ASK!

At the very basic level there is no real difference between solid soaps, liquid soaps, and shower gels with respect to the cleaning power. All types of true soap are composed of the same essential components — alkali salts of fatty acids and detergent properties. The detergent in soap, which is called a surfactant, allows oil and dirt to mix with and be washed away by water.

Liquid soaps usually contain moisturizers which is good for the skin compared to bar soaps. Which type of soaps to use depends on individual preference, skin condition and suitability.

Please refer to the following sites and books for more information about soaps.

WEBSITES

1.  Bar Soap versus Liquid Soap

http://www.drversus.com/science/bar-soap-versus-liquid-soap.html

2.  Dr Bronner’s Magic All-One FAQs on Soaps

http://www.drbronner.com/faqs_main.html

BOOKS

All Rights Reserved: Interweave Press, c1997.

1.  Soothing soaps for healthy skin

Author: Sandy Maine

Publisher: Loveland, Colo. : Interweave Press, c1997.

Call No.: 668.124 MAI

All Rights Reserved: Greenwood Press, 2005.

2. Chemical composition of everyday products

Author: John Toedt

Publisher: Westport, Conn. ; London : Greenwood Press, 2005.

Call No.: R 543 TOE

All Rights Reserved: Atlantic Pub. Group, c2011.

3.   The complete guide to creating oils, soaps, creams, and herbal gels for your mind and body : 101 natural body care recipes

Author: Marlene Jones

Publisher: Ocala, Fla. : Atlantic Pub. Group, c2011.

Call No.: 668.55 JON

To check the availability of the titles, please visit our online catalogue.

Posted by Mr Kweh Soon Huat, Adult and Young People’s Librarian.

Event details:
Date: Saturday, 16 April 2011
Time: 8.30am to 6.00pm
Venue: The Plaza, National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street

Recycle your books at the Book Exchange! Drop off your used books* at any Public Library from 2 to 15 April, 11.00am to 8.00pm and get a coupon for every book** accepted. Present your coupon at the Book Exchange for a one-for-one exchange of books.

*We accept adults’ and children’s fiction and non-fiction books (eg. cookbooks, travel guides and romance novels) in the four official languages. We also accept used library books bought from previous Library Book Sales. Used books for exchange should be in relatively good physical condition. Textbooks, magazines and audio-visual materials are not accepted.

**Each person can exchange up to a maximum of 50 used books. For enquiries, please call NLB Helpdesk at 6332 3255 or email: helpdesk@nlb.gov.sg.

Note: NLB reserves the right to change the terms and conditions without prior notice

Posted by Yen Yen Toh, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

The newest public library opened its doors to the public on 11th Mar 2011. Serangoon Public Library (SRPL) is located on the rooftop of Nex Mall at Serangoon Central. Click on the map below to see the location of SRPL.

With a floor area of 1,635 square metres, SRPL has a startup collection of approximately 150,000 items, which include books, magazines and audio-visual materials in the four official languages. The first public library in Singapore to have a dedicated area for gaming, SRPL aims to promote learning and a reading culture by tapping on the educational effects of games.

To celebrate the opening of SRPL, an exhibition titled “Serangoon: A place like no other” will be on display at the library. This exhibition showcases the heritage of the Serangoon area, as well as winning entries of the recently held “People, Places & Recollections” photo contest, where the community was invited to share photographs on the Serangoon area.

The library has also teamed up with community and grassroots organisations to organise thematic programmes that engage both the young and old through interactive learning. Library users can look forward to programmes on heritage and green living as well as storytelling sessions for children. For more information on upcoming programmes at SRPL, you may visit NLB’s
Go Library website.

And if you are on Facebook, you can visit SRPL‘s Facebook page. Go Like it today!

Posted by Yen Yen Toh, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Clouds may appear to us in various shapes, but most of the time, the clouds we see are white because their water droplets or ice crystals are large enough to scatter the light of the seven wavelengths (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), which combine to produce white light.

Clouds will appear dark or gray when they are in the shadow of another cloud or when the top of a cloud casts a shadow upon its own base.

The darkness of a cloud also depends on the sky in the background. A cloud will look darker when it is surrounded by a bright sky and lighter when it is in front of darker sky. A dark cloud does not always mean that it will rain.

More often, the reason why we experience dark rainy days is because clouds are blocking the sunlight. Some of the brightest and purest light can be observed when dark clouds “break apart” and sunlight filters through.

Source:http://sci.odu.edu/sci 

For more information on clouds, you can refer to these books!

 
All Rights Reserved, Tarrytown, N.Y. : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, c2010
Cloudy Days by Trudi Strain Trueit
Call Number: JP English 551.57 TRU
Publisher: Tarrytown, N.Y. : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, Minneapolis, Minn. : Lerner Publications Co., c2010
It’s Cloudy Today by Kristin Sterling
Call Number: JP English 551.57 STE
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Lerner Publications Co
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, Mankato, MN : Creative Education, 2011
Clouds by Bill McAuliffe
Call Number: Y English 551.576 MAC
Publisher: Mankato, MN : Creative Education
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

These authors have travelled to places great and small, renowned and obscure. There is no better arm-chair travelling. Read these books and you may be inspired to check out the countries for yourselves! Before you jet-set off to the next exotic location, check out some practical travelling tips here.

1) The old Patagonian Express: by train through the Americas
Author: Paul Theroux
Call No.: 917.045 THE- [TRA]

2) A walk in the woods
Author: Bill Bryson
Call No.: 917.404 BRY- [TRA]

3) The lady and the monk: four seasons in Kyoto
Author: Pico Iyer
Call No.: 952.186 IYE

4) Among the Russians
Author: Colin Thubron
Call No.: 914.708 THU- [TRA]

5) Country driving: a journey through China from farm to factory
Author: Peter Hessler
Call No.: 303.483 HES

6) Around the world in 80 days
Author: Michael Palin
Call No.: 910.41 PAL-[TRA]

*The images of the book covers are the copyright of the respective publishers

Please use our online catalogue to search for the availabilities and locations of the above titles.

Originally posted by Yen Yen Toh, Associate Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Below are some reading recommendations:

Fiction titles:
1. An innocent soldier / by Josef Holub ; translated by Michael Hofmann.
Summary: A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars by the farmer for whom he works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer’s own son.
Call No.:  Y English HOL

2. Kipling’s choice / written by Geert Spillebeen ; translated by Terese Edelstein.
Summary: In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what is to be his first and last World War I battle.
Call No.: Y English SPI

3. Sunrise over Fallujah / Walter Dean Myers.
Summary: Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.

Call No.: Y English MYE

4. The burning bridge / John Flanagan.
Summary: Will is forced to overcome his fear of Wargals, the foot soldiers of rebel warlord Morgarath, as Araluen’s army prepares to battle Morgarath’s forces.
Call No.: Y English FLA

5. Search and destroy / Dean Hughes.

Summary: Recent high school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and eager to escape his unhappy home life, joins the army and experiences the horrors of the war in Vietnam.
Call No.: Y English HUG

Non-fiction titles:
1. The war in Iraq / Tom Lansford, book editor.
Call No.: Y English 956.70443 WAR

2. The hundred days offensive : the Allies’ push to win World War I / by Andrew Langley.
Call No.: Y English 940.434 LAN

3. The Vietnam War / Hal Marcovitz.
Call No.: Y English 959.7043 MAR

4. Living through the Korean War / Charles W. Carey Jr., book editor.
Call No.: Y English 951.9042 LIV

5. World War II / Nathaniel Harris.
Call No.: Y English 940.54 HAR

If you intend to check the availability of any title before visiting our public libraries, you may do so via the online catalogue at: http://searchplus.pl.sg/

Posted by Yen Yen Toh, Associate Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Before the craze of the Twilight series, a vampire is often depicted as a bloodsucking creature, supposedly the restless soul of a heretic, criminal, or suicide, that leaves its burial place at night, often in the form of a bat, to drink the blood of humans. Typically the vampire had a pallid face, staring eyes, and protruding incisor teeth and fed by biting and sucking blood from the victim’s throat. By daybreak it must return to its grave or to a coffin filled with its native earth.

A zombie, on the other hand, is said to be a dead person who is revived after burial and compelled to do the bidding of the reviver, including criminal acts and heavy manual labour.

However, unlike vampires, zombies do exist in real life! Scholars believe that actual zombies are living persons under the influence of powerful drugs, including burundanga (reportedly used by Colombian criminals) and drugs derived from poisonous toads and puffer fish.

Sources:
vampire. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition
zombi. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition

Interested to find out more? Check out the following books:

(All Rights Reserved, Candlewick Press, c2010)

How to be a zombie : the essential guide for anyone who craves brains
by Serena Valentino
Call Number: Y English 398.45 VAL
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, Capstone Press, c2009)

Blood-sucking, man-eating monsters
by Kelly Regan Barnhill
Call Number: J English 001.944 BAR
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, c2008)

Vampires, zombies, and shape-shifters
by Rebecca Stefoff
Call Number: Y English 398.45 STE
Click here to check for item availability.

Originally answered by Lynn Ang
Librarian
Children’s Services

[1] Title: Moonlight
Author: Rachel Hawthorne
Call No.: Y English HAW
Description: “While working as a wilderness guide in the national forest where her parents were killed twelve years earlier, seventeen-year-old Kayla is powerfully drawn to Lucas, who she learns is her appointed guardian–and much more–as she discovers her true identity and destiny.” Book 1 of the Dark Guardian series.

[2] Title: Blood and chocolate
Author: Annette Curtis Klause
Call No.: Y English KLA
Description: “Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.”

[3] Title: The summoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Call No.: Y English ARM
Description: “My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again. All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don’t even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me. Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won’t leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a “special home” for troubled teens. Yet the home isn’t what it seems. Don’t tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It’s up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.” Book 1 of the Darkest Powers series.

[4] Title: Wolfsbane and mistletoe
Author: Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner
Call No.: English WOL -[HO]
Description: “New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, and Carrie Vaughn—along with eleven other masters of the genre—offer all-new stories on werewolves and the holidays, a fresh variation on the concept that worked so well with birthdays and vampires in Many Bloody Returns.”

For the locations and availabilities of the above titles, please use our online catalog

Originally answered by Farah Abdullah, Associate Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

There is a difference between the two – the Netherlands, short for the Kingdom of the Netherlands refers to the country, while Holland – actually, North and South Holland – are two provinces out of the 12 provinces that make up the country.

However, the two names are commonly used interchangeably and this could be due to historical reasons. Holland used to be just one province during the days of the United Provinces (1581-1795), where a few provinces in the region came together to form the precursor to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and most of the nation’s governmental and commercial power was concentrated there. Hence foreigners came to think of the Netherlands and Holland as one and the same.

Though the right term for the country would be the Netherlands, matters are not helped by the country’s national tourism board also using the term Holland to refer to the entire country and in its tourism website address. Some encyclopaedias and books also refer to ‘Holland’ as another name for the Netherlands, further contributing to the common use of both terms to refer to the country.

Sources:

Name: Factiva.com
Source: The Arizona Republic
Title: Holland not the same as Netherlands
Author: Clay Thompson
Publisher: The Arizona Republic
Issue Information: 1 March 2007
Description: What is the difference between Holland and the Netherlands?
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

Name: Factiva.com
Source: The Daily Express
Title: Your questions answered
Publisher: Express Newspapers
Issue Information: 4 November 2006
Description: Is there any difference between Holland and The Netherlands, or are they different terms for the same country?
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

Name: Factiva.com
Source: Boston Herald
Title: Good question; It’s time to brush up on geography by going Dutch
Author: Beth Teitell and Roger Michel
Issue Information: 1 November 1998
Description: “Q: There are questions you just can’t ask after the third grade, and I’ve been carrying one around for 30 years – are Holland and the Netherlands different countries? And who exactly are the Dutch? Please help me with my secret shame!”
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

You may also wish to refer to the following sources for more information on the Netherlands and her history.

Web Resources

Source: http://www.holland.com/global/aboutholland/history/
Title: History – History – The Official Website of The Netherlands Board …
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

Source: http://www.minbuza.nl/en/You_and_the_Netherlands/
About_the_Netherlands/Highlights_of_Dutch_History
Title: Highlights of Dutch History – MinBuza.nl
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

Source: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/
travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/
europe/netherlands/
Title: Country Profile: Netherlands
Last accessed date: 14 Jul 2010

 Answered by Ms Lynn Koh, Associate Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Students performing at the 1966 National Day Parade
Source: www.nhb.gov.sg

National Day Parade, 9 August 1967
Source: www.nationalartgallery.sg

August marks a very special month in Singapore’s history as Singapore holds its national day celebrations on 9 August every year.

9 August is a significant date because on 9 August 1965, Singapore broke away from Malaysia and became a fully independent country. Prior to this, on 27 May 1961, the Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed merger between Singapore, Malaya and other British colonies like Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia for political and economic reasons.

However, due to political differences that later led to 2 racial riots in Singapore in 1964, as well as economic incompatability, on 7 August 1965, the leaders of Malaysia and Singapore signed the separation agreement and on 9 August 1965, Singapore became a fully independent country.

This year, Singapore will celebrate its 45th year of independence and the National Day celebrations and parade will be held at the Padang where the first National Day Parade (NDP) was held. The theme this year is ‘Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag’ as the organizers hope that Singaporeans will “reflect upon the nation’s achievements and be inspired to work towards their own dreams”.

Do catch the parade and the celebrations in action if you have a chance!

For more information on this year’s NDP celebrations, do log on to the NDP official website :
http://www.ndp.org.sg

Sources:
1) The Living Past
2) NDP 2010 Official Website: www.ndp.org.sg

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services