Monday, March 12, 2018

Mango


There is something in Mango Languages for everyone.  Impress your English teacher by quoting (and understanding) the Iliad in its original! Astound your friends with essential phrases in Pirate! {Shiver me timbers! The ship be founderin!}  Gain insight into international food cultures! Convince your parents that you really are ready for that trip to Santiago, Sarajevo, or Seoul! Enter the diplomatic service and help negotiate world peace! 

This site offers conversation-based courses including explanations and cultural hints that are missing in a lot of other apps. And the variety of available languages? Massive! Over 70 to choose from including:

Romance and Germanic: Spanish, French, German

  • Asian: Hindi, Chinese, Arabic
  • Uncommon: Javanese, Haitian, Gaelic
  • Eccentric: Shakespeare, Pirate
  • Archaic: Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Greek

Lots of great features help you learn to actually communicate with people.

  • Built-in translator
  • Literal and understood meanings 
  • Usage and cultural clues 
  • Pronunciation evaluation

Whatever your language learning goal, Mango can help you reach it.  At the very least it will provide hours of entertainment with a little learning along the way. 

While you’re at it, augment your international investigations with ProQuest CultureGrams

ProQuest CultureGrams is made available through the Traveler Online Database Program. The Traveler program is made possible by a grant from U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to the Arkansas State Library under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. Additional state funds were provided by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

RPL Teens Write! This Saturday!


The RPL is starting a new writing group for teens with the first meeting’s themes being Breaking Down Barriers. Practice getting your thoughts on paper, learn different writing techniques, and get the chance to share your work!

Saturday, February 03, 2018

Check Out a Telescope




If you stopped by RPL on Eclipse Day in August, you might have gotten a chance to use our telescope. Finally, that telescope is available to check out by the public!
The Orion Starblast Tabletop Telescope was donated to us by NWA Spacethrough the Cornerstones of Science STAR (Sharing Telescopes and Astronomy Resources) Program. Cornerstones of Science work with public libraries to “create experiences of science that spark curiosity and foster a deeper connection to the world around us.” They supply libraries with small modified telescopes for adults and families to take home and explore space from their very own backyards.
NWA Space is a local astronomical group that works to inspire a lifelong love of learning in the people of NWA by supporting STEM education. They recently received the sixth-largest refractor telescope in the U.S. from Philadelphia, and plan to reassemble it right here in Northwest Arkansas for residents to enjoy.
To check out our telescope, there are a few rules. You must be 18 or older and be a cardholder for more than 6 months. You must sign an agreement stating that you’ll take care of our telescope because, although it is sturdy in some aspects, it is a fragile little thing full of small mirrors! The circulation staff will go over the rules with you before checking out the telescope and you’ll have a whole week to take a peek at the skies!
One rule we must emphasize is DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN! You can only use special filters on telescopes to look at the sun or else you’ll hurt your eyes!
For more information, come by the library and ask!

Thursday, February 01, 2018

Reading Challenge


#RogersReads Reading Challenge         
  1. Read a Non-Fiction book on a topic you don’t know much about
  2. Read a book picked from our display tables
  3. Read a book set in another country
  4. Read a book written by an Arkansas author
  5. Read a book featuring food
  6. Read a book with an “ugly” cover
  7. Read a short story collection
  8. Read a work published before 1980
  9. Read a book with your favorite color in the title
  10. Read a book suggested to you by RPL staff
  11. Read a book that’s won an award
  12. Read a book of poetry or novel in verse
“Love Your Library Month” is always celebrated in February, and Rogers Public Library is hosting a reading challenge for our patrons! Complete these twelve prompts by February 2019 and be entered in a drawing for a fantastic prize just in time for another Love Your Library month.
If you want to show off your progress on social media, tag us and use #RogersReads! We love seeing what people are reading!  We will be creating reading lists on Facebook and Tumblr to help you choose what book to read all throughout the year, so keep an eye out.
We’re excited to kick off our RPL reading challenge starting February 1, 2018. 
Here’s a few rules regarding the challenge:
You must have a library card with Rogers Public Library to be able to participate. You may only enter once for the Final Drawing after completing all the challenges. You cannot use the same book for multiple challenges. You can use an audiobook, ebook, or physical book—it’s all reading! You do not have to complete these challenges in order; choose the one that sounds the most fun and go from there! As long as you complete the whole challenge, you will be entered in the Final Drawing.
We will also have monthly prize drawings. As you complete each monthly challenge, visit the library to show us the #RogersReads Reading Challenge sheet with the title listed under the challenge to be entered in that month’s drawing. Enter by the last day of each month. The 1st drawing will be March 1st. 

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Collection Highlight: YA Steampunk

What happens when the future’s technology meets the past? Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that seamlessly blends the past with the future, bringing robots, airships, and all types of gadgets and gizmos to Victorian England. With this genre you can enjoy the aesthetics of the past without the story being limited by the technological realities of the time!


“Seventeen-year-old Petra Wade, self-taught clockwork engineer, wants nothing more than to become a certified member of the Guild, an impossible dream for a lowly shop girl.[…] When Emmerich Goss–handsome, privileged, and newly recruited into the Guild–needs help designing a new clockwork system for a top-secret automaton, it seems Petra has finally found the opportunity she’s been waiting for. But if her involvement on the project is discovered, Emmerich will be marked for treason, and a far more dire fate will await Petra. Working together in secret, they build the clockwork giant, but as the deadline for its completion nears, Petra discovers a sinister conspiracy from within the Guild council…and their automaton is just the beginning”–Page 4 of cover.


Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth’s surface. In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.
Want more steampunk? Take a look at these additional titles available in the RPL Teen Scene.