Writer's Contest Reception

We had an occasion to break out the punch and cookies today at the library as we held a reception for our first ever Writing Contest! We had a full house of writers, judges and family members.


We announced the winners and read excerpts of all the first place stories. Daniel Johnston and Louise McMillin bravely stepped forward and read their own pieces, and our staff read the rest.

Louise ended the festivities by encouraging the young writers in the audience to keep writing, a fitting end to a fantastic Sunday celebrating writing.

Stay tuned to this blog to read the first place entries and check out our Flickr page for pictures of all the award recipients.

Adult Winter Reading Program: Staff Grand Prize Winner!

Is Anita!

Being librarians, the competition was pretty fierce, and I have word that Anita's winning ballot barely made it in before the deadline. She won a copy of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" along with some tea, coffee and other goodies. As someone who has seen her massive book collection, she might already have all the books on the list! Cogratulations Anita!

Stay tuned. Next week we'll announce the winner for the overall grand prize.

MPL Writing Contest

(Original photo by Flickr user: the trial. Some Rights Reserved)

The deadline for our first annual writing contest is fast approaching! Entries will be due on March 15th. Official rules and entry form are located here.

And if you're really motivated, you can also submit your entry to the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, who served as our mentor in setting up our rules and contest.

Good Luck!

Osprey Invasion!

Today the library was filled with baseball players, baseball fans, beauty queens and large diurnal, fish-eating, birds of prey. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game,"we invited members of the Missoula Osprey to come down to the library for a meet and greet. Ollie Osprey and Miss Teen Montana joined in the fun.

We handed out hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks to 50 plus people and sang the song we were there to honor. We also created some librarian trading cards to hand out - which you can see right here. After some autograph signing and photo ops, the players helped Linette, our teen librarian, read some Spanish language stories about baseball to the children in attendance.

Then, Ollie headed upstairs to meet with our staff, and get his very own library card!



Success! I wonder what he checked out? Maybe Winged Migration?

What the Health Fair?

We hosted a city wide health fair today in our Large Meeting Room. Over 20 organizations came to offer services ranging from bone density screenings to nutrition information. The fair was the cap to our week of health related programming aimed specifically at baby boomers. If you missed any of the programs or the health fair, be sure to click here for a sort of "electronic health fair" representing most (if not all) of the topics discussed at our programs and fair, along with some things that weren't touched on.



My favorite part was the snacks. I don't think of myself as a particularly healthy eater, but my afternoon snack often consists of either string cheese or pretzels so I must be doing something right.

Dolley Madison Stops in For Tea

A large group was treated to tea and a quick history lesson today in the large meeting room when Dolley Madison stopped by the library. It was a great program and the room was filled close to capacity to hear about the former first lady of the nation.

Along with the presentation, spectators were treated to free tea and other treats. It is always nice to have a good turnout to a history presentation.