October 31st, 2009 Brian Herzog
This question actually made my week. With no warning, a flustered patron rushes up to the desk:
Hi. What’s Elvira doing now? Is she dead?
The control I have over my laugh-response sometimes astounds me.
I really had no idea, and neither of us knew her real name, so the first stop was an Internet Movie Database search for Elvira. There we learned her real name is Cassandra Peterson, which I then looked up on WhosAliveAndWhosDead.com to see if she was still alive. Happily, she is.
To find out what she’s doing now, I started with a general Google search for elvira 2009, which, among other interesting websites, led to Elvira.com - What’s New?. Not surprisingly, she’s a busy woman this time of year - multiple appearances in New Jersey this weekend, as well as being a special guest on this week’s Medium.
The patron was hoping she was hosting (hostessing?) some kind of spooky movie marathon this weekend, but I couldn’t find anything. He asked how far away New Jersey was, and after I told him, he said he doesn’t have a car and would have to walk, so he’s not going to go. He just wanted to know.
But his parting words were positive:
At least she’s not dead, so maybe she’ll show some movies next year.
Hope springs eternal. Happy Halloween.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 4 Comments »
August 30th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Here’s an example of what should be a simple question needing a round-about path to find the answer.
A patron came in asking for help finding movie listings. He’d heard there was a special showing at the local Showcase Cinema, called “attack of the” something, and he wanted to go. It’s part of a series the theater is doing, showing certain movies on Thursday nights for $5.
But when he was at the movie theater, the employees wouldn’t tell him what was showing on Thursdays. They said they didn’t know. So he came to the library.
Usually for quick movie listings I check Yahoo Movies, but that didn’t mention this special Thursday series. Also, all the phone numbers I could find for the theater were just their recorded show times, which likewise did not mention the special Thursday movies.
So the next step was to search the internet for “showcase lowell thursday attack.” The first listing was the flickr photo shown above, which the patron was excited to see.
The second listing was “Attack of the B Movies” Series Playing at Select National…, an article about this series. It mentioned the information came from the National Amusements website, and after clicking around their site for a bit, we found their Special Program listing, which linked to the upcoming schedule of movies.
You can also check their locations listings to find a theater near you.
It took less than ten minutes to follow this chain of links to the answer, but it shouldn’t have even taken that long. It’s disappointing that the cinema employees (and the theater’s phone recording) didn’t answer this question right away, but I am glad the patron thought to come to the library. I hadn’t heard of this movie series, and not only am I a fan of B movies, but I’ve also been asked about these twice since this first reference question.
Too bad this isn’t a drive-in.
Tags: b, b movies, libraries, Library, listings, movies, national amusements, public, Reference Question, showcase, showcase cinema See Also
Posted under Library, Reference Question | 5 Comments »
July 16th, 2008 Brian Herzog
One of the local television stations in Boston, WHDH 7, just aired an investigative story into libraries:
Theaters and video stores usually require an age of 17 or older to see or rent an R-Rated release, unless there is parental permission. But something altogether different is going on in some local libraries. 7News’ Jonathan Hall investigates.
Read the transcript, or watch the video.
This is similar to the situation we had here a little while ago (except without the undercover investigators), which prompted us to put label ratings on VHS and DVDs when possible. And it looks like the Boston Public Library, “in line with American Library Association guidelines,” is on the same page as us.
Libraries do not raise children, we provide access to information. Parents raise children, and we do what we can to support that need - while at the same time supporting the informational and educational needs of everyone else in the community.
I found this news report interesting, but a bit sensationalized. I’m sure as long as there are parents and children (and news outlets in need of ratings), issues like this will never die.
Tags: children, dvd, dvds, libraries, Library, movies, mpaa, parents, public, rating, ratings, television, vhs, video, videos, whdh See Also
Posted under Library, Service | 2 Comments »
March 27th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Something I’ve been seeing a lot of lately are websites with free television shows and movies. I mentioned hulu.com on a previous post, and it’s also been talked about elsewhere.
(I tried it out this weekend, and watched quite a few shows and a couple feature movies - all for free, with no problems, and very minimal commercial interruptions. This is the first time I’ve watched television or movies online, so I guess this is something for my Tech-YES list. But it did occur to me that, come Feb 17th, 2009, instead of buying a new set or digital cable box, I might just get rid of my television entirely and rely on the internet for shows and movies [then I could add "no television set" to my Tech-NO list])
Another free source, reported on Boing Boing, is the South Park Studios website. They just announced they are making all South Park episodes available free (but I noticed a few are not, due to contractual issues). According to creator Matt Stone, they’re doing this because “we just got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative.”
A slightly different approach is AnyTV, discussed by LibrarianInBlack. I haven’t tried this, but it looks like you download and install their AnyTVplayer on your computer, and then can stream a large number television channels, radio stations and video clips - free. Sarah also bring up the idea of installing this software on public library computers, to allow people to use their internet time to watch television. Hmm.
Finally, LifeHacker offers a long list of free online resources for online videos. I checked out a couple, but none seemed as easy to use as Hulu.com. http://tv-video.net did seem to have more episodes of certain shows, but that might just be because Hulu.com is still new.
Of course, this is all in addition to what the networks themselves off on their websites: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS. These, like the South Park guys, have the edge because they are the source. If all information is free and legal, the only reason to go to the middlemen aggregators (like Hulu.com, et. al.) is ease of use of the interface.
Tags: free, libraries, Library, movie, movies, online, public, television, tv, video, videos, watch See Also
Posted under Library, Resources, Technology | 3 Comments »
September 29th, 2007 Brian Herzog
A patron called in with this question:
Can you tell me the box office grosses for two movies? I need to know how much The Simpsons Movie and The Brink’s Job each made.
While he was talking, I quickly went to the Internet Movie Database and searched for The Simpsons Movie. I had never looked up box office figures there before, but it sounded like something they would have.
And they did - clicking on the Box Office/Business link under “Other Info” on the left side shows an extensive breakdown of box office grosses.
Unfortunately, The Brink’s Job did not have this link, so I told the patron I’d keep looking and call him when I found it.
I next went to the general internet, trying various searches like “the brinks job +gross,” “movie grosses,” etc., but didn’t have much luck. I did find a few useful websites to remember (some with pop-up ads):
But none of them had The Brink’s Job - either it was too old (it came out in 1978), or it didn’t gross enough to be noteworthy. I also tried all of our print film encyclopedias, but couldn’t find this figure anywhere.
I called the patron back to let him know, and he said it was okay. It turns out these movies are his daughter’s and mother’s favorite movies, and he was just curious to compare their grosses.
But still - it bothers me not to be able to find an answer. Bleh. I’m going to be looking for this all week.
Tags: , box office, film, films, gross, grosses, libraries, Library, movie, movies, public libraries, public library, Reference Question See Also
Posted under Library, Reference Question, Resources | 3 Comments »
