Throughout 2007 Oklahoma is celebrating 100 years of statehood. Using Oklahoma history as a theme, let me share 10 Web sites that I’ve enjoyed over the years.

The official Oklahoma Centennial Web site (www.oklahomacentennial. com) is your one-stop resource for discovering what kind of centennial events are coming up. For example, later this month one can visit Alabaster Caverns State Park to learn about bats and watch them appear (a 100-year-old occurrence). Or one can go to the Centennial Celebration of Quilts at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. These are only two of the 1,000 events going on celebrating Oklahoma’s Centennial.

TravelOK (www.travelok. com) is Oklahoma’s Travel Tourism’s official Web site. This site is easy to use, and is often one we look at during the library’s free Internet class for the public. The site provides step-by-step access for locating things to do, places to stay and places to eat, all in Oklahoma. One can also order free brochures from the Web site. TravelOK is a great resource for planning your next Oklahoma vacation.

The Muskogee Phoenix’s special online section dedicated to Oklahoma’s Centennial provides some great articles concerning local history (www.muskogeephoenix.com/ okcentennial). Articles include everything from the history of the Doughboy statue located at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center to a fascinating article about how Hyde Park once was a main source of entertainment for the city of Muskogee.

The Muskogee Phoenix online also features a great blog about Muskogee History and Genealogy (muskogeephoenixonline.com/blogs/WallyWaits/), authored by former head of genealogy and local history for the Muskogee Public Library, Wally Waits. Some of his posts have detailed an early Muskogee inventor (Early Muskogee Inventor Identified), Ordinance No. 16 which required men between the ages of 18 and 45 to work on the streets and alleys of Muskogee for two days out of the year (Muddy Muskogee Streets), and the explanation of what a terminus rough was (Tent City That Became Muskogee).

The Three Rivers Museum (www.3riversmuseum. com) Web site has some great articles about local history. One article I enjoyed discussed Tony Goetz and his contribution to the city of Muskogee.

The Oklahoma Today Magazine Web site (www.oklahomatoday.com) doesn’t offer as much information as its print edition, but does offer a fun 50 question quiz testing your Oklahoman I.Q.

The Oklahoma Department of Libraries has an online virtual exhibit entitled Bonnie and Clyde in Oklahoma (www.oklahomatoday.com) that is pretty interesting.

Over the last couple of years there has been a statewide program going on entitled Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma (www.okreadsok.org). The premise behind OK Reads OK is that each year Oklahoma residents would choose one book from six nominated to read and discuss throughout the year. Libraries across Oklahoma planned special programs celebrating each selected book, including author talks, book discussion events, and live enactments from the books among others. The four- year program featured books that had Oklahoma-related content.

Visiting the OK Reads OK site one can view the complete list of nominated books over the course of the program, as well as browse discussion guides for the book selected each year.

The Library of Congress’s American Memory Project features a Web site entitled America from the Great Depression to World War II (memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html). This collection features photographs taken by government photographers during a 10-year period between 1935 and 1945. The collection has a search feature that allows one to search the 160,000+ photos for those taken in and around Muskogee.

Finally the Muskogee Public Library Web site (www.eok.lib.ok.us) has a dynamic collection of online resources. Muskogee residents can view issues of the Daily Oklahoman from 1901 through the present day from home. In addition, residents can also access biographies, historical journals, census information from home as well. These are only a few of the many online resources that the Muskogee Public Library has to offer.

We encourage you to let us help you satisfy your Oklahoma Centennial needs as well as your thirst for knowledge. The Muskogee Public Library is a promoter of life-long learning and maximizing people’s lives. You can contact us at 682-6657 or e-mail muskpublib@eok.lib.ok.us.