Isn't it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven, but they don't want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?

As we celebrate another wonderful Christmas season with family and friends, remember that it isn't all about Santa and presents.

The greatest gift of all was the birth of Jesus. If you are so inclined, open up the Bible before you retire tonight and read the story yet again.

Books for Christmas

I always try to include a few books for Christmas gift giving. So far this year my list includes the following:

One Room Country School: South Dakota Stories by Charles L. Woodard and Norma C. Wilson

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: recipies from an accidental country girl by Ree Drummond

Librarian's night before Christmas by David Davis and Jim Harris (very cute book)

The raccoon and the bee tree by Charles Eastman


Give the gift of reading. What titles are you giving?

Ranger, the Christmas dog

Policies and Procedures

We are in the process of putting together a library policies and procedures training road show. Timely enough, this article just came out in School Library Journal http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6699104.html and will be a good reference as we work on our presentations and handouts. As the example shows at the beginning of the article, what you post may come back to bite you sooner or later.

I recently finished the new Nevada Barr book 13 1/2. It's not the next Anna Pigeon, but Barr has branched out into a psychological thriller that takes the reader across several years of events in the lives of a former runaway and a wrongly accused murderer. It is a real page turner.

Another book I've wanted to read for a long time and have finally started is Waiting for Coyote's Call: An Eco-memoir from the Missouri River Bluff by Jerry Wilson. A review from Amazon describes the book as "author (Jerry) Wilson's memoir of his family's 25 years spent living on the Missouri River in South Dakota...living as eco-friendly a life as is possible". I've just started, but I can already tell that I am going to enjoy this book.

Enjoy a good book over the weekend.

State Library resources

It is always nice when someone blogs about the great resources available at the State Library, so I just have to re-post this blog entry from Brian Laurent, who visited SDSL to do some grants research on Wednesday of this week.

http://rushmorevistas.blogspot.com/2009/11/foundation-center.html

Library site visit - Gettysburg

I had a delightful visit at the Potter County Library yesterday. After I get my notes together, I'll post more.

In the meantime, here is something neat that just came across my Bloglines http://blogs.bcr.org/publiclibraries/2009/10/29/library-cereal-boxes/

Parking

Here's a little discussion about the new parking lots and parking arrangement at the State Library. The only thing I really can't understand is why the handicapped spaces are to the north of the building instead of right in front of the doors.

http://my605.com/pierrereview/