Banned Books Week

Jenna Hecker is the Technology/Reference Librarian at the library. Read her column in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin this week. Read past columns that are indexed and archived here.

Excerpt:

The first public library to ban Huckleberry Finn was the Concord Free Public Library, who in 1885 accused Twain’s then year-old work of containing coarse, inelegant language. The book has continued to be a source of tension and controversy – sometimes it was challenged or banned for portraying interracial friendships and taking an anti-slavery stance, other times modern challengers objected to its use of the ‘n’-word and its generally racially-charged language. All of these controversies have made the book one of the most-banned books of all time.
Each year, in the last week of September, the American Library Association and libraries nationwide host events and displays celebrating literature that has been challenged or banned in libraries and schools. Banned Books Week highlights the most frequently challenged books of the previous year and tries to give people a history of book challenges.

A Tour of Norwood Through Local Authors

Charlotte Canelli is library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood. Read her entire article in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Read past columns that are indexed and archived here.

Excerpt:

One of my favorite passages of the first chapter of “Mapping Norwood” is one in which Charles, his brother and mother ride the bus from their home to downtown Norwood. On this ride “down Walpole Street … I wave at my home away from home, the town’s public library.” Later on in the book Charles Fanning spends pages on his childhood spent reading, on one of his favorite books and on a place near and dear to both of our hearts, the Morrill Memorial Library.

The tour in Dr. Fanning’s book does not stop at just the library, however. Chapters are devoted to his family’s history, both Yankee and Irish-American, in Norwood and in a young America. It is a memoir rich with memories of small-town America, the sociology of ethnic groups ‘bumping’ against each other and the history of a family.

A Delightful Three-Hour Tour

Charlotte Canelli is the Library Director in Norwood. Read her entire column in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Read past columns that are indexed and archived here.

Excerpt:

Once considered the dirtiest harbor in the world, the Boston Harbor is now one that sparkles after a serious cleanup and revitalization project in the late 20th century. In that harbor the thirty-four Boston Harbor Islands are all part of the National Park Area, each unique and each with a rich history.

This past summer Marguerite Krupp shared her love of the Boston Harbor Islands during two evening programs at our library. Her first program was so popular that we quickly scheduled another and both were given to rapt audiences.

I quickly decided on the whimsical idea to try one of the many Boston Harbor Islands cruises. I purchased tickets for a sunset cruise to Long Island through the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands (FBHI.org.) The sunset cruise to Long Island happened to conveniently be given on one the nights that our 12-year grandson was on vacation with relatives.

Of course, whimsy at its best involves spontaneous planning but I know better when travel, tickets or food are involved.

The To-Do or Not-to-Do List

Charlotte Canelli is the Library Director in Norwood. Read her entire column in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin this week. Read past columns that are indexed and archived here.

Excerpt:

Sometime last year I read an article about the Not-To-Do List and decided to make a mental list. My Not-To-Do List this year included items such as do not procrastinate, do not buy any more books, do not avoid exercise and do not wake up at 4:00 am and worry. I’ve made little progress on some of those and adequate progress on others so I think it might just have worked.

On the Trail of Tolstoy

Shelby Warner is a retired librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her entire column this week in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Read past columns that are indexed and archived here.

Excerpt:

The library is a treasure trove of information and the reference staff can help you find the key to your particular question.

Recently, I used this process for myself. Having just seen “The Last Station,” a film about the last year in the life of Leo Tolstoy, I had whetted my appetite to know more about this famous Russian author. I wondered what brought him to his sad end, what he was doing in Astapovo where he died, why his wife wasn’t allowed to see him until he was already in a coma and how his life made such an impact on the world.

These questions were just the tip of the iceberg, for I did not yet know much about Tolstoy. But I did know that within the walls of the library I could satisfy my curiosity. So, I launched myself on the trail of Tolstoy.