Now @ MPL...

Summer is almost over. The new school year is here. The Labor Day weekend will be here and gone before we know it. I can certainly use a boost. How about you?

A Website I often turn to when I need some inspiration (or education or a cure for boredom) is Ted.com. TED (it stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a small nonprofit organization that is "devoted to ideas worth spreading." Since 1984 they've hosted invitation-only conferences where some of the world's most fascinating people are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Fortunately for those of us not lucky enough to receive invites, TED makes these talks (called TEDTalks) available for free.

You can search over 700 TEDTalks and other performances TED calls Best of the Web. My favorite TedTalks include JJ. Abrams' Mystery Box and Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce. Some of the great performances they offer are the Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs gave on How to Live Before You Die and Randy Pausch's Carnegie Mellon talk about Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

Take a look for yourself (a good place to start is the Top 10 TedTalks). I bet you'll find something to take your mind off of the end of summer. Well, for 18 minutes anyway.

The Milwaukee Public Library proudly presents its two latest digital collections: the Horace Seaman Wisconsin Infantry collection and the Milwaukee County Marriage Certificates.
The Horace Seaman Wisconsin Infantry collection is comprised of 127 images from Colonel Horace M. Seaman. Most of the photos are of the 3rd and 4th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry units that served in the Spanish-American War. A number of the photos are from Colonel Seaman's service in the Wisconsin National Guard. A few personal photos of Colonel Seaman's father are also included.

Milwaukee County Marriage Certificates is a collection of 20,000 marriage records and certificates from Milwaukee for the years 1822 through 1876. The records were discovered in the 1960s in a box at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. The box also included some miscellaneous documents pertaining to the marriage such as permission to marry slips, authorizations, and land deeds. Many of these documents were not in very good condition. Research by the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society (MCGS) indicates that most of these certificates are not recorded at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Some of the records appear in the Wisconsin Pre-1907 Marriage Index and some do not, as such these records are a significant addition to Milwaukee genealogy resources.

In 1999 the MCGS arranged to have the records refilmed, adding location citations. In 2000 MCGS volunteers created alphabetical indexes for bride and for groom. Roger Cobb with Lois Molitor acted as project coordinators. Over 42,000 names were put into the database that produced the indexes. Unfortunately, the original copies that were filmed in 1966 have vanished. In 2009 the microfilm copy of the marriage certificates was digitized. The digital images of the certificated were combined with the index created by the MCGS to produce this digital collection.

On Thursday, September 16th at 7:00p.m. in Central Library's Centennial Hall, join MPL and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the UWM Libraries' Archives Department 9th Annual Revisiting Our Past Local History Lecture.

Jack Dougherty, prize winning author of More than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee, will present "When Milwaukee's Civil Rights History Meets the Digital Era." Local civil rights activists Peggy Rozga and Vel Phillips will share remarks as well.

This event is also the launch of UWM's March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project.

This event is free and open to the public. Street parking is free after 6 p.m. For more information or to arrange for special needs, please call (414) 286-3021.

Join us at the Central Library for the dedication of the Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World Traveling Exhibition. Mordecai Lee, Professor of Governmental Affairs at UWM will make brief opening remarks and invite the audience to view the exhibit.The dedication will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 13th in Meeting Room One. This program is presented in connection with Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World on exhibit at the Central Library from September 8th to October 22nd, 2010.

The sounds of my September Vogue and W magazines thudding through the mail slot reminded me of the terrific documentary about editor Anna Wintour and artistic director Grace Coddington's struggle to publish the biggest issue of Vogue ever - The September Issue in 2007. The contrast between these two powerful women is fascinating as their personalities and visions clash and deadlines loom. Andre Leon Talley and designers John Galliano, Vera Wang, Thakoon and Karl Lagerfeld are interviewed about their fall collections and the power Wintour wields.

The clean and sober, physically fit Marc Jacobs of today bears little resemblance to the skinny, chain smoking obsessive seen in Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton. The notoriously secretive designer gave what seems to be near total access to the film maker who follows him through the creation of his own collection and the work he does for Louis Vuitton. The contrast between his vision and the needs of the international corporate giant is often poignant, but Jacobs never compromises.

Valentino is the king overthrown by market forces as seen in Valentino: the last emperor. This incredible documentary traces history of The House of Valentino and the two years before its final runway shows. Most intriguing are the hundreds of women and men behind the scenes who actually realize his fashion vision and allow him to enjoy a lifestyle lavish beyond belief. From hand stitching gowns to arranging hundreds of vases of flowers or herding Valentino's pugs and dyeing his lawn - these are the people who 'made it work'. His business partner of more than fifty years, Giancarlo Giammetti is especially insightful as he reflects on the cutthroat, high stakes world of haute couture today and his own long, often unappreciated role in Valentino's success.

Submitted by Christine P.

Thanks to the Credit CARD Act of 2009 the following changes for gift cards went into effect this past Sunday, August 22:

Store gift cards and gift cards with a Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover brand logo sold on or after August 22, 2010 will be good for at least five years from the date the card is purchased. You can still be charged inactivity fees, but only if you haven't used your card for at least one year. Additionally, if the physical card expires before the five years is up you can get the balance transferred to a replacement card for free. For more details see the complete list of new rules for gift cards from the Federal Reserve Website.

New credit card rules also went into effect this week and in case you missed it, in February of this year there was another set of new credit card rules.

August 25, 1939 marked the release of the Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz. The film was based on L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900. There are many differences between page and screen, including the fact that the Wicked Witch, portrayed with such malevolent aplomb by actress Margaret Hamilton, has a much larger part in the movie than in the book. Interestingly, her character inspired Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which, in turn, has been adapted into the Broadway musical Wicked.