Blog | Missoula Public Library

Word Woman

2008-10-10T12:16:00.005-06:00

Welcome to another mind-bending episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in shape for the great campaign of life by learning new vocabulary. Now, let's get started with the Word of the Week:

Epirot: [ip-pye-rut] a person who lives inland, not on the coast. From a Greek word meaning 'mainland'. A word that those of us in "flyover country" can use with pride. -- "More Weird and Wonderful Words", Erin McKean, Ed., Oxford University Press, 2003.

Example: The political candidate who takes the nation's epirots into account in his or her campaigning efforts may very well find that the results are worth the investment.

Free Music!

2008-10-08T12:27:00.004-06:00

Have you taken advantage of our Alexander Street Press music databases? You can make playlists and stream music from three libraries - Classical, Smithsonian Global Sound, and African-American Song. They offer all their songs as pay-per-download, but you can stream all the tracks for free.

They also offer weekly free downloads, this week the selection offered is J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, BWV 1068. Enjoy!

Teen Read Week

2008-10-07T19:16:00.004-06:00

Teens Read! We know they do, we see them in the library all the time. So we're going to celebrate with Teen Read Week Oct. 12-18. It's a national weeklong celebration of books for teens, about teens, and even by teens, and this year's theme is "Books with Bite." So teens ages 13-18, sink your teeth into a book and take part in some of the fun events we have planned from a mystery dinner to candy sushi, and of course a chance to read for prizes! See you at the library!

Reference Gets a Makeover

2008-10-06T09:23:00.004-06:00

Once the new reference desk arrived last week, it was assembled pretty quick. Today is the official first day of operation for the new desk.

Here it is all finished. Ok, ok, it might not be totally finished yet, and the old desk is still sitting behind, but it is functional at least.
So stop by and ask our reference staff a question at their new, sleek desk.

Diva Day

2008-10-04T13:55:00.003-06:00

Diva Day was a major hit this morning as more than 380 runners took to the streets around Fort Missoula in Run Wild Missoula's Women's 5K. I have to confess right away that I wasn't one of them. But I did get to hang out with them at the library's table before and after the race. It was a great experience to meet everybody who came over to say hi and learn about the cool stuff the library has to offer. The morning rain couldn't put a damper on the day's events - Heritage Hall was practically buzzing with their energy and enthusiasm. Not to mention the funky & fun outfits! I'm so glad we got to take part, and we'll definitely be marking it on our calendars for next year. After all, every diva deserves her day!

Word Woman

2008-10-02T16:23:00.002-06:00

Welcome to another wild and wonderful installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! With the election only about a month away now, it's time for another piece of political terminology. Let's get our vocabulary set for the debates with the Word of the Week:

Hot button: (noun) a strongly emotive, popular or controversial concern or issue. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, Ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: In this highly-contested race, both candidates are looking for the hot buttons that will swing as many voters as possible over to their side and cinch the election for them.

Big Wednesday at MPL!

2008-10-01T19:42:00.003-06:00

Today was a busy day! Our brand new reference desk finally arrived and was plopped down in front of the old desk. Starting tomorrow, expect to hear very loud drilling, banging, etc. coming from the reference department. No word on when it will be finished, but hopefully soon.

As I type this, there is a presentation going on in the large meeting room about movies that were shot in Montana. This is part of our Know Montana series facilitated by our genealogist-extraordinaire Paulette. The next Know Montana date is October 8th, with more details here. History buffs, these programs are for you.

And also, we're right in the thick of banned books week. With a little help from some of our Young Adult patrons, we've put labels on banned books on our shelves to highlight the sheer number of books that have been banned or challenged. Here's a great article on banned books.

Ok, that's enough for one day. Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Olympia, WA to attend the WALE conference. I might even have an update from the road, who knows?

Sundaes on Sunday!

2008-09-27T12:28:00.003-06:00

September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month (informally known as NLCSUM), and here at Missoula Public Library we have a few traditions associated with this month-long celebration of all things library. Certainly the most delicious among them is Sundaes on Sunday, an afternoon of ice cream and music. This year Ben, our blogmeister and local music guru, has arranged for Tater Pig to come and shake the walls with their sound. The fun starts at 2:00pm tomorrow with free tunes for all, and a suggested donation of $1 to enjoy one of our delicious Sundaes on Sunday!

Word Woman

2008-09-25T19:12:00.002-06:00

Welcome to another mind-boggling episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Expand your vocabulary and keep your mind in good working order with the Word of the Week:

Annus mirabilis: A wonderful year. It now means any year which the speaker regards as especially outstanding, notable. But, in England particularly, the term refers to the year 1666, the year that marked two notable events: a victory over the Dutch fleet and, in September, the great London fire in which a large part of the city was destroyed. Both events were commemorated in a poem by John Dryden having the title "Annus Mirabilis". -- "Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words", Charles E. Funke, Harper & Brothers, 1958.

Example: The troubled economy, paired with our high-profile presidential election, leave one wondering if 2008 will go down in American history as an annus mirabilis.

Teachers' Pet

2008-09-25T13:17:00.002-06:00

This morning members of our staff had a chance to connect with area school librarians when we hosted a Teachers' Tour. We had a chance to show off our brand new Young Adult room, plus all the other changes that are taking place here in the library, and feast on some super tasty breakfast treats. It turns out, even early in the morning, when librarians get together things can get rowdy! It was a great time and we're looking forward to working with the schools all year long.

Books, Sometimes They Work.

2008-09-23T22:16:00.003-06:00

And in other news, please help us in welcoming our public relations specialist and newly minted blogger Joyce to the MPL blog world! She'll be weighing in from time to time to promote library programs, or weigh in on general Missoula Public Library doings. Please be kind to her, and feel free to heap comments, good or bad, on her posts.

I suppose you could also leave comments on the existing MPL bloggers, but don't feel like there's any presure.

Breakfast of Champions

2008-09-23T09:33:00.002-06:00

A big thanks to the Grant Creek Kiwanis for inviting the library to visit at their meeting this morning. The Kiwanis do a lot of wonderful community service around Missoula, Montana, and the world. I went there to share information on all the amazing changes taking place here at the library, and left with a new respect for what the Kiwanis do. (And breakfast, too!)

On the same note, the library is available to visit your community group. With our physical changes, new programs, and online resources, we sure have a lot to share! Or we would love to give your group a tour of the building. Call me at 258-3851 or email jdoyle@missoula.lib.mt.us and we'll make plans. And don't worry, breakfast isn't a prerequisite.

Leaning Tower of AV

2008-09-22T16:41:00.003-06:00

Ever wonder why, when you drop off a couple of videos at the library and check your account a couple hours later and it looks like you still have them checked out? This may be the reason:

With the rainy weather it seems that everyone is enjoying Entertainment Central more than usual. We're just trying to keep up!

Word Woman

2008-09-18T16:34:00.002-06:00

Welcome to another mind-bending installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Your brain is meant to last a lifetime, so keep it in good working order with life-long learning. Now, let's warm up those memory cells with the Word of the Week:

Anagram: (ann-a-gram) [noun] The rearrangement of the letters of a word or sentence to form a new word, as ward from draw or stare down from don't swear. -- "The New York Times Everyday Reader's Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words", Laurence Urdang, Ed., New York Times Book Company, 1972.

Example: I am a librarian is an anagram for I am a brain (liar!). Hmmm, I wonder if that's significant?

New Cards

2008-09-17T20:18:00.002-06:00

Repeat with me, "Change is good." The purple cards are no more.

Our spiffy new black cards with our great new logo are finally going out to the public. It couldn't have come at a better time, this being National Library Card Sign Up Month and all. Unfortunately, we can't give current card holders new cards for free, but if you like these cards as much as I do, you could tell us you "lost" your purple card and buy one of the black ones for a buck, which is exactly what I did.

Bonus points to anyone who takes a picture of themselves destroying one of our old cards in order to get a new one. Any takers?

Food for Fines

2008-09-13T13:18:00.003-06:00

Fines are like cavities. Nobody likes to talk about them much, but most people get them from time to time. Fortunately, we have a cure for that here at the Missoula Public Library. It's called Food for Fines and it comes around about twice a year or so. The good news is, it's coming around again at the end of September. So, if you have one you need to take care of, just bring some non-perishable food items to the Library during the week of September 21st-28th and we'll waive your fees. Please be sure to check the expiration dates first, though, as the Food Bank does not accept items which are past their date. Also, just a reminder that Food for Fines applies only to overdue fees, not to damage or replacement charges. And remember, it's all for a good cause, because all donations go to stock the shelves of the Missoula Food Bank.

Word Woman

2008-09-12T10:18:00.003-06:00

Welcome to another exciting episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in great shape with mental exercises like sudoku, cryptoquotes, crossword puzzles and (my personal favorite) learning new words. Now, let's get those neurons firing on all cylinders with the Word of the Week:

Eating drag dust:
1. To ride behind a herd (an inferior and uncomfortable position)
2. To be humiliated (Weseen 1934; Ramon Adams 1944)
-- "A Dictionary of the Old West", Peter Watts, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977.

Example: Bob's lightning-fast serves and vicious backhand left Larry eating drag dust on the tennis court.

Word Woman

2008-09-04T19:46:00.006-06:00

Welcome to another mind-boggling installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! With the election now only about two months away, political issues are a hot topic of conversation just about everywhere you go. In recognition of that fact, here is another political term for your edification:

October surprise: (noun) The release of important news in the month before election, in hopes of affecting the outcome, especially by an incumbent. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: Even with a lame duck president, the media are watching for an October surprise from either party in this contentious election.

National Library Card Sign-Up Month

2008-09-02T16:36:00.005-06:00

I hope all of you had a great Labor Day and are rested up for September. School's starting up, baseball is starting to wind down and you have to wear a jacket after dinner. I don't know about you, but it feels like fall to me already. In case you're interested, the fall solstice takes place on September 22nd at 3:44 in the afternoon.

Speaking of baseball winding down, our very own reference librarian Molly was able to throw out the first pitch at one of the last regular season Osprey games.

September for the library means National Library Card Sign Up Month. Here in Missoula, we'll be giving out gift bags to the first 100 new patrons who sign up for cards, having a adult gaming night, giving out sundaes in our annual Sundaes on Sunday event (music act still TBA), having an open house for teachers and school librarians (call us for details), and much, much more.

So we're here for you if you need to do research for school, or just need to getaway and forget about school. See you in the library this September.

New Arrival: Science!

2008-08-27T19:33:00.006-06:00

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Science does not know its debt to imagination," and if that's true, I can hardly think of a better place to make science pay off that debt than the basement of a public library.

We've been blessed here at the Missoula Public Library with some wonderful exhibits on loan from spectrUM, an interactive science museum located just across the river at the University of Montana. Right now we have a Gravity Well and a Chaotic Pendula.

I especially like the chaotic pendula, which could be a great name for a heavy metal band stuck in the eighties. Imagine the name chiseled out of rock with lightning bolts erupting in all directions...

Anyway, what better thing for a library to have than an exhibit design to explain chaos. Each spin will result in a different series of twists, turns and tumbles based on miniscule differences in the way the center knob is turned. If you've never seen one and can't make it to the library, here's a video:

There's a third exhibit on the way, which I assume will be here by the end of the week. Be sure to take a look at the exhibits next time you're in the library.

Word Woman

2008-08-27T10:59:00.009-06:00

Welcome to another astounding installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in tip-top Olympic form with life-long learning. This week's word is one of my personal favorites, and one that is often misspelled and mispronounced, being of that difficult greek root persuasion:

on·o·mato·poe·ia

Pronunciation:: \ˌä-nə-ˌmä-tə-ˈpē-ə, -ˌma-\
Function:: noun
Etymology:: Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiia, from onomat-, onoma name + poiein to make — more at poet
Date:: circa 1577

1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss) 2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense

— on·o·mato·poe·ic \-ˈpē-ik\ or on·o·mato·po·et·ic \-pō-ˈe-tik\ adjective

— on·o·mato·poe·i·cal·ly \-ˈpē-ə-k(ə-)lē\ or on·o·mato·po·et·i·cal·ly \-pō-ˈe-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb -- "onomatopoeia." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008.
Merriam-Webster Online. 27 August 2008

Example: Poets often utilize onomatopoeia in order to make their prose more descriptive and life-like.

12 Years Overdue

2008-08-22T17:25:00.005-06:00

Well...not necessarily. We found this 12 year old checkout receipt in the book "Cavalier in Buckskin" today during our afternoon bookdrop. Click the picture for a larger view. According to the receipt we were actually open on New Year's Day in 1996.

Since our resident library historian Vaun is off today, I couldn't ask when we abandoned the dot matrix receipt printers, but it had to be within a year or so of this receipt by my calculations. We have some ancient computer equipment in storage around the tech offices, but no printers capable of producing this.

You never know exactly what will fall out of a book when you pick it up here in the library. The really interesting part is that since we re-barcoded the book it has been checked out 29 times. That means that at least 29 people have seen this, maybe used it as a bookmark, and returned it with the book. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Word Woman

2008-08-22T13:07:00.006-06:00

Welcome to another wild and wonderful installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! This week's offering is dedicated to MPL's own Master of Ceremonies in charge of Socrates Cafe - a hotbed of philosophical debate which takes place on the last Thursday of each month:

Beg the question: Begging the question doesn't mean evading the question by giving an indirect answer, as is often assumed. The old phrase, which can be traced back to the 16th century, is the rough equivalent of the logician's 'petitio principii' and means 'to stack the cards in an argument by assuming something that hasn't been proved before the debate begins.' Beg the question actually means that someone is acting like a beggar, asking his opponent to concede the argument at the beginning. 'O shameless beggar, that craveth no less than the whole controversy to be given him!' an early English author wrote in explaining the term. -- "The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins", Robert Hendrickson, Checkmark Books, 2000.

Example: The Master of Socrates Cafe often accuses the Word Woman of begging the question when the two of them are debating a topic.

Blast From the (Library) Past

2008-08-18T17:51:00.003-06:00

Check out this amazing post-apocalyptic video to teach kids about the library. I like that the female lead is known as "Ms. Bookcart." This is just the first in a series of videos that were apparently shown in Mississippi on the Public Broadcast network there.

courtesy of boing boing.

New Reading Chairs

2008-08-18T10:07:00.004-06:00

The comfy leather reading chairs have arrived. Last week we set them up in the reading area near the newspapers and the reference desk. So far they seem like they've been quite the hit. I had to wait until early this morning to get a picture of them without anyone sitting on them, and most times I've walked by they're close to full.