Let me introduce a sweet little book titled “The Box that Watch Found,” created by Gertrude Chandler Warner. As the story opens, the Boxcar Children are playing Frisbee. It flies into the woods! While searching they find a treasure box with the note “Official Geocache. Congratulations! You found it!” but having never heard of geocaching they decide to take the box home to investigate. Fortunately, Ned Robertson and his son Andy were looking for that particular box and were able to introduce the Aldens to the activity. The rest of the book is an interaction between the children and other geocachers (plus TWO mysteries) as well as an introduction to how to do this and why you should and what to expect. This book was written in 2007 and everyone used a GPS device, yet much is the same now. In 2023, you can use a GPS device or an app on your smartphone. There are still geocaching groups and clubs and events. I believe the types of caches have expanded into educational caches and more but all-in-all, it’s the same game. Continue reading “Explore Your World With Geocaching”
“Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories,” is the theme for Women’s History Month this year, and I don’t think they could have picked a better theme.
At our core, humans are creatures of stories. Long before the written word, we used oral storytelling to convey important information and ideas and most importantly, meaning. Whether you write advertising copy, political speeches, novels or text books, effective communicators know that people learn best through stories. To resonate with people you have to have a compelling narrative. This is why it is vital to have women’s voices in all corners of our society. This includes, but isn’t limited to, books. So let’s start with women authors. Continue reading “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”
When the first Kentucky Derby ran in May of 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were Black Americans. Oliver Lewis, a 19-year-old Black man rode the winning horse. The horse’s trainer Ansel Williamson had been born into slavery in the mid-19th century. In 1864, Williamson had been purchased by Robert Alexander, owner of Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, where he worked as a trainer for the Woodburn horses. After emancipation, Williamson continued training horses. After his win at the first Kentucky Derby Williamson trained many more stakes winners.
Poetry is a form of expression that allows us to explore our own feelings and thoughts while being transported by the poet’s vision. It can be put to music, it can be written on walls. It inspires all ages and has endured through the ages.
As part of the library’s Winter Reading program “Take Time to Care” we are providing relaxation kits that you can pick up for someone who needs a little TLC. Feel free to pick up one for yourself, too. These kits include yoga for the brain activity cards, links to free relaxation music through the library’s Freegal platform, lavender sachets, adult coloring pages and techniques for meditation, stress reduction, and mindfulness, along with other library resources.
These kits will be available while they last in all of our branches on Friday, February 10. You may pick them up at the second-floor reference desk at the Columbia library and near the service desks at our other branches. You can also try these library resources for more assistance in self-care. We hope this helps you “Take Time to Care.”
In the summer of 2020, right at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my daughters and I started volunteering for Loaves and Fishes at Turning Point in Columbia, as people were needed to help serve food there and many volunteers had opted out because of the pandemic. Turning Point, which is housed in the Wilkes Blvd. United Methodist Church, is one of the main day shelters for those experiencing homelessness in the Columbia area. Every evening at 5:30 a meal is served. This act of service was a really great fit for me.
In 2018, I attended Ryan Dowd’s Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness training in Joplin, Missouri. I’ve since become very interested in assisting with unsheltered advocacy in the Mid-Missouri area. Ryan Dowd offers profoundly helpful tools for assisting the unsheltered at the library on a professional level as a public librarian, while on a personal level, he also helped me confront my own biases and to understand how unhoused people perceive the world. One of Dowd’s common refrains is this: empathy is the answer. What many people who have never experienced homelessness don’t realize is that most unsheltered persons come from backgrounds of severe poverty and have experienced serious trauma. Many of us can’t even imagine this place. Continue reading “What Volunteering Means to Me: Loaves and Fishes at Turning Point”
Descriptive audio offers you the opportunity to listen to a movie or TV show with all of the actions and scenery described aloud by a narrator. It’s usually a separate track that you can turn on to hear the purely visual aspects of the video. Listening to this track while watching the primary video track allows blind and visually-impaired people to enjoy the movie just as much as all the other people in the room. Some people say it gives them the feeling that they are listening to an audiobook. It also allowed me to enjoy the silent film “Nosferatu” while I was working at my sewing machine. Continue reading “Descriptive Audio”
They say it takes a village to raise a child. But what if you have a child, but you don’t have a village? And whose job is it to make sure that every child really does have a village — a network of loving, safe and supportive adults who can help that child flourish? How can parents continue to advocate for their own children, while also considering the very real needs of other children?
As a parent, I asked myself these questions constantly in the months leading up to my decision to apply to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). I had been looking for an opportunity to get more involved in the mid-Missouri community for some time, but I knew I needed something flexible, something with autonomy, and something that allowed me to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships, especially with other children and families in my community. I found all of this and so much more through volunteer service with Heart of Missouri CASA. Continue reading “What Volunteering Means to Me: Heart of Missouri CASA”
I’m not a shelver, but occasionally I get to do a bit of shelving or something similar. I like it. Some people don’t, and that’s okay. But I love the passage of books through my hands, books that I might not otherwise ever know.
Today’s finds include: “Jane’s Tank and Combat Vehicle Recognition Guide.” Who is Jane? I snapped a photo and sent it to my husband. It’s tempting to take this one home to him (he’s convalescing after a minor, but painful, surgery). I particularly admire the odd, tank-like size and shape of this one (especially compared to its neighbors), a short but thick spine and a long width, almost twice as wide as it’s tall. It’s well-loved, battered even. This book has been thumbed through many, many times, carried in school bags, and who knows what else. It specifically reminds me of a family friend of ours, who as a tween and teen (probably even still) eagerly devoured this sort of information — these might have been the only books he ever picked up.Continue reading “The Joys of Shelving”
It seems to be that time of year when we begin to think of clearing out our accumulated things, and that awful phrase “spring cleaning” enters my head. In lieu of cleaning out the garage, I chose to gather our leftover Crafternoon kits from previous months and have an “Available While They Last” January event. These kits will be available at the Columbia branch only on Friday, January 20. You may pick them up at the reference desk on the second floor. (Just a reminder that these kits are designed for adults and could have things unsafe for children, such as small beads and needles.)
Look for our next Crafternoon-To-Go Kit in February as we participate in the Winter Reading program!
Let me introduce a sweet little book titled “The Box that Watch Found,” created by Gertrude Chandler Warner. As the story opens, the Boxcar Children are playing Frisbee. It flies into the woods! While searching they find a treasure box with the note “Official Geocache. Congratulations! You found it!” but having never heard of geocaching they decide to take the box home to investigate. Fortunately, Ned Robertson and his son Andy were looking for that particular box and were able to introduce the Aldens to the activity. The rest of the book is an interaction between the children and other geocachers (plus TWO mysteries) as well as an introduction to how to do this and why you should and what to expect. This book was written in 2007 and everyone used a GPS device, yet much is the same now. In 2023, you can use a GPS device or an app on your smartphone. There are still geocaching groups and clubs and events. I believe the types of caches have expanded into educational caches and more but all-in-all, it’s the same game. Continue reading “Explore Your World With Geocaching”
When the first Kentucky Derby ran in May of 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were Black Americans. Oliver Lewis, a 19-year-old Black man rode the winning horse. The horse’s trainer Ansel Williamson had been born into slavery in the mid-19th century. In 1864, Williamson had been purchased by Robert Alexander, owner of Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, where he worked as a trainer for the Woodburn horses. After emancipation, Williamson continued training horses. After his win at the first Kentucky Derby Williamson trained many more stakes winners.
