a terrifying program by the Governing Council that further victimizes unprotected young women.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 John Green

 

The Fault in Our Stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few more years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis, but when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at the Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.