Thing 6: Book 2.0

I would like to introduce you to some wonderful websites.

I looked through some of the resources, which were proposed in each category.

 
Book Program Resources

LitLovers is an an excellent online source for literature lovers. 

It`s a great site, if you want to make your own book club. You can find there 10 basic steps how to start and how to run  the book club. 

I personally liked this site for many reasons. Its gives you idea, in simple way, how to start and run a book club. This also has a good collection of popular books and also maintain book reviews for book club members.

Besides it is a good idea to organize a literary club in the Window on America, because it will include both books as an inseparable part of the library itself and dissemination of the information about the USA what is one of the key functions of the American Corner.  

Kidsreads.com

Kidsread.com  http://www.kidsreads.com/ .
There are a lot of information about authors and the books they wrote: new books, coming soon, books into movies and so on.

 

eBooks

Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks. This collection is available free of cost and no registration is required. Over 100,00 e-books are available through this project.

Project Gutenberg has the facility of both searching and browsing e-books. We can browse by Author, Title, Language, or recently posted. Similarly, we Can Search books by Author, Title, and Subject.

There are other important and useful features which add beauty to the Project such Bookshelves.

It is an alternative to the on-site licensed online databases. You can access anytime and anywhere virtually.

I also visited OpenLibrary  site 

Most of all I like the system of reading online and the system of borrowing the books in it, it sounds and looks like I come to the library, borrow a book and then return it but virtually.

The best media that offers audio books, online courses, language lessons, movies, and eBooks. 

This can be useful for activities in me Window on America center.

http://shop.ebrary.com/home.action
Free book for your phone.
 

 

Audio Books

LibriVox provides free access to audiobooks. There are several options for listening. However, We need to install MP3 Player on our PC to listen these audiobooks.
LibriVox has many features like other sites. It has its own well established Catalog which has indexed all the audiobooks. we can subscribe to its podcast to receive RSS Feeds about LibriVox updated contents.

 http://librivox.org/
Many different books.

Facebook Applications

Visual Bookshelf is a Facebook application. This applications has been developed by Livingsocial.com which is a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer.

I have installed this application on American Corner (Dnipropetrovsk) Facebook Page. 

I find is a very useful social networking tool like Librarything. It has many features, we can search books, share it with friend, we make recommendations and a lot more. We can search by Title, Author, and ISBN. I have added some books to my favorite collection.

I have also installed this application -

WorldCat 

on American Corner (Dnipropetrovsk) Facebook Page.

http://apps.facebook.com/worldcat/

  They can be used when it is necessary to inform members of the literary club about the book which will be discussed or to recommend them to read some books or to write a review. 

The resource is incredibly rich, and  time is needed to evaluate its potential.


The Workshop in Lviv for the Ukrainian American Corners heads (September, 2011)  will be dedicated to the use of e-books in everyday activities.

Livadia Royal Palace

Recuperation on Ukrainian Riviera.

I spent 9 beautiful days in Livadia, the Yalta suburb. 
I visited the Livadia Royal Palace and famous 1945 Yalta Conference Museum. 
I saw President Roosevelt residence in 1945.

Welcome to The Chess Day!

I know e2-e4!!!

Thing 11: Videoconferencing (2 part)

It was interesting and useful for me to repeat my experience in WebChat!

Svitlana Usenko, the Head of Dnepropetrovsk Information Resource Center "Window on America", Marina Sichova, Anatoliy Ribalko, Vadim Saveskul had the unique opportunity to participate in WebChat: "Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society: Europe" (CO.NX webchat, Washington, D.C.).

It was a civil society webchat focusing on media freedom in Europe with Irena Chalupa, Senior Correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. and Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies.

As part of the State Department’s ongoing commitment to defend civil society worldwide, Secretary Clinton launched a Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society groups on February 16, 2011. The Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society elevated our relationship with nongovernmental organizations to the level of our government-to-government relationships. The Dialogue is an 18-month, ongoing initiative with working groups on empowering women, promoting democracy and human rights, and enhancing transparency and good governance.

Format: It was a video webchat in English.

A lot of interesting questions were in focus of discussion from various parts of the Europe.

We've taken an active part in this activity and asked some questions: 

1) How European journalists manage to combine high ethical standards of journalism and responsibility for reliability of information with the freedom of expression?

2) We know that there’s much pressure on journalists from different minority group, like the society not to heavy ago in Penmar (about some religiously sensitive caricatures). Doesn’t the necessity to factor in the interests of  those groups limit the freedom of express  in for European journalists?

A picnic dedicated to the Independence Day

The English Speaking Club's committee had a picnic dedicated to the Independence Day in the USA.

I think the picnic was a great success!

I chose a beautiful park landscape near the Dnieper river waterfront. 

The picnic participants were sharing experiences and views on numerous topics.

Dnipropetrovsk skyscrapers are also impressive! And  the "Swan" fountain on the water was amazing!

 Vasil with the club ladies and "The Tourist" ;-) from Italy walked along the Dnieper river waterfront. We enjoyed watching the beautiful  summer sunset.

 Look at more pictures here, plese

The Independence Day celebration with children

The «Window to America» Center was visited by the group of schoolchildren of rehabilitation center  «Turtle-dove»  together with their teacher Irina Cherepen’ko.

The Meeting was devoted to the Independence Day celebration and an acquaintance with the United States of America.

The group listened to my presentation. The informative slide show «MEET the United States of America» introduced the students to the geography of the USA, its capital Washington, founder of America Christopher Columbus, native population - Indians, people which created history of country – first presidents and political figures, about the American icons of pop-culture, the biggest cities are centers of economics and culture, about architectural views of these cities.

It was useful for pupils to learn about the national symbols of the USA –  flag, bald eagle, rose, White house, Congress, Statue of Liberty, memorials in honour to the presidents Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

I paid a regard to a rich collection of coloured and interesting child's books which would help to improve pupils’ knowledge of English.

Schoolchildren were eager to hear new information. They thanked sincerely in the end of the meeting.

The number of participants – 19 persons (17 students and 2 teachers).

More pictures here