New Year's Resolutions

The topic of New Year's Resolutions came up at work today. A co-worker asked me if I had chosen a resolution for 2008, yet. I like the idea of resolutions, but rarely, if ever, stick to them; I like the idea of a new year, a new start. According to Wikipedia, New Year's Resolutions can be traced back to the Babylonians, where it's said that the most common resolution was "to return the borrowed farm equipment". As for Americans, we tend to be a little more body-conscious with our resolutions, and the most common resolutions are to exercise more and eat better. How often do we actually stick to these resolutions, though? Mine usually peters out sometime around March.

I like the idea of resolutions that work to improve society or who we are as individuals. Making a resolution to volunteer once a month or to be more environmentally conscious positively affects society and the world, as well as improving our own self-image. Maybe it would be easier to stick to a resolution that affected more people than just ourselves.

The New Yorker recently published an article by Caleb Crain entitled, Twilight of the Books: What Will Life be Like if People Stop Reading?. This is a topic that frequents the thoughts and conversations of librarians. According to the research presented in this article, Americans are choosing to read less and less. If you feel like you don't read as much as you would like to, the library can help you with this resolution! We have all sorts of reading activities going on at the library. We have book discussion groups for adults, Storytime for preschoolers, and Tiny Tales for babies and toddlers. These programs provide great opportunities to expose yourself and your family to reading and literacy. You can visit our website for a detailed schedule of events going on at the library. Just click on the Newsletter link. We can help you keep your New Year's resolution of improving you and your family's reading.

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-boggling installment of Word Woman's Weekly Workout! Expanding your vocabulary is a great way to keep that gray matter in shape, so let's get warmed up with the word of the week:

Crapulous : (krap-yewl-us) [adjective] Indulging in excessive eating and drinking or suffering from the effects of excessive eating and drinking. -- "The New York Times Everyday Reader's Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words", Laurence Urdang, ed., The New York Times Book Company, 1972.

Example: The holiday season is by far the most crapulous time of year for most people, with big family meals and seasonal baking often leading to indigestion and unwanted weight gain.

(Crapulous is one of those words that sounds like it should be a euphemism for something more sinister, but in reality is actually quite innocuous.)

With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore...

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through the stacks,

People were looking for trade paperbacks

And books on cassette to help pass the time

During holiday travel or waiting in line

To buy that last gift, it had been a long haul

And they needed a way to escape from it all.

So off to the library they wandered in quest

Of a good book to read that stood out from the rest

Or maybe a holiday music CD

To play while they finished trimming the tree

Or even a kids’ Christmas book to be read

To help restless children get settled in bed.

Then up to the counter, arms full, they did dash

Where friendly staff helped them check out in a flash,

Packed up their selections and sent them on their way

With a wave and a smile and a “Happy Holiday!”

As they left the building, I heard them all say:

“We’re so glad you’re open on Christmas Eve Day!”

Happy Holidays from the staff at the Missoula Public Library!

Alexander Hamilton Opening Reception

Last night we opened our Alexander Hamilton exhibit in style. The theme for the evening was a 19th Century Christmas, and almost 150 people showed up to celebrate with us. We had lots of great cookies and cheese, along with a spectacular hot cider. There was no coffee because, as all history enthusiasts know, coffee was a fairly rare commodity in Alexander Hamilton's time.

The room was decorated with spruce branches and pine cones, which made it smell great.



Don, our own ex-reference librarian and curator of the exhibit, kicked things off with a quick speech and then we enjoyed music from members of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, including our very own Claire!


After a bit of music we were treated to a minuet performance by the Rocky Mountain Ballet. These girls did an amazing job, and even provided an impromptu history lesson between their pieces. I found out afterward this group will be traveling to China to dance in the opening ceremony of the Olympics when they come there. Wow. I guess we gave them a chance to warm up for the big dance.

A big thank you goes out to the opening reception committee who got everything set up: Vaun, Tove and Paulette. They spent the afternoon setting everything up, and it went off without a hitch.

Word Woman

Welcome to another awesome edition of Word Woman's weekly workout. Are you feeling brain-dead from the stress of holiday preparations? Has too much shopping left you in a fog? Refresh your mental browser with the word of the week:


Rachisagra : [rack-uh-sag-ruh] (noun) pain in the spine; from a Greek word meaning 'spine'. -- "More Weird and Wonderful Words", Erin McKean, ed., Oxford University Press, 2003.


Example: Telling your friends that you suffer from rachisagra sounds so much more impressive than simply admitting that your mattress springs need to be replaced.

Happy Holidays from Word Woman!

A Special Visitor

Tonight we had a very special visitor stop by and read to the kids...Santa! He stops by every year around this time, and he'll be back two more times if you have little ones who want to stop by and get a candy cane. You can catch him on Friday at 10:30 and Saturday at 11:00.

Checking In With Paula

Well, Paula made it in yesterday afternoon, and we had a quick dedication ceremony for her office. Less fanfare, but still a momentous occasion. The reason her car "broke" was a faulty alternator, which I believe is now fixed, so Paula should have no excuse to not show up for work.

Unfortunately, I neglected to snap a picture of the glorious boots she was wearing, so be on the lookout for a picture the next time she wears them.

Office Open House and Checking in With Paula

This morning we had an open house for the new director and administrative assistant's offices. These offices have been a few months in the making, and look great. Marje brought a bunch of goodies for us to snack on while we perused the new digs.

We even had a semi-official ribbon cutting to commemorate the occasion. Now Honore and Paula can work in peace, without the staff constantly coming over to check out their new offices.

And speaking of Paula, since you're all clamoring for an update on what she's up to...

Even though she wasn't here, it didn't stop us from ducking under the ribbon on her door and poking around her office a bit. We'll have to have another ribbon cutting ceremony for her when she gets her car fixed, I suppose.

Word Woman

Welcome to Word Woman's weekly workout! Remember, fitness is not just for your muscles. Staying active intellectually is also vital to maintaining your long-term quality of life. So get ready, it's time to train your brain with another great word of the week:



Horripilate: [verb] to produce goose flesh; to strike cold with fear. -- "The New York Times Everyday Reader's Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words", Laurence Urdang, ed., New York Times Book Company, 1972.



Example: The gut-wrenching ride on the Corkscrew of Death at the Six Flags amusement park was enough to horripilate even the most intrepid of roller-coaster riders.

Gnome House Postcards Teaser

A while back I mentioned that the library would soon be getting brand new postcards showing off our fantastic gnome house. Well, after 6 months we just received our new postcards. We're still very hush, hush about them, but they will debut sometime in the next week, there are 3 different designs and they cost 50 cents a piece or 3 for $1.00. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Collect all three!

Hopefully, we'll have more and more rooms in the future. But for now, wait with baited breath for the postcards to officially debut. Thanks to the Friends of Missoula Public Library for buying us these postcards.

Word Woman

It's time yet again for another mind-bending installment of Word Woman's Weekly Workout. Just like the joints in the human body stiffen up over time, neural pathways decline without new stimuli to keep them active, so let's warm up those brain cells with the word of the week:


Factoid: (fak-toyd) [noun, adjective]
Noun - A spurious or questionable fact; especially something that is popularly supposed to be true because it has been reported (and often repeated) in the media, but is actually based on speculation or even fabrication.
Adjective - Apparently factual, but actually only partly true; "factional".
The word was coined by American author Norman Mailer in 1973. In his book Marilyn (a biography of Marliyn Monroe) he defined factoids as: "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority." -- The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, Sara Tulloch, comp., Oxford University Press, 1991

Example: It is disheartening to see so many magazines displayed at check-out stands in grocery stores which appear to be composed entirely of factoids.

Branching Out

Today a sizable number of the library staff ventured northward to pay a visit to our two branch libraries in Condon and Seeley Lake. I had never been inside either branch in my two and a half years of working for the library so I was excited to see what they had to offer.

My van listened to Christmas carols performed by cats on the drive up, and we were so thoroughly engrossed in the music we overshot the Swan Valley Public Library, located in Condon, by about 10 minutes. Luckily, we turned ourselves around, got directions, and quickly found the library in question.

Fern showed us around the one room library and I chatted with her about computers and such as I worked on replacing one of her monitors and changing the homepage of her Internet Explorer page on one of the Public PCs. Since Swan Valley has a paid staff of one we set up all of the computers for them, but rarely make it up there to do maintenence. Nonetheless, the computers seemed to be holding up well, and they are a 24/7 WiFi hotspot (unless the power goes out, which is a frequent occurrence up in that part of the state). We all milled around for a bit, then decided to head to the Hungry Bear Restaurant to grab lunch. They were ready for us.


No one had any soup. At least as far as I could see. But we did get to kick back and smoke a couple of stogies (or what appeared to be stogies) and enjoy what looks like some sort of killer anecdote courtesy of yours truly.


Then it was off to Seeley Lake, whose public library is located inside their high school. The library was very nice. I was a little bit surprised, and a bit intimidated to work on computers in front of a room full of high schoolers, but I knuckled down and did some quick and dirty registry editing to get one PC back in good graces with Sue, the branch librarian.


The library was laid out really well, and I particularly liked the sheer number of displays they had, ranging from books made into movies to girlie girl books.


Then came the ride home. We ate some chocolate, engaged in a little library gossip and then got back to work here at home. It's nice to know that we've got such great branches serving the patrons in an extremely rural area.

Graphic Novels: Not Just for Kids

Do you consider yourself a literary reader? Do you have sophisticated taste when it comes to what you'll read? Do you think of comic books as silly cartoons for weird teenage boys?

Well, Missoula Public Library would like to prove you wrong!

During the month of December, MPL is hosting a Graphic Novels for Adults display. This showcases literary graphic novels such as Maus by Art Spiegleman, a story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, her autobiography of living in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. These novels, as well as the others showcased, are sure to change your opinion of the merit of graphic novels.

And on December 12 at 7pm in the Large Meeting Room, our Young Adult Librarian will present a program to introduce graphic novels to the over 20 crowd, who may not be aware of the wealth of information, entertainment, and literary genius to be found in the graphic novel form. Also, the folks from Muse Comics will present some of the latest and greatest items to come their way and to introduce you the the merit of the genre as a whole.

Checking In With Paula

Our Administrative Assistant Paula , who you may remember from Halloween, always keeps things interesting here at the library. Just yesterday she spun a hilarious yarn about her drive to work that had the whole circulation staff rolling on the floor. (The punchline was, "He sure was a lucky son of a buck!)

Starting today, we will periodically be checking in to see whats going on in her part of the world.

She recently moved to her brand new office (pictures of all the new offices coming soon, when everyone is unpacked) and the first thing she did was set up some of her Christmas decorations to get the staff properly instilled with Christmas spirit. Currently her office sports not one...

...but two ethnic Santas.

Paula has Christmas spirit, that's for sure. We'll be sure to check back in when she unloads the 10 or so more boxes of Christmas decorations she keeps in her garage.

Word Woman

Welcome to another brain-stimulating installment of Word Woman's Weekly Workout! Lifelong learning is the best way to fight memory loss associated with aging, so let's work some flab off that vocab with the word of the week:

Bloviate: [verb] to talk loudly or aggressively. A term with its origins in mid-nineteenth century US slang, possibly related to railroading culture. Literally, it means "to blow off steam". -- "Cassell's Dictionary of Slang", Jonathon Green, Cassell & Co., 1998


Example: Some people feel the need to bloviate, particularly when confronted by telemarketing calls during the dinner hour.


Extra Credit: Many people over the years have questioned the use of the term "macaroni" in that quintessential American song "Yankee Doodle". According to the source referenced above, the term originates in the late 18th-early 19th century and refers to a fop or a dandy whose travels are evidenced by his taste for foreign foods (thus the word "macaroni").

Word Woman

Welcome to another super installment of Word Woman's Weekly Workout! Crossword puzzles, cryptoquotes and Sudoku are all great ways to keep your brain in shape, and so is learning new words. It's time to limber up those neural pathways with the word of the week:



Malpais: Lava-bed country, or more generally, badlands. From the original French meaning "bad country" or land that is bad to travel through. -- "Dictionary of the American West", Winifred Blevins, Facts on File, Inc., 1993


Example: The recent heavy snows in the Missoula have made the valley somewhat of a malpais for travelers heading out for the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We'll be closed Tomorrow and Friday to celebrate. See you all on Saturday. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Word Woman

Welcome to Word Woman's Weekly Workout! Training your brain isn't just for students - education is meant to last a lifetime. So get ready to expand your vocabulary with another great word of the week:

Compassion fatigue: A temporarily indifferent or unsympathetic attitude toward others' suffering as a result of overexposure to charitable appeals. -- "The Oxford Dictionary of New Words", Sara Tulloch, ed., Oxford University Press, 1991

It is difficult to make it through the holiday season without developing a case of compassion fatigue from the multitude of causes placing demands on your spare change and time.

And the National Book Award Goes to...

You may have heard of Sherman Alexie. Or you may have heard of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a PEN/Hemingway Award winner. But did you know that Sherman Alexie is a local celebrity? He was just awarded the National Book Award for young people's literature for his first young adult and semi-autobiographical book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. The Absolutely True Diary... is an autobiographical story of a 14-year-old Spokane Indian who leaves his poverty-stricken reservation school and moves to a wealthy, all-white school.

As Debbie Reese mentions in her blog, you can also read about these tribes on the Internet. They produce their own websites, unfiltered through the eyes of an outsider. That is always the best way to get accurate, respectful, and authentic information about individual tribes. Read and enjoy!

Ask a Montana librarian

Do you have a burning question that needs answered, but don't have the time or desire to visit the library? Try out Ask a Montana Librarian. Here you can get expert answers to your questions without stepping foot in the library. There are three different options to choose from: 1) Participate in a live internet chat with a trained reference librarian, 2) Submit a question through email, or 3) Telephone in or fax us your question.

The MLN Cooperative Reference Project pools nationwide libraries' reference skills providing users with round-the-clock reference services. Please be aware that in many cases you will not be talking to a local librarian. They are part of a nationwide cooperative, so the librarian you work with will probably not be at your local library and will not have access to your personal library card information. For more information, please contact MPL's reference desk at (406) 721-BOOK.

Sneaking A Peak (Literally) at the Construction

You saw the plastic come down yesterday, now we have doors and more painted walls. We can also be sure the new rooms are protected as the folks working in circulation this morning had to endure a half hour of alarm testing for the new rooms. We were subjected to three different types of alarms, which ranged in time from seconds to 10 minutes or so. It woke me up at least. Check out the progress for yourself.

And before I'm taken to task by the spelling police, I've quite literally sneaked a peak into one of the pictures. So there!

Word Woman

Welcome to Word Woman’s weekly workout! Everyone knows how important it is to keep in shape as you walk down the road of life, but it's not just your body that needs exercise. Studies have shown that intellectual stimulation is best way to protect your brain from the effects of cognitive decline and memory loss due to aging. And since it’s never too early to start stretching your vocabulary, let’s work that gray matter with the word of the week:

aginate: [adj-uh-nate] to sell small things. The noun aginator would be a nice term for an online auction seller. From a Latin word for part of a scale. ["More Weird and Wonderful Words", Erin McKean, ed., Oxford University Press, 2003]

Example: "Some enterprising aginators on E-Bay can keep themselves supplied with pocket money for months just by selling odds and ends from the attic as memorabilia."

Something new from the reference department

You'll be seeing something new when you browse through the adult non-fiction materials. Reference books identified by a bright green sticker that says Library Use Only will mark books that we would like folks to know that we have on the subject that they are looking for even if they cannot take it out of the building. We, of course, have lots of other great books and reference tools back at reference still but now there is a little taste of what we have to whet the appetite.

Also... you may have noticed previous blogs about our new offices going up in this area. Well, today the plastic came down! What a difference this makes for us; we can actually see out of the windows again. The fact that this is just the first step of many that we will be taking this year as the library continues its redesign process makes it very exciting. Okay, so I'm easily excited.

Anyway, here's a photo of the newly unveiled area. I asked the builder if we shouldn't have a ribbon cutting or a brass band playing but he said that they had trim work yet to do so he wasn't ready for any brass bands just yet.

Look

for

more

to

come

and

stop

by

and

say

hi.

Dolley Madison Stops in For Tea

A large group was treated to tea and a quick history lesson today in the large meeting room when Dolley Madison stopped by the library. It was a great program and the room was filled close to capacity to hear about the former first lady of the nation.

Along with the presentation, spectators were treated to free tea and other treats. It is always nice to have a good turnout to a history presentation.

A New Way to Pay

(Well, not all that new.)
The Missoula Public Library will now accept your bank cards and credit cards as a form of payment. Now you can eliminate those pesky fines even when you don't have the scratch and you forgot your checkbook.

(photo by Ben)

And if you still want to write a check or pay with good ol' cash money, we won't give you the run-around à la those commercials that claim you're bringing the entire world to a screeching halt when you dare to pay with anything other than a credit card.
Thanks for your patience as the staff gets used to working this newfangled doo-hickey contraption-a-ma-gadget.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from all of us here at the library. Especially from Tove, Paulette, Caroline and Karen who all came to work today with true Halloween spirit. (Paula also dressed up as a member of the FBI or Federal Book Inspectors, but she was AWOL when the picture was taken.) We'll have some candy tonight at our circulation desk and in our computer lab for any little ones who might stop by. Be safe tonight and have a Happy Halloween!


EDIT - Paula was located doing "official" Federal Book Inspector business and was out tracking an overdue book at the time of the initial picture.

Construction Update Part 2

I gave you all a tiny peek last time at the construction going on near the reference desk, but today we'll dig a little bit deeper. Over the past two days, painters have been working non-stop to get the walls done. Here is a quick peak through the window of what will soon be our directors office.

A bit further down we can see the two future quiet rooms. These rooms will be available to groups who want to study together and not disturb the other patrons, a service long overdue for our library.

With all the work they're putting in, it's a good thing the painters had some Rockstar Energy drink to keep them motivated.

We're still a long way off from being done, but progress is being made every day. Or at least most days.