Shorty McShortersons

Beth Samson
Continuing Education Coordinator

“I’m too busy to read books.” “I love reading, but I have so many things to do.” How many times have we heard these phrases? How many times have we said these phrases? Our lives have become so busy that we find it difficult to pencil in time to read an entire novel. Sad, but understandable. However, there is a middle ground: short stories. Bite-sized bits of literature to give us our reading fix while still leaving time to go… adult. One of my personal favorites is one that is, pleasantly enough, in the public domain: “A Scandal in Bohemia”, the first short story of Arthur Conan Doyle starring Sherlock Holmes. 

 

 

This story is part of the book, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of Sherlock short stories and the third Sherlock work overall. It consists of three “chapters” and is about as long as the average fanfiction that genuinely has a plot. What attracts me most about this story (other than the mention of the former kingdom of Bohemia itself) is the fact that it is the sole work featuring the infamous Irene Adler. I absolutely adore her, and I praise Doyle for the creation of such a delightful character. I also appreciate the levels of wit and snark in the story, customary of Holmes, but wonderful to find in other characters as well.

To give a brief, spoiler-free summary, Watson visits Holmes after he has been married for some time. Holmes tells him about this mysterious letter (well, trying to be mysterious letter) that is requesting a meeting and his help. Apparently, the King of Bohemia had…well, indiscretions with Ms. Adler, a “well-known adventuress” about five years previously. She has proof of this relationship and the King is absolutely determined to get it. Enter Sherlock: the only man that the King believes able to retrieve the proof from the woman with “the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men”.

This story will always hold a special place in my heart, not just because of how much I enjoy it, but also because it showed me the value of short stories. I highly recommend it, regardless of your schedule.

P.S. You can check it out at MLC or your public library, plus you can download it on BARD. Also, since it’s in the public domain, you can read it anywhere! For example, here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1661/1661-h/1661-h.htm#chap01

Getting to Know Us, Getting to Know All About Us

Elisabeth Scott

Reference and Social Media Librarian

Did you know that the Mississippi Federation of Women's Clubs (MFWC) was instrumental in the establishment of the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC) and 75% of the public libraries in the state? The organization was so important to libraries in the state that, when MLC was officially formed by the state legislature in 1926, Senator Belle Kearney--the first woman elected to the Mississippi State Senate only four years earlier--and her committee ensured that the President of MFWC was a permanent fixture on MLC's Board of Commissioners. MFWC has continued its interest in literacy and libraries over the years. The President's Special Project, which changes with each club president, is "Get Back to Your Roots by Promoting Public Libraries, Education and Literacy". Current President Theresa Buntyn chose this theme because of her close involvement with libraries, both within her family and her local club.

 

Women's Club members across the state are answering Buntyn's call to "get back to their roots" by getting even more involved in their local libraries. The Women's Club of Poplarville partnered with the Pearl River County Library System to hold a sewing club for area children. The Fine Arts Club of Bruce volunteered during the Summer Library Program at the Jesse Yancy Memorial Library in Bruce. Another group of Club Women led a special storytime at the Lee County Library in Tupelo. The list goes on and on, and we are absolutely delighted.

Several months ago, MFWC asked MLC's Public Relations Coordinator Kristina Kelly to create a BINGO card about MLC and MLC's services. A fun game all about us? No problem: Kristina delivered in spades. She created a beautiful card that highlights many of MLC's features: ways that we serve libraries and you, our adoring library public. The BINGO squares are listed below to give you the fun of scoring a BINGO too.

• Like the MLC Facebook or Instagram page
• Try MLC's Bookmatch 
• Read On the Same Page - MLC's newsletter
• Share info about Talking Book Services
• Invite local officials to experience an SLP program
• Check a Book Club in a Box kit out
• Share info about Patents and Trademark Resource Center
• Read the FY22 Annual Report
• Use the MLC catalog to search for a book
• Sign up for a hoopla account
• List your favorite online database
• Search a topic on MAGNOLIA
• Explore a tutorial on LearningExpress
• Write an article for your local newspaper about the importance of libraries
• Help someone sign up for a library card
• Watch a webinar on the MLC YouTube channel

This Saturday, the MFWC holds their annual Summer Institute here at MLC. We look forward to this event and many, many more in the years to come. What a beautiful partnership!

You can download your own copy of the BINGO card here:

We’re All in Knits Together

Alex Brower

Information Services Director

MLC’s Craft Club had its third meeting on June 16th, 2023. We used the video "How to Knit" by Carla Scott on Creativebug to learn some basic stitches and, in some cases, make the beginnings of very small scarves!

We had 15 attendees for our meeting, and a few people brought their own knitting needles and yarn. Our knitting kit for public libraries will have 10 sets of needles; if your library expects a large crowd, I suggest advertising that people can bring their own supplies. (Sometimes people do some well-intentioned crafts shopping but never quite make it to the learning-how-to-knit part!) We also received an extremely generous donation from Benton County Library of many, many skeins of yarn, which our participants eagerly took home to keep practicing!

Set-up for this craft club only took a few minutes, as did tear-down. I brought a box with the knitting needles and yarn, and had participants pick up supplies on their way in. If you're looking for a program that doesn’t require lots of supplies and clean-up, this is it. Plus, if you've gone the route of asking people to bring their own supplies, you get another added bonus: you'll have less to clean up, and they'll be able to continue their work at home. (Our participants had to return their needles and thread, so I would probably do a smaller craft next time so that they can take their projects home once the class was done.) Once the club ended, attendees undid their work and returned their knitting needles. 

We went through each step as a group and tried to get everyone on the same page before we moved on: good for those who needed a bit more help and less useful for those who picked up the steps more quickly. I’m not sure what the fix would be for this: watching the video all the way through at the beginning, having each participant at a computer/tablet so they can follow along at their own pace, or some hybrid of the two. One of our attendees looked up a diagram of the steps, which she found more helpful than the video or instruction from a classmate.

I practiced the skills in the video before the class, so I was able to walk around and assist. It's more difficult to explain a skill when you aren’t super familiar with it, so having more experienced knitters in the class was incredibly helpful. It went very quickly from one large group to several smaller groups with an experienced person in each. 

Our program was great for getting the basics down and would be a good beginning for a series of knitting classes where participants learned new skills each time. The class could work their way up to making bigger projects like scarves, blankets, or any number of things! Creativebug also has a knitting pattern library; your library could host a knitting circle where patrons work on their own projects or start new ones, alone or in groups. 

MLC’s knitting kit will be available soon, with knitting needles, yarn, and a darning needle set your patrons can use to create their own beautiful projects!

Video: https://www.creativebug.com/classseries/single/how-to-knit-part-1/1/0
Supplies:
Needles: https://www.michaels.com/product/10-anodized-aluminum-knitting-needles-by-loops-threads-10154295
Yarn: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085FS14Z7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A Very Mississippi Fourth

Elisabeth Scott

Reference and Social Media Librarian

When talking about William Faulkner and Willie Morris in his book A Place Like Mississippi, W. Ralph Eubanks says, "If you can find where the past and the present intersect within Mississippi, you can indeed understand the world." I have lived in other states and other countries, but I keep coming home to Mississippi. It is a place that is uniquely itself and yet, somehow, the essence of life in the United States. When our nation got its start 247 years ago, Mississippi wasn't even a territory. We have grown together with our sister states as America has grown, year by year, century by century. Mississippi is a microcosm of the United States: a distillation of all that is good and bad about the land we all love. This Fourth of July, let's celebrate with some books from MLC's collection that showcase the food, fun, and music of the Magnolia State that are reflected in our nation's culture as a whole.