Daniel Boone Regional Library was just named one of the three Kindness to Youth Award honorees by Children’s Grove and Missouri Business Alert! Other honorees in this category are LBO Sports and Powerhouse Community Development. We appreciate that others in our community recognize what the library does every day to help our youth.

Research conducted by many different organizations across the world points to the importance of young children having books where they live and play. Through reading and storytelling, kids begin to understand language, learn new words and develop their imaginations — all important skills to have when they enter school.
As a library, we strongly believe and support what these studies find, so we offer a wealth of books for preschoolers. We also understand the time and financial constraints many families face and the difficulties they may have getting to the library, visiting the bookmobile or purchasing books for themselves. Since 2010, we’ve been taking books to where many kids spend their days: child care centers.

Since school was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, many youngsters have fallen behind in their education. If your student would benefit from additional instruction or tutoring, take advantage of free learning services available through the library.

Our streaming movie service Kanopy is changing its system beginning November 1.  Instead of 12 movies per month, you’ll now get 36 tickets to use each month. Each movie will be assigned a ticket value, so some will be two tickets and others may be more.

We are very proud of librarian Lauren Williams, adult and community services manager at the Columbia Public Library, who won the Ronald G. Bohley Award in October at the Missouri Library Association (MLA) conference for her work furthering library cooperation..

Come see a sample “bojagi” tapestry, a traditional Korean textile form, at the Columbia Public Library for a limited time. The 18-by-6-foot art piece, made from reclaimed fabric remnants on silk, is on loan from the Gateway Korea Foundation in partnership with the St. Louis Art Museum.

All of the facilities in the Daniel Boone Regional Library system will be closed Monday, October 9, 2023 for a Staff Development Day. This includes:

• Callaway County Public Library
• Columbia Public Library
• Holts Summit Public Library
• Southern Boone County Public Library

In our April newsletter, I shared one of our Strategic Plan goals relating to sustainability. Another important element of our current plan is devoted to the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. This focus is both timely and necessary. Public libraries have always strived to provide a welcoming space for everyone in the community, and to host a collection that reflects the needs and wants of residents.

You may have heard of the Virginia Young Room at the Columbia Public Library, or maybe you’re familiar with the bronze bust in that room bearing her name. This level of recognition is an indication of what an important role Virginia G. Young played in making the Daniel Boone Regional Library the place you enjoy today.

You finally get some down time and settle into a comfortable seat and read. You may be alone or with a companion also reading or engaged in a quiet activity. You’re in your own little world. Or are you?
Where is that book transporting you? Are you on a spy mission in France? Learning to navigate the world as an autistic teenager? Trekking across an unknown countryside to a better life?
Reading fiction or nonfiction connects us with people living in different places, time periods and cultures, and introduces us to new experiences and viewpoints.