Blog Entries

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Missouri River Regional Library summer reading program is being simplified, and the reading log is moving online, via READsquared. Online registration and logging on READsquared is a simple process, and is accessible via web browser, Apple app, or Android app. In 2020, the summer reading program will run from June 1st to August 7th. 

Missouri River Regional Library will begin the process of reopening physical locations over the next 3 weeks. The Library staff and board will continue to monitor the situation and adjust dates as needed moving forward. As of May 13, 2020, the reopening plan is as follows:

Anytime there is a crisis, it can be hard on everyone, but it is especially hard on individuals with a mental illness.  Here are a few ideas for those living with a mental illness, but that could also be valuable to anyone.

First, make sure you have plenty of medication.  Do not wait until the last minute to order medication as it may take longer for the pharmacy to fill your request.  The same is true for any groceries you may need.

Remember what it felt like when you received your very first library card? Like me, maybe you were seven or eight years old and although you may not have comprehended it completely at such a young age, holding that card in your hand felt like you were holding the whole world!

Library cards have been around for a long time, probably since the 19^th century, when it became necessary to register library patrons and to connect those patrons with the books they borrowed.

Missouri River Regional Library will begin the process of reopening physical services in the coming weeks. The Library staff and board will continue to monitor the situation and adjust dates as needed moving forward. As of May 4, 2020, the reopening plan is as follows:

Cough drops are surprisingly easy to make at home. The nice thing is you can customize them to what you like. These are made with ginger, cinnamon and cloves, but you could substitute any flavors you like. You could even just leave them honey and lemon. 

When I was a child, I remember my mom keeping an older set of glass Coca Cola bottles in the garage that we got out on occasion to play with.  We usually made them musical, filling with water and blowing over them like flutes, or clinking them with spoons.  We felt super accomplished if we could fill the water just right to make the notes for an actual tune like “Row Row Your Boat.”

Kathlene Woodruff Named 2020 Library Volunteer of the Year

As part of National Library Week, Missouri River Regional Library will honor Kathlene Woodruff as the 2020 Library Volunteer of the Year. Woodruff served on the MRRL Foundation for 6 years, and was the President of the organization from 2017-2019.  

In an effort to continue to provide some of the events and programming that our community loves so much, we will begin to offer some of our programs virtually beginning the week of March 23, 2020. We will continue to update this post with links as they are created.

Our plan moving forward is to create Facebook events for all virtual programs, and post the videos in those events. For programs that require interaction (like book clubs, etc) we will post a link to a virtual platform that community members can click on to join. 

We wanted to be sure that our schools and parents know about the resources that we have available for digital learning during this unprecedented time. We know many teachers and students are having to adopt virtual education measures, and we have some unique resources that can help with that...for free! We also ask that you forward this on to any other teachers or parents that could utilize these resources.

In an effort to decrease risk among customers and staff during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, all Missouri River Regional Library buildings and outreach services (including the bookmobile) will be closed after 9:00pm on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 until further notice. This has been a difficult decision for the Library, but it has been made considering all of the best advice from federal and state public health officials.

I have been called odd my entire life.  Growing up, when people used the word “odd” it was meant as a negative connotation.  Today the word “odd” could go either way, but most people use it in a positive way.  I don’t mind being called odd because it shows I have my own identity.  Now people say, “a special snowflake” instead of odd.  But, the great thing about snowflakes is their individuality and when they gather together, snowflakes can stop the world (both people snowflakes and winter snowflakes.)

The Library recently hosted a program on making your own Beeswax Wraps as part of our monthly series on DIY Homesteading.

It’s a common enough scenario: you rent a time machine and set the dial to your favorite era in history. Just for a little sightseeing, you know? Instead your malfunctioning time machine hurls you back hundreds of thousands of years into the past and refuses to budge once you’re there. You are stuck somewhere in the past, with no way to return to the future and no one around to sue. What do you do next?