By Susan Lee
Live Oak Public Libraries

Some people have no trouble at all shopping for the perfect gift. I am not one of those people.

And when it comes to buying a gift for a child, I'm no better. I wait until the last minute and end up walking up and down the toy department aisles wracked with indecision. Finally I just grab any toy, even though I know the boy or girl must already have one in an overflowing toy box.

However, now that my son is 3 years old and I've gone to dozens (hundreds?) of birthday parties and bought countless gifts for friends' children, I have a plan. I'm still going to buy them a small toy, but now I'll add something special: I'm going to adopt a library book in the child's name.

Live Oak Public Libraries' Adopt-a-Book program helps fill the shelves of the library branches in Chatham, Effingham and Liberty Counties. With each $25 contribution, the child's name will be placed in the book and a gift card will be sent to the family telling them of the "adoption." You can designate a subject area (such as dinosaurs or castles) or a specific book title.

This is a great way to not only help the public library buy more books but it might also help children realize the importance of giving back to their community. Even better, it stresses the principle of "sharing" since the child's adopted book will be loved by thousands of children in the area.

Adopt-a-Book forms are available at all library branches. For more information, call (912) 652-3605 or (912) 652-3667. Book adoptions can be charged to your MasterCard or Visa accounts.


Turn to the library for research help

Live Oak Public Libraries offers a variety of resources for students of all levels returning to school this fall and for parents interested in helping their children succeed.

GALILEO (Georgia LIbraries Learning Online) is the state's virtual library and is accessible through the Live Oak Public Libraries web site, www.liveoakpl.org. Think of GALILEO as a set of search engines for magazines, journals and encyclopedias. In GALILEO, students (or anyone doing research for that matter) can find full-text articles from more than 5,000 general and scholarly journals, documents and images on Georgia history, information on homework topics, online encyclopedias and much more.

A kids' version of GALILEO is also available for the younger students and can be accessed from the library's web site. Children will especially enjoy the colorful "Searchasaurus," which features a fun-to-use image library, fun facts, dictionary, encyclopedia, Primary Search and Middle Search Plus.

GALILEO is available for use within the 19 Live Oak Public Libraries branches in Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties. If you have a library card, GALILEO can be accessed from any computer outside the library simply by entering your library card number.

"GALILEO is a great tool because the information is very reliable," said Beatrice Wright, regional manager of central branches. "The information is authoritative rather than just something someone put out there on the Internet. Also, students are told that they can't use a lot of 'internet' sources, but GALILEO is not considered just 'internet' information so they can use it as much as they like."

In addition, the Bull Street Library offers Internet research classes on using GALILEO and other library tools. For information on these classes, call (912) 652-3662.