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IDDLE AGES – No, not the years between 30 and 60. Explore the crusades, King Arthur, monasteries, etc, with lively histories, folklore, an gripping mystery, and a rib tickling documentary.
LANDSCAPING
– Whip that yard into shape this summer with books and tools to guide you. In addition to six great books on the subject, you’ll find templates, french curves, and a flexible ruler to help you plan your dream yard.
In 1987, a young mother named Lorna Smith began her work as the Children’s Librarian at the Madison Library District. In the nearly three decades since, she has been the heart of the library as she served in many different capacities, assisting patrons of all ages and touching lives with her knowledge, wisdom, and kindness. As she retires, she will be sorely missed by visitors to the library and by her co-workers who have long looked to her as 
an example to strive towards. As Assistant Director Miranda Galbraith said, “Lorna has been such an inspiration and example. Her vast knowledge of all things book related will be greatly missed, but more than that we will miss seeing her every day. Her humor and wit has made working at the library that much sweeter.” The library will host a retirement reception for Lorna and invite any who would like to wish her well in her new adventures to drop by on Thursday, May 26th, between 4 and 6 P.M. The event will be held in the Madison Library District Community Room, located at 73 N. Center St. in Rexburg.
Lorna was born and raised in Rexburg, the youngest of four children. Her first job was working in Ashliman’s Shoe Store on Main Street which was owned by her father. You can still see the influence today in her fun footwear, both shoes and socks!
She met her husband Randy at Madison High School. They dated through their senior year and married when he returned from his LDS mission. In the meantime, she was attending Ricks College and then BYU in Provo majoring in English and Secondary Education.
Her husband’s law career eventually brought them back to the area. With four children ranging from four to fifteen at home, taking what was then a half time position as Children’s Librarian was the perfect fit for her. The library was such a good fit, that she left for three years, from 1991 to 1994, to add a media endorsement to her teaching certificate. She returned in 1994 as our Young Adult Librarian, a position she held for nine years. During that time, she developed a lasting love for YA literature.
In 2003, she began a five year position as the Madison’s Assistant Director and began to manage the Adult Fiction collection. She has managed Adult Fiction, including collection development decisions, acquiring books, behind the scenes work of cataloguing, etc., ever since. She has large metaphoric shoes to fill as she leaves us.
When not at work, Lorna has enjoyed naps, walking, scrapbooking, crocheting, and baking. All the librarians have been especially grateful for this last interest and rejoiced when she tried a new cake recipe. She loves classical music and enjoys playing the piano. Most of all, Lorna loves family time and playing games with her children and 17 grandkids! She also has a fondness for cats, which she describes as beautiful and affectionate creatures that are entertaining to no end. Oscar and Coraline (a literary tie-in to Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel) currently keep her amused. She is developing extensive plans to explore these interests more in the coming months.
Mostly, Lorna loves to read. She has always been, decidedly, the librarian with the widest literary tastes. She reads all genres in all age groups and loves to try new authors. She says that if she had to pick a favorite type of book it would be either psychological suspense or literary fiction. Unlike most of the librarians, coming up with a favorite book of all time was fairly easy – Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. When asked why that particular book had such an appeal for her, she replied, “First and foremost, eve
ryone loves a good story. I really got caught up in this dramatic tale of mystery and intrigue. The last line in the book is one of my favorite quotes from literature ‘All human wisdom is contained in the words ‘Wait and hope!’’” We hope Lorna’s coming days are full of the joy that she has brought so many others through her years as a librarian.
Young library patrons have had a great time with their Discovery Kits for years. Soon, very soon, adult patrons will be able to enjoy Exploration Kits!
Yes, I know you’ve been hearing rumors about this for a long, long time, but we’re serious about this now. How serious? So serious that Saturday, May 14th, we’re putting Birds, Birding and Birders out on the new shelf and will let someone take it home with field guides, true tales, a fun bird related novel, and a pair of binoculars to help you explore a new interest.
After that, we plan to get out two kits per week through June. We’ll keep you posted on which kits will be released next. Will the next one be practical? Silly? Keep checking in to find out!
The Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted on the Thursday of National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year.
Readers ages twelve to eighteen will vote online between August 15 and Teen Read Week™ (October 9-15, 2016) here on the Teens’ Top Ten site. The winners will be announced the week after Teen Read Week.
View a list of the nominees with annotations here. (PDF)
Come celebrate with us on Friday, April 15 starting at 7:00 pm in the Community Room. We’ll have food, fun and prizes! Bring your friends! All kids ages 12 through 18 are welcome.
In today’s world, odds are you know at least a few words in a language other than English, whether you picked up a few things from Dora the Explorer or you’re fluently bilingual—maybe English isn’t even your first language.
Did you know the Madison Library District owns a variety of materials in foreign languages? From classic and contemporary literature to films, at least 20 languages are represented, including Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, and Taiwanese. We have both translations of popular works, like the Harry Potter series and What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and classics in their original languages, like The Adventures of Pinocchio and Don Quixote.
Until now, these books have been incorporated into our junior, young adult, and general non-fiction collections. With three different places to look for a book in a foreign language, it was hard to tell what we had to offer. Many people may not have realized we have foreign language books at all.
In an effort to make it easier for our patrons to search and browse all the foreign language books we have available, the books are being relabeled and will be shelved together in one place. In recent weeks, visitors to the children’s section may have noticed that the junior audiobooks and DVDs have migrated to the shelves between the Community Room and the Activity Room. Over the next few weeks, our foreign language collection will be moving into the vacated space on the north wall next to the junior non-fiction. The move will happen in batches as we finish recataloging. The books will be organized by language first, then subdivided into fiction and non-fiction and by age group, mirroring the filing of books in our other collections.
The foreign language DVDs will remain in the general DVD collection. Instructional materials such as dictionaries, grammar guides, and lessons on audiobook will remain in the 400 section of the junior, young adult, and general non-fiction collections.
To browse all of our offerings in a given language in our catalog, do a subject search using the phrasing “Spanish language materials” or “German language materials,” inserting the language of your choice. This will display all books and movies available in that language. Our newest materials can be found under the New Titles tab in the online catalog.
As we build up this special collection, we would like to hear from our patrons which languages they are most interested in having us obtain or expand. Visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Madisonlib.org to vote for or to suggest a language, or come into the library to cast your ballot.