Every day is a holiday

The beginning of July marks an action-packed week at Missoula Public Library. Not only do we have Science Woman at 2pm on July 3rd, but we also close at 6pm that day in honor of Independence Day on July 4th (we are closed all day 7/4). Then on July 5th we're showing Harriet the Spy at 2pm.

But according to Holidays on the Net, every day is a holiday. Here are all the things we have to celebrate this first week of July 2007.

July 1--Anniversary of zip codes inaugurated
July 2--Halfway point of 2007 and I Forgot Day
July 3--Compliment Your Mirror Day
July 4--Independence from Meat Day
July 5--Anniversary of the Bikini
July 6--George W.'s birthday and Earth at Aphelion (furthest from the sun)
July 7--Father and Daughter Take a Walk Day

So enjoy this first week of July and all of its celebrations!!!

Raptors of the Rockies

Last Tuesday the Friends of the Library brought a very popular program from Raptors of the Rockies to the large meeting room downstairs. It was a great way for kids to see birds of prey up close.

Kate Davis, the "Rock Star of Raptors", showed off several birds. Here she is with Sibley, a Peregrine Falcon. Did you know that guys like Sibley can get up to 200 mph in a dive?



This is Max, a Golden Eagle who had some brain damage from eating poison when he was young and can't live in the wild.

This picture and the one below show just how packed the room was.

Raptors of the Rockies is actually one of our most popular programs. The room was filled to capacity, all 125 tickets having been snatched up beforehand. There were so many people trying to get in that Kate probably could've filled the room up again for an encore. (Moral: get your tickets early.)

The bird in these last two pictures is Dot Com, a Northern Pygmy Owl. Bigger owls will eat these little owls...

...bigger owls like Graham here, a Barred Owl. I wonder if Kate lets Graham and Dot Com play together.

Thanks again to Kate and the Friends of the Library for letting such a cool program take flight at the library!

Online Public Library

The Internet is a really big deal. A really, really big deal. With people spending more and more time online creating content, there isn't a shortage of material. The Internet Archive has been compiling a huge collection of this material, and it seems a lot like a public library. Everything is free, no subscription fees, no pay-per-use fees, and there is seemingly no censorship or bias in the collection. And like public libraries a lot of the content in entertainment based. Take a look at www.archive.org

There's tons of live concerts, movies, recorded songs, and even e-books. Also, take a look at the wayback machine, and look at all those old pages you used to look at every day in the mid-90s, its pretty cool.

The amount of stuff here is so staggering its almost intimidating, so just dive in and start playing.

The Future of The Web/Libraries?

Check out this video on a possible future of the web.



Where would a public library fit into this world? I think the predictions are pretty reasonable, given current trends. I use bloglines to get 99% of my news these days, even though I have cable and access to 20 some newspapers here at work. We, as librarians, are used to making print resources available to our patrons, and now making access to the internet readily available. We make electronic databases available and libraries are starting to allow patrons to download books, songs, movies, etc. for their own portable players. We belong to social networks to get our brand out there, and advertise. We have blogs, and send RSS feeds of new materials arriving at the library. The trick is to stay ahead of the curve. Where do we go from here?

It feels like libraries, for the most part, are simply playing catch up with advancing technology, waiting to see if things like myspace are "safe" enough for the library world. Waiting to see if Wikipedia is authoritative enough. But if libraries are to play the part of an intellectual marketplace of ideas, which is what they should be, we should be willing to try things out before we know they are safe or reliable. We should be willing to allow our patrons to tag our materials themselves(some libraries already are). We should arrange our materials in a easier to understand way, like they've done at the Maricopa County Library. We should be willing to shoulder the load of getting information out to the public in new ways and be able to dynamically deliver information to patrons based on what they are interested in. I think that is the point of a public library.

Dragon Tales

On Tuesday, we had our kickoff Summer Activity Program. With the help of Mary Wachtel, kids were allowed to make a sock puppet, then present their own puppet show. We had a great turnout and lots of fun. As you can see, the puppets were all very creative and unique, as were the puppet shows.

Thursday, we showed Bridge to Terabithia and around 100 people showed up!

Our next program is Raptors of the Rockies on Tuesday, June 26th at 2pm. Presented by Kate Davis, this program allows participants to see live eagles, owls and other rescued raptors up close and in person. Because of space limitations, this program requires an admission ticket, which can be picked up for free the day of the program at the Children's Desk.

The Thursday movie is Brother Bear 2, which is also starting at 2pm.

WYOMING LIT TRIP

One chapter in our region’s history has generated a sagging shelf of iconic western literature (and film).

Welcome to Johnson County---

home of the notorious cattle wars, playground of The Virginian, way station to Shane’s mysterious journey, and gateway to the Wyoming of Annie Proulx’s fiction.

The cattle wars were a dramatic domino in a series of tragedies and transitions that ended the corporate cattlemen’s monopoly of public lands. Unwilling to address environmental degradation and adapt to political shifts, cattle barons blamed farmers, small cattle operations, and sheep ranchers for their troubles. Big Ranching formed vigilante posses to terrorize encroaching “dirt scratchers” for real and perceived crimes of rustling. In Johnson County the farmers fought back, trapped the vigilantes in a barn, and turned the thugs over to the army.

While the classic texts that treat this history should be taken with several grains of salt, they are insightful when read in context, and make enjoyable reading despite their cultural baggage.

Consider …

Owen Wister supports the Big Ranching establishment in his progenitor of the western genre, The Virginian. Before Wister, cowboys were considered immoral ruffians. He turned the nameless, nomadic, underpaid, family-adverse, and short-lived cattle worker into a national hero. Virtually every western since contains elements of Wister.

On a recent trip to Wyoming my family and I stayed at the historic Occidental Hotel in Buffalo – in the very room where (hoteliers claim) Wister wrote parts of The Virginian. Here’s Mr W's bed.

Unlike The Virginian, Jack Schaefer’s classic, Shane, sides with the "little guy." Like Wister, Schaefer tackles the role of violence in meting out justice. Shane was written before Schaefer traveled west, but he expertly captures the emotional powder keg of the time and place. Buffalo's Occidental Saloon shows many of the scars from gunfights that Schaeffer fictionalized in Shane.

It may seem a stretch, but Annie Proulx covers much of this same landscape in her recent short story collections, Close Range: Wyoming Stories and Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2. Proulx explores the consequences – unintended and otherwise – of a violent history, harsh geography, and technological change. By the time Proulx gets to him, the mythic hero who escaped to the West in the 1860s is hitching rides and living in a dumpy trailer in the 1960s.

Found! The REAL Brokeback Mountain of Proulx’s story.

Not as glamorous as the Canadian setting used in the film -- not even the snowy peaks seen here -- it’s the more modest (i.e. sheep friendly) green slope. A fitting backdrop for a tragic story about two down and out sheepherders. Compiled by Karl Olson

Google is crazy scary--or at least the satellites that take the pictures for Google Maps are. The resolution of these are so good that I'm a little terrified to think of what the military might have.
Now they've even brought it down to street level in a few cities, and there have been a few quirks (thanks, Ben).
What does this all have to do with the Missoula Public Library? Not much...

MPL from space

MPL from high up

MPL from a bit above

What is that thing on the roof?

(All images (c) Google so hands off, kiddies.)

Speaking of summer...

Now that our requisite spate of chilly, rainy beginning-of-June weather is coming to an end (you know what they say about Montana - if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change), those scorching days of summer are almost upon us. Now is the time of year when I start digging into the cooking section of the library.

On the face of it, that doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, why open a cookbook when it's 85 degrees out and the mere prospect of turning on the oven is enough to cause heat rash? Surely November and December, when the icy winds make leaning against a 400 degree oven for two hours sound quite inviting, would be the more appropriate time for dabbling in the culinary arts?

Not for me. Oh, I do plenty of cooking and baking during the cold half of the year: chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread, cheesecake, pumpkin pie and banana bread - all in their appropriate seasons. We have a standard rotation of family favorites for dinner - lasagna, beef stew, shepherd's pie, and meatloaf to name a few. But these are familiar, time-honored favorites - recipes from my mother's cookbook or my grandmother's dilapidated old box of handwritten index cards - with pages so faded and dog-eared (not to mention stained with the occasional ingredient) as to be barely legible.

So while winter is pretty much covered, cooking-wise, summer is a different prospect entirely. That is where the family cookbooks fail me. My grandmother may have been unruffled by cooking over a hot stove in 90 degree weather, but I freely admit that she was made of sterner stuff than I am. I quail at the notion of turning on a burner after the mercury passes 79, and if that makes me a poor example of the pioneering spirit which made this state great, I guess that's a burden I'll just have to bear.

So, why the summer foray into the cooking section? Because we have some great books there on grilling:


BBQing:

Or, my favorite heat-free option, microwaving:

And, of course, the ever-popular crockpot method:

All great resources to help you cope with fixing a meal in the summer without making your home into an oven at the same time. After all, there are only so many days in a row that the family is willing to eat chef salad before they start talking mutiny at the dinner table. So if you find yourself in a bind this summer trying to think up something to make, drop in at the library and check out our cooking section. Adult Non-Fiction in the 641.5 vicinity is where you'll find it, conveniently located near the Reference Desk so that you can ask for help if you have trouble finding your way. And while you're here, cool off in the air-conditioning before you go home and slave over a hot stove. : )

Babysitting Clinic!!!

The Missoula Public Library is proud to announce another session of its world famous babysitting clinic June 18th - June 21st from 9:30am-12:30pm*.

Kids 11 years and older will learn valuable information, such as what to do in an emergency, age appropriate games and stories, and how to care for a younger child.

Attendance is limited, so call the Children's Desk at 721-BOOK to reserve your spot now!

*You must be able to attend all four days.

Traveling Pants @ Your Library

Have you read and loved The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series? Did you watch the movie? Are you 11-18 years old?

In January we sent a pair of jeans on a journey covering 14 libraries in four states (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming). Each library held a program where those attending could decorate a section of the jeans and work on a craft project.

Now it's our turn to host the pants! On Wednesday, June 20th at 2pm, Missoula Public Library will host a Traveling Pants program. Bring a pair of your own jeans to decorate; we will supply decorating supplies, but you are welcome to bring your own if you would like.

The Traveling Pants, along with the scrapbook, will be on display in the Young Adult area until the time of the program.

School's out for summer...

Now what to do with the kids?

Missoula Public Library is an excellent place to keep kids of all ages entertained, no matter the weather. Here's a rundown of regularly scheduled weekly events for kids at the library this summer:

Mondays

• Family Storytime 7pm

Tuesdays

• Tiny Tales 10:30am (storytime for ages 0-3)
  
• Summer Activity Program 2pm* (a variety of programs for those who have completed Kindergarten and older)

Thursdays

• Tiny Tales 10:30am (storytime for ages 0-3)
• Afternoon at the Movies 2pm (open to the whole family)
  

Fridays

• Tiny Tales 10:30am (storytime for ages 0-3)
• Preschool Storytime 10:30am (storytime for ages 3-6)
  

Saturdays

• Family Storytime 11am

There are also special programs occurring throughout the summer, so stay tuned!

For more information about any of these programs, please call the Children's Desk at 721-BOOK, or visit http://missoulapubliclibrary.org/kids/family.htm

*Some programs require tickets, available free the day of the program. Call the Children's Desk for more information.

Gnome Sweet Gnome

I'll bet one of the only things people remember about our library years after they move away from Missoula is our fantastic Gnome House. It sits right across from our circulation desk and serves as a sort of "gateway" into the children's area. I love watching kids run from our front door right up to the Gnome house and start peering inside.

We have postcards for sale at the checkout desk, but they don't show nearly enough of the painstaking detail the Gnome House has to offer. So, we're considering starting a series of postcards that showcase the individual rooms, as opposed to the whole house in general. What do you guys think? Here's a few test shots that may or may not be used in the very near future for this project. Let me know in the comments which ones you like and which ones don't work.



And one that I'm not actually considering, but may be the creepiest thing I've seen in the library ever. (Which is saying quite a bit!)

And we have more images at our flickr site.

June is...

Put on your party hats and load those picnic baskets because there is a lot more to June than graduation, Father's Day, Juneteenth Day and my mom's birthday.

On today, June 12, you can celebrate:

• Anne Frank's birthday (born June 12, 1929)
• National Pecan Pie Day (Visit 641.815 to find your favorite pie cookbook)
• Loving Day (Legalization of inter-racial marriage June 12, 1967)

Or you can participate in some month-long celebrations:

• National Iced Tea Month
• National Turkey Lover's Month
  
• National Soul Food Month
• Great Outdoors Month
  
• National Dairy Month

Just remember that every day is a holiday at Missoula Public Library!

Entering A New World

Here at the Missoula Public Library we recently purchased our second Macbook. It may not seem like a big deal, but part of my job requires troubleshooting any computer in the Library. Today I butted heads with the new Mac on two different occasions. I did not find the operating system to be very user friendly, and felt naked without the right-click option. Not to say that Macs aren't user friendly, but this one is making problems for me. The especially frustrating thing is that it takes two or three times as long to do fairly simple tasks, such as locating the serial number, as it does on a PC. And the desktop background morphs and changes, making me think something is wrong, and making me feel strangely nauseous.

Really this boils down to me not being at all familiar with the OS. I'm getting better every time I face off with this formidable opponent, but I'm sure I'll never be comfortable in the Mac World. On the plus side, I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 at home, so I do know a thing or two about that world. Maybe someday we'll have all three running here at the library. Who knows?

Or, for those of us who are bit more low-tech...

The RSS feeds are great, don't get me wrong. I'm just as excited about them as Ben is - well, almost anyway. See, here's the problem. I'm not quite as computer-savvy as he is. Anybody else out there know the feeling? I mean, I can download and Google search with the best of them. I e-mail digital photos of my kid to my dad and even buy books on Amazon.com sometimes. But somehow I don't quite feel ready for Web 2.0 yet.

I'm sure I'll figure this RSS Feed thing out eventually, although I may have to break down and ask Ben for help, but he's used to that. Thanks, Ben, for being so patient with me. : ) In the meantime, I thought I'd let you know that there is another way for you to check on new arrivals at the library. A slightly less high-tech way, for those of us who are still easing down the on-ramp, trying to pick up speed for that big merge onto the information super-highway.

If you've ever used our on-line card catalog to look up a book or renewed your library materials from home on your computer, the word iBistro will be familiar to you. It's the friendly little blue-and-white screen you see when you sit down at one of the computers behind the information desk, and it's your best friend when it comes to finding stuff at the library.

In the upper right-hand corner of the iBistro screen, there is a small white box with the words "Library Info". It's right next to the spot where you enter your library card number and PIN to log into your account. The first option beneath "Library Info" is "New Arrivals". If you click on that, it takes you to a page where you get to choose what category of new arrivals you'd like to look at, whether it be fiction, DVDs or children's books. Just click on the one you're interested in and it takes you to a list of what's new in that category. Want to look at a different one? Just click on "Go Back". A quick, easy option for people who haven't quite conquered all the subtleties of the World Wide Web yet. Like me... : )

RSS Arrives At the Library

We finally have it! Now you can subscribe to an RSS feed and get information on the latest additions to our collection.

Those of you who don't know about RSS can get a good idea of what its about here.

We're sending feeds from different areas of the library, so if you only come in for the CDs, you can choose to subscribe to only the CD section and you won't have to hear about our new Tot books.

Click here to subscribe to our feeds!

Choose Missoula Public Library and then pick the feeds you want, then read them in your favorite blog aggregator (I personally use bloglines, but there are millions out there).

One Meel-Yon Dollars

The donations box at the Check-Out Desk usually has a "$1million dollar bill" in it that some wiseacre refreshes every time the box gets emptied. Amazingly, almost every day someone will see it and ask if it's real.
As far as I can determine, suspecting that it might be real commits you to believing (at least) these three theses:
(1) The US government mints or has minted a $1,000,000 note.
(2) Someone who wanted to donate $1,000,000 to the Missoula Public Library would do so anonymously and in cash.
(3) Someone who wanted to donate $1,000,000 to the Missoula Public Library would just put it out there in the open where everyone can ogle it.

No offense, but the only one of these that is even remotely plausible is (1) (remotely plausible, but still false). Furthermore, I consider myself a pretty honest guy, but I'm sure that I'm not alone amongst library staff in that I would probably seriously consider breaking that puppy out of the box and hieing on out of town with it, were it real.

I mean, a million dollars just lying there? For real?

Please.

Librarian Power!

Do you know who Nancy Pearl is? In addition to being the author of several books about reading, (Book Lust, Book Crush, and more) and she is famous for being the model for the librarian action figure. Please tell me you know about the librarian action figure!! You can get it locally at Rockin’ Rudy’s. Anyway-she attended our annual library conference last month in Helena and we all got to hang out with her. She is a very entertaining person and can talk about books all day and night long. In fact, she was the entertainment for an ocean cruise last year! So, I had my picture taken with her because it just so happens I invented my own action figure. I’m sorry to say it is a one-of-a-kind collectible and not for sale. But I will show it to you if you ask. So in these pictures Nancy is holding her action figure and I’m holding mine. Too fun!

Submitted by Karen the Librarian:
Children’s Librarian and action figure model

Frogs and Fairies, oh my!

You've seen pictures of the dinosaurs in the boy's bathroom, but you haven't yet seen what is going on in the girls'.

The same group of teens that have been working on the dinosaurs in the boys bathroom, have also been painting frogs and fairies in the girls'.

This one is still very much a work in progress, in fact, Kyle is in there right this very second - on a warm Sunday afternoon, but I am sure that it is going to be most amazing when they are through. If you poke your head in to see what is going on, make sure you check out the cat painted on the stall wall.

Two-time Renewals

Without any fanfare, the Missoula Public Library has upped its renewal policy from one renewal per item to two (holds notwithstanding, of course).
That means that you can check out a book today and, ceteris paribus, you can still have it at the end of August. That's three months (approximately), or over a quarter of a year.
Just how long is that? Well, it's long enough for an elephant in the womb to grow into this:

elephant (the whole story here)

Please use your new privileges wisely, and remember: "With great power there must also come--great responsibility!" (Stan Lee, Amazing Fantasy #15, 1962).