Holiday Library Pets

Hopefully you guys all had a great Thanksgiving and have enough leftovers to make a nice sandwich for lunch today. My personal favorite? A Turkey sandwich with warm mashed potatoes, lettuce and cranberry sauce. And lots of salt and pepper.

And since Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas season can now begin. Here's the first in a series of librarian pets dressed up for the holidays. The inaugural selection comes from Paulette in Tech Services and her two cats Kenna and Jax respectively visiting "Santa Paws."


Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! The library is closed today and tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.

(Photo by Flickr user Hey Paul. Some Rights Reserved)

Anyone getting to sleep early to check out all the black Friday sales? If you are, check out blackfriday.info to see all the deals and come up with a plan of attack.

Word Woman

Welcome to another fun-filled installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! While you're busy stretching your stomach with all of that great Thanksgiving food tomorrow, why not stretch your mind by learning a new word or two? Here's the Word of the Week to start things off for you:

Atrabilarian: a sad or gloomy individual; an irritable and bad-tempered person (adj. - atrabilious) -- "-Ologies and -Isms", Howard G. Zettler, Ph. D., Ed., Gale Research Company, 1978.

Example: May your Thanksgiving feast be bountiful and blessedly free of atrabilarians. Happy Holidays!

Twilight Fever

A couple dozen teens took over the Young Adult room last Friday for our Twilight Release Party. We started with a Twilight Trivia game, Jeopardy-style. Then we had a book discussion -- and boy were there a lot of opinions! -- and finished with a live readers theater presentation of a teen-authored Twilight/Harry Potter hybrid story that was great fun. One person even brought her copy of the movie soundtrack.

Between munching on snacks (including apples in homage to the cover art) the teens shared their opinions on the book and what they hoped the movie would include. The party broke up before closing, only to meet together again at the movies that night. (For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the movie sticks to the book pretty well. Don't worry, I won't spoil it.)

If you had a great time at our Twilight party (or if you missed it and don't want to miss out on any other fun times), you might want to join our new Teen Book Club. Our first meeting is Saturday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m. It's an informational meeting, which means there's no book to read this time -- and you can help pick what books you want to read for future meetings. (New Moon, anyone?) We'll have more details on our YA page as they're available.

OR, join YAAC, our Young Adult Advisory Council, and figure out what fun event we should offer next! See the YA page for details. See you at the library!

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-bending episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Regular exercise and a healthy diet are two excellent means of protecting your brain from memory loss associated with aging. Another one is to expand your vocabulary by learning new words. So let's go ahead and give the gray matter a good stretch with the Word of the Week:

Nexus: [nek-sus] (noun) something that joins or connects; link; tie. -- "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 library serves as a nexus for many different types of people, helping them to find common ground in their mutual interests and perhaps develop a better appreciation of one another.

Tons O' Updates

(Original Photo by Flickr user Xurble. Some Rights Reserved)

If you've been to the library, or you follow this blog, you no doubt know that we've been going through some pretty big changes. I thought I'd take a moment to update you on the progress, or changes to what I've already told you.

In downloadable audio news, the folks at Overdrive have just rolled out a mac version of their media console. Now you mac users can download and listen to audio books on your computer and transfer them to mp3 players. I'm not a mac user, so let me know what problems you encounter and I'll try to find a solution or workaround. Just head over to MontanaLibrary2Go and pick up the player.

In self hold pick-up news, we've changed the way holds will be ordered because of privacy concerns. Now, you can find your holds ordered by the last 5 digits of your library card number. This way, your name isn't associated at all with the items you are checking out, and isn't visible to anyone else. The holds are located past the current check-out desk on the way to the reference desk.

In "Giant Plastic Blob" news, construction is hammering away, sometimes quite literally. They've made a ton of progress as shown here

In behind the counter news, which I haven't yet posted about, here's a look at our new, stainless steel check-in counters. Our Frenchtown branch librarian Heather is seen here testing the new setup and looking for ways to make to make our work more efficient.

And finally, starting today we're trying out a new system of letting you, the patron, help us out a bit by putting kids and young adult books in the right hand slot, and adult books in the left hand slot. You'll see this when we finish our remodel, so we thought we'd just go ahead and start now to get everyone used to it.

Even More Current Events

In addition to the new self hold pick-up area I told you about yesterday, you'll notice a giant plastic blob where our old sit down check-out desk used to be.

Today our construction workers are starting to demo (as in demolish) one of the walls that used to house the circulation department. This is yet another phase in our ongoing remodel. The plastic blob will be replaced by the new "accounts" desk. This will be where you will pay fines, deal with missing holds, ask for help, etc.

The plus side is that the big plastic blob will be a great landmark in giving directions to our self hold pick-up. "Just walk past this big plastic blob and you'll see the holds."

There will be a bit of noise in the coming days, but trust me, it will be worth it. We're finally nearing the final stages of our *huge* remodel project.

Happening RIGHT NOW!

We're in the midst of a huge change in the way things work here at the library. It used to be that when you had a hold on something, you just went to the checkout desk and we grabbed it from the back. Now, you can pick up holds yourselves.

This comes in anticipation of the new self-check out machines that should be coming very soon. In the future, you'll be able to grab your hold and check out without waiting for one of us to help you. This should keep your privacy at a maximum and your time spent in lines to a minimum.

The holds are shelved alphabetically by last name, and we've moved out the holds up to last names starting with "R," but more and more should be going out throughout the day. Each hold slip covers the title and cover of your item so no one but you should know what you have waiting for pick up. We hope to be fully operational with our self hold pick-up system by the end of the weekend. Wish us luck!

Word Woman

Welcome to another astounding episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so keep yours active with exercises like crossword puzzles, sudoku and (of course) learning new words. Now let's warm up those mental muscles with the Word of the Week:

Gourmand: One overfond of eating, a glutton. In 1491 when Caxton speaks of "gourmands and gluttons which eat more than is to them necessary," he is using the word in its pejorative sense. By 1890, the word also meant a delicate or choosy eater. Now, in our diet-conscious age, we again use it as a synonym for "glutton," although in French it retains positive connotations. The similar terms gourmet (1820) and gastronome (1823) both imply exquisite discrimination in eating, but they are sometimes ironically used to imply an obsession with food. -- "Kind Words: A Thesaurus of Euphemisms", Judith S. Neaman & Carole G. Silver, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1983.

Example: While the chef at the restaurant received much acclaim from the diners for his fine gourmet creations, he was also known among the employees as a bit of a gourmand, so the pantry was always keep well-stocked just as a precaution.

Veteran's Day

The library is closed today in honor of Veteran's Day. Take a moment to think about those who have fought for our freedom.

(Photo by Flickr user christyfrink. Some Right Reserved.)

We will open again tomorrow at 10 am.

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-bending episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! I hope that everyone got out on Tuesday and exercised their voting privilege. The elections were definitely worth following, both at the national and local level, with many races being too close to call until the very end. In honor of our great democratic process, here is one last political term for 2008:

Faithless elector: (noun) a member of the electoral college who votes for a candidate other than that pledged. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, Ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: In a close-run election such as this, there is always the concern that faithless electors may exert undue influence and swing the vote for one candidate or the other.

R.I.P. Michael Crichton

Author Michael Crichton died yesterday after a private battle with cancer.

His books helped catapult my reading career from kids books to novels. I've read Sphere more than a few times. Even though he won't be canonized for his work, he wrote some great stories. I mean Jurassic Park? Awesome.

RIP

Get Out and Vote!

The Missoula Public Library is closed for the election today. Remember to get out and vote! That is if you haven't already.

We'll be open again tomorrow at 10 o'clock.