A Little Online Story . . .

The Saddest Bear of All
by David Guy & Minkee


Miss Bun is dedicating this post to ALL her fellow library workers in Lebanon County, PA, Infinity, and Beyond!

Tell Your Story & Share With The World . . .

Another great example of how the Internet can connect ALL of us who access it in meaningful and important ways.

Our First Loves Project is a place to tell the story of your first love and read about the stories of others. It began life as a student journalism project and is really a treat to experience.

The stories themselves are simple and short. Most are accompanied by audio and/or visuals but all have a wonderful sense of humanity and will engender an emotional response which you can rate at the bottom of each piece. There are also similar story recommendations as well.

Ok, Peeps, go ahead.... share your story with the world too!

From their About Page:

"Our First Loves is a multimedia storytelling experiment. Produced by a group of student journalists in an interactive design class at the Medill School of Journalism, it is based on the idea that journalism on the Internet should be about connectivity. Not just hyper links or social networking, but connectivity in the sense that it has the unique ability to bring even perfect strangers together and show us what we have in common. New media journalism can be the ultimate equalizer, a proof of the human condition."

Take An Armchair Cybervisit to ...

The National Library of Australia where you can click on "Explore Our Digital Collections" from which you can explore the Australian story through photos, audio recordings, maps, printed manuscripts, printed music & more.

Be sure to click on "Online Exhibitions" under "Other Online Resources" (its on the middle right) to find out what a Bunyip is and how it fits into Australian culture.



There are many other fascinating things to look at and learn about here so take your time on this site.

Miss Bun (no relation whatsoever to the aforementioned creature!) has noted that visiting National Libraries is one way to explore another country without undue trials or tribulations (or expense)!

Enjoy!

Be A Filmmaker For A Day. . .

On The Civil War by Ken Burns, Public Broadcasting website you have the opportunity to tell your own civil war story using narrative, period music, & archival images.


There are several options to use with the images such as still, zoom in, zoom out and pan.


It was quite interesting to put everything together in a cohesive way. (It's always good to use different parts of ones brain from time to time.)

To start your story just click on "make your movie".

Next you choose your narration and then your music.

At this point you can view images in the Bin Monitor by placing your cursor over an image from the top line of the content bin.

To select an image you click on it and then choose your effect in the bottom line of the content bin. This is the point where you drag and drop your selection from the bottom line to the movie sequence timeline.

It's great fun to watch your creation in the Monitor Bin as you add or rearrange images to your story. You can also email your finished film to friends.

So, Peeps, what are you waiting for? Go make a movie! Enjoy!

Stories from the Nature Conservancy!

The Nature Conservancy , Dear Friends, is the leading conservation organization working around the world (in 50 states & more than 30 countries for 58 years) to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.


Check out their About Page to find out how and why they are so successful. It's really very impressive!

One of the most engaging features of this site is the Nature Stories Podcasts where you can listen to interesting and unexpected weekly stories of people's connection to the natural world.

For example, try the Snake Charmer podcast to find out why some people love snakes!

Podcasts can be listened to online or downloaded to your iTunes® or your MP3 player to take with you.

(All of the stories are taken from the Public Radio Exchange and many are from Stories from the Heart of the Land, a public radio series sponsored by the Conservancy and Visa, and produced by Atlantic Public Media.)

Miss Bun just loves a good story! Don't you?

Love To Be Read To???

MrsP.com
is the place to go if you like reading and being read to, interactive games & activities, videos, and contests.

Oh, and there is also the part about this being a free, safe & secure site for children that is ad free & subscription free as well.

Mrs. P is wonderfully played by the actress Kathy Kinney and reminds Miss Bun of the character Mrs. Doubtfire (from the film of the same name). Who can resist the accent?

There are plenty of options you can choose from to make your visit enjoyable like read along options that are great for beginning readers, ESL students & home-schoolers.

Click on the "Note to Parents" link for a reader's guide with ratings.

This site is meant to be explored so hone your mouse-clicking skills and don't be afraid to try different things out. (Hint: The bunny in front of the fireplace leads to coloring & activity pages.)

As far as Miss Bun is concerned Mrs. P puts the PLEASURE back into reading where it belongs!

2009 National Book Festival Update...

Hey, Peeps! Just wanted you to know that The National Book Festival folks have posted the list of attending authors for this year.

Check it out here: Authors by Pavilion

If getting a chance to see and hear authors like Ken Burns, Nicholas Sparks, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Lisa Scottoline, Jon Scieszka, Judy Blume, Paula Deen, John Irving, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, & Sue Monk Kidd (to name a few) makes your heart beat faster you will not want to miss this year's festival.

And if you can't get to D.C. on September 26th don't despair because all the webcasts will be posted on the website. (Check out the archive for past festival webcasts.)

Don't you just love this year's poster?

Need Some Ghost Stories For Your Campfire?

Then check out The Moonlit Road: Strange Tales of the American South

Since 1997 a volunteer staff of writers, storytellers, musicians, graphic artists and engineers have been bringing us these stories free of charge because they "like doing it & the purpose of storytelling is to pass stories on to others".

If you dare to take a look you will find new tales on the home page & an archive of oldies but goodies to search by category on the right.

The newest stories provide a free audio player to listen with while older stories in audio can be purchased in their bookshop for $2.25 each. You may also subscribe to their RSS feed to receive new stories as they are posted at no charge.

All stories have a free illustrated print version and may be printed for personal, non-commercial use.

Be sure to look at their FAQ page for more info.

And by all means enjoy!