Mercer County Library Blog

After an extremely difficult year rebooting the box office, movies made a triumphant return in 2021 with brand new feature films releasing on a weekly basis once again. It is with immense excitement and incredible anticipation that I bring you previews for 12 movies releasing in 2022: 1. Scream (January 14th, 2022) directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett Technically the fifth installment in the Scream franchise from Paramount Pictures, Scream (2022) is a sequel to Scream 4 (2011). Despite its misleading title, Scream sees returning characters Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) entangled in another series of vicious murders committed by the Ghostface killer (voiced by Roger L. Jackson). This is the first film in the franchise not to be directed by the late, great horror legend, Wes Craven; however, hope remains high this film will maintain the terrific standard set by the original Scream (1996). 2. Uncharted (Feb...

As the year winds down, one is wont to think back to those we have lost during the year. We hear of quite a few, some with more accompanying news stories than others. Let’s glance back at some you might have forgotten, or never even knew. As a science fiction kinda guy, I was saddened and surprised by Mira Furlan passing away on January 20th. While I remember her as the great Delenn in the series Babylon 5 , others might know her from Lost , or even heard her album Songs from Movies That Never Been Made . She’s also in the cast of the audio production of Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre , available on Playaway at the library. Melvin Van Peebles (September 23) wasn’t just the “ godfather of black cinema ,” but also an actor, playwright, and more. After shooting some short films in the late 1950s, a move to France led him to the theater and writing. He returned to movies in 1968 and became a pioneer in independent cinema, as well as a musician, noveli...

At this time of year I tend to become obnoxious about my musical preferences. Well, okay: more obnoxious. People, as we know, can be divided into exactly two categories: those who divide people into two categories; and those who do not. ( Joke! Haha! I still got it!) Or, more to the point, we can divide people into those who like holiday music; and those who do not. I am in the latter category of the latter dichotomy...and, it seems, the former category of the former dichotomy, which is irrelevant, but I felt I needed to bring it to a conclusion since I brought it up. The point is, I am not, for the most part, a Christmas/Winter Holiday music person. Radio stations and department stores start playing all the usual C/WH songs before Thanksgiving, it seems, and my objection is not that the songs are bad (though some just objectively are bad; case in point: Get a load of this “ Yooooo-hoooooo! ”   in Johnny Mathis’s version of “Sleigh Ride'': BAD! ); it’s that even the good ...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had your birthday every day and you were showered with boxes upon boxes of gifts? This is a little glimpse of what working in the Acquisitions & Cataloging (AcqCat) department is like. The AcqCat department (in some libraries described as Technical Services), is housed in the back of the Lawrence Headquarters Branch.  Acquisitions is defined by the American Library Association (ALA) as “the department within a library responsible for selecting, ordering, and receiving new materials and for maintaining accurate records of such transactions.” The ALA defines cataloging as “the process of creating entries for a catalog. In libraries, this usually includes bibliographic description, subject analysis, assignment of classification notation, and activities involved in physically preparing the item for the shelf, tasks usually performed under the supervision of a librarian trained as a cataloger.” Put these two together and you’ve got...

How old were you when you started helping in the kitchen? I’m not sure exactly how old I was, but I have very fond memories of my grandmother making gnocchi from scratch. She would boil the potatoes and try hard not to burn her hands as she peeled the steaming hot tubers. As I watched each step of the lengthy process of mashing the potatoes and adding the flour to get the right consistency, I was waiting eagerly for my turn to help. It was fitting that the first meal that I prepared in my new home was gnocchi! One of my favorite new memories is watching my oldest nephew cook with my mother. They get out a mixing bowl, whisk, milk, eggs, and flour to make waffles. My nephew will carefully scoop the batter onto the hot waffle iron and wait patiently for the green light which means it’s time to open lid. He is so proud that he knows how to cook! When I mentioned that I wanted to write a blog about kids in the kitchen, my co-workers offered me pictures of ...

Buy American. Made in the USA.  Many of us try to bolster our economy by shopping locally, or by at least not adding appreciably to the number of shipping containers coming to our shores from China and other countries. But what does “Made in America” actually mean? I decided to look further into the concept after learning that December is recognized as Made in America Month. The original designation was made in 1985, when then-President Ronald Reagan aimed “to celebrate the excellence of American products.”  You can read his full statement by clicking here . (Note that the U.S. government maintains millions of other documents, letters, and archival materials online, which your Mercer County librarian can help you access!) Buying American is fairly easy when the products are food, spirits, crafts, and other artisanal items. But in our age of interconnected economies, it’s much more difficult to buy wholly-American manufactured products. An iPhone, ...