Lib"Scare"ians

This year the library is filled with Halloween spirit. I'm pretty sure that in the close to 4 years I've worked here this is the most dressed up we've been. I took the easy road by just bringing in my Ronald Reagan mask. But that still counts, right?

Then I ran into Heather, who dressed up like Eddy from Eddy's coffee shop in our lower lobby!

And our staff room is filled with treats, my favorites? These awesome witch fingers that Kathy from tech services brought in. They're almost too creepy looking to eat, but they taste delicious.

MLA Wrap Up

I swear I didn't forget about you all, but coming back to work after almost a whole week off at the conference left a lot of catching up to do. There were so many great exhibits and presentations this year, but I'll spare you all the details. For me the highlights were spending my birthday at the local Great Falls institution: the Sip 'n' Dip with fellow librarians (wait, since we were in a bar, does that make us hipster librarians?):



and my fellow geek here at MPL, Jim's presentation on physics and scaring young kids.



You'll notice I did not include playing at the dinner with the band, because that was a tad bit awkward since I'm used to playing original music that I've practiced, not improv covers of songs I've never heard of. But I think it still turned out ok. Kudos to the Montana Library Association and the city of Great Falls for a more than decent conference.

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.

A Mayoral Visit and Tour

Mayor Engen stopped by the Missoula Public Library Tuesday night in honor of National Library Week. We're always glad to have local notables stop by, and we were lucky enough to get the mayor. He read a proclamation and then it was off to tour the library.

20 or so members of the public got a chance to poke around the library. Our own library assistant Laura Cote guided the tour and was assisted by Karen and Kathy in the Kid's Department and Tech Services respectively. Tech Services was a new experience for most, someone even asked Kathy, "You really have a full time job down here? I didn't even know this part of the library existed." It does, and we have 6 full time employees there and 2 part time. It takes a lot of people to order, process, catalog, and get your materials upstairs. Plus they all take turns covering shifts at the check-out desk.

You can expect another library tour in the future, since this one was so well received. We just love to show the public what we're up to every day. And a special thanks to Mayor Engen for coming down and showing his support, it means a lot to us!