By Edward Hirst
Rowan Public Library
With the dawn of the New Year, NCLive, North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education, has entered a new era by providing the citizens of North Carolina access to more than 200 hours of documentary and educational video programming from the Public Broadcasting Corporation in cooperation with UNC-TV and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
The NCLive Video Collection was chosen by librarians for the support of education and the general interest of the public. The collection includes programming covering the sciences, U.S. and world history, biographies, current events, the arts, as well as a variety of other subjects.
Titles available in the collection include Ken Burn’s “Baseball,” “Jazz” and “The Civil War,” as well as other episodes from series such as “Frontline,” “American Experience” and “Scientific American Frontiers.”
The videos can be accessed from any computer with a high-speed Internet connection and the only software needed to view the content is the free Flash Media player software available from Adobe.com.
If you are viewing the videos anywhere other than within the library, you will need to log in with the NCLive password which can be requested from any of the library’s locations. Library patrons can also retrieve the current NCLive password by clicking on the NCLive password link located on the library’s homepage.
The videos do not require downloading to be played and you are not required to check them out to view them. NCLive is able to offer unlimited simultaneous streaming to libraries throughout the state.
Visitors to the NCLive Video Collection page can view a listing of all of the titles that are available for viewing or they may view a subject listing of the holdings. Currently the featured video is “Citizen King,” which aired on the American Experience series.
Clicking on any title link leads to a brief synopsis of the program, the playing time, a choice of speeds to stream the video, and whether the video is close captioned.Be sure and check out the new video collection from NCLive.
Holiday closing: RPL headquarters and branches will be closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Monday, Jan. 21.
Let’s Talk About It: The book discussion program on Southern fiction begins Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in the Hurley Room at headquarters and continues every other Thursday. The five titles are “Shiloh,” “The Known World,” “Nowhere Else on Earth,” “Wolf Whistle” and “Song of Solomon.” Call 704-216-8230 to register.
Computer classes: Headquarters ó MS Word Part 2, Monday, 7 p.m.; NCLive Resource: Encyclopedia Britannica, Thursday, Jan. 17, 1:30 p.m.; NCLive Resource: Health Info, Thursday, Jan. 24, 1:30 p.m. South branch ó Basic Word, Thursday, Jan. 17, 11 a.m.; Digital Photography Part 2, Monday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m.
Tuesday movies: January, Chinese films, headquarters library, 6:30 p.m.; “The Road Home,” “To Live,” “Raise the Red Lantern” and “Fearless.”
Displays: Headquarters ó Photography by Spencer Bevis. East ó baskets by Lucille Patterson. South ó Jewelry by Ester Sims.
Literacy: Call the Rowan County Literacy Council at 704-216-8266 for more information on teaching or receiving literacy tutoring for English speakers or for those for whom English is a second language.
Web site: www.rowanpubliclibrary.org.