The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." Now the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals, and protects civil rights for all.

Myth #1: Immigrants are overrunning our country, and most are here illegally.

Fact:

The percentage of immigrants in the overall population is about the same as it has been at many other times throughout U.S. history. Today immigrants comprise approximately 13% of the total U.S. population. From 1900-1930, immigrants comprised between 12% and 15% of the U.S. population, and similar spikes occurred in the 1850s and the 1880s.

Of the 41 million immigrants in the U.S. in 2013 (the most recent year for which there are statistics), close to 47% were naturalized citizens. Among the rest, many immigrants are here on temporary work and/or student visas, some are refugees and people seeking asylum because of dangerous conditions in their home countries.

Undocumented immigrants comprise about 3.5 % of the total U.S. population.

Myth #2: Immigrants bring crime and violence to our cities and towns.

Fact:

Although immigrant population (including those who are undocumented) rose sharply between 1990 and 2010, the violent crime rate in the U.S. during that same time period plummeted by 45%, and the property crime rate dropped by 42%. Studies consistently show that crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates.

Myth #3: Immigrants hurt our country by taking jobs and services without paying taxes.

Fact:

Immigrants actually help to create new jobs. In addition to buying American and local products, immigrants often start their own businesses. Immigrants are twice as likely to start businesses as citizens born in the U.S. and companies owned by immigrants are more likely to hire employees than companies owned by native-born citizens.

Immigrants collectively pay between $90 and $140 billion each year in taxes. Everyone living here pays sales taxes and property taxes (whether living in purchased or rental homes), and more than half of all undocumented immigrant households file income tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers.

Myth #4: Immigrants get Welfare and other Benefits

Fact:

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Federal public benefits such as welfare, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps. Victims of human trafficking can however get access to emergency medical care. Additionally, most immigrants, even those with lawful status, are not entitled to these benefits until they have been here for at least five years. Immigrants’ paychecks include deductions for Social Security (as do those of any other worker) even though they are not entitled to actually receive these benefits themselves.

Myth #5: Immigrants come to U.S. with the sole purpose of having their babies born here.

Fact:

If this were so, we would expect to see at least the same number of women coming into the country as men. There are many more young immigrant men coming into the U.S. than there are young women. Research consistently shows that the vast majority of immigrants come to the U.S. for economic opportunity or to flee violence or poverty in their birth countries.

Myth #6: Immigrants bring diseases in the U.S.

Fact:

The vast majority of immigrants arriving in the U.S. have been screened for health issues. Also, interestingly, the vaccination rate in Mexico is 99%, while the vaccination rate in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador is 93%. The vaccination rate in the U.S. is 92%. According the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no evidence that immigrants have been the source of any modern outbreaks in the U.S.

Myth #7 Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. by coming across the Mexican border.

Fact:

The vast majority of U.S. residents linked to terrorism since 2002 are U.S. citizens. According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism, “There are no known international terrorist organizations operating in Mexico.” Additionally, according to the Department of Homeland Security, “the suggestion that individuals that have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or facts on the ground.”

Myth #8: All undocumented immigrants sneak across the Mexican border.

Fact:

Somewhere between one third and one half of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have overstayed their visitor, student, or work visas. That means that they entered the U.S. with lawful documentation and only later became undocumented.

Myth #9: We can stop undocumented immigrants from coming into the U.S. by building a wall along the Mexican border.

Fact:

The border between the U.S. and Mexico is almost 2,000 miles long. It spans difficult terrain including mountains and deserts. Rivers flow along two thirds of the border. Much of the area is private property, which the government would have to buy from the owners in order to build a wall. Building such a wall would be extremely expensive and difficult as well as largely ineffective. History shows that people find ways to cross walls (examples being the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall).

The U.S. prides itself on being “a nation of immigrants” – almost everyone in the U.S. is here because their ancestors came to the U.S. from other countries, (the exception obviously being those few who are 100% native American). We are a nation of fairness and equality, it is possible to create a process for addressing immigration that treats immigrants with dignity and respect instead of as criminals.

Interested in learning more?

Check out these websites as well:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/news/economy/immigration-myths/

http://www.tolerance.org/immigration-myths

https://www.aclu.org/other/immigration-myths-and-facts?redirect=immigrants-rights/immigration-myths-and-facts

http://www.connectingourworld.org/get-involved/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-a-discussion-on-immigration/

You can also come into the Library and check out some books, or search our subscription databases by visiting www.isliplibrary.org (from home or in the Library) and clicking on Research. Inquire at the Adult Reference Desk if you’d like some assistance. Librarians are always happy to help you find the facts.

Don’t believe everything you hear – research the facts.

Source: The Anti-Defamation League - http://www.adl.org

http://www.history.org/kids/visitUs/

A fun site with games, historical information and a travel guide to Colonial Williamsburg.

The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY

http://www.cmog.org/

The Corning Museum upstate in NY is a celebrated museum. There are workshops about glassmaking and the museum features a collection of historical and art glass; one of the best in the world. The website has information about artists, glassmaking and the history of glass.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art #Metkids, NY, NY

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/metkids/

A well thought out site that focuses on the collections of the M.E.T. in NYC. The site makes it enjoyable for kids to learn about antiquities and history through a virtual tour of the museum, a time machine (Don’t press that button!) and videos.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA

http://www.carlemuseum.org/

This museum in Massachusetts has the largest collection of picture books and picture book illustrations in the United States from around the world. The Website celebrates the exhibitions available at the museum and the workshops for kids. The exhibition previews showcase a lot of beautiful artwork!

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN

https://www.childrensmuseum.org/

This is an impressive museum and their website for kids is magnificent too! There are various videos, games and activities for kids. (Hint: there are dinosaurs!)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/kids.html

The National Gallery in Washington houses many of our Nation’s art treasures. There are works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hicks and Others. The children’s area of the website features Learning games about art and being creative. Make sure your flash is updated; the apps can be a little finicky.

The National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.

https://airandspace.si.edu/

This fantastic museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Dedicated to the history of Aeronautics in the United States; kids will find much to be amazed by in the halls of this museum. World War 2 fighters, a command module from the Apollo missions, a moon rock you can touch, and a life-size prototype of the Hubble space telescope are just some of the wonders of this museum. On the website, there are articles about current events and exhibitions. There is so much to discover on this website for a child (or adult) who loves airplanes or spacecraft!

The Field Museum, Chicago, IL

https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/sue-t-rex

This museum has the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found! The website has a vast science blog, learning resources and lots of information. If you are in Chicago, this is a “must stop” for the kids!

The American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

http://www.amnh.org/

I may be biased, living in New York, but I am sure that the Museum of Natural History is one of the best natural history museums in the world, if not the best. The website is packed with info, resources for teachers and parents, activities for kids, exhibition information, research data that is being conducted at the museum, and much more. It’s just a really great science website.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals-and-experiences

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is wonderful, and the website is wonderful as well. My son stares at the Jellyfish webcam for hours; it is truly fascinating. Check out the webcams, the research and the kids’ related pages.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland

http://www.aqua.org/explore/animals

The National Aquarium has a good website that has profiles for all the animals in the aquarium with high quality pictures and information. It’s another fantastic website. Visit this aquarium if you are ever near Washington D.C.!

Thanks for reading and I hope I helped you discover some useful, exciting and refreshing websites! As usual, if you would like to suggest a useful site you enjoy, please comment below!

Great websites for kids that you probably never heard about. 

Interesting science and education websites that were suggested by Islip Public Library patrons.

Recently, a few of our local patrons let me know about a few sites that their children use, or they themselves visit. These cover a variety of subjects, and are well conceived and useful.

PREHISTORIC WILDLIFE

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/index.html

This entertaining site has lots of animal profiles and information. It has almost every dinosaur and beast I could come up with! Sometimes the site tends to sensationalize the attributes of the animals a bit much, but it is child safe.

WILDKRATTS

http://pbskids.org/wildkratts/

This website is related to the popular PBS nature show for kids, Wildkratts. There are educational games, animal profiles and the ability to visit different habitats to find out about the different characteristics of animals.

MR. NUSSBAUM

http://mrnussbaum.com/

Featuring over 3,500 content pages, MrNussbaum.com is a great web site that has activities, games, information, videos and interactive learning arranged by grade. It is good for kids, teachers and parents. Beware, there is some advertising popping up on the page and it advertises for a membership as well, but the free content is very good.

TOY THEATER

http://www.toytheater.com/

This is a very exciting website that has many learning activities for children. Some of the best are designing a house, making spirals and the simple animation tool.

ABCYA

http://www.abcya.com/

What a terrific website with hundreds a charming learning games, organized by grade.

Here are two websites that were suggested to me by elementary school teachers. They have a plethora of activities and useful advice.

KINDERCRAZE

http://kindercraze.com/

KELLY’S KINDERGARTEN

http://kellyskindergarten.com/

AAAMATH

http://aaamath.com/

This website has practice exams for math learning and an exhaustive library of helping aids for students. It has a more thoughtful approach to math learning than most math websites.

DESERT USA

http://www.desertusa.com/

This site focuses on the habitat, ecology and biology of deserts in the United States. It has a wealth of information.

MINERALS

http://www.minerals.net/

An online guide to minerals, gemstones and geology, this is an enjoyable site for amateur geologists. Identify the rocks in your backyard!

ONE GEOLOGY

http://www.onegeology.org/extra/kids/home.html

This is a child friendly and enlightening site dealing with geology, paleontology and earth processes. I love this site because it uses child friendly cartoon characters to make hard to understand topics exciting.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC OCEAN LIFE

http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/ocean-life/

If you love sea-life and the ocean, this website has an abundance of high quality photos, videos and articles about new research being conducted about the ocean. The site is easy to navigate and has a very sophisticated look. To be expected, of course, this is National Geographic.

SIERRA CLUB

https://sierraclub.org/topics/children

The Sierra club is now the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organizations, founded by the conservationist John Muir in 1892. This children’s site has articles dealing with conservation, the nations’ parks and parks system and other timely subjects.

Stay tuned for part four, where I will cover a few great museum websites from around the US.

As a Children’s Librarian, one of the saddest stories I have ever heard was about a mom who waited to start reading to her child until he learned how to speak! According to the U.S. Department of Education, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

Children have a reading level and a listening level. They can understand books on a higher reading level by listening to them which also develops their listening skills. When you read a book aloud to your child you are exposing him to vocabulary words that you may not use. Since many children don’t learn how to read until they are 3 years old and older, caregivers can start exposing them to words that build a foundation for reading.

There are many reasons we read to our children: entertainment, information, and inspiration. But in the process of reading aloud, you’re also bonding with your child, expanding their vocabulary, and modeling how to read. Reading aloud also helps children expand their imaginations.

Tips for reading aloud:

The Islip Library has a display case dedicated to board books in the Children’s Atrium for our very youngest patrons. The thick cardboard pages are much harder to tear than a regular book and generally have varying amounts of words. We subscribe to monthly magazines that are suitable for very young children, Babybug and Zoobies. We have an extensive picture book collection with stories on nearly every topic. Our illustrated book collection is ideal for school-aged children interested in a picture book format with content appropriate for more mature readers. Check out the following links for read-aloud book suggestions for that perfect bonding time with your child.

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-treasury-pic1.html

http://www.scholastic.com/100BestReadAloudBooks

http://www.readaloudamerica.org/pdfs/2016BookList.pdf

“Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

A challenge [to a book] is an attempt to remove or restrict it, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.”

Source: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/

Why are books challenged?

The reasons cited for the challenge to the above books include:

Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, anti-family, political viewpoint, violence and other (“graphic images”), nudity, and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

In the words of Mark Twain, “Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”

So celebrate your freedom to read and check out a challenged book today! There’s something for everyone at the Islip Public Library!

Once again let me introduce you to a few non-profit, educational, and government websites dedicated to entertaining and informing kids. I am still focusing on websites created by federal agencies this month, but I will move on in the next installment to the many available educational websites. So enjoy these websites and remember it is truly incredible that there are so many great sites out there nobody knows about! Hey, you can actually learn about something on the internet!

NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html

NASA has some amazing websites. Not only do they have the content to make their sites exceptional, they really went out of their way to make their public sites accessible and easily understandable for the public. This one for kids is magnificent.

NASA Space Place - http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this site! If you are a child and are interested in astronomy and human spaceflight, this is a great site for you. This is what I would call “high interest” site, with bright colors, easy to navigate sections and enjoyable activities for children. NASA did their homework with this site.

Train like an Astronaut - http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/trainlikeanastronaut/home/index.html

Another entertaining, enlightening site from our space agency.

Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/education/

The Library of Congress is our Nation’s library, the largest in the world, with millions of items in its collection. Online it has many impressive resources for a kid (or an adult!) researching and also for amusement. Here are a few that stand out!

Local history mapping - http://www.loc.gov/maps/?q=long+island&st=gallery

I picked this one because it searches the LOC collection for your local history maps, in this case Long Island, NY. Some of them are really fascinating!

Everyday Mysteries - http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/

This site deals with trivia that a child will find amusing.

The Exquisite Corpse - http://read.gov/exquisite-corpse/

An excellent audio book mystery, written by some of today’s hottest writers.

America’s Story - http://www.americaslibrary.gov/index.html

This has a nice interface and is another “high interest” site with many terrific topics.

Here are some Federal Agency websites that are interesting and fun for kids!

F.B.I. for Kids - https://www.fbi.gov/fun-games/kids/kids

With games for kids, and information about the FBI, this is an awesome site.

F.E.M.A. for Kids - http://www.ready.gov/kids

The focus on this site is disaster preparedness, always important!

C.I.A. World Fact book - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Not really a kid’s website, this is more of an up-to-date information guide for citizens and government insiders, with data for most of the countries in the world. Another super resource for kids doing a report.

Government Printing Office (GPO)

Ben’s Guide - http://bensguide.gpo.gov/

This really well-designed site is all about our nation, its government and people!

A few choice children sites about our government!

Kids.gov- https://kids.usa.gov/

Government information for kids, with posters and facts. Also useful for teachers!

US CONGRESS - https://www.congress.gov/

This is not a children’s site, but it does contain wealth of information.

Kids in the House - http://kids.clerk.house.gov/

This site shows kids how the legislative branch is run and how the house of representatives does its job. There are sections for different age groups and has a neat layout.

The Dirksen Center, Congress for Kids - http://www.congressforkids.net/index.htm

This site has information on the different branches of our government and how laws are created. It also explains the electoral process and how we elect our leaders.

NY State Government Links

Here are two standout sites from New York State for kids. They are instructive and educational!

NY Department of State - http://www.dos.ny.gov/kids_room/

State Assembly Kids Page - http://assembly.state.ny.us/kids/

All these sites need to be visited in order to see how superb they are. I hope you enjoy them. In the meantime, if you come across a website that you think I should feature leave a comment below!

On this page, I’ll give you a bunch of extremely actionable tips for becoming a better student. Enjoy!

Use These Great Resources if You Want to Become a Better Student!

Listed below are some subscription Databases available to you (free) through the Islip Library. 

Access these through our homepage www.isliplibrary.org / click on Research

You can use these resources at the Library or at home (you’ll need your library card to access from home)

The Islip Library Teen Room provides a great place to study and do homework with your friends. There are 3 computers in the Teen Room for your use. If you prefer to use a laptop we have those too - for use in the Library. Our Mac laptops are available to run on a Windows operating system or the Mac operating system.

What to learn more?!

Attend this teen program: “Online Homework Help: Welcome Back to School” on Monday, September 12th, 7-8 pm at the Islip Library!