A Very Busy Saturday

While the rest of Missoula was out enjoying a beautiful summer day, the lucky few here at the library had our hands full. As I type this, the culmination of roughly two years worth of planning, construction, shifting, moving and preparation is open to the public for the very first time. I'm speaking, of course, of the hour and fifteen minute old Young Adult room. About 10 teens anxiously waited near the doors for the big reveal at 4:00 this afternoon. This tropical YA paradise is what greeted them:

Pretzels, Veggie Trays, Punch and cake awaited the survivors of the YA redesign. If you hurry and get here in the next 15 minutes there just may be a slice of cake still here.

In other parts of the library, Entertainment Central finally received proper labeling on Friday. Now when we tell patrons their audiobook is in "Entertainment Central" we (hopefully) will be treated to fewer blank stares.

Finally, flanking the sides of the above entryway to Entertainment Central is our brand new section - "Grab 'n Go." These books will be 10-day checkouts, non-holdable and non-renewable. Patrons will also be limited to 5 total items from the Grab 'n Go section. We hope for high turnover and better availability for our most popular titles. See that new Janet Evanovich down there? Right now there are 163 holds on that title, but you could stroll in and grab it today without waiting. This is our way of saying, "Thanks for actually stopping by the library!"

Well, I think all of us here at the library have had just about enough excitement for one day. In about half an hour we'll lock up and enjoy the rest of this wonderful summer day with the rest of you.

Collective Nouns

If you haven't guessed as much from reading my Word Woman posts, I have an on-going love affair with language. Words are my passion, etymology is my raison d'etre and vocabulary is a way of life for me. That being the case, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite underrated parts of speech: The collective noun. Collective nouns are words that describe a group of things, whether they be birds, plants, animals, people or what have you. Their tendency to be both amusing and aptly descriptive of the nouns they modify has often led me to wonder about the sort of person who sits around making them up. So, for your edification, here is just a small sample of the collective nouns common to the English language:

A pod of assassins
A rainbow of butterflies
A glaring of cats
A drunken ship of cobblers
A turandot of finches
A giggle of girls
A cruft of hackers

A gang of hoodlums

A cavalcade of horsemen
A multiply of husbands

A thicket of idiots

A vagary of impediments

A rash of irritants

A neverthriving of jugglers

A qwerty of keyboards

A banner of knights

An atlas of maps

A scourge of mosquitoes

A mischief of mice

A chapter of pages

A gaze of raccoons

A rabble of rats

A decision of referees

A house of senators

A slither of snakes

A galaxy of starfish

A pack of submarines

An ambush of tigers

A flock of tourists

An ugly of walruses

A sneak of weasels

Collective nouns are fun, colorful words to slip into everyday speech, so go ahead and astonish your friends and family with the wealth of words you have at your disposal by using one today!

Book Displays Galore!

We have doubled our book displays after the addition of our new Power Walls. In addition to the permanent new fiction and non-fiction, staff picks and Wild About books, we have:

Books on grilling for the summer!


Montana fiction for the locals and wannabe locals!

And the ever important Chick Lit display!

We're excited to offer more book displays and reader's advisory for all of our patrons, and be able to highlight different parts of our collection. Stay tuned for news on the Grab 'n Go section coming very soon!

Word Woman

Welcome to another outrageous episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Stretch your mind and help keep those synapses in shape with the Word of the Week. In keeping with the election year theme, here's another piece of political terminology for you to ponder:

Frontrunneritis: (noun) The condition of being a leading candidate , especially the tendency to coast or to be under increased scrutiny by the press. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: Many voters have been wondering if Obama will start showing signs of frontrunneritis and slack off in his campaigning now that he has gotten the nod from the Democratic Party.

Power Walls, Walls of Power

We can all bid a fond (?) farewell to those little carts that the New Arrivals and Staff Picks were living on--this afternoon our Power Walls arrived and were pretty much immediately filled up by eager staffers.

Look for the rotating displays to move into this area in the near future, along with the forthcoming Grab-n-Go items, more about which anon.

Take Your Dog to Work Day

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day, and Brianna brought her two dogs, Jake and Lily, to the library where they sat in on our staff meeting. They were more excited to take off and explore the outside of the library after the meeting was adjourned than sit quietly in the meeting.

My only question is when is Take Your Cat to Work Day? I'd guess that cats wouldn't stand for it, and it would turn into show up to work with cat scratch fever day.

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-bending installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so keep yours in tip-top shape by expanding your vocabulary. Now, let's get started with the Word of the Week:

Leptosome: (lep-tuh-sohm) A person of long, narrow build. -- "The New York Times Everyday Reader's Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words", Laurence Urdang, ed., The New York Times Book Company, 1972.

Example: Being a family of leptosomes, the Petersons decided to increase the height of all of the doorways by six inches when they remodeled their house in order to significantly reduce the incidence of concussions incurred while moving from room to room.

Start a Book Club Online!

Do you want to join a book club, but have trouble scheduling regular meetings? Have you and some friends ever thought about starting a group, but don't even know where to begin?

A new online book club community called booksprouts recently contacted us to tell us about their new free online service. Booksprouts lets you register your book club, provides you with the option to have members vote online for the next book choice and then sets up a meeting space in which members can discuss the book. Sounds pretty cool to me!

Booksprouts is a brand new service and I'm curious to see how it works. If you start a booksprouts book club, let us know what you think. If you already have an online book club, tell us about that too!

Word Woman

Welcome to another exciting episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in shape for the long haul with life-long learning. Now, let's stretch those neural pathways with the Word of the Week:

Heterography: [het-uh-rah-gruh-fee] an obsolete and rare word meaning 'incorrect spelling'. Also, inorthography. How much better to say, "I'm an inorthographist" than to admit that you can't spell? -- "More Weird and Wonderful Words", Erin McKean, ed., Oxford University Press, 2003.

Example: Jesse's intractable heterography was such an issue at work that he ultimately took to communicating only via e-mail, so that Spell-Check could make him comprehensible to his co-workers.

YA Almost Finished

The Plastic walls have come down around the new and improved YA area. There are still a few adjustments and cleaning to take care of inside the walls, but we're keeping the specific details a secret until we're ready to have a grand opening/open house. When will that be? How's June 28th for you?

There will be an all ages open house from 4-6 with refreshments and door prizes. Then, when the library closes at six, teens are invited to stick around for a "We survived the renovations" Party. There will be games, prizes and more treats. Teens, be sure to show up before six, as the outside doors will be locked at that time.

What can you expect inside the room? Expanded shelving for YA materials, new computers just for teens, and comfortable sitting space to name a few.

We hope to see you soon as we start finishing up this phase of our renovations. The opening of the new YA room will also mean the return of our adult computer classes in our downstairs computer classroom. Be sure to check here to see what classes we will be offering once we resume classes.

Maybe it won't be so bad after all

Change is aways hard and going through the changes, with all the chaos that brings can be even harder. That being said, I will be glad when the changes are all in place and there is a little less chaos. As for now I must say that although my initial reaction to the color scheme of red, navy and pumpkin was less than positive, having had a sneak peek at the Young Adult area I have been pleasantly surprised with the look... bold but comfortable on the eyes (at least mine). I tend to like nature colors and while no colors are going to please everyone, I like the way these look together.
The space designers that have been working with us on this project hve been very professional and I am looking forward to the "final product" as well as some of the not-so-physical changes that will be made. Some in particular will be the time dedicated to checking with folks in the stacks to see if they need help rather than making them come to the desks, self checkout which will increase privacy for patrons, and the "grab-and-go" section which will include best sellers that will be available right near the front for those that want a good book but are limited in time to spend in the library.

Word Woman

Welcome to another epic installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! It's time for summer reading, as evidenced by the number of summer reading folders flying out the door here at the Library. As of the moment of this post, 455 summer reading folders have been picked up by our patrons. Wow!
Summer is a great time to work on expanding your vocabulary, so let's get started with the Word of the Week:

Cantankerous: We must thank Oliver Goldsmith for developing this word from an older source. In She Stoops to Conquer, he proclaims, "There's not a more bitter, cantanckerous road in all christendom," meaning that the road would try one's soul, is perverse, contrary, ill-natured. Apparently, Goldsmith dug up a word of similar meaning, long since obsolete or surviving only in country speech, contecker, a person who "contecks", quarrels, disputes, is contentious. But whatever his source, he gave us a mighty useful word. -- "Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words", Charles E. Funke, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958.

Example: The reputation that reference librarians have for being cantankerous is totally undeserved. Just ask one and you can be sure that you'll hear all about it! ; )

Catch the Reading Bug!

It's that time of year again, that glorious time when you can earn ice cream and Carousel tokens, just for partaking in one of your favorite pasttimes--reading! Missoula Public Library's summer reading program started June 1. Readers of all ages can earn prizes from Dairy Queen, The Good Food Store, Del's Place, the Missoula Public Library, and A Carousel for Missoula just for keeping track of how much you read this summer. Reading folders can be picked up at the Children's Desk.

Our Summer Activity Programs begin June 17th. Every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm, students who have completed kindergarten and older can enjoy such activitites as making sock puppets, riding ponies, seeing Raptors of the Rockies, and more! Some activities require free tickets the day of the program.

Thursday Afternoon at the Movies begins June 19th. Every Thursday afternoon at 2pm we will be showing a family friendly movie (rated G or PG) open to everyone.

For more information about these programs, visit http://www.missoulapubliclibrary.org/kids/family.htm or call the library: (406)721-BOOK.

Organization Central

Entertainment Central is finally full of, well, entertainment. Kathy, Gail and Jerry (Gail's husband) showed up early Sunday morning to shift everything inside of the new area. We're still trying to get everything in just the right place, but I think its looking good.

Now we have a lot more room for movies and music, so hopefully you'll have a better chance of finding what you came in for. Also, TV shows on DVD have been put in their own section! I love TV on DVD, so this couldn't be a more welcome change. Stop by and check it out, we're still waiting on a few shelving units and a catalog computer to go in, but it won't look much different than it does now.