Blog entries for Latest News

What I’m excited about right now: Remembering Jerry Garcia on his 80th birthday

August 1, 2022

At the time of Jerry Garcia’s death on Aug. 9, 1995, he held the distinction of having performed live before more people than any other musician in history, both as a member of the Grateful Dead (the most successful concert band in music history) and in his solo career. I count myself very fortunate to have been able to see Garcia perform with the Dead once, just five weeks before Garcia died, and now, 27 years later, I’m excited about celebrating his 80th birthday on August 1. Numerous celebrations across the country are planned around this event. https://jambands.com/news/2022/06/23/american-institutions-to-honor-jerry-garcias-80th-birthday-yankee-stadium-blue-note-napa-and-jgf-archival-launch/ There are...

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What I’m excited about right now: Collecting, memories of summer reading at MPL

June 24, 2022

What am I passionate about? This question makes me think about my many collections. I have a Wonder Woman collection because who doesn’t want to have an invisible jet? As a mom I have always enjoyed the fantasy of getting into my invisible jet and escaping from the kids, the cooking, the cleaning – for just a few minutes peace! However, my costume would be much more modest than what Lynda Carter or Gal Gadot wear. I’m more the yoga pants and t-shirt type. Another collection I have are Funko Pop figures. I don’t know what it is about these...

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What I’m excited about right now: Alpine Climbing

May 27, 2022

After leafing through a Mountain West travel guide in 2018, my significant other and I took that year’s week-long summer vacation in Leadville, Colorado. Situated in a valley next to the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains, Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States at 10,152 feet above sea level. It’s a quirky town with only a couple thousand residents and prides itself on things like being the second leg of the Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation’s Triple Crown race. This basically involves a pack burro/racing donkey and a runner tethered together for a 15 or 21 mile...

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What I’m excited about right now: Enhancing library learning, outreach with tech tools

April 28, 2022

  I am excited about using state-of-the-art media engines to develop new ways to connect people with information. From the library, we are innovating modern gateways that support learning, offer literacy and local heritage, and enable all-ages access to diverse library services.  Channel 5 has become so much more than a local cable channel as we have designed a smart TV app for Roku and AppleTV.  We have created a portal to the channel available on the musserpubliclibrary.org website that is easy to view 24/7. We have implemented a Video on Demand (VOD) system that allows our content to be...

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What I’m excited about right now: a band book and a banned book

April 1, 2022

In my job, I see many books and media come and go, and I’ve found a lot that I enjoy in my personal life. These include psychology books and cookbooks, biographies, graphic novels, art books, etc. I use the cookbooks at home with my fiancee to learn about cooking and get ideas about meals we can make together. We are also interested in psychology, and I enjoy learning about the human mind and mental health. Currently, I am reading a biography about musician Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. Titled The Storyteller, Grohl’s book is inspirational and a great example of...

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What I’m excited about right now: Overdrive and Libby app

March 8, 2022

What I’m excited about right now is discovering the Libby app and the Overdrive collection of e-books and e-audiobooks. It’s free, and all that is needed is a library card and a computer, smartphone or tablet. You can start from anywhere and use the materials anywhere. What a treasure trove! Through the Libby app or the Musser Public Library website, it’s easy to borrow any electronic books and e-magazines in the Rivershare system – our partner libraries eastern Iowa. The Libby App is accessible through the iOS App Store on Apple devices or the Google Play Store on Android devices....

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Want a Successful Holiday Meal That Impresses? You Need to Check Out These Recipes!

November 3, 2021

I know food is on everyone’s mind and November/December are the months to show off what dishes you like and what family dishes are served at the holidays. If you are having troubles coming up with “new” dishes, why not come to the Musser Public Library and check out our cookbook section. We feature everything from Trisha Yearwood’s cookbooks to Rachel Ray’s collection. We have very technical cookbooks with ingredients most people have never heard of to the book from the local church with Grandma’s recipe for bread pudding. “The perfect cookie for every occasion. Cookies are the treat that...

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From the Skeleton’s Mouth – Spooky Tales You Absolutely Need This October

September 30, 2021

Hey there horror fans, this is Kimi and I’ll be sharing some spooky materials to chill your bones all the way through October! I don’t know about you, but horror has always been my grisly cup of tea. Ever since I was a kid, I grew up watching horror films (Chucky was my favorite movie as a child. I swear I’m now a mostly sane individual.) I would frequent the school library shelves searching for chapter books about ghosts, vampires, and werewolves (totally before Twilight was cool by the way.) No joke, I was called voodoo girl by some rather...

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Summer Reading is Here!

June 1, 2021

Summer Reading 2021 will be taking kids, teens, and families on quests of their choosing through City of Muscatine parks. Musser Library will be teaming up this year with Parks and Recreation to get families into the library and back out into the sunshine in search of fun, challenges and prizes. “Summer Quest 2021” encourages all ages to read for pleasure, and to build their brains as well as their bodies during vacation from school. As always, participants may read books to earn prizes; and this year they can also choose to select a Summer Reading Quest to unlock clues...

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Bob Dylan’s Birthday Month

May 3, 2021

Most patrons of Musser Public Library would be surprised to learn that of the two Americans who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the 21st Century, one of them is my greatest musical hero, Bob Dylan, who was so honored in 2016.  Arguably the most influential American artist of the 2nd half of the 20th Century, Dylan will turn 80 on May 24th, an event that has already spawned a new round of books and celebrations. For anyone wanting to learn the facts of Dylan’s life and career, among the biographies available I’d recommend Howard Sounes’ 2001 Down...

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