Banned Books!

Did you know that Missoula Public Library is full of (gasp) banned books?



Now that I've got your attention, I'd like to let you know that Banned Books Week is September 29th - October 6th. What is Banned Books Week, you may ask? It is a celebration of our democratic freedom to read whatever we choose, first observed by the American Library Association in 1982.

Some of the staff here at the Missoula Public Library are stout defenders of intellectual freedom. Karen, one of our children's librarians, is particularly well-known as a freedom fighter. She will be presenting a program on censorship (including recent attempts to ban books right here in Montana) on Monday, October 1st at 7:00pm in the large meeting room.

Now, perhaps you're asking yourself: "Why should I care about banned books? It doesn't have anything to do with me." Don't be so sure about that. I'm willing to bet that if you go to the ALA Banned Books website, you could find a book you enjoy that has been challenged or banned somewhere. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. Or come in and see the displays we've put up at the library. Or talk to Karen, she's always willing to chat about censorship.



Here's food for thought:
Did you know that the Harry Potter series is one of the most challenged series in recent times? Can you imagine if those books disappeared from our shelves forever?

Sundaes on Sunday 2007

Sundaes on Sunday turned out to be a hit again this year, despite the gloomy weather that accompanied it. We had almost 40 onlookers in all stop by and listen to the always fantastic Danny's Dilemma. They were short a few members, but still put on a great show and rocked the library.


Mitch, a fellow contributer to the blog, served up ice cream sundaes to patrons. We sold quite a few, and a new record was set! Not in total ice cream served, but the younger brother of the drum player ate 3 massive sundaes, which will go down in the history books.


Thanks to everyone who showed up this year, and be sure to come back next year for more music and Sundaes at the library!

Back In The Saddle Again

I've been away on a noticeable two and a half week hiatus from the blog because I was off in Minnesota getting married. Now I'm back getting settled into married life and getting back to work. The wedding was great and we toured Wisconsin for our honeymoon. Let's just say it hasn't been easy getting myself back into my work schedule.

Sundaes on Sunday this Sunday

Don't forget to stop in for sundaes this Sunday (with a $1 donation) and check out Danny's Dilemma (wait--wrong link. Try this one) in the downstairs lobby, from 2-3pm. I can't promise the sundaes will be quite as nice as the one in the picture, but rest assured that they'll be generous.

Ask and you shall receive

A couple weeks ago, I posted a blog asking you for ideas for my next blog entry. Ree requested that I give an overview of the community outreach that Missoula Public Library offers, so here goes!

Homebound Every three weeks, staff and volunteers from MPL visit homebound residents at four assisted living homes in the community, bringing them a selection of books and audio materials to choose from.

Home Delivery MPL is in the middle of a pilot project sponsored by OCLC that allows patrons the ability to have library items delivered straight to their mailbox. It's like NetFlix for books! This way, you can still enjoy much of what the library has to offer, even if you can't make it to the library!

School Presentations Our Young Adult librarian, Linette, visits local schools to let teens know about all the cool things the library has to offer them. She also does book talks, gives demonstrations of the databases MPL provides, and talks about media literacy.

Senior Outreach Marje, a reference librarian here at MPL does outreach programs for seniors to educate them about the programs available for their population through either our website or in our library. These include genealogical research, computer classes, movies, book discussion groups, and all the other adult programming offerings.

Looking Ahead
Some future outreach ideas we hope to implement are:

• Starting branch libraries in Lolo and Frenchtown in collaboration with the school libraries there.
• More services to the senior residences, including a possible virtual branch library, which will consists of an online catalog and a small rotating collection.
• In-services to Senior Companions about the services we have available.
• Programs in conjunction with the University of Montana's Gerontology program for the Alzheimer's facilities that would include movies and readings.
  

World Alzheimer's Awareness Day

I have just put up a new display to highlight World Alzheimer's Awareness Day which is September 21. If you watchThe View you may have caught David Hyde Pierce talking briefly about his participation in the Alzheimer's Association and attempts to raise awareness through the Memory Walk and other activities. See the website http://www.alz.org/ for more information. In the meantime, if you have a family member or friend who is suffering from this disease come by and check out the display back here by the reference desk. We have books for kids and adults, non-fiction and fiction. And see the list of 101 things to do with a family member suffering from Alzheimer's for some ideas on what you can do together.

The Sherlocks (+1) @ MPL

Local band The Sherlocks (plus one of the Riddilin Ques) brought some powerful sound to the Large Meeting Room last Friday to kick off National Library Card Sign-Up Month.
The crowd grooved to the tunes and I have to admit I was impressed at their ability to hold together an extended Led Zeppelin medley, and their noisy cover of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". The lighter closing numbers were a treat as well.

Thanks to everyone who played, and also (of course) to everyone who came!

Oh, the horror of it all

Do you realize how difficult it is to write a weekly blog post? I know, I know, what's once a week? But trying to come up with some exciting or informative topic every seven days is surprisingly difficult to do. If you asked my friends, or heck, even my co-workers, it's very difficult to get me to shut-up, so why do I find it so hard to talk about something here? Is it stage fright? The pressure of it all?

I have an idea! Why don't you submit, as a comment to this blog, a topic or topics you would like me to discuss. Now, they probably should be library-related, at least to some extent, but I would love to hear what you want to know. Some deep-dark question that you've always wanted to know about libraries or librarians, but were too afraid to ask? Well, ask away! Please!