Sunday 12/20 Regular Hours

Palisades Free Library will be open for regular Sunday hours, 1pm-5pm.

Have you looked at EBooks lately?

A lot has changed since the library system introduced electronic books.

When we first offered this service there were only a few titles to choose from and those titles were only available to people with select MP3 players or compatible PDAs.

Over the years the selection of books has grown and most importantly, electronic books from the library can be listened to on ipods or iphones. 

If you want to read an electronic book, you no longer have to stare at the tiny screen on your Palm Pilot. Now Sony and Barnes & Noble sell readers with 6 inch screens and the devices are compatible with the free electronic books available from the library.

Take another look at electronic books or stop by the library for more information.

Thinking of getting an eReader?

If you are thinking of purchasing an electronic reading device there are more options than ever before. Prices range from $199 – $489.




The best known is probably the Kindle, available through Amazon.com.($259 for the 6″ screen and $489 for the 9.7″ screen)

Sony makes the Reader which is available at many stores, including Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart. ($199 for the 5″ screen and $299 for the 6″ screen and $399 for the 7″ screen)

Barnes and Noble has introduced the Nook. ($259)

There is also the Cool-er by Interread. ($249)

Which is best for the Library Patron?
Through the library website you have access to hundreds of FREE ebooks. Some are classics and many are best sellers. But not all ereaders are compatible. The Kindle, for instance, only allows you to view books purchased through Amazon.com. The Sony Reader, The B&N Nook, and Cooler, all support the library ereader software, Adobe Digital Editions.

Other sources for FREE Ebooks.

CNET – A great place to find reviews of ereaders and other electronic equipment.

Bracco & Burstyn November 15

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE

Tickets will be available for purchase at the door on the day of the program – updated Saturday, November 14

THE PALISADES FREE LIBRARY

PRESENTS ITS FOURTH SEASON OF AWARD-WINNING

Sunday Symposia : a community cultural series

Bracco & Burstyn

In Conversation

November 15, 2009

3:30 – 5:00

 

At the IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center, 334, Route 9W, Palisades, NY

Tickets $10 ($5 for Students) to benefit the Palisades Free Library.  Tickets are available in advance at the Library or at the door on the day of the event.

Lorraine Bracco was nominated for an Oscar for the role of Karen Hill, a mobster’s wife, in Goodfellas, and is a three-time Emmy nominee for the role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi, a mobster’s psychiatrist, in The Sopranos.

Ellen Burstyn, a Tony and Oscar winner and a multiple Emmy nominee, may be best known for her star turns in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Same Time, Next Year, and The Exorcist, and has starred in well over one hundred films, television series and dramas.

Sunday Symposia October 25, 2009

Join us from 3:00pm to 4:30pm at the Esplanade at Palisades, 640 Oak Tree Road, Palisades, NY

Reservations required. Please stop by the Library or call
845-359-0136

Suggested donation at the door: $10 ($5 for students)

Mapping Our River in the Footsteps of Henry Hudson by Bill Ryan

Synopsois:

Had Henry Hudson realized in the fall of 1609 that the native
American name “Muhheakunnuk” for his “River of Mountains” meant
“great waters constantly in motion” he could have deduced that it
was not a river but a giant estuary influenced by twice-daily tides
as far inland as its first cataract. Within a decade mariners of the
East India Company had charted the estuary with lead line soundings all the way to this cataract at Troy.

Ten years ago a team from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
repeated the Dutch survey, but instead of just obtaining a hundred
or so soundings, we recorded millions. About every square yard of
the river bed deeper than six feet now has its own sounding.
Examples of the new maps will be on display and illustrated in the
talk.

In addition to soundings, the Lamont researches also obtained
several hundred sediment cores of the river bed mud and sand. The
cores and soundings revealed oyster beds, some buried, but many
still exposed extending from the New York Harbor to the Newburgh
Bridge. The location of these beds turned out to be fascinating.
The top of the exposed beds is very firm mud that provides an unsure footing for mooring and anchors. The river edge towns settled by the Dutch were located always between the beds, such that their ship captains could be assured of a good anchorage. Thus the river bed itself determined settlement patterns.


Bill’s talk will show that shape and content of the Hudson and East
Rivers even determined the street plans for the 17th, 18th and 19th
century development of Manhattan.


The excavations for the building of the World Trade Center beginning
in 1966 and the disposal of soil and rock for the foundations of
Battery Park City at the river’s edge on the west side of Lower
Manhattan has constricted the river causing it to cut a new and deep channel further towards New Jersey. This downcutting is a potential threat to the security of the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. Had the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey appreciated the power of the “great waters constantly in motion”, perhaps they would have had more foresight.

Bill Ryan is a Doherty Senior Scholar and Adjunct Professor Emeritus at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and co-author of the book “Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History.”