Review of the Week!

Warm up with a good book, earn a free coffee drink, and win great prizes! Join the Adult Winter Reading Program! Sign up at the Reference Desk.

This week we feature Anita Millard's review of We Shall Not Sleep by Anne Perry. Call # PERRY

"The final book of Perry's WWI series gives us the horror of total war and the image of a new society forged out of the pain and unimaginable destruction of men, land and innocence. This is bittersweet at best, as we know that the seeds of WWII are already sown. Marvelous writing!"

John Updike, R.I.P.

John Updike, who wrote the iconic Rabbit series, died at age 76 after a battle with lung cancer. He was a true literary great.

R.I.P.

Frenchtown's First Year

Frenchtown School & Community Library is celebrating our first anniversary this week! What an exciting day it was last January when we held our Grand Opening...

We can hardly believe it's been a full year at the branch, so much has been going on. A few stats on the past year: We had 3,400 visitors to the branch, who logged more than 1,500 computer sessions and asked more than 1,200 reference questions. Plus, 400 residents took the time to attend our programs. It was great to see you there!

Stop by the branch and help us celebrate all week long - you'll even have a chance to win some fun prizes! Don't forget the branch is currently located at the Frenchtown Elementary School, but will be moving back to our permanent home at the newly remodeled Frenchtown High School this fall. Branch hours are Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 4:30-8:30 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m.-3 p.m. You can reach us at 626-2635.

Here's to another great year!

Review of the Week!

Warm up with a good book and join the Adult Winter Reading Program. Earn a free coffee drink at eddie's coffee shop @ the Missoula Public Library and win great prizes! Sign up at the Reference Desk.

Don't miss our Mystery Lovers Book Discussion on Thurs. Jan. 29 at 7:00 p.m. featuring local mystery author Jon Jackson!

This week we feature Kelly Cooper's review of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. Call # WILLIG

"Painful, painful to read! I kept hoping it would redeem itself and it just got worse. Instead, read The Scarlet Pimpernel."

Overdrive Troubles (are no more!)

After our system upgrade that happened early this week, our audio book download site, Overdrive, is not working with our patrons. People are working right now to get this corrected, so hopefully it will be back up and running in the next day or so. Until then, I can point you to two different websites that offer free, legal audiobooks for download.

Open Culture

Open culture scans the web for available audio book downloads and centralizes them. There are a lot of popular books on this site from Issac Asimov to William Butler Yates.

Librivox

Librivox is a fantastic project that pairs public domain materials with willing readers and posts the results free for you to download and listen to. The selection on this site is amazing, so be sure to check it out.

We'll let you know as soon as Overdrive is back up and running, but until then, you should have enough listening material to keep you busy from these two, outstanding resources.

*Update - 2:30 pm* It looks like Overdrive is back up and running. Thanks to everyone who worked to get this service going as quickly as possible. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a look at the other audio book services as well!

The library's new look

The new Self Check-Out machines have been unveiled and will soon be in service. As the sign indicates, you will want to have your library card handy when you try them out.








The Information Desk is gone...











...to be replaced by the Ask Me Station.







Where the Check-Out Desk is now will be the home of our shiny new Book Returns.

All of the Returns will be sorted and labeled, as well.

Word Woman

Welcome to another exciting installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Got the January blahs? Can't find anything exciting to do? Perk up your brain with a good book, a challenging crossword or a stimulating sudoku. Or, you can expand your vocabulary with the Word of the Week:

Charm offensive: A deliberate campaign of using charm in order to achieve a goal, especially a political one. -- "The Oxford Dictionary of New Words", Elizabeth Knowles, Ed., Oxford University Press, New York, 1997.

Example: John instituted a massive charm offensive against his boss in order to achieve a highly sought-after promotion.

New Year's Resolution: Learn About Investing

Learn how to invest wisely with Morningstar Investment Research Center. You'll find Morningstar in the "E-Databases" section of our website.

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager

During the past few months it has been nearly impossible to avoid bad news about the financial markets. Even worse is trying to make investment decisions or discuss investment matters when you might feel rusty or out of step. No need to worry; Morningstar is here to help with our Investing Classroom.

Last month I began following the drama in the auto industry. I heard a lot about equity, liabilities, market capitalization, and the rest of the financial lingo. Rather than skip through the messy terms in the newspaper, I decided to take a refresher course so I could better understand the situation.

If you go to the Help and Education page of Morningstar Investment Research Center, you will find our Investing Classroom. There are courses on stocks, mutual funds, and portfolio analysis. The nice thing about Investing Classroom is that it can help anyone--from the novice to the expert. You will find course levels ranging from basic terms at the 100 level to derivatives and contemporary theories at the 500 level.

The Stocks module is great for anyone looking to get information on choosing stocks to invest in, or just to get an idea of the terminology surfacing in the news. It also includes information on how to calculate ratios, read financial statements, and much more. In the Funds catalog, you will find a plethora of information about how to examine and go about buying a mutual fund. You'll also learn the differences between specialized, growth, and value approaches, along with all the essentials of mutual fund investing.

In the current market, or any market for that matter, having the knowledge to make sound decisions about your investments is paramount. Investing Classroom teaches you how to determine the best kind of mix for you, strategies for buying and selling, and how to rebalance your portfolio. Hopefully you'll discover that even in a struggling market, there are investment opportunities out there.

2009 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

Teen Stuff

Anybody ages 13-18 who isn't coming to the library is missing out. That's because in the first week of 2009 we've already had 2 amazing teen events, with even more on the way. Check these out:

Our New Year's Ball was a hit with teen rockers Helliana blasting out some heavy metal tunes, followed by your own a chance to be a star playing Rock Band on the big screen, and karaoke, too.

Then, award-winning Donna Jo Napoli joined our Friday afternoon teen writers group to offer a special writing workshop with insider tips on her own experiences.

What's next? How about our new teen book club that just chatted about "Vampire Academy" and is ready to tackle "To Kill a Mockingbird" in February ... or Game On! video games on the big screen ... or a Valentine's Day Chocolate Fest, complete with a chocolate fountain. Yum!

Vist our YA Programs page so you don't miss any of our great teen events, or email me at jdoyle at missoulapubliclibrary.org and I'll add you to our email list so you get reminders before the next fun program passes you by! For teens ages 13-18.

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-bending episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Don't let your brain go into hibernation for the winter -- wake it up with some mental exercises like learning new words. Here's a Word of the Week warm-up to get you started:

Phobophobia:

1. An abnormal fear of being afraid, a fear of fear itself.
2. A fear of phobias.

-- "-Ologies & -Isms: A Thematic Dictionary", Howard G. Zettler, Ph.D., Ed., Gale Research Company, 1978.

Example: When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," another word for that would have been phobophobia. It just wouldn't have sounded quite as good.

Warm Up with a Good Book

What's better than curling up under a blanket with a book on a cold winter day? Nothing. That's why we're running our first-ever Adult Winter Reading Program. As if reading isn't already rewarding, adults ages 18+ can read or listen to 3 titles and get a free drink from eddie's coffee shop @ Missoula Public Library. Keep reading, and get entered in our monthly raffles. Plus, every month we're hosting an author talk: Jon Jackson starts us out Jan. 29 with a talk about detective novels, Debra Earling keeps us going on Feb. 25 with an adult story time, and our Winter Reading Celebration will close out the program March 25 with Deirdre McNamer reading from her new book Red Rover. Get times & details from our online events calendar, or stop by the reference desk now for your entry form. See you at the library!

What Do I Read!!??

Did you make a New Year's resolution to read more this year but just can't figure out what to read next? Don't worry, we've got you covered.

First, check out Novelist Plus one of our e-databases. You'll have to enter your library card number to access this site. You can search for books you've already read and liked and get recommendations for other books and authors to try. This has saved my life on more than one occasion, since my wife regularly enlists me to pick out Chick Lit for her while I'm here at the library.

Also, try the shiny new WhichBook. WhichBook lets you choose elements of a story and then recommends books that match those elements. If you're looking for a happy, unpredictable, conventional story, or something like that, then this is the place for you.

If you're a little more old-fashioned, be sure to look at our staff-picks and themed power walls when you come into the library. You'll always find something new and interesting there.

Changes, changes, changes!

The new Accounts Desk is here! It may not be quite ready to try out yet, but it is in place and looking very spiffy indeed! Ben, our official library photographer, is not around to record this historic moment so I thought I'd try my hand. Unfortunately, I lack his experience and knowledge, but I suppose that amateur pictures are better than no pictures at all.


In other exciting news, our Self Check-Out stations have arrived as well! They should be up and running in the near future for our library patrons to use. This is certainly an action-packed week full of changes for all of us here at Missoula Public Library. Every day there is something new to see when we come to work! I hope that you will stop in and have a peek at the Library's new look, and maybe pick up a good book or a hot new movie while you're here.

Word Woman

Welcome to another weird and wonderful installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Since the calendar has now officially ticked over to 2009, it's time for the first political word of the new year. This one is dedicated to Word Woman's techie co-worker, who was curious about the origin of the term:

Lame Duck:

Investopedia Says:

A trader or investor who makes poor trades and ends up with heavy losses over time would be considered a lame duck. Often, if a trader goes bankrupt, it is not the result of one bad trade but a long string of them - such a trader is called a lame duck because he or her is ineffective as a trader. (The term lame duck also refers to a politician who has chosen not to seek re-election, is ineligible to run for office again or has lost an election but is still in office until the election winner takes control of the office. The politician is considered a lame duck as he or she is not accountable to the constituency he or she represents.)

Example: Some have wondered whether Bush will try to make significant changes as a lame duck president or simply wait quietly for his final term in office to expire.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! We'll be closed today to celebrate the first day in the year of the ox, but we'll be open again tomorrow at 10 as usual. Is your New Year's resolution to get all your books back on time, or something else? Let us know in the comments. Our resolution is to get our construction done and get back to a semblance of quiet in the library.

(Photo by Flickr user Mykl Roventine. Some Rights Reserved.)