]]> Dan R., Library Services Sun, 24 Jul 2016 11:39:13 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15398 With temperatures expected to reach into the 90s this week, local officials are urging residents to protect themselves from heat-related illness. One way to do that is by coming to the library!

All Marathon County Public Libraries have been designated as official cooling centers -- places where residents without air conditioning can get relief from the extreme heat. We also will have bottled water available. According to the Marathon County Health Department, most heat-related illnesses involve the elderly, individuals who have chronic illnesses, children, athletes and outdoor workers. To prevent risks from excessive heat, the health department suggests people do the following: 

• Seek air-conditioning. If your home does not have air-conditioning, seek areas that do-such as libraries, shopping malls, community/senior centers, grocery stores, movie theatres-during the warmest period of the day. If you must stay in a home without air-conditioning, stay on the lowest floor out of the sunshine. Marathon County area libraries are available as cooling centers for persons needing this service.
   
• Avoid strenuous activities. This is particularly true during the hottest time of the day. Individuals who perform strenuous work during the heat of the day are especially at risk.
   
• Wear light-weight, light-colored clothing. Light colors reflect the sun’s rays better than dark colors, which absorb the heat. Protect the face and head with a wide-brimmed hat.
   
• Check on family members, neighbors and friends who are vulnerable. Move them to air conditioned places if possible.
   
• Drink plenty of fluids. Increase fluid intake even if you are not thirsty.
   
• Never leave pets or people, especially children and infants, unattended in cars during a heat wave.

]]> Ben Krombholz / Library Services Thu, 21 Jul 2016 07:27:42 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15393
Although we will no longer be co-located, we share the desire to bring a new level of interactive and fun learning to our community.  The CMMC will do that, and we’ll continue to work with them on cooperative ways for our organizations to bring the STEM focus to Marathon County’s youth. taking STEM activities out into our communities. We do still applaud the efforts of the Children’s Museum of Marathon County, and we look forward to a productive partnership with them in the future. The CMMC Board of Directors remains optimistic that they will secure a location and remain committed to opening the sought-after children’s museum to serve our community.  Please join me in giving them your support and encouragement as they continue their quest to bring a world-class children’s museum to Marathon County.

Ralph Illick
Director, Marathon County Public Library
 
For more information, visit the Children’s Museum of Marathon County at www.childrensmuseummarathoncounty.org.

[[[PROMO]]]

]]> Ralph Illick / Library Director Mon, 18 Jul 2016 16:34:04 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15292 Hello!

My name is Matthew Derpinghaus, and I’m the new Library Support Services Manager for the Marathon County Public Library. I oversee the areas of Circulation, Shelving, Support (new books, ILL, cataloging, etc.) and technology.

Speaking of technology, did you know that the library commissioned me to purchase and install 138 new Dell computers? The computers were purchased because of the increasing need for patrons and staff alike to have speedier, more reliable machines.

Along with purchasing the new hardware, I also acquired some new software to help with timing and printing. The new software, called CASSIE, simplifies the login and printing process. Although the initial session time has changed from a 2 hour session to a one hour session, it is now possible to extend sessions on the computer sessions indefinitely (provided there is no waiting list).

There are going to be many changes in the technology field at the library for the foreseeable future as we try to accommodate our patrons by keeping up to date with the community’s needs. I’m very happy to have been welcomed so nicely into the Marathon County community and look forward to servicing our community for years to come.

Thank you!

]]> Matthew Derpinghaus / Support Services Thu, 26 May 2016 09:39:24 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15287 Since its debut on April 23, critics and music fans everywhere have been buzzing about "Lemonade," the new visual album by recording artist Beyoncé. Already a music icon and a role model for many women, Beyoncé's "Lemonade" is rumored to be inspired by the singer's own marital troubles with husband Jay-Z and contains themes of female empowerment, marital conflict, betrayal, revenge and independence, all of which have seemed to hit a chord with listeners of the album.

If you're enjoying Beyoncé's serving of "Lemonade," check out the following list of book read-alikes, courtesy Novelist's Book Squad. Each of these titles contains themes similar to those found in "Lemonade," written from the perspective of African-American authors, and can be borrowed through the Marathon County Public Library.

"The Other Woman" by Eric Jerome Dickey – The central couple's biggest challenge is timing: He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they're rapidly drifting apart. When she finds out about his affair-and starts her own-the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it?







 

"72 Hour Hold" by Bebe Moore Campbell – Trina is eighteen and suffers from bi-polar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Frightened by her own child, Keri searches for help, quickly learning that the mental health community can only offer her a seventy-two hour hold. Fed up with the bureaucracy and determined to save her daughter by any means necessary, Keri signs on for an illegal intervention known as The Program, launching them both on a terrifying journey.





 

"Stand Your Ground" by Victoria Christopher Murray – fter a seventeen-year-old African American boy is shot dead by a white man, the boy's mother and the shooter's wife face difficulties.









 

"The Mother" by Yvette Edwards – The unimaginable has happened to Marcia Williams. Her bright and beautiful sixteen-year-old son, Ryan, has been brutally murdered. Consumed by grief and rage, she must bridle her dark feelings and endure something no mother should ever have to experience: she must go to court for the trial of the killer.







 

"Salvage the Bones" by Jesmyn Ward – Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as a teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize pups.






 

"Third Girl from the Left" by Martha Southgate – At the center of this dazzling novel is Angela, a twenty-year-old beauty who leaves the stifling conformity of Oklahoma to search for fame during the rise of blaxploitation cinema in Los Angeles. But for her mother, Mildred, a strait-laced survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, Angela's acting career is unforgivable, and the distance between them grows into a silence that lasts for years







 

"The Women of Brewster Place" by Gloria Naylor – Once the home of poor Irish and Italian immigrants, Brewster Place, a rotting tenement on a dead-end street, now shelters black families. This novel portrays the courage, the fear, and the anguish of some of the women there who hold their families together, trying to make a home.







 

"November Blues" by Sharon M. Draper – A teenaged boy's death in a hazing accident has lasting effects on his pregnant girlfriend and his guilt-ridden cousin, who gives up a promising music career to play football during his senior year in high school.









 

"Revenge of a Not So Pretty Girl" by Carolita Blythe –Fourteen-year-old Faye, an African American living in 1984 Brooklyn, New York, copes with her mother's abuse by stealing with her friends, but when robbing an elderly woman almost turns to murder, she gains an opportunity to learn new truths about life.







 

"The Steep and Thorny Way" by Cat Winters – A sixteen-year-old biracial girl in rural Oregon in the 1920s searches for the truth about her father's death while avoiding trouble from the Ku Klux Klan in this YA historical novel inspired by Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.'








 

"Shadowshaper" by Daniel Jose Older – When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends.

]]> Dan Richter, Library Services Thu, 19 May 2016 11:35:31 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15273 Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road…
- Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”

Whitman had it right: Few experiences in human existence match the freedom, joy and unencumbered madness that a road trip offers. Regardless of a destination (if you have one), the journey from home to wherever “there” is can be fun, enlightening, maybe frustrating too, but it should never be boring. Winding up the engine on the highway, warm air gushing through open windows, music blasting from the speakers? It’s downright American! Our forefathers and foremothers built those highways out there, and every once in a while you have to honor their labor and head down the road apiece.

Along with a decent set of wheels and a decent supply of snacks, every road trip needs music. Some of us older library staff used to spend hours creating mixtapes for our road trips, carefully arranging just the right songs within the confines of a 60- or 90-minute cassette tape – something that can now be accomplished in minutes by loading playlists onto an mp3 player or smartphone.

Whether you're looking to create a playlist or need an all-killer/no-filler full album to pop in as the miles tick past, the Marathon County Public Library can help. We have thousands of CDs available for the next time you hit the road, both within the MCPL system and by request from other libraries in the Wisconsin Valley Library Service network.

We surveyed our staff and put together a list recommendations in no particular order. (Click on the album title to check availability.) Do you have some favorite tunes for road trips? Let us know in the comments!
 
- Bruce Springsteen – Greatest Hits
- David Berg – Welcome to Wisconsin (“He has others but this is one of his best.”)
- Tom Petty – Anthology: Through the Years
- Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home
- Various – Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan (Where else will you hear Sugarland, Bad Religion and Kronos Quartet on the same compilation?)
- The Beatles – Abbey Road (though really, pretty much any Beatles will do)
- Various – Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection, 1959-1971
- Various – Vee-Jay: The Definitive Collection
- Various – Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration
- Cheap Trick – In Color (To get you ready for their Aug. 4 Wisconsin Valley Fair concert. Plus, radio stations never play the studio version of “I Want You to Want Me,” which is slightly slower but still rocks.) 
- Florida Georgia Line – Here’s to the Good Times
- Prince (R.I.P.) – Purple Rain Soundtrack
- Chuck Berry – The Great Twenty-Eight
- Elvis Presley – Artist of the Century
- Beethoven (“calming for high traffic”)
- Judas Priest – British Steel
- Pete Seeger – The Essential Pete Seeger
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
- Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street and/or It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll
- Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
- Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – Rome
- Norah Jones – The Fall
- Various – Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine
- Various – Trucker's Jukebox (Because no road trip is complete without the Smokey and the Bandit theme "Eastbound and Down," even if you're headed west)
- Various – Classic Country, 1965-1974 (4-disc set, pickup truck not required)
- Various – Sun Records Collection
- Various – Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast Recording
- The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
- Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
- Nat King Cole – The Best of Nat King Cole
- Franki Valli - The Very Best of Franki Valli & The Four Seasons
- Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones – Under the Influence
- Ricky Martin – A Quien Quiera Escuchar
- Juanes – Un Deia Normal
- Shania Twain – Come on Over
- Johnny Cash – The Johnny Cash Children’s Album (Yes, the “Man in Black” made a kids album, but even kids songs are entertaining when Cash sings ‘em.)
- Tom Pease – Everybody Started Out Small (One of our favorite annual performers at MCPL - pleasant listening for the whole family, especially if there are young children)
- Okee Dokee Brothers – Through the Woods: An Appalachian Adventure Album and/or Can You Canoe?
- The Band – A Musical History
- Thousand Foot Krutch – Exhale (Check them out before their Aug. 2 show at the Wisconsin Valley Fair)
- Alabama Shakes – Sound and Color
- Decemberists – The King is Dead
- Twenty One Pilots – Blurryface
- Martina McBride – Reckless (Her newest album, some of which you’ll likely hear at her Aug. 5 Wisconsin Valley Fair show)
- Macklemore – This Unruly Mess I've Made
- Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
- Thomas Rhett - Tangled Up
 
We hope you’ll take us up on some of these soundtrack suggestions, and please let us know what you think. Stay safe out there and have fun!

Photo Credit: Lynn Goldsmith

]]> Chad Dally / Library Services Fri, 13 May 2016 09:39:34 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15257 The great thing about libraries is that they offer countless materials for a wide variety of people to experience, regardless of age, race, size, background, sexual orientation, religion or economic status. Since each person has their own opinions and expectations of what constitutes a "good book," patrons across the world sometimes challenge books in an effort to have them removed from the library's collection.

Each year, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles reports from libraries, schools and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. Below is the ALA's list of the top 10 most-challenged books of 2015. If you're interested in seeing what all the fuss is about, click the link next to each book title to check them out and read them for yourself!
 

"Looking for Alaska" by John Green – Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. According to the ALA, this book is often challenged due to offensive language, for being sexually explicit and unsuited for its young adult audience.






 

"Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James – When Anastasia Steele goes to interview young enterpreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beatuiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to relize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. The ALA states that this book is commonly challenged due to its sexually explicit content.






 

"I Am Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings – This book presents the story of a transgender child who traces her early awareness that she is a girl in spite of male anatomy and the acceptance she finds through a wise doctor who explains her natural transgender status. It is commonly challenged as being unsuited for its age group due to containing themes of homosexuality, sex education and gender identity.


 

"Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out" by Susan Kuklin – Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them and their true selves. ALA finds this book most-often challenged due to its themes of homosexuality, gender identity, offensive language and religious/political viewpoint.




 

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon – Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. The book's language and religious viewpoint is often why it is challenged.






 

"The Holy Bible" – The Holy Bible, containing both the Old and New Testaments. This book is often challenged due to its religious viewpoint.









 

"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel – A memoir done in the form of a graphic novel by a cult favorite comic artist offers a darkly funny family portrait that details her relationship with her father--a funeral home director, high school English teacher, and closeted homosexual. This book is often challenged due to the violence it contains.







 

"Habibi " by Craig Thompson – Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in the world. The book is often challenged for nudity and being sexually explicit.






 

"Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan" by Jeanette Winter – Based on a true story from Afghanistan, Young Nasreen has not spoken a word to anyone since her parents disappeared. In despair, her grandmother risks everything to enroll Nasreen in a secret school for girls. Will a devoted teacher, a new friend, and the worlds she discovers in books be enough to draw Nasreen out of her shell of sadness? The ALA states violence, religious viewpoint are often cited as reasons it is challenged.




 

"Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan – A chorus of men who died of AIDS observes and yearns to help a cross-section of today's gay teens who navigate new love, long-term relationships, coming out, self-acceptance, and more in a society that has changed in many ways. This book is often challenged for containing homosexuality.

 

For more information on the ALA's Top 10 most challenged books of 2015, visit www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks.

]]> Dan R., Library Services Tue, 03 May 2016 12:00:07 GMT http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=1769&BlogID=112&BlogPostID=15253 Marathon County Public Library is extending its observance of National Library Week (April 10-16) throughout the month of April by highlighting its employees through a series of staff profiles! Now through April 30, learn a little bit about the personnel at our nine MCPL locations, and feel free to give them a friendly "hello" next time you see them!

Name: Sarah M.
Job title: Library Coordinator
MCPL Location: Mosinee Branch
Time Worked at MCPL: 3 years

What are some of your main job responsibilities?
I just became the library coordinator at the Mosinee Branch. Previously, I worked the circulation desk at both the Rothschild and Marathon City Branches and I also lead the Rothschild book club.

What book transformed you, your way of thinking or of viewing the world? How did it change you?
The Harry Potter series was what first really encouraged my love of reading. Not only did I fall in love with the magical world and characters J.K. Rowling created, but I loved the setting. It sparked my desire to travel and my love for the U.K. I still am always drawn to books with a setting anywhere other than the United States, especially England in particular. It inspired me to major in International Studies in college and study abroad in England, which I now think of as my true home. Eventually, my love of reading and travel led to the Marathon County Public Library, where I’m surrounded daily by books.

What is your ideal vacation? Where would you go and what would you do there?
After studying abroad in London and traveling to six other countries during my semester abroad in college, the first place I would go is back to London and then Wales to get my ‘fix of home’ before venturing on to the countries I ran out of time to see, such as Scotland and Iceland, to soak in the wonderful sights and culture they offer. I would also love to venture to Naples, Italy (among other cities) to meet the relatives I’ve never gotten a chance to meet yet. A return to Venice would definitely be on my list as well.

What motto or philosophy do you live by?
When both my grandmother and I were going through some difficult health problems at the same time, she always reminded me that everything happens for a reason, and that, in truth, it could always be worse. She taught me to look for the silver lining and be thankful for what I found.

What’s one food item you absolutely cannot resist?
Chocolate is tied neck-and-neck with ice cream, both of which I no longer can have unless I buy dairy and soy-free versions. One drawback of living abroad was that I suddenly developed food allergies while overseas, so I now always have a stack of cookbooks checked out.

How do you think MCPL will continue to transform in the future?
MCPL staff are all extremely dedicated to serving our community, so we are always researching ways to continue to do so in the best way possible. I believe we will always be offering programs that evolve with the future and what the community is interested in at the time.

]]> Dan. R., Library Services Fri, 29 Apr 2016 16:58:45 GMT