Explore Activities for Summer Fun

How will you spend your free time this summer?  The Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center database is a great source for exploring your hobbies or finding new ones.  You can also check out the library's Discovery Tool for more books and articles on activities to fill your summer.  I have included a couple of books that the library has in our general stacks.

As our house is gearing up for summer I decided to check out this database to get some ideas to keep us busy.  I know there will be some outdoor activities we will be doing so I started out there.  They have an Outdoor Recreation category that includes hiking, camping, fishing, sailing, scuba diving, and much more.

Hiking and Backpacking

GV199.5 .H55 2008

GV199.5 .H55 2008

Since we have a garden I then headed to the Home & Garden category.  I soon got distracted from the garden when I saw that there is a topic covering cake decorating.  We have been trying to learn how to decorate cakes and cupcakes so this will be a great resource for us.

My Cooking Class
TX771 .F3913 2011

After checking out the things I knew we would need I got curious and did some more exploring and found that you can even find out about handwriting analysis under the Science and Technology category.  For those hot 100+ afternoons there is a category on Indoor Recreations that includes topics on different types of games.  Other categories include Scrapbooking, Performing Arts, Needlecrafts, Model Building, Kid's Crafts, and more.

Passionate Gardening
SB455 .S816 2000

Do you have interests beside school? We have databases for you!

This semester we have several new databases for you to use! Most of them are academic databases that will be great for your school work, and you can check them all out on the Guide to Databases Page.  But, we know that you have interests outside of school as well, so today I’m highlighting three new databases that contain information on hobbies, home improvement and engine repair. Hopefully you will find something that will get your creative juices flowing, inspire you to try something new, or maybe even save some money!

Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center has how-to videos, instructions, and project ideas for many different hobbies and crafts, including knitting, outdoor activities, crafting, and scrapbooking. It also includes full-text from many different hobby magazines including American Craft, Scuba Diving, and Horse & Rider.

Home Improvement Reference Center includes information on a variety of home improvement tasks, including decorating, plumbing, electrical and woodworking. The Toolbox includes how-to videos, conversion charts, glossaries, and a guide to working with contractors. It also includes step-by-step maintenance guides for projects like maintaining a grill.

Small Engine Repair Reference Center gives detailed instructions on how to repair and maintain small engines, such as those in boats, lawnmowers, motorcycles and tractors. It includes engine diagrams and full service manuals.

Hobby researching with Discovery

Is there a hobby you're interested in learning more about? Try doing some searches using the library's Discovery @ Tarleton to gather the information you need!

I'm a knitter/crafter by night and recently have been curious about how commercial knitting works. A few searches for knitting and knitting machines brought up tons of articles, book reviews, images, and even ebooks. I found a really neat article about using 3-D graphic design software to create a pattern for a knitted stuffed animal. I also stumbled upon an article describing the use of a knitting techinque call intarsia and its application to garmets used in the healthcare industry. Some date filtering on my list of results gave me information on knitting machines from the 19th and 20th century. It was pretty neat seeing the diverse areas knitting has been used for.

If the mood of curiousity strikes you and you're interested in learning more about your pasttimes -- be it crafting, sports, cooking, etc.-- give Discovery @ Tarleton a whirl and see what you can find.You might be pleasantly surprised!