A key part of the library’s core mission is helping children develop a love of reading. Studies have proven that reading achievement contributes to academic success, employment opportunities and a more fulfilling life — and your library team is here to help!

Before moving to Boone County in the 1970s, Jacqueline Kelly taught cultural geography to junior high school students, served as the university director of pre-college programs for high school students (Upward Bound) and worked for the State of Missouri as a management consultant. She earned both her MBA and doctorate from MU. She has served on several boards with the City of Columbia and the Trulaske College of Business at MU as well as volunteering on MU’s Black History Month Committee and the Missouri University Retiree Association’s scholarship committee.

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.