Public Library

An executive order has stopped mid-Missouri libraries from receiving reimbursements for federally funded grants.

Jenny Bossaller, a professor of library sciences at the University of Missouri recently sat down with Robin Westphal, the Executive Director of Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, to talk about the important role libraries can play – as a tool for connection.

The Osage County Branch of the Missouri River Regional Libraries is located in Linn – and for the past year or so, they’ve been hosting programs that focus on fall prevention and an active lifestyle for area seniors.

The Mexico-Audrain County Library District recently began offering a new service in partnership with a local doctor. Christal Bruner is the director of the library district and spoke about how patrons can now check out blood pressure monitors when they need them, as well as new books that help better explain this and other health conditions.

Funding to the digital library catalog company Overdrive will be paused until it can prove that it has as safeguards barring children from accessing inappropriate content.

The Little Dixie Regional libraries, which cover Randolph and Monroe county, serve the health of their communities in lots of ways. Like a collection of small health equipment, such as thermometers and blood pressure cuffs, that can be checked out and a "Healing Library," a collection of interactive kits that allow families to tackle hard topics together.

If approved by its Board of Trustees at its next meeting on Dec. 14, the new contract will go into effect on Jan. 1 and last for three years.

Twenty-eight libraries were awarded funding to improve their technology labs and provide citizens with additional Wi-Fi-hotspot access.

A powerful Missouri state lawmaker is trying to strip state funding for libraries over a fight about books. Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith on Tuesday proposed cutting all library funding next year. He's upset that state and school libraries are suing to overturn a new Missouri law that bans sexually explicit material in school libraries. Public libraries had been slated to get $4.5 million in state funding. Smith's proposal needs approval from the Budget Committee before it can go before the full House. The new library law does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts.

Kansas City Public Library officials are questioning the arrests of an employee and a patron during a library event.Jeremy Rothe-Kushel, of Lawrence, was…