Posted on Friday, November 25, 2022 by Jonya
Our digital library is more than just audiobooks, homework help and Ancestry.com. It’s more than just Freegal music and Hoopla movies and Libby ebooks. We have an amazing set of databases that your library card makes available to you where ever you have internet access.
Continue reading “How to Bake Cookies and Other Yummy Lessons”
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2022 by MaggieM
You probably don’t need me to point out that Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is coming right up, and Black Friday will be here before you know it. If thinking about shopping for the holiday season has your blood pressure rising, consider making some of your holiday gifts and decorations this year (okay, you’ll likely have to do some shopping for materials, but hopefully it will be less shopping, more making, and more using odds and ends you already have). Continue reading “Worried About Holiday Shopping? Try These Craft Projects Instead!”
Posted on Monday, October 31, 2022 by cs
After surviving the heat and drought of this summer, the fall weather is welcoming. The cooler weather encourages more time spent outdoors: walking, group activities, taking pictures of the fall colors, sitting on your porch and moments of introspection. It is the perfect time to begin or continue journal writing. Join us in making a journal to celebrate National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This simple hand-bound journal can be used for beginning your first novel, writing important thoughts, remembering an activity or placing photos. After making our journal, we will have supplies to decorate with strip paper painting. Check this list for more journal ideas.
Join us in the Friends Room of the Columbia Public Library from 2-4 p.m. on November 5. Space for this in-person program is limited, so please register.
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 by Jonya
Let’s take a virtual tour of “reportedly” haunted locations in Callaway and Boone Counties; we have many of them between the two counties. And this being a library blog, I want to also encourage you to learn more about these locations. Come in and explore our collections when you finish scaring yourself silly! Continue reading “Let’s Tour Our Haunted Region!”
Posted on Monday, October 17, 2022 by Jonya
You already may know that you can check out a bag of books for your book group. Or a telescope for exploring the night sky. Here is another new type of kit, one I’m especially excited about. This Summer we are adding kits for people who would like to try knitting or crocheting for the first time, or who would like to return to the craft. Yes! I am so happy we are offering these physical kits. They live at Columbia Public Library and can be interlibrary loaned to any of the other regional branches.
These kits are made possible by the Verna Wulfekammer bequest. Continue reading “Fiber Art Kits”
Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 by Reading Addict
In “The Sum of Us” Heather McGhee says, “The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time. In the 1920s, towns and cities tried to outdo one another by building the most elaborate pools; in the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration put people to work building hundreds more… Officials envisioned the distinctly American phenomenon of the grand public resort pools as ‘social melting pots.’ Like free public grade schools, public pools were part of an ’Americanizing’ project intended to overcome ethnic divisions and cohere a common identity — and it worked.” It worked, she conceded, until integration arrived. Continue reading “The Sum Of Us and a Reflection on the WPA”
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2022 by Jonya
Do you have memories of your parents or grandparents canning and preserving and then serving up that food to you? I do. My maternal grandmother canned just about everything. In my turn, I used to can tomatoes and beans. Opening a jar of tomatoes in January (in Minnesota!) was a joy because the entire kitchen smelled of summer for a brief time. Green beans from my small garden were not as popular with the family, unfortunately, but I still canned them for soups. This work made me feel closer to my canning ancestors, who didn’t waste anything and who had to can if they wanted to enjoy summer harvests in the cold winter months.
Want to give it a try? If you don’t have a garden, farmer’s markets are a great source. I know we are through berries and maybe done with green beans. Apples, beets, peaches and corn are still available as well as all of the pickling vegetables. Meat and soups can be canned any time you find a great sale somewhere. Continue reading “Canning the Summer Harvest to Eat Well in Winter”
Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 by DBRL_Katie
I first got my start with gardening through the generosity of others. Many plant lovers have a propensity for hoarding enthusiastic accrual that knows no end, and the upkeep creates plentitude as well. Between an abundance of seasonal produce, seed saving, dividing perennial bulbs, keeping the sprawling rhizomes in check, rooting eligible cuttings after a good pruning or simply gaining wisdom, plant parents always have something to share. Continue reading “Take a Plant, Leave a Plant”
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2022 by cs
I received a letter last month from a good friend. We talk frequently on the phone, so I was surprised to find something in my mailbox. Yet, it felt special and I actually re-read it several times. Letter writing and card sending have decreased due to the digital age, but it certainly is fun to receive a letter. And fun to send one. In the spirit of promoting the art of sending letters, we have created a fun activity for this month: pressed flower note cards.
We will supply pressed flowers for you, but pressing them yourself is easy to do. With fall approaching, you will soon have the opportunity to press leaves as well. The library has a collection of books to help you with this and you can easily find instructions on the internet. Along with the flowers, your kit has a notecard and envelope, Mod Podge, paint brush and instructions. If I haven’t convinced you to send a note, try framing it instead.
These kits will be available on September 23 while they last in all of our branches. You may pick them up at the Reference Desk at the Columbia library and near the service desks at our other branches.
Posted on Friday, September 9, 2022 by MaggieM
Getting involved with the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas survey this year has turned me into a pollinator super fan and wanna-be entomologist. It quickly became apparent that identifying local bumble bees would not be enough to satisfy my addiction. There were so many non-bumble bee insects on the plants in my yard, and everywhere else I looked. I needed to know more.
I put in a request for the library to purchase two new books that had been favorably reviewed in the New York Times. Any Daniel Boone Regional Library cardholder can suggest a book for purchase, and our acquisitions team does their best to fulfill it.
“Wasps: a Guide for Eastern North America,” and “Bees: an Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide,” by Heather Holm arrived, and went straight to my holds shelf and then home with me. Both these books provide detailed, in-depth information while still remaining accessible to amateur observers. I highly recommend them! Continue reading “Watch Out for Wasps!”