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Town Pump is providing $1,000 grants for public libraries to support summer reading programs through their "Keep Kids Reading" grant program! Any public library is encouraged to apply, and those who have received funds in the past should apply again as well.
The grant application process will open on March 1st, and will accept applications through April 14th with the goal of sending out the grant funds in the first week of May.
You can access the grant application at the Town Pump Charitable Foundation Grant Application website. Click on "Keep Kids Reading" to open the grant application for that program on March 1st.
Please contact Amelea Kim at akim@mt.gov with any questions, and thank you Town Pump for your support and generosity!
If you are interested in learning more about dementia and how to support dementia friendly spaces in your library and community, please consider attending this FREE training! Led by Dementia Friendly Missoula, this training is open to any and all.
Date: Friday, February 3, 2023 8:30-9:30 am
Description: Dementia Friendly Missoula will review types of dementia, how to recognize the signs of dementia, and provide tips for interacting with individuals with memory loss. The focus on libraries will include tips for creating a dementia friendly physical space, recognizing and when needed, assisting a person in navigating community environments and providing resources and programming for individuals with dementia and those who care for them. Resources for libraries such as program opportunities, dementia kits, suggested books, and funding opportunities will be shared.
To Register: ASPeN Registration Page Link
If you have questions, please contact Marje Doyle at macrd1953@gmail.com
The Montana Library Network Virtual Programming series will be starting again in 2023! Please take a look at the following programs, and reach out to Amelea Kim at akim@mt.gov if your library is interested in co-hosting any or all of these events. As a reminder, as an official co-host, you can choose to participate in at least one of the following ways:
- Share and publicize the event information and registration for your patrons to join individually from home
- Host a watch party at your library for patrons to come and watch together
- Host a watch party somewhere in your community outside the library for patrons to come and watch together
All co-hosting libraries will receive publicity and outreach templates to help with outreach, as well as follow-up generalized statistics of attendees from their service area to report in the Public Library standards report.
January 2023: Montana Fibershed - Connecting Montana folks with Montana Fiber
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Date: January 26th, 2023, from 6:30 - 8 pm
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Program Description: The concept of a “fibershed,” a term coined by Rebecca Burgess, and popularized in her 2019 book* of the same name, has spread all over the U.S. and the world. Like a watershed, which defines a catchment and drainage area for a given landscape, a fibershed is a geographically-defined area in which natural fiber resources are produced and then used by the people living within its boundaries. Montana Fibershed seeks to educate Montanans on the benefits of a place-based, local fiber system. A parallel concept to the local foods movement, this local cloth movement highlights the origins of our fiber and clothing. Just like our food, our natural-fiber clothing also comes from the land. We are working to connect our fiber producers, the farmers and ranchers, to our local designers, makers, businesses, and other end-users of Montana-raised natural fiber, and in so doing, to bolster the Montana textile economy and its supply chains, and to promote regenerative agricultural practices for healthy soils and a more balanced ecosystem across our great state.
*Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy, by Rebecca Burgess, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019.
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Barbara French Biography: Barb French is a maker with a life-long devotion to natural fibers who learned to sew and knit from her mother at a young age. MT Fibershed encompasses all of Barb’s interests, from the love of fiber and fashion, to the sustainable growth of Montana’s textile industry and the fascinating subject of regenerative agriculture within the fiber economy.
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Helen Harris Biography: Helen Harris is a professional artist whose medium includes weaving, stitching, dyeing & mineral pigment painting. She holds BFA & MA degrees in Textile Design/Weaving/Mixed Media Art, from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL.
- Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/mtfibershed
April 2023: Dr. Cathy Cripps - Foraging for Wild Mushrooms in Montana
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Date: April 20th, 6:30 - 8 pm
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Program Description: Foraging for wild mushrooms has become a popular activity in Montana and across the country. The idea of free food from forests and meadows is appealing, but a wrong choice for the frying pan can be potentially deadly. There are dangerous mushrooms out there--and also lots of delicious ones! This presentation covers how to get started collecting wild mushrooms, including how to find them, how to pick them, and how to identify them. Choice Montana edibles such as King Boletes, chanterelles, morels, hawk wings, lion’s mane, oysters, and more, are shown in full color and their edible properties described. The general rules for eating wild mushrooms are also important to know. Lastly, a few of the toxic species to be avoided, especially those that have caused poisonings in Montana, will be discussed. Further resources for wild mushroom hunting in Montana are provided. Learn about the diversity of mushrooms in our state and how they promote ecosystem health!
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Dr. Cathy Cripps Biography: Cathy is mycologist and professor at Montana State University where she teaches and does research on fungi. She earned her BS from the University of Michigan and PhD from Virginia Tech. Her research on mushrooms that survive in Arctic and alpine habitats has taken her to Iceland, Svalbard, Norway, Greenland, the Austrian Alps, Finland, and our own Rocky Mountains. The use of mycorrhizal fungi to promote whitebark pine restoration at high elevations is another research focus. She is lead author of “The Essential Guide to Rocky Mountain Mushrooms by Habitat”, editor of “Fungi in Forest Ecosystems” and “Arctic and Alpine Mycology 8” and has authored numerous scientific papers. With over 40 years of experience collecting mushrooms, first as an amateur when she lived in a cabin in Colorado and later as a professional leading forays and teaching field classes in Montana, her love and enthusiasm for the Rocky Mountains and its fungal creatures runs deep
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Registration Link: Coming Soon!
In May 2023, the Montana State Library will be partnering with the Space Science Institute to bring STEM Workshops to both eastern and western Montana. These workshops will focus on STEM programming in libraries in general, but also how to prepare for solar eclipse activities for the 2023 and 2024 eclipse coming up.
The workshops are scheduled for May 15th in western Montana (Helena), and May 17th in eastern Montana (Glendive). The May 15th location has been changed, from Bozeman to Helena. May 17th will still be located in Glendive. For those of you who have filled out the STEM Programming Interest Form back when the location was Bozeman, no need to change or withdraw you form submission. We won't be asking for a final commitment for attendance until early 2023.
For those of you who are interested in attending, please do fill out the form linked above, so that we have some general estimates! We will reach back out in 2023 with more detailed logistics/schedule and see where your interest level is at that point.
As another reminder, if your library is interested in receiving FREE solar eclipse glasses, please make sure to fill out the Solar Eclipse Glasses Registration Form from the Space Science Institute! Glasses are first come, first served, so please fill this out early to make sure you make it on the list.
You can read all about the SEAL (Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries) project that all of this is made possible under at the Space Science Institute's SEAL Project Webpage.
MSL has a small collection of activity trunks that libraries, schools, and other educational organizations are now welcome to borrow! Shipping is FREE (covered entirely by MSL), and we encourage libraries to share this information publicly, as any school/daycare/organization is welcome to submit a borrowing request. You can download the flyer directly: MSL Trunk Program Flyer PDF
Lifelong Learning Data Dashboard
If you are interested in a data overview of Lifelong Learning programs, please visit the FY23 Lifelong Learning Data Dashboard!
You can also see the Data Dashboards for all of MSL's Services and Programs.
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