Language changes, and has always changed. It’s helpful to think of language as a living thing, that evolves and changes as the need arises. We still speak English, but it’s not like the English of Shakespeare’s time, or English in 1776. New words appear every year in both Merriam-Webster’s and the Oxford English Dictionary, and sometimes the addition of a word can be controversial. People feel very strongly about making a slang word “official,” but I would argue that we should embrace language changes. (I’m not arguing that you need to adopt words into your daily lexicon that you don’t like, just maybe don’t feel anger over a new word.)

2020 added a lot of new words and phrases to our daily conversations. “Social distancing”, “COVID-19”, “community spread”, “herd immunity”, and the abbreviation “WFH (work from home)” were all added to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary in 2020.

By Marti Fuerst, HMCPL Systems Librarian

When we are cooped up inside, many of us look at reorganizing our spaces. We often turn to shows like Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Organize It, along with the books written by their stars, to help us face the chaos on our shelves and in our drawers.

Marie Kondo’s simple minimalism isn’t for everyone, and the extravagant container-based systems of The Home Edit can easily be out of someone’s financial reach. But watching the ladies of The Home Edit organize the books in an after-school center by color got to me.

Editor Note: The week of November 15 is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, which is an annual program where people come together across the country to draw attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness. We asked Lineise Arnold, Executive Director of the North Alabama Coalition for the Homeless, Inc. (NACH) to guest write for our blog to talk about homelessness in the Huntsville/Madison County area. NACH has a satellite office at the Downtown Huntsville Library.

POINT-IN-TIME COUNT 2020 – Homeless Numbers Increase Again

Week One of NaNoWriMo

“All write, all write, all write.”

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It’s National Novel Writing Month, the annual challenge to write a novel to in 30 days. You can pick any 50,000 words to put in any order and tell a story.

The Library introduces its new #Libraryonwheels

Library’s outreach services play role in connecting services to communities

The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) unveiled its new Outreach vehicle, thanks to a funding gift from Madison County Commission Chairman Dale W. Strong. The new van joins the Bookmobile in the Library’s fleet of vehicles that brings Library services to the community.

OverDrive is the platform the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library uses to provide the Digital Media Zone's collection of eBooks and audiobooks for checkout. You typically access these books through dmz.overdrive.com or the Libby or OverDrive apps.

If you use the Libby or Kindle App, please disregard this article.

On October 30, 2020, OverDrive is making necessary security upgrades to protect the privacy of user data. These updates mean certain devices with older operating systems will lose access to the OverDrive app and OverDrive websites. If you see a message about losing access to the digital library after October 30, your device is affected by this change.

Like so many public institutions and services, the Technology Training Center is adapting to all of the changes in the world to keep serving the Huntsville community. These changes have resulted in our department to increase our online presence. During July and August, we started offering online instruction for Excel and Word, our more popular classes. We have since expanded our online catalog to include PowerPoint and advanced Excel classes.

On October 1, Deputy Director Cindy Hewitt stepped in as Interim Executive Director for the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) after Laurel Best retired. She will serve as Interim for up to a year until the board of directors can safely conduct a search for the Library's new Executive Director.

Did you know that the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) offers certain voting services at their 11 locations? Here is a breakdown on how the Library can help you navigate the voting process:

Voter Registration

Available at all 11 locations of the HMCPL, you can fill out a paper registration form and our librarians will deliver them to the Madison County Courthouse. There are deadlines to this that are important if you chose to register this way. 

After a 45 year career in public libraries, The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) Executive Director Laurel Best is retiring at the end of September. Laurel has been with the HMCPL system for 12 years. She announced her plans to retire to the library staff and board of directors in July.