Bayou Bytes Blog

  All Library branches will be closed Tuesday, Dec. 31st and Wednesday, Jan. 1st so our staff can observe the New Year's holiday with their families.   Please visit us on Thursday, Jan. 2nd when your favorite library branches reopen. Have a happy New Year! See you in 2014!  

A new study by researchers at Emory University has uncovered that reading novels noticeably changes the brain's activity. The study, outlined in Brain Connectivity, measured brain activity in 19 students over the course of 17 days. 9 of those days involved actively reading parts of Pompeii by Robert Harris. On the mornings following the reading, researchers observed higher levels of brain activity. Reading novels may also have residual effects, as increases in activity continued days after the reading was completed. Read more about these interesting findings in the School Library Journal , or read the entire study here .   Berns, Gregory S., Blaine, Kristina, Prietula, Michael J., and Pye, Brandon E. "Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Novel on Connectivity in the Brain." Brain Connectivity 3, no. 6 (2013): 590-600. doi:10.1089/brain.2013.0166.

CPPL Patrons: All library branches will be closed on Tuesday, December 24th,  Wednesday, December 25th, and Thursday, December 26th, so that our staff can celebrate the Christmas holiday with their families.    Please be sure to take care of your library needs in the days before and after the holiday, when the libraries maintain/resume their regular schedules.    Have a safe and happy holiday!

  The Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award is a reading enrichment program of the LCFTB. The program was founded in 1999 with the first award given in 2000. Participation in this program has climbed from 5,485 votes the first year to over 29,000 students participating in 2009. The purpose of the program is to foster a love of reading in the children of Louisiana by motivating them to participate in the recognition of outstanding books. Now entering its 14th year, the program continues to encourage Louisiana’s youth to read for pleasure. Vote for your favorite by Feb. 1st. Grades 3-5 or Grades 6-8 The Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice Award is a reading enrichment program of the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. The purpose of the program is to foster a love of reading in the teenagers of Louisiana by motivating them to participate in the recognition of outstanding books. View more details .....   Vote for...

Hey teens! Interesting in winning $275 ? Create a video promoting the Summer Reading Program at your library for 2014 and you could get just that! Create a short Public Service Announcement (PSA), using the theme Spark a Reaction. You could be the Louisiana Teen Video Winner in the national Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) Spark a Reaction Teen Video Challenge 2014. Teens all across America will see your video. Find out more!! All submissions must be received by February 26, 2013

  Daddy’s Gone A Hunting  by Mary Higgins Clark (2013) Library Copies In her latest novel Mary Higgins Clark, the beloved, bestselling “Queen of Suspense,” exposes a dark secret from a family’s past that threatens the lives of two sisters, Kate and Hannah Connelly, when the family-owned furniture firm in Long Island City, founded by their grandfather and famous for its fine reproductions of antiques, explodes into flames in the middle of the night, leveling the buildings to the ground, including the museum where priceless antiques have been on permanent display for years. The ashes reveal a startling and grisly discovery, and provoke a host of suspicions and questions. Was the explosion deliberately set? What was Kate—tall, gorgeous, blond, a CPA for one of the biggest accounting firms in the country, and sister of a rising fashion designer—doing in the museum when it burst into flames? Why was Gus, a retired and disgruntled craftsman, with her at that time of n...

 Are you an artistically-minded anime or manga fan? Show off your creativity in an Animanga Club- sponsored art contest. First and second place will be awarded in the following categories : Middle School, High School, Adult , or Collaborative . All entries will be displayed at the Animanga Convention on Saturday, January 25 th at the Central Library. Submit your individual entry form to any CPPL Branch by January 13 th , 2014. Good luck!  

Starting now, all CPPL patrons will have access to free songs with FREEGAL MUSIC! · Enjoy three hours of streaming music a day! · Create playlists with your favorite artists! · Download three songs a week to keep! · Increased access to over 6 million songs from 85 different countries! · 15,000 popular music videos for download in the MP4 format! Get yours here .

Earlier this year the Calcasieu Parish Public Library System and Sulphur Parks and Recreation teamed up to bring the Little Free Library phenomenon to the Lake Area. But where did the idea for the worldwide movement come from? Check out the video below for a TEDx Talk from the mind behind Little Free Libraries. For more information about local Little Free Libraries, click here .

The Borgias by G. J. Meyer (2013) THE BORGIAS Library Copies The startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone . Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu.  They burst out of obscurity in Spain not only to capture the great prize of the papacy, but to do so twice. Throughout a tumultuous half-century—as popes, statesmen, warriors, lovers, and breathtakingly ambitious political adventurers—they held center stage in the glorious and blood-drenched pageant known to us as the Italian Renaissance, standing at the epicenter of the power games in which Europe’s kings and Italy’s warlords gambled for life-and-death stakes.  Five centuries after their fall—a fall even more sudden than their rise ...

The Central Teens' Animanga Club hosted a CosPlay Prom this week.   The teens enjoyed a costume contest, a "Dating Game," and some trivia.   Check out their fun and creativity in the pics below.     

Anders’ not-so-geeky holiday device buying guide Last week OverDrive tech writer and blogger Quinton Lawman detailed his top picks of this year’s crop of new devices in Quinton’s geeky holiday device buying guide ( Part 1 ) ( Part 2 ). Now it’s my turn. Conspicuously missing from the list were two iconic devices, the iPad Air, and the iPad Mini with retina display. The iPad Air boasts the most powerful tech specs in any iOS device to date, yet comes in the most elegant package ever. That’s up to 128 GB of storage in a one pound device that fits in the palm of your hand! (For some fun perspective, that much storage back in 1980 would’ve set you back a cool $25 million dollars, and forget about the weight of it! ) While the iPad Air ranges from $499-$799, its smaller cousin, the iPad Mini with retina display, packs all of that goodness into a smaller and more affordable package. Each respective storage capacity, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, is a hundred dollars less than the iPad Ai...

Winners Announced for Lake Charles Christmas Street Parade On Saturday, December 7, a panel of judges scored parade entries on presentation, performance, decorations, originality, and safety during the Light up the Lake Christmas Celebration. Awards were presented to the top-scoring entries. In the Christmas Street Parade, trophies were awarded to:  Best Decorated Vehicle, Studio 57 Best Specialty Group, Calcasieu Parish Library 1st Place Float, Community Christian Church 2nd Place Float, The Twelfth Night Revelers 3rd Place Float, Faith Bible Church 1st Place Marching Band, Sam Houston High Pride & Spirit Band 2nd Place Marching Band, LaGrange High Band & Gatorettes. Lake Charles Toyota/Scion has been the official sponsor of the Lake Charles Christmas Parade since 2001. For more information, please call 491-9149 or www.cityoflakecharles.com .

Love E-Readers but hate that they have to constantly be recharged? Well researchers at Disney are working on fixing that, in their quest to creat the first battery-free e-reader. By harnessing the power of paper generators and human interaction, the researchers are one step closer to bringing your favorite stories to life electronically sans battery. Check out the video below or visit the project website .

Winning Innovation Studio Design by Erik Jessen It looks like a normal computer lab now, but soon it's going to turn into something completely different.   The Calcasieu Parish Central Library just received a $24,000 grant to build an innovation studio -- a maker's space that will provide the public with a chance to learn about emerging technologies and a chance to ‘make' new things. "It's a part of a ‘maker movement'", said Clare Coleman, the Central library branch manager. "That's what people are calling it. You provide the space and equipment, it's usually pretty advanced equipment, and the difference is that a maker's space is designed to bring people together and not just learn as individuals." Coleman says some of that advanced equipment is already in. The soon-to-be Innovation Studio already has a 70" touch screen monitor that will be used for learning workshops as well as a two 27'' touch screen com...

Gingerbread that is! The Annual Gingerbread House Contest, sponsored by the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau, was held on Dec. 7 th in conjunction with the Lake Charles Annual Christmas Lighting Festival. Guess who won in their division? Yep…the Library! Southwest Louisiana's very own mascot, Gumbeaux Gator, helped present the awards. The Gingerbread Houses will remain on display at the bureau throughout the month of December, and all visitors will be able to vote on the People's Choice Award to be announced Tuesday, Dec. 31, at the bureau. Cajun Library

Looking for a great gift for the techie in your life? Check out these great suggestions by Quinton Lawman, a Technical Writer on the Knowledge Services team at OverDrive, vendor for the Library's digital collection.   Last year I wrote a post where I recommended some solid devices for the holidays, so I figured I’d chime in again this year. It’s an exciting time to be a geek like me, as technology continues to move along at a breakneck speed. Did you know you can now read eBooks and listen to audiobooks on your refrigerator or washing machine ? I mean, why not? I’m going to focus on slightly more practical devices that are perfect for everyday use—specifically tablets. They all work great with the Library's digital collection from OverDrive, and are pretty versatile to boot. In the not too distant future, my esteemed colleague, Anders Brooks, will write another post that will cover a little more, including E Ink readers. Let’s get started with Part 1, shall we? By the way,...