Word Woman

Welcome to another tongue-twisting episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Now it's time to start flexing those mental muscles with the Word of the Week. In recognition of the fact that less than six months remain before the presidential election, here is another political term:

Repubocrat: (noun) A Republican who behaves like a Democrat, or vice versa. See also Demopublican. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: The debate left the voters so up in the air as to the candidates' positions on the issues that they didn't know whether to vote Repubocrat or Demopublican in the election.

In Technicolor!

The new walls in the Young Adult room are now getting fresh coats of paints. The walls will be blue, tanish and red. Take a look!



The Children's entrance has also seen some action in the past few days. Now that the big pieces are finished, the details are emerging. Butterflies, foliage, and gnomes galore.




Exciting, right? The Children's entrance should be finished by May 17th and we'll have an opening reception to celebrate. More about that soon.

Word Woman

Welcome to another exciting installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Train your brain for a lifetime of mental fitness by expanding your vocabulary. Now let's stretch those neural pathways with the Word of the Week:

Acrophile: a lover of high mountains; a mountaineer. -- "-Ologies and -Isms: A Thematic Dictionary", Howard G. Zettler, ed., Gale Research Company, 1978.

Example: Maintaining the cables on the alpine aerial tram was definitely a job for an acrophile, not an acrophobe* like George.

* Acrophobe: The opposite of an acrophile; one who fears or avoids great heights.

Food for Fido

Last week was our first ever Food for Fido drive. In exchange for pet food, we waived patron overdue fines. We've done this before with food for the food bank, but this was our first ever pet food drive. We got a lot of food to donate:


All the food will be given to Animeals, a great organization that provides food to animals in shelters and helps to find homes for animals in need. They do a great job, and we were happy to be able to help out.

**EDIT** I've been told that we have actually done a food for fines with pet food before. Just not since I've worked here.

Bike Walk Bus Week @ MPL!

28 Missoula Public Library employees biked, walked and bused to work in honor of the 2008 Bike Walk Bus Week. As Missoula County employees, we participated in the Missoula County versus City of Missoula Employee Commuter Challenge. GO COUNTY!

We also held a drawing for a fantastic messenger bag donated by Missoula in Motion for patrons who biked, walked and bused to the library all week.

Congratulations to Peter Rapp, our lucky winner!! Peter walked to the library during Bike Walk Bus Week, although his favorite alternate mode of transportation is biking.

Thank you for biking, walking and busing!

Word Woman

Welcome to another mind-bending episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in shape for the long run of life by expanding your vocabulary. Now, let's warm up those mental muscles with the Word of the Week:

Haywire: Messed-up, crazy; from the cow-country practice of twisting up loose wire before throwing it on the ground. A haywire outfit is a poorly run ranch or a logging outfit with poor equipment, which must by implication be kept together with haywire. -- "Dictionary of the American West", Winifred Blevins, Facts On File, Inc., 1993.

Example: After the kitchen sink backed up, the basement flooded and the sprinkler system failed, it didn't take a genius to see that something had gone haywire with the plumbing.

Tiny Tales Presents... The JillBillies!

On Tuesday, Tiny Tales (our storytime for 0-3 year olds) hosted the bluegrass/folk group whimsically known as The JillBillies. The kids loved them!
We're hoping to add more music to our Tiny Tales programs. Please call the Children's Desk at 721-BOOK to find out specific dates.

Checking in with Paula: Administrative Assistant's Day

It's been a while since we've checked in with our Administrative Assistant Paula, and as many of you know, yesterday was Administrative Assistant's day. We got some breakfast and other goodies for Paula, and even let her wear a crown since she was "queen for a day." Although if you ask her, she's queen here at the library EVERY day.

Thanks for all the work you do here at the library Paula!

200 Posts!

This marks the 200th blog post here at the Missoula Public Library!

Stay tuned for the next 200...

The Monolith

When you come into the library, you'll now notice what reminds me of either a white version of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, or more accurately a single piece of Stonehenge. But actually, it is the future entryway for "Entertainment Central," the place where all of our CDs, DVDs, Book CDs, etc. will be stored in the future. Shelving is arriving as we speak, so expect to see even more changes in the next few days as Entertainment Central begins to take form.