Surrounded By Sound

We recently installed a great new sound system in our Large Meeting Room. Now there are eight, count 'em eight, speakers, which allow us to finally use the Dolby Digital Surround Sound we've had for awhile, but couldn't take advantage of. There are two speakers up front that will just broadcast dialog, and the remaining six surround you and add motion to the sounds. When the killer is sneaking up behind you, you'll hear his creaking footsteps coming from behind you. Be sure to come down and take advantage, so far only one movie has been shown in surround sound. The next big one will be our World Wide Cinema festival shorts selection next Friday. Don't miss out!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Sunday, March 2nd marked the 104th birthday of Dr. Seuss. We celebrated in the Children's department by hosting a birthday party with the America Reads, America Counts program at the University of Montana.Here's Colleen and Lauren from ARAC holding the birthday cake. In addition to cake, we also celebrated with games, stories, crafts, and prizes!

It was a great time, and a great turnout!

Construction Updates

We've seen quite a bit of progress this past week in the construction of both the new YA area and the gateway to the children's area. A mushroom popped up out of nowhere.



As did a message of love.



The YA department construction, however, is moving along quickly, but so far nothing much is looking like a finished product. There is a lot of steel framing going on in there behind the plastic.



We're getting back on track with our collections as well. Fiction is back in roughly the places you would expect it to be, and we're closing in on having all of our shelving in the right place. We're getting there!

When will spring come?

Just when you think that you've gotten past the winter blahs, that maybe spring is on the weather map if not the horizon, what happens? Another snow storm. As I came in to work today it was coming down in big, fat, heavy flakes. You know, I am really ready for more sunshine, maybe a few flowers trying to poke their little heads up and some warm breezes.


We've put a few primroses around on the public desks to brighten the place up and are grateful for the few sunshiny days we've had so far.





So here's a touch of spring to brighten our day... and maybe with March coming in like something of a lion we can look forward to more lamb-like weather to end the month.
And don't forget that you'll lose an hour of sleep this weekend as we "spring" forward for the move into Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

Jump Into A Library

On my day off, my wife and I went to the movie theater and decided to watch Jumper. It was a pretty fun, if a bit mindless, movie based on a sci-fi book by Steven Gould. The part that got me, though, was when the main character first discovers his ability to teleport, the first place he goes is the Ann Arbor Public Library. In the background you see an "Escape to your Library" poster, very subtle. The library plays a small, yet important role in the film, and as an added bonus you get a chance to see a white haired Samuel L. Jackson.