The Jewish holiday, Tu B’Shevat, begins tomorrow at Sunset. Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, is the New Year for Trees. This is the date used to calculate the age of trees for tithing. It has become a custom to collect money on this date to plant trees in Israel. The day may also be celebrated with fruits, especially those associated with Israel. See our Tu B’Shevat page for more information.

If you download either ebooks or audiobooks from our collection using the OverDrive Media Console app for Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone 7, be sure to update your apps for two new features:

Returning audiobooks early<
Using the dictionary and Wikipedia lookup for ebooks

These features will be coming soon for the iPhone/iPad/iPod app as well — look for OverDrive Media Console app release 2.4.

Groundhog Day, celebrated on February 2, has its roots in an ancient Celtic celebration called Imbolog, marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. This was a time to celebrate having made it halfway through winter. The superstition arose that if the weather was fair on Imbolog, the second half of the winter would be cold and stormy, but if the weather was cold and overcast or stormy, the second half of the winter would be mild.

In early Christian times, February 2 was celebrated as Candlemas, but the earlier superstitions persisted. The Romans learned these traditional beliefs from the Scottish Celts, and brought them to the area that was to become Germany, where they became a part of the folk culture. German immigrants brought these beliefs with them to Pennsylvania, where the tradition of predicting the weather became centered around the woodchuck or groundhog. The town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, has an annual celebration centering around the activity of the groundhog “Punxsutawney Phil.”

Groundhog Day — Our Groundhog Day page includes a Groundhog Day Booklist for Kids and other links for more information and activities for Groundhog Day.

Black History Month is a celebration of important people and events in the history of the African-Americans. It was founded in 1926 by United States historian Carter G. Woodson, who chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass.

Black History Month — Here’s a page of links to help you find more information and resources about African-American history

On Sunday, February 5, 2012, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants battle it out at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

• Super Bowl Search — Borrow a book from your library and get ready for Super Bowl Sunday!
• Super Bowl XLVI — Catch all the news on the official NFL Super Bowl site
• Super Bowl XLVI — Boston.com’s guide to the Super Bowl
• Super Bowl Central — ESPN’s Super Bowl news and information site
• Hulu’s Super Bowl AdZone — “Get ready for Game Day. Watch past Super Bowl ads and share your favorites.”
• Super Bowl XLVI Game Day Party Planner — Ideas for entertaining from Boston.com
• Super Bowl 2010 Food, Recipes, & Party Tips — Recipes and entertaining ideas from Epicurious.com

Are you borrowing eBooks from the NOBLE OverDrive site? If so, you may know that you don’t really need to return library eBooks — when their due date is reached, they become inactive for you and available for someone else to borrow. However, it is possible to return them early, and we encourage you to do so. This lets you take out more eBooks if you’ve reached the four-book limit, and it also makes the ebook available for someone else. This is especially helpful right now — usage of this collection has increased dramatically in the last few months, especially since Christmas!

How you return an ebook early depends on how you checked it out and downloaded it:

• If you chose the Kindle format, you can login to your Amazon account, go to Manage Your Kindle and return the ebook. [Instructions]
• If you downloaded the book to your computer and opened it in Adobe Digital Editions to transfer to a Nook or other ebook reader, you return it from Adobe Digital Editions. [Instructions]
• If you downloaded the book directly to an iPad, smartphone or other mobile device using the OverDrive Media Console app, you can return the book from the app. [Instructions]

(Unfortunately, there is no way to return audiobooks early.)