New Music CDs

New music CDs have been added to the catalog. Click here to search for and place your holds on these popular artists.

Artist	Title	STREET DATE
TOP 40
Bowie, David	Blackstar	8-Jan-16
Platten, Rachel	Wildfire	1-Jan-16
Puth, Charlie	Nine Track Mind	29-Jan-16
The Mrs.	Enough	29-Jan-16
Various Artists	2016 Grammy Nominees	22-Jan-16
Country
Brothers Osborne	Pawn Shop	15-Jan-16
Corcoran, Dianna	In America	29-Jan-16
Green River Ordinance	Fifteen	22-Jan-16
Williams, Hank, Jr	It's About Time	15-Jan-16
Randy Rogers Band	Nothing Shines Like Neon	15-Jan-16

Marcia Ledin, Technical Services Manager

Searching for a Grammy

When I was working the desk in a library in another state I both loved and hated certain times that elicited an increased amount of the calls we frustrated librarians called pursuit of trivia. Many of the calls came from Grammy Awards Night parties (or even Super Bowl parties). Tonight if you're watching the Grammys (like I am) I'll bet you're wondering about past winners.

The Grammy site has a nifty search utility where you can search for all the past winners. It's at:

http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search

For instance, if you want to know all the Grammys that Whitney Houston won, just type her name into the name search box. Or you can bring up a list of all the awards given in a particular year, all the way back to 1958 when the best individual jazz performance was Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book.

So, if you're just burning with curiosity about all the best winners of best polka album, just select the category "Polka" from the Genre drop-down list.

Barbara Misselt, Director

Happy Birthday, Ludwig van Beethoven

Today is recognized as the anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1740. His exact birthdate is unknown, but his baptism was recorded on December 17th. In the time and place he was born, it was customary to baptize babies the day after birth, so he was probably born on the 16th. Besides, Beethoven himself celebrated the anniversary of his birth on the 16th.
While he was born 241 years ago, he may have had a profound impact on the digital age, since some believe that when the compact disc was developed, it had to have enough capacity/length to hold Beethoven's 9th Symphony. (The 9th Symphony when recorded on LP records filled 3 sides.)

According to Wired online: When Sony and Philips were negotiating a single industry standard for the audio compact disc in 1979 and 1980, the story is that one of four people (or some combination of them) insisted that a single CD be able to hold all of the Ninth Symphony. The four were the wife of Sony chairman Akio Morita, speaking up for her favorite piece of music; Sony VP Norio Ohga (the company’s point man on the CD), recalling his studies at the Berlin Conservatory; Mrs. Ohga (her favorite piece, too); and conductor Herbert von Karajan, who recorded for Philips subsidiary Polygram and whose Berlin Philharmonic recording of the Ninth clocked in at 66 minutes.

You can check out books about Beethoven or CDs of Beethoven's music. Also, read more about Beethoven on the Minnesota Public Radio site.

Barbara Misselt, Director