Author Archives: Tessa Timperley

#BookFaceFriday “Might Kindred” by Mónica Gomery

An ode to #BookFaceFriday!

April is National Poetry Month, and we wanted to celebrate by highlighting some of the amazing poetry NLC has in its collection. Like this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Might Kindred” (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) is a winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.

One of the most prestigious academic presses in the country, the University of Nebraska Press sends us around 75 select titles per year, which are added to the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse, also known as the Nebraska State Documents Collection. This collection is comprised of publications issued by Nebraska state agencies, ensuring that state government information is available to a wide audience and that those valuable publications are preserved for future generations. University of Nebraska Press books, as well as all state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“These generous and sensitive meditations on belonging and the first-generation experience cast intimate light on shared human experiences.”
Publishers Weekly
Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
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#BookFaceFriday “The Dearly Beloved” by Cara Wall

We are gathered here today for #BookFaceFriday!

This week’s #BookFace is brand new to our collection and would make a great book club read! We so appreciate when libraries donate their book club reads to us so we can share them with all of you! One of those recently donated titles is “The Dearly Beloved: A Novel” by Cara Wall (Simon & Schuster, 2019), gifted to us by the Kearney Public Library! This title is also available as an ebook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. You can find this title and all the new books available on our Book Club Kits page; just look in the Browse Options section and select the Browse New Additions link for our latest reads. Add it to your to-be-read list today!

“Underlying the very readable, honestly human propulsion of her characters’ lives in their near-entirety, Wall does a tricky thing quite well, exploring the facts of faith and love at both their most exalting and most trying.”

— Booklist

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Things Not Seen” by Andrew Clements

We didn’t see this #BookFace coming!

Don’t blink or you’ll miss this week’s #BookFaceFriday! The Nebraska Library Commission has Book Club Kits for a wide range of readers, including kids’ chapter books and Young Adult titles. One such YA title is “Things Not Seen” by Andrew Clements

(Puffin Books, 2004) it is book one in a three-part series, and the winner of the American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award. It’s available as a book club kit for your teen or YA book club. This is one of many YA titles NLC has available in our Book Club Kit Collection, titles like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, we also have titles by Laurie Halse Anderson, Gary Paulsen, and Neal Shusterman, just to name a few. This week’s #BookFace and other YA titles can be found on the NLC Book Club Kit webpage, you can search by grade level or by genre. This service allows libraries and school librarians to “check out” multiple copies of a book without adding to their permanent collections, or budgets.

“Clements’s story is full of life; it’s poignant, funny, scary, and seemingly all too possible. The author successfully blends reality with fantasy in a tale that keeps his audience in suspense until the very end.”

— School Library Journal

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Frog Music” by Emma Donoghue

It’s not easy being green with this #BookFaceFriday!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We’re celebrating with an Irish author for this #BookFaceFriday. Born in Dublin, Emma Donoghue is a worldwide bestselling author, and we have several of her books available, like “Frog Music: A Novel” (Back Bay Books, 2015.) This title is available as both an eBook and an Audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. It’s also a part of the “St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Authors/Settings” collection on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Check out all the titles in this carefully curated collection of books by Irish authors or with Irish settings/themes.

“Donoghue flawlessly combines literary eloquence and vigorous plotting in her first full-fledged mystery, a work as original and multifaceted as its young murder victim…. An engrossing and suspenseful tale about moral growth, unlikely friendship, and breaking free from the past.”

―Sarah Johnson, Booklist (Starred Review)

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

 
 

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#BookFaceFriday – “Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer” by Robert Cochran

This #BookFaceFriday is a hole in one!

March is Women’s History Month and we’re shining a light on the impressive Nebraska women featured in our collection. Like this week’s #BookFace,Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer” by Robert Cochran (‎University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated edition, 2009.) You can find this title in the Nebraska Library Commission’s permanent collection; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons. Find great reads to celebrate Women’s History Month in all of NLC’s collections, including Book Club Kits, and Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“Cochran’s well-researched and well-written book places Louise Pound securely in her time and place and reveals much about the plight of women in higher education in a not-so-distant  past. . . . It is an invaluable work on the history of women in the professions in the early twentieth century.”

—Shirley Anne Leckie, Journal of American History

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “What’s the Matter with Mary Jane?” by Candas Jane Dorsey

Take a walk with this #BookFaceFriday!

Pop that collar and take a stroll with this week’s #BookFaceFriday. If these blustery Midwest days are too much for your daily walk, why not just sit down with a good book, like “What’s the Matter with Mary Jane?: An Epitome Apartments Mystery” by Candas Jane Dorsey (ECW Press, 2021)? This title is available as both an eBook and an Audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. We also have the first book in Dorsey’s Epitome Apartments series “The Adventures of Isabel” available as well.

“A wise-cracking, grammar-obsessed, pansexual amateur sleuth is thrust into the world of the uber-rich when her enigmatic, now-famous childhood friend breezes back into her life begging for help with a dangerous stalker.”

book jacket

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

 
 

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Friday Reads: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death” by Jean-Dominique Bauby

For me, the hallmark of all my favorite books is that I enjoy reading them over and over again. Maybe years apart or for some I revisit them every year, but I always come back. If I like a book enough that I want to re-read it, I know it’s a classic for me. This is one of those books. Written entirely by a man bed-bound and paralyzed, Jean-Dominique Bauby, suffered a massive stroke and was left in what doctors thought was a completely vegetative state. In truth, his mind was intact but he could no longer communicate with the rest of his body, what is now known as locked-in syndrome. Yet through blinking and eye-movement alone, he wrote what is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It is both his memoir and treaties on life and death and how he copes with the hand he’s been dealt. Translated from Bauby’s original french by Jeremy Leggatt, this short (only 131 pages) but poignant book will make every reader look at the world differently.

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death. Vintage. 1998.

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#BookFaceFriday – “Black Print with a White Carnation” by Amy Helene Forss

#BookFaceFriday celebrates Black History Month!

Extra, extra, read all about it with this week’s #BookFaceFriday,Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989” by Amy Helene Forss (‎University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated edition, 2014.) You can find this title in the Nebraska Library Commission’s permanent collection; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons. Find great reads to celebrate Black History Month in all of NLC’s collections, including Book Club Kits, and Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“In addition to its well-researched look at Brown’s career, the book provides an informative description of the history of black-owned newspapers in North America, going back to the founding in 1853 of the Provincial Freeman, an antislavery newspaper in Canada.” ―Omaha World-Herald

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Really Good, Actually” by Monica Heisey

There’s no crying in #BookFaceFriday!

Laugh until you cry with this week’s #BookFaceFriday. If ever there was an anti-Valentine’s Day read this one is it. If you love “Bridget Jone’s Diary,” or just belting out “All By Myself” by Celine Dion, I think you’ll enjoy the messy love life in this read. Whatever your Valentine’s Day plans, you can find your next book on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Like “Really Good, Actually: A Novel” by Monica Heisey (HarperCollins Publishers, 2023), it’s available as an ebook and an audiobook today.

“Heisey’s portrayal of the joys and pitfalls of online dating will ring true, and Maggie’s self-deprecating, often snarky humor keeps the deeper themes of the story from getting too heavy. It’s a thoroughly modern take on 1990s chick lit, exaggeratedly over the top in the best possible way. Readers will cheer messy Maggie on as she stumbles inelegantly toward a happy, postdivorce life.”

— Booklist

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive. Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,554 audiobooks, 32,935 eBooks, and 3,940 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonson

We are hung up on this #BookFace!

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we wanted to share the love with this week’s BookFace. Check out “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand: A Novel” by Helen Simonson (Random House Publishing Group, 2010), available as a book club kit, as well as an Ebook or Audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

This book club kit is one of many that includes a large print copy. If your book group needs large print options, you can filter your search results to show which kits have them available by selecting the “Large Print” button in the Limit Search to Sets that Include Special Formats field of the Search Options section on our Book Club Kit page. Leaving the other search fields empty will display all of the kits with large print copies.

You can also borrow this title and others like it in the “Armchair Travel” curated collection on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, full of books that will transport you all around the world. Simonson is a New York Times bestselling author, and her book “The Summer Before the War,” is also available for readers in OverDrive and as a kit.

“With courting curmudgeons, wayward sons, religion, race, and real estate in a petty and picturesque English village, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is surprisingly, wonderfully romantic and fresh . . . the best first novel I’ve read in a long, long time.”

―Cathleen Schine, author of The Love Letter

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper” by Phaedra Patrick

Sit for a spell with #BookFaceFriday!

This week’s #BookFace would make a charming book club read! A story about hope, healing, and self-discovery, it has great discussion written all over it. And just your luck, “The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper” by Phaedra Patrick (MIRA, 2017) is available as an NLC Book Club Kit. Book club kit already checked out? Try one of the many read-alikes we have in our book club collection, or read this title as an ebook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. If you’re a fan of “A Man Called Ove” or “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” this is the read for you. Add it to your to-be-read list today!

“Phaedra Patrick understands the soul. Eccentric, charming, and wise, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is about finding courage, generosity, and compassion, even when all seems lost. With clear-eyed prose and a moving story, Patrick reminds us how selfless people can be she reminds us to be brave. The Curious Charms is not just for those who are mourning over love or the past. This book will illuminate your heart.”

Nina George, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Wild Inside” by Jamey Bradbury

This #BookFace is taking a walk on the wild side!

We’re howling at the moon with this week’s #BookFaceFriday. Whether you’re ticking off boxes in a new reading challenge or just looking for your next read, you can find it all on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Just like this read that ticks the horror, adventure, and love story boxes, “The Wild Inside: A Novel” by Jamey Bradbury (William Morrow, 2018), it’s available as an ebook and an audiobook today. If you’re trying to read a certain number of books this year, the library is the easiest, most economical, way to make that happen. Even better, you can check out ebooks and audiobooks from Nebraska OverDrive Libraries from anywhere.

“A taut, atmospheric thriller…Jamey Bradbury has crafted a stunning debut full of secrets and hunger, grief and longing. Like the cold of an Alaskan winter, this book chilled me and wrapped me in quiet dread.”

— Jennifer McMahon

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive. Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,554 audiobooks, 32,935 eBooks, and 3,940 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Blood of Flowers” by Anita Amirrezvani

All wrapped up in #BookFaceFriday!

Take a trip with this week’s #BookFace. We are always adding new titles to our book club kits collection, like “The Blood of Flowers: A Novel” by Anita Amirrezvani (Little, Brown and Company, 2007), its ten copies are now available as an NLC Book Club Kit! If your book club enjoyed “The Henna Artist” by Alka Joshi or “Rooftops of Tehran” by Mahbod Seraji we recommend this title for you. This historical novel set in 17th-century Persia came to us via a donation from Kearney Public Library! We love that book clubs around the state regularly donate their books so that more book clubs can read them. So we want to say a big THANK YOU to all those who have sent us donations!

You can find this title and all the new books available on our Book Club Kits page; just look in the Browse Options section and select the Browse New Additions link for our latest reads. It is also available as an e-book and audiobook on Nebraska Overdrive Libraries.

“In Iranian-American Amirrezvani’s lushly orchestrated debut, a comet signals misfortune to the remote 17th-century Persian village where the nameless narrator lives modestly but happily with her parents, both of whom expect to see the 14-year-old married within the year. With journalistic clarity, Amirrezvani describes how to make a carpet knot by knot, and then sell it negotiation by negotiation, guiding readers through workshops and bazaars. Sumptuous imagery and a modern sensibility make this a winning debut.”

―Publishers Weekly

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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Happy World Braille Day!

Check out this story by KMTV on our braille e-reader and Talking Book and Braille services!

Nebraska Library Commission offers free use of braille e-reader

The device uses electronic displays to create braille letters. They are normally costly, but the Nebraska Library Commission’s talking book and braille service has them to use for free.

By: KMTV Staff
Posted at 5:31 PM, Jan 04, 2023
and last updated 8:21 AM, Jan 05, 2023

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Wednesday was World Braille Day and the whole week is dedicated to visual impairments.

A braille e-reader is a digital device that can make a big difference for those who read braille. It translates words on a screen to braille and it’s free to access for Nebraskans.

“I can read a text message in braille, so braille itself hasn’t really changed,” said Mickie Saltzman, technology training associate for Outlook Enrichment. “The technology and the tools we use to access that braille has changed.”

The braille e-reader can be used on more than phones. It works with computers and tablets, too.

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#BookFaceFriday “The Midnights” by Sarah Nicole Smetana

We’re ringing in this #BookFaceFriday!

As we wait for the clock to strike twelve, some of us will be reading in the New Year instead. Join us in scrolling all the available books on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries while we look for all the books we want to add to our 2023 TBR lists. Just like this YA read, “The Midnights” by Sarah Nicole Smetana, it’s available as an ebook today. Here at NLC we like to embark on a new year by setting fresh reading goals or a new reading challenge! If you’re trying to read a certain number of books this year, the library is the easiest way to make that happen, don’t forget to check out ebooks and audiobooks from Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“An atmospheric voyage through grief and self-discovery perfect for fans of Julie Buxbaum’s Tell Me Three Things and Tim Federle’s The Great American Whatever.”

— School Library Journal

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive. Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 186 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,554 audiobooks, 32,935 eBooks, and 3,940 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “The Snow Globe” by Sheila Roberts

We’re shaking things up with this week’s #BookFaceFriday!

This winter wonderland is making our holiday books feel right at home! Looking for the perfect Hallmark read, reserve a holiday title like “The Snow Globe” by Sheila Roberts (Piatkus, 2014) for your book club! Take a peek

at all of our holiday-themed book club kits today!

In the collection we have 114 holiday titles, 81 of which have 4 or more copies. If a library is looking to weed some of their holiday titles – they can think of us because we’re always happy to add to this particular collection!

These titles are very popular in November and December, with some book club groups reserving their choices up to a year in advance! NLC staff keep their eyes peeled for holiday-themed books year-round in order to meet the demand come the first snowfall.

“This lighthearted and charming read will appeal to fans of Kristin Hannah’s magical, light romances and readers who enjoyed Roberts’s previous holiday offerings.”

–Library Journal (Starred Review)

This week’s #BookFace model is Kay, she’s a TBBS Readers Advisor.

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “First Snow” by Bomi Park

 It’s beginning to look a lot like #BookFaceFriday!

You might be dreaming of a white Christmas, but maybe not two feet worth. Even if winter weather ruins your regular trip to the library you and your kids can still enjoy new books like “First Snow” by Bomi Park (Chronicle Books, 2016). This title is available as an ebook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, along with many other children’s favorites. We also have a few of his titles in our book club kit collection, if your younger readers want to read them as a group.

“Toddler-PreS—The simple narrative holds readers’ interest while it moves from the familiar to the ethereal. The concise language and dreamy yet understandable images are perfect for toddlers. The artwork, in shades of black-and-white with accents of red, is reminiscent of the visuals in Akiko Miyakoshi’s Tea Party in the Woods, although Park’s images, mostly depicting nighttime scenes, are darker. VERDICT This quality picture book debut is a delight and just right to share one-on-one or in toddler storytime.”

School Library Journal

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive. Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 186 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,554 audiobooks, 32,935 eBooks, and 3,940 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Cold” by Mariko Tamaki

This #BookFace is ice cold!

With the wintery weather all across the state, we couldn’t think of a more fitting book for this week’s #BookFaceFriday! The perfect ebook to cozy up with is “Cold: A Novel” by Mariko Tamaki (Roaring Brook Press, 2022.) A suspenseful teen read about murder in a small town, perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars or One of Us is Lying. And because this title is available as an eBook on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries you won’t even have to leave the house to check it out. Find this title and more winter reads available to Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“Sharp and authentic, Cold doesn’t just take its title from the chill of a wintry day but also from the cruelty and isolation of adolescence. Readers who love intense, suspenseful storytelling will devour it in one sitting.”

—BookPage

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

Strike a pose, it’s #BookFaceFriday!

This week’s #BookFace is as pretty as a picture. We wanted to highlight all the Ann Patchett works in our various collections, like “The Dutch House: A Novel” (Harper, 2019), available as an NLC Book Club Kit.

We just added a book to this kit, so we now have 13 copies available for your book club. In total, NLC has seven of Patchett’s titles in our Book Club Kit Collection. You can also find Ann Patchett’s novels through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, we have eight titles, including copies of “Commonwealth”, “Bel Canto”, and “These Precious Days”.

“Patchett is at her subtle yet shining finest in this gloriously incisive, often droll, quietly suspenseful drama of family, ambition, and home. . . . With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and in sync with Alice McDermott, Patchett gracefully choreographs surprising revelations and reunions as her characters struggle with the need to be one’s true self.”

―Booklist

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 189 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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Navigating NebraskAccess: MAS Complete

This past summer the Nebraska Library Commission added two new EBSCO K12 databases to its NebraskAccess lineup—MAS Complete and Middle Search Plus. In this post I’d like to introduce you to MAS Complete.

MAS Complete is a research database designed specifically for high school libraries. It provides searchable access to full text articles from 540 periodicals, plus indexing and abstracts of articles from an additional 160 titles. It also boasts 55,000 full-text primary source documents and 75,000 videos from the Associated Press. 

When selecting material to include in school databases like MAS Complete, EBSCO’s first priority is making sure it is “educational, age-appropriate (in reading level and context), support[s] curriculum requirements, and [is] applicable to the subjects taught at specific grade levels.” EBSCO takes a multi-pronged approach to this task, consulting publication subscription information, title level reviews, and Lexile® measurements of text, in addition to discussing content needs with both teaching professionals and customers and having staff review each publication. Finally, EBSCO employs both human curation and technology to further fine-tune inclusion decisions.

Because high school students possess a diverse range of academic and developmental needs and abilities, you will find a correspondingly diverse range of materials in MAS Complete. Periodical coverage includes everything from general interest news and entertainment magazines, like TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated, to discipline-specific publications aimed at interested non-professionals, like History Today and Scientific American. Peer-reviewed scholarly journals are included to meet the needs of high ability learners and college-bound upperclassmen, but there is also enough title overlap with Middle Search Plus that students reading below grade level should be able to find accessible content, too.

When using MAS Complete, librarians, teachers, and students will find an array of tools at their fingertips to help focus their searches on just the content that matters to them. Limit options, which can be applied before or after a search, include Full Text, Peer Reviewed, Publication, Publication Date, Source Type, Cover Story, and Lexile® Reading Level. Wielded creatively, they can empower searchers to retrieve vastly different result lists in response to identical initial searches.

MAS Complete is available to search as a stand-alone database using the EBSCOhost interface. It is also one of several databases that can be searched or browsed simultaneously through Explora for High Schools. MAS Complete and Explora for High Schools are available through both the NebraskAccess High School Databases page and the All NebraskAccess Databases page.

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