Lunar Eclipse

Be sure to run outside in your jammies to catch tonight's lunar eclipse! OK, it won't be that late so bundle up and enjoy the last one until 2010.

Closed for Presidents' Day

Hello! We are closed today, but there is so much you can still do through our web site. Place reserves, find out about programs, wander around the Fun Facts. You can look up very old maps of Iowa towns through the Digital Sanborn Maps link! You can read an article about permanent markers in EbscoHost, check out upcoming programs in What’s Happening, all kinds of good stuff. But you still miss us, right? Have a great President’s Day!

Hey, Good Lookin'!

How about that brand new Des Moines Public Library Web site? Don't you love the gorgeous program graphics on the left of the screen? And they're not just ornamental. If you click on the graphic you want, your next stop is a page that provides more information on the program. Here's another tip for making the fullest use of the page: when you want to go directly to the catalog, one way is to click on the gray Search button to the right of the SEARCH OUR CATALOG box. Bonus!

Valentines and Votes

We all know it's Valentine's Day. But do we all know that it was on February 14th, 1920, that the League of Women Voters was born? The National American Woman Suffrage Association was meeting in Chicago and created the League because the ratification of the 19th amendment was a scarce few months away. They couldn't wait! So roses are red, on violets I dote, but what I really want is the right to vote.

Chase's Calendar of Events is the source of this information. Pick any day and you can discover when and why it's important.

President's Day

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed Presidents' Day, Monday February 18th.

Iowa's only President, Herbert Hoover, was blamed for the stock market crash of 1929 and the following Great Depression. But one of the accomplishments of his administration was the establishment of Veteran's Affairs in the federal government. Plus, as a bonus, the game of Hoover-Ball is named for him as he played it every morning. It was called Medicine Ball at the time, and involved throwing a 6 pound ball over a ten-foot high net. So he knew how to have fun. For more information on President Herbert Hoover, visit our online database Biography Resource Center.

Is it the Sun?

What's that bright thing in the sky! Aaaaaugh! My eyes! You think Des Moines had it bad in the gloomy department? The town of Viganella, Italy got no sunshine whatsoever until December 17, 2006 when 2 enormous mirrors were set on the surrounding mountainsides to reflect sun into the town. It worked! Who knew that little piece of glass that shows me if I'm brushing my teeth right could change lives.

This is all according to Ski Magazine Mar/Apr2007, Vol. 71 Issue 7, p. 25. The full article is available on EBSCO Host, an online database accessible through our home page. All you need is your library card number and you PIN, and this world of oh-so-interesting information is at your fingertips from your home computer.

Winter Water Sports

So did you see the picture in the Des Moines Register of the man in the kayak sliding down a snow-covered hill? Some people actually take their kayaks into Iowa rivers in the wintertime. But you can wait until it warms up. For information on where to kayak in Iowa, no matter what the weather, check out:
Paddling Iowa : 96 great trips by canoe and kayak / Nate Hoogeveen.

Warm Up With Local Recipes

Cookbooks! We have Des Moines Public Library Staff Cookbooks to sell for the pittance of $10. Recipes tried and found delicious by the staff and satisfied customers. So pop something in the oven and curl up with your favorite book and enjoy something hot and steamy. The food, I mean.

Today's Valentine Thought

Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles and doubt.
-Dorothy Parker
Enough Rope, 1927