On November 11, readers can celebrate Veterans Day with one of several history books that reassess battles where American service members fought and died. Try one of these downloadable audio books:

The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid – America’s First World War II Victory by Craig Nelson and Raymond Todd.

Immediately after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt sought to restore the honor of the United States with a dramatic act of vengeance: a retaliatory bombing raid on Tokyo itself. At his bidding, a squadron of scarcely trained army fliers, led by the famous daredevil Jimmy Doolittle, set forth on what everyone regarded as a suicide mission. Their extraordinary success led directly to what every historian now believes was the turning point in the war against Japan, and helped convince the nation and the world that the Allies might eventually triumph.

Into the Rising Sun by Patrick K. O’Donnell

Patrick K. O’Donnell has made a career of uncovering the hidden history of World War II by tracking down and interviewing its most elite troops: the Rangers, Airborne, Marines, and First Special Service Force, forerunners to Americas’s Special Forces.

Retribution The battle for Japan 1944-45 by Max Hastings

In his critically acclaimed Armageddon , Hastings detailed the last twelve months of the struggle for Germany. Here, in what can be considered a companion volume, he covers the horrific story of the war against Japan.

The Ghost Mountain Boys Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea–the Forgotten War of the South Pacific by James Campbell.

Lying due north of Australia, New Guinea is among the world’s largest islands. In 1942, when World War II exploded onto its shores, it was an inhospitable, cursorily mapped, disease-ridden land of dense jungle, towering mountain peaks, deep valleys, and fetid swamps. Coveted by the Japanese for its strategic position, New Guinea became the site of one of the South Pacific’s most savage campaigns. Despite their lack of jungle training, the 32nd Division’s Ghost Mountain Boys were assigned the most grueling mission of the entire Pacific campaign: to march 130 miles over the rugged Owen Stanley Mountains and to protect the right flank of the Australian army as they fought to push the Japanese back to the village of Buna on New Guinea’s north coast.

Flags  of Our Fathers by James Bradley

In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America.

November 8 – Michaelmas

November 11 – Veterans Day

November 18 – Morocco Independence Day

Early November to late January – Winter Festival of Lights

First Saturday in November – Sadie Hawkins Day

Fourth Thursday in November – Thanksgiving

November – December – Monkey Party

This week: Journalism

Need help? Try Credo Reference

1. What name was given to the scandal exposed in 1972 by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein concerning improper practices by Republican aides of President Richard Nixon?

2. What is an “advertorial”?

3. In journalism, which month of the year is traditionally viewed as the “silly season”?

4. What is the world’s largest and most-used search engine?

5. Which phrase, defined by Chambers 21st Century Dictionary as “someone, especially in politics, who tries to influence public opinion by putting a favourable bias on information presented to the public or to the media”, entered British political vocabulary during the late 1980s?

6. Which television network was formed in 1990 by the merger of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting?

7. In using computers and the internet, what does “HTML” stand for?

8. In 1957, the BBC news programme “Panorama” ran an April fool spoof about which food growing on trees?

9. According to John Reith, the first Director General of the BBC, what are the three fundamental purposes of broadcasting?

10. What was the surname of the agony aunt whose “Dear Ann” column was appearing in 1,200 newspapers around the world by 1993?

Find the answers here.

Image: “Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, full-length, dressed as the Yellow Kid, each pushing against opposite sides of a pillar of wooden blocks that spells WAR.” Find it on Credo Reference

Are you a high school junior or senior and you are thinking about college? There are going to be several questions you will need to answer in beginning the search.

1. What college do I want to Attend?
2. What school offers the career choice I am interested in?
3. How much is tuition?
4. What is the average student population?

No worries, we have everything you need in our College Source Online Electronic Resource. As always, remember you need to be a resident of Las Vegas with a valid card # and Pin to access this electronic resource.

In this electronic resource, you will find everything you need in one location, so you will not have to visit the websites of each school that interests you.

There are several ways to search for schools.
1. US Schools, Non US Schools (International) or by All Schools (US and International)

2. School name – simply enter the name of the school in the search box and click “search.”
3. Advanced Search – this will allow you to enter a keyword to search for schools.
• Alphabetic Index – Lists colleges and universities in alpha order by institution name.
• Country Search - Select a country and get a list of all colleges and universities in that country.
• Criteria Search – Select US schools by tuition, enrollment, degrees and other criteria.
• Geographic Search – Select US schools within a specific radius of a US city.

Ok, now decide on the search method that is easiest for you. Great, now you have found a school that interests you, you will see the following icons:

Click on either of the icons to get more information about the college of your choice. Cool and saves so much time!

Also, don’t forget about the College Fair Plus on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 27 and 28 at Cashman Field.

Oh my, what happened to the Coming Soon link under the Books, Movies and More Page? This feature is still available, and better than before.

With our previous service, Coming Soon, selected new titles were listed under the projected month of release. The titles were updated only once a month, so not every new title ordered was included in the list.

The new service is better for the following reasons:

1. With Wowbrary, you no longer have to seek out the information on our web site.
2. Wowbrary will notify you, every week, and tell you every new title that has been ordered. (New means either newly released or new to the library’s collection.)
3. You’ll be able to place your request sooner, and will get your request faster.
4. You can find new titles in a much wider selection of genres, and hear about new DVDs, too.

Aren’t these reasons enough to try this new service? Sign up is very easy, just click the sign up tab on the blue toolbar and follow the prompts and you are all set.

You can still request items from this page. First, click on the category you are interested in from the left hand side of the page.

Once you find a title that interests you, just click on it and you will see the borrow button. If you click here, you will be taken back to the catalog where you can just click the request it button from the top of the page.

How cool is this? Give it a try and leave your comments.