Blog Entries

Missouri River Regional Library will join with libraries across the nation in celebrating National Library Week April 23-29, 2023.  This is the 65th year that libraries have celebrated NLW. 

We have exciting news at Missouri River Regional Library! On Tuesday, April 18th our Board of Trustees voted to place Proposition Library on the August 8th ballot in Cole County. 

Prop L is an increase to the Library’s operating levy for the purpose of renovating and expanding the main library building in Cole County and increasing library collections, services, and programs. This will help expand library services for young children, students, seniors, small business owners, and others. Prop L would result in an average 2.5% property tax increase for most households.

Did you know that recycling materials such as paper, plastic, and electronics are good for the environment? However, did you also know that a low percentage of those materials are actually able to be recycled? One of the reasons for that is something called “wish-cycling,” people placing something in a recycling bin because they hope that it can actually be recycled, or it looks like it should be able to be recycled.

Missouri River Regional Library will honor Claudia Visnich as the 2022 Library Volunteer of the Year at the annual MRRL Friends meeting on January 28th at 10am at Missouri River Regional Library. Visnich has served as the MRRL Friends President the last two years and was an active member prior to that.

It’s that time of year again! Time to make the annual trek to the County Collector’s office to pay taxes. Between the cost of this and Christmas, our bank accounts are lighter at the end of the year. As you take the time to review your bill this month, please note the taxes you pay to support Missouri River Regional Library (MRRL). Twenty cents is levied per $100 assessed valuation of your personal property/real estate taxes. This is the formula used to determine the amount of library tax you owe.

Many of our patrons may remember when the library rented the old Highway Administration building at 209 Adams Street, including the entire parking lot for patron and staff use. When library staff moved from that building in 2019 and the County purchased it, the library began renting spaces from them.  Over the last couple of years, the County has needed more parking for their own staff and the library has had to be adaptable.

Whether it be the customer service you receive in person or over the phone, to our programming offerings, or even how you search for a book in our catalog, the patron experience is something I take very seriously as the director of this library.  For many years, the way you search for materials on our catalog website has been the same. This has its advantages --- it’s familiar, you have it bookmarked, it does what you expect it to do, right?

Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen By Niki Lenz centers its story around the titular character, Bernice Buttman, the youngest child in a family of troublemakers living in a trailer park in Kansas City, Missouri. With four older brothers who only care about making mischief and a momma who only cares about getting rich and famous, Bernice has learned to take care of herself the only way she knows how: bullying others and lying.

This Place of Promise: A Historian’s Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History by Gary R. Kremer has been chosen for Missouri River Regional Library’s 17th annual Capital READ.  Conceived of as a way to commemorate Missouri’s bicentennial of statehood, this unique work presents the perspective of Gary Kremer, one of the Show-Me State’s foremost historians, as he ponders why history played out as it did over the course of the two centuries since Missouri’s admittance to the Union. 

Recently I helped someone who was looking for news articles about a childhood friend. Could the library help with that?

Yes. Yes we can.

If you have ever searched for a newspaper article online, you probably have run into the paywall that protects much of that information.

One way around that is to get a free account to Newspapers.com. Only trouble is, that is a one-time (and one week) option and if you forget to cancel it (if you’re like me!) the meter starts running pretty quickly.

When you read the phrase “invisible library,” you might think that this post is somehow Halloween-related.

Not true. Instead, it refers to something that may not be on our shelves, but is still available to you.

Interested? Read on!

It’s always fun to create something unique and formed by your own burgeoning skills! Sometimes the hardest decision can simply be which avenue to pursue first. Even among the crafters of the world, there are so many types of art and media to learn and love and express yourself with. The joy of creating a silk dyed scarf or learning to paint in watercolors or making your first quilt are only limited by your time, access to material, and teachers. If you are crafter, then carving out time to work on your inspirations is as important as taking time to sleep and eat!

Anyone with a Missouri River Regional Library card can now enjoy thousands of free videos from Kanopy, a company committed to streaming high-quality films that inspire, educate and entertain to libraries around the globe. Kanopy’s unique selection offers something for everyone, from award winning indie films to important and timely documentaries, to foreign films, popular cinema, children’s shows and more.  

You will need:

(updated 3/22/22)

Last fall the front of the library had a strange sign: We are not currently accepting donations. 

When we recently had our March Used Book Sale (and the pop-up sales we held in the Art Gallery) it has allowed us to once again take donations. Even then, we do not take everything. Encyclopedias, textbooks, magazines, VHS tapes (except for Disney movies in the original cases) are some of the items that we say "No thanks" to.