Blog Entries

(Spoiler Alert: No)

Many of our phone calls and more than an occasional patron ask variations of the same question:

I was trying to (insert action here) and it said – voice rising questioningly -- my library card had expired?

Sometimes it is followed by the secondary question: Have you guys canceled my account?

Good news! Unless it has been a number of years since you have last used your library card, the answer is “no” – you are not canceled, just in a time out.

So what happened?

Supplies Needed:  Washable project paints or liquid food coloring, baby shampoo or bubble bath, corn starch and water.

Utensils Needed: Mixing bowl, measuring cups/spoons, spoon, paint brush or brushes.

Extra Supplies: Paint palette, small silicon muffin pan, plastic divided container, or small plastic bottles/cups.

Compulsion rules Collin’s life. He can’t stop himself from counting the number of letters in words spoken to
him. Nor can he stop himself from announcing those totals to the speaker. If he tries to stop, he becomes
overwhelmed. Life has been extremely difficult for Collin because of his struggle with Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder. He has been raised first by his grandparents and then his father, but his OCD has made him too
much for them to handle. His grandparents gave up on him very early on, and now his father has finally

Possible Supplies Needed:  Washable project paints, cardstock or mixed media paper, canvas panels, painter’s tape, scissors, quart and gallon plastic bags, and plastic wrap.

This activity provides multiple sensory experiences while creating something that can be used as a gift from the toddler. They will touch and feel the cool of the paint and how smooth it is. They can see the different colors and how they blend. Plus, they practice their fine motors skills and learn about cause-and-effect, all of this while creating a final picture that can become a gift from them.

There is a new resource available to Missouri River Regional Library cardholders! 

Reference Solutions is the number one source of information on businesses and people specifically designed for small business owners, marketing professionals, researchers, and job seekers.

Cardholders can use it to create marketing plans, conduct competitive analysis, raise funds and locate people. And even better, it's free!

Use the Business Database to:

A free notary public is available at Missouri River Regional Library in the Jefferson City location. 

The weekly schedule is subject to change. To confirm availability, please call (573) 634-2464. 

I like presents, but confess I am a horrible wrapper. No matter how much care I take in positioning the gift, getting the folds just right, even finding a bow that matches, it’s a disaster. The edges don’t line up, the tape bunches up, the corner rips through the paper, I’m still 1/8 of an inch short — trust me, it’s not a pretty sight.

Fortunately, a lesson my mom taught me about wrapping presents for the holidays not only minimizes the paper carnage, but it is a lot of fun as well:

Don’t.

Join us for a new series: Holiday How-To! We are planning to share some fun holiday ideas with you all season long. 

When the leaves start falling and there's a chill in the air, you know it’s bonfire season! And what goes better with bonfires than s’mores?

The Library has chosen Elise Hooper’s historical fiction, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team, as this year’s community read, known as Capital READ and now in its 15th year.  

Hooper has written a thoroughly absorbing historical fiction novel with about the history of the first women’s Olympic Team, the athletic training involved, and the journey to the exciting, yet tension-filled 1936 games in Berlin, Nazi Germany.

The book centers on three main “real-life” women and a host of others who make this book so appealing. 

Make your own infinity cube! 

Supplies Needed:
-48 square pieces of paper (we went with 3x3 inches); the infinity cube is composed of 8 blocks that use 6 pieces of paper each. You could do it all in one color, have each box be a different color (6 squares each of 8 different colors), or have multi-colored cubes as we do in the video (8 squares each of 6 different colors). You could even come up with your own combinations, so long as your total number of squares is 48. 
-scotch tape

World history has a gaping hole. There exist few well-known women in a world of documents, literature, and bardic traditions that placed men in the forefront of action, science, and renown. The women who did make their way into the history books are known to different degrees depending on how much fame they received over time.

Supplies Needed: Small bottle filled with a cup of colored rice, beans & rice, corn, or birdseed. Small baggie with letter beads, wooden beads, colored beads, and buttons.

Possible Additional Supplies: Additional small buttons, beads, rubber bands, coins, toys, etc., additional bottles of various sizes & shapes, small funnel (top of water bottle works too), sealing item (super glue, hot glue, gorilla glue, or duct tape).

Since 2006, I've led a book discussion group called Fiction at Noon with my coworker Kathy (now retired). We are lucky to still have most of the original participants and have added new friends along the way.

This year, we proposed a year of mystery to the groups and, as a result, have read the works of several good mystery writers. Two of my favorites this year have been "Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz and "Test of Wills" by Charles Todd.

Has the global pandemic caused you to never again want to deal with being stuck in a confined space?

Hold on there; consider the wonders of an escape room.

The deadline to register for the August 4th election has passed, but if you have registered, all of the information you might need for voting in the age of Covid-19 is below from www.vote.org. Of course, this information will apply to the election on November 3rd as well, and you can register for that election until October 7th.