Posted on Friday, August 7, 2026 by Dana
Summer is winding down and school is just around the corner!
Here’s a few tips to help get you get ready, even if it’s the last thing you want to do. Continue reading “Ready or Not, School is Coming”
Posted on Monday, August 3, 2026 by Megan
We are excited to announce that we have the winners of this year’s Teen Photo Contest! We had 22 entries and they were all outstanding! The teens have submitted their photographic interpretations of this year’s Summer Reading theme, “Unearth a Story,”™ and after much deliberation, we have selected this year’s winners. Below are the top three winners. Continue reading “Teen Photo Contest Winners 2026”
Posted on Wednesday, July 22, 2026 by Dana
The library is hosting its annual cosplay event on Monday, July 27, and it is one of my very favorite programs.
Cosplay is a contraction of the words costume + play. It is a performance art in which participants wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. These characters can come from anywhere: movies, comic books, video games, cartoons, or an original character. Cosplay was born from the love of fandoms in the 1960s, but it has grown in scope.
Our cosplay contest will be fun and low-pressure, but there are people who spend a lot of time and talent on cosplay. Some have even made a career out of it. Whether they work in cosplay construction, photography, or paid work at convention booths, there is the potential to make money.
There are cosplay contests held all over the world. But it’s not just about how good your outfit looks. How accurate is it? How much of it did you make yourself? And there is the performance aspect: do you walk and talk and interact with the crowd like your character would?
Cosplay is fun for all ages, from the tiniest baby Spiderman to the older, wiser (?) Ms. Frizzle. We have four age categories, a group category, and tons of great prizes. Registration begins at 6:00 p.m., and the runway show and judging will follow at 6:30 p.m.
Photo by @alex.ryan.hunter
Posted on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 by Grae
You may already know that this summer we’ve been unearthing all kinds of stories for Summer Reading 2026.
(If you somehow didn’t know Summer Reading has been happening, as perhaps you have been living under a rock and intentionally not unearthing anything whatsoever 🪨🙃, never fear! You have until August 2nd to finish your tracker to redeem a free mini planter and a chance to win big in our grand prize drawing. 📚📝🤓🆓🪴🎇🎁)
For many of us in #libraryland, we have been taking this year’s theme quite literally, focusing our decor and programming on what lies unseen beneath our feet. In particular, we have been focused on the fossil record and the awe-inspiring remnants of our world’s ancient past — like DINOSAURS!!! — although the geologic past holds tiny treasures, too, many of which you can find in the creeks, rivers and bluffs of Missouri’s own state parks system. Continue reading “Urban Fossils 🐚🌆”
Posted on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 by Dana
Posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 by Grae
I’ve always had a HUGE sweet tooth and have my mother to thank for this: as the family lore goes, when carrying me to term in the summer of my birth, she devoured an entire peach pie by herself. #GoodForHer #HappyBelatedMothersDay 💖🍑💖
But a very unwelcome bodily change hit me around my early twenties: though I LOVE candy in all its sugary forms, I can no longer digest most of it. While I’ve since made peace with my body’s dietary shift, there is still a part of me that is always searching for a lil treat to fill the sour gummy worm hole in the dirt cup that is my heart. On my journey into alternative candies, I’ve been delighted to discover that candied citrus peel 1. doesn’t upset my tender digestive disposition and 2. is actually pretty easy to make yourself via a little kitchen witchery! Texturally, the candied peel is wonderfully chewy (but not tacky) and both tastes and looks quite vibrant all on its own. Moreover, if your own dietary journey requires less sugar, since you’re candying the peel yourself, you get to decide how much sugar to add &/or whether to use a sugar-substitute, like sucralose or stevia.
After consulting a few recipes available in DBRL’s vast cookbook collection (which can be found at the nonfiction call number 641.5 in the Children’s, Teen and Adult areas!), I landed on a quick, straightforward version from Marie Asselin‘s “Simply Citrus,” which is currently available as an eBook on hoopla. Let’s get into it!
Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 by Dana
The flowers are blooming, the weather is getting nice, and it’s time to get outside! Or maybe read books about being outside! Or both!
Whether you’re outdoorsy or outsidey, we’ve got a book for you!
Posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 by Grae
Happy Spring! While I am more of a #winterwitch myself, I will begrudgingly admit that there is something lowkenuinely pleasing (and grounding and cleansing) about the re-greening of the world that happens every March-April-May. And I do adore how the woods and fields transform into live-action seek-and-finds with the sudden blooming of the first wildflowers and flowering weeds, like dead nettle and dandelion and wild sweet william and false rue anemone. So, to celebrate the arrival of spring, which is also the survival of winter, I have a really simple, yet stunning botanical craft to share with you. Consider this your introduction to Nature Printing 101! Continue reading “Nature Printing 101 🌸🎨”
Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2026 by Dana
At the Daniel Boone Regional Library, preparation for March Madness began in the early winter months when we announced our list of 16 of our most popular young adult books. The tournament got heated as those titles were seeded and faced off in head-to-head competition. Each week in March, teens voted to narrow down the list of contenders until a single title emerged as the Mid-Missouri teen book champion!
Thanks to everyone who participated! If you voted, winners of the prizes will be contacted next week!
After months of voting and some major upsets, the title to emerge as the 2026 champion is…
Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 by DBRLTeen
In conjunction with our Americans and the Holocaust exhibition, the Daniel Boone Regional Library Archives created a special collection of local news coverage between 1933 and 1945, documenting Nazi atrocities against Jews.
In February 1942, the Columbia Daily Tribune published an essay written by local sophomore Bernard Sigoloff. His winning essay spoke to the different realities of Jewish civil rights at home and in Europe. In the following years, he would serve in WWII on the US Carpelotti as a part of the Navy. Continue reading “Americans and the Holocaust: Local Essay Winner From 1942”
