iDallas

FOUR CITY HALL WEB FUNCTIONS YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T USED (BUT SHOULD)

CHECK OUT library books to your mobile device.

dallas.lib.overdrive.com

Not only does the Dallas Public Library have a thorough and useful app (with the swipe of a finger, search the catalog, place items on hold or renew items checked out) but it also has an extensive selection of eBooks available to borrow. Options range from New York Times bestsellers (John Grisham’s “The Litigators”) to classics (Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”) to popular nonfiction (Michael Pollen’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”). We tried it, and in less than 10 minutes, we were reading on our iPhone. A helpful guided tour takes library cardholders through the process.

FIND OUT whether your favorite restaurants passed inspection.

dallascityhall.com/code_compliance/restaurant_food_scores.html

They wouldn’t be open if they hadn’t, but the section located at this lengthy web address allows you to see whether the places you frequent are receiving high scores or barely making the grade. A quick search by name reveals how a restaurant fared on its most recent inspections.

RUN INTO Mark Cuban, Ebby Halliday or the Cowboys cheerleaders.

happytrailsdallas.com

These local celebs are a sampling of the famous names and faces the Dallas Park and Recreation Department recruited to promote its recent trail etiquette campaign. Other than watching the amusing video, website visitors can view an interactive map to find the exact layout of Dallas trails (both current and planned) in relation to streets, rec centers and other local landmarks.

LEARN which park pavilion beat out Cowboys Stadium as the 2009 “Best of Show” award recipient from the AmericanInstitute of ArchitectsDallas chapter.

dallasparks.org

This little-known fact is touted in the online brochure “The Park Pavilions of Dallas,” which highlights 44 of the city’s shade-giving structures. Thirty-two of them were designed by respected architects who were charged with making the pavilions “contextual within the surrounding community and embraced by the neighborhood,” among other criteria. That’s how the structure at Lindsley Park, for example, resembles the predominantly Tudor homes of Hollywood/Santa Monica, and the reason Ridgewood Park has a chaise lounge pavilion near its spraypark.