MenomonieLibrarian

For five summers, Music Over Menomin has provided free music for the Menomonie community on the shores of scenic Lake Menomin.

Hello tumblr! 

It's been a while, sorry about that. My library has launched a Kickstarter project to raise money for our summer concert series, Music Over Menomin. Each summer we host a variety of musicians every week for free on our lawn, and this year we're trying to fund this super popular program in a new way. As a bonus, we're hosting free classes for our patrons on Kickstarter as our project progresses! 

We'd appreciate some help getting the word out! 

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and whether or not you adore Valentine’s Day or are gearing up to boycott yet another “Hallmark” holiday, remember to keep us in your hearts.

If you love your library, you love so much more than the books it houses. You love the idea of sharing knowledge, the sharing of emotions across time and space, and sharing a good book with your best friend — in fact, you love the idea of sharing itself.

If you love your library, you love more than the brick-and-mortar building that holds our materials. You love the sometimes-quiet, sometimes-noisy space inside, the way you can be totally alone but never lonely as you sit in a comfy chair by the windows, and the staff’s familiar faces.

If you love your library, you love knowing you can usually find an answer somewhere inside. But you also love the classes we teach, the programs we offer, and our willingness to go above and beyond to find that obsure book you heard of once, that one book with the red cover you read that one time. You know, the book about that one guy? Yeah, we love helping you find it, because when we do you’re so happy!

But most importantly, if you really love your library, you know that its true value is immeasurable. Every year we face hard choices about cutting back our materials, our programs, and our services. We rely on the love of our patrons to volunteer their time, give us gently-used books, and bestow generous monetary gifts so that we can continue to provide a wonderful library for our wonderful patrons.

So, whether Valentine’s Day is something you embrace with hearts, roses, and chocolates, or it’s a day you hide under your blankets (with chocolates and a good book, of course), rememember that we need your love, too.

Throughout February we’ll have a “love”-ly display of books about love, romance, and relationships for your perusal. Stop in for a good book, a Tuesday afternoon film, or some tech help. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hello world! I don't expect this to reach many people, partly because I have 17 followers (thanks, guys!) and partly because I haven't been a very active tumblarian. But this issue has recently become important for my library and library system, so I figured I'd try to start a conversation here, first.

Some libraries (I won't name names, but it's really a nation-wide, if not world-wide, issue) seem to avoid the problem with mature games (and when I say "mature", I mean they have an ESRB rating M) by simply not purchasing them at all. Since the majority of gamers are adults, I have two issues with this kind of policy:

1) it greatly reduces the number of games adult patrons might enjoy. This is not to say that patrons of all ages don't enjoy games rated EC to T, but there are many great games out there with an M rating that are inaccessible because libraries aren't buying them.

2) it assumes gamers of all ages can and should only play games rated T for teen and under. This is a form of censorship since it is not the library's job to say what a patron, whatever his or her age, can or cannot check out: if a patron is a minor, it is his or her parent/guardian's duty to monitor what gets checked out and come up with a policy that suits their family and household needs.

I'm looking for advice, opinions, examples, anything at all for and against adding Mature games to library collections. I realize there are some great resources out there already, but believe it or not some of them are already outdated. I'm looking for fresh opinions!

Here are some topics I'd like addressed:

-Video game collection development policies ---Resources for game selection ---Who buys them? -Do you divide collections based on audience? How much? Juvenile and adult? Juvenile, teen, and adult? All in teen? All in adult? -Why do you/don't you purchase Mature games? What ratings do you purchase if not all? -Issues you've run into with your video game collections, or trying to start one -Any other experiences that are relevant to this issue -Current resources you are aware of (and use) -If you want to reply to me directly, please send me a message through tumblr

A group of concerned citizens called Friends of the Red Cedar Basin has rallied around a plan in development by Dr. Scott McGovern to address water quality issues of Tainter