Thanks During the Holidays - For a Job Well Done

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the December 31, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

    Most pre- and elementary school teachers and children’s librarians receive bags of treats or handmade gifts from families who visit the classrooms or library's children’s room on a nearly daily basis. I still have some of those gifts and holiday cards from my days as the youth services librarian in Peterborough, New Hampshire. I have sweet memories of the care and gratitude that the families had for me just for doing my job: simply by helping to instill a love of reading and the library.

Cats and Christmas

Read Marg Corjay's column in the December 24, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Marg is an Outreach and Circulation Assistant at the Morrill Memorial Library and a voracious reader.

"Deck the Halls with Catnip Mousies, FaLaLaLa LaLaLaLa, Wreck the Tree and Blame the Doggies." The Christmas season naturally lends itself to thoughts of warm, fuzzy things like sweaters, fireplaces, family, and cuddling with a cat. I am a covered-in-fur longtime cat enthusiast, as most people quickly find out because of my cat clothes, jewelry, reading habits, and home decor. I even dress as a cat for Halloween, complete with whiskers and a long fuzzy tail, so I'm the obvious person to write on this subject. Presently I only am owned by one cat, Nefertiti Isabella, but this year I am especially grateful because she just successfully came through a major health crisis. Christmas always brings back memories of the year that a neighbor "gifted" me a kitten.

Meet Me in St. Louis This Christmas

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the December 17, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Apparently, the French are the only people who pronounce St. Louis without an s. Consider, for instance, the Louis kings of France. You most likely think Louis with a French accent. The folks who settled St. Louis in 1764, Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, may have assumed that the city (named after Louis IX) would have always kept its proper pronunciation.

Missourians, however, identify you as an outsider if you leave off the s in the name of their beloved St. Louis. It's St. Louis (“lou-is”), and that’s that.

Regrettably for me, I've visited St. Louis once only (other than the airport). That was over thirty years ago, yet the impression the city made on me has endured as if it were yesterday.

Brave New World: TV Without Cable

Read Kate Tigue's column in the December 10, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

This may shock you:  librarians do more than read!  Or, at least, this librarian does. Reading is still my first love but visual media is becoming a close second! As I see it, America is in the Golden Age of television.  TV shows are beginning to rival films in terms of high quality acting and storytelling.  There’s almost a cinematic quality to many cable TV programs that is even trickling down to network-produced shows. Programs like AMC’s Mad Men and HBO’s The Wire have demonstrated that TV audiences are interested in following programs with extremely intricate plots over multiple seasons. Similarly, attitudes about TV acting have changed within the industry as well.  Actors considered television work to be decidedly less prestigious than movie roles.  Not so today!  Many movie stars like Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, and Diane Kruger  are now taking on high-profile roles on TV shows.

Fun with NYRA

Read Jean Todesca's column in the December 3, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Jean is the Head of Children's Services at the Morrill Memorial Library.

          What is it?  NYRA is the Norwood Young Readers Awards.  Every year 4^th and 5^th grade students in the Norwood Public Schools participate in this reading event.  From November 1^st until the end of January, students are encouraged to read from a list of preselected by the public school librarians.  There are twelve titles to choose from.  Each student who reads four books has the opportunity to vote for the book that they felt was the best.  The winning title is awarded the Norwood Young Reader’s Award.

Michael Tougias - A Passion for Writing

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the November 26, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Michael Tougias is the third author to visit the Morrill Memorial Library this fall (as part of the Stuart Plumer Author Night Series). He is a local author and his book, The Finest Hours (coauthored with Casey Sherman in 2009) is the basis for a Disney film that will be released in theaters in January of 2016. Casey Affleck, Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger and Ben Foster star in the movie that portrays a daring and harrowing rescue off the coast of Cape Cod. The movie has had several planned release dates over the past few years – one as early as this October and the other as late as the spring of 2016.

Saving the Children: Riders on the Orphan Trains

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the November 19, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

 One-hundred and seventy-five years ago, social workers and philanthropists in Boston in 1840 began the "Boston Plan". Orphaned or homeless children were “placed out” in the hope that they would be adopted by families who wanted them. Children from Massachusetts were sent to what they hoped would be new homes in states as close as Vermont or as far-flung as the farms and prairies across the American Midwest in the Westward Expansion.

Some of the children had lost both parents; others had lost only one, but the surviving parent could not care for them. One of the largest criticisms of the Boston Plan was that it allowed some children to become indentured servants to families who wanted extra hands on the tracts of land they were settling or the land they were farming. Now considered illegal or cruel, the organization sponsoring this plan sincerely believed they were taking these orphaned children from the mean streets of the city and giving them a second chance at a wholesome life in the country.

Handmade Crafting

Read Alli Palmgren's column in the November 12, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Alli is the Technology Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

I really look forward to the first Thursday of each month. I work the late shift on Thursdays, so my mornings are generally free. This is when I make most of my appointments, run errands, and once a month, head to the Norwood Senior Center to do crafts. Now, I know that I’m closer in age to the seniors that spend their days at 245 Nichols Street than to the seniors that spend time at 275 Prospect Street, but several months ago I was actually invited to lead a monthly craft class, I jumped at the opportunity.

The Race to Be First: Subways and More

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the November 5, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

We can be proud of many things in Massachusetts, especially those attributed to our fair city Boston. In Boston Firsts (2006), author Lynda Morgenroth describes forty of the “feats or innovation and invention that happened in first in Boston and helped make America great.”

Help! Writer's Block

Margot Sullivan is a part-time reader's advisory and reference librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column as published in the October 29, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

     This past summer I vowed to begin writing a story that has been swirling around in my head for years!  I was on my favorite Maine island where creativity abounds with artists, writers, poets, and craft persons.  Since I just cannot seem to get going I asked some friends “when do you write?” and received a variety of answers. One poet starts her day with her coffee and just jots down anything that comes to mind. A children’s author sets aside some time each day but also admitted to having a book idea hanging around for years.  I even went to one session of a creative writing course in the library.    I actually started the story and reviewed some of the letters, photos, and clippings I might use! I did not write a whole lot but liked what I wrote. It is fiction, maybe a mystery, and takes place in Maine! But I have come to a complete halt.  I have not figured out how to go forward!

Bewitched by the City of Salem

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the October 22, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

This past summer, Gerry and I were very happy guests at a wedding in Salem, Massachusetts. It was a gorgeous weekend. A large tent overlooked Hawthorne Cove and the Salem Harbor beyond to the east. The lucky couple hosted their wedding day reception at the House of Seven Gables The water sparkled with hundreds of sailboats. One of those boats was the venue of the actual marriage ceremony where the bride and groom tied a nautical knot in an intimate gathering of six.

Cranberries: Fruit of the Bog

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the October 15, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Cranberries. They are an odd fruit, aren’t they? Essentially, they must be cooked, dried, or juiced to be palatable.

The berries grow on low evergreen shrubs that creep along the ground. Because they grow in bogs, they are often inaccessible to the wanderer. But they aren’t a berry that we often think about picking as we casually walk or hike New England trails. If we did, as a matter of fact, we’d be sorely disappointed. Even when their skins are richly red, and they are bursting with plumpness, they aren’t a very good snack. It’s interesting that such a tart, acidic, nearly-bitter, strangely-textured fruit could be one of America’s favorites.

That said – cranberries conjure thoughts of holidays, family and sweets. In their raw form, they adorn our wreaths and are strung on holiday trees. In their cooked form, they are America’s accompaniment to our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. Juiced, they make up some pretty tasty concoctions like the delicious Scarlett O’Hara and a refreshing Cape Codder.

The Best Books You've Never Read

Liz Reed is the Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz's column in the October 8, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Scene: your coworker/friend/family member gushes on about how much they just loved this new bestseller. It was just the best book of the last decade and you absolutely have to read it – why haven’t you read it yet? You’re missing out!

Intrigued, you’re finally able lay your hands on a copy and after you’ve slogged your way through it, you wonder what all the hype was about. We’ve all had this experience of being disappointed by books on the bestseller list, books that are raved about by our coworkers/friends/family members, who we know to otherwise be of sound mind and good taste. This can even happen with award-winning books: these Award-Winners are apparently paragons of prose and literary theory, are radical in their choice of subject matter, but some of these titles really make you wonder how they could ever have won an award (“Catcher in the Rye,” I’m looking at you). You read them and just think, “Meh.”

A Dedicated Fan

Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Nancy Ling's column in the October 1, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Recently I discovered a book that had been withdrawn from our library’s collection. Brady, Brady, Brady was written by Sherwood and Lloyd J. Schwartz, the co-producers of the hit television series The Brady Bunch. I grabbed it from the recycle bin—a found treasure. This was a piece of my childhood.

Along with many other kids growing up in the seventies, I was a dedicated fan of the show. After all who doesn’t remember the episode when Jan Brady cried out “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” having had enough of her sister being the center of attention? And I couldn’t have been the only girl who oo’ed and ahh’d over Greg Brady when he auditioned to be the singer Johnny Bravo, could I? {!--more-->

When my own kids were old enough, I checked out the Brady Bunch series from the library… and then (confession), I purchased a set of our own to have on hand. Turns out my girls loved the show. Granted they couldn’t relate to the “groovy” hairstyles and outfits, but the overarching themes resonated with a new generation.

All of this got me thinking about what it means to be a fan. Most of us have someone whom we admire, whether a sports figure or a singer, a politician (could happen) or a Hollywood star. Often we’re intrigued by those who are famous, or slightly “out of reach.” According to the dictionary however, a fan is “a person who is very enthusiastic about someone or something.” You could be a fan of your grandmother or your local librarian (hint, hint). It doesn’t have to be someone famous.

In a Jam

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the September 24, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

It’s that time of year again. The days are warm and the nights are cool and thoughts of a steamy kitchen full of ripe tomatoes, peaches, apples, spices, herbs, and glass canning jars can be comforting. Years ago I bought Gravenstein apples by the bushel to make homemade applesauce and Roma tomatoes by the box to make sauces. I relied on my trusty Ball canning jar insert literature and my Better Homes and Gardens canning and preserving recipe books. I also relied on my time as an at-home mom.

Full S.T.E.A.M Ahead in the Children's Room

Read Kate Tigue's column in the September 17, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

The Morrill Memorial Library is proud to announce that our Children’s Department has won a Full STEAM Ahead LSTA (Library Services and Technology Association) Grant from the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This grant will allow us to implement STEAM programming for children at the preschool level. We will also install a new science station in our Children’s Room and well as some other permanent STEAM related areas in the library.

The Food Allergy Family

Read Nicole Guerra-Coon's column in the September 10, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Nicole is a part-time Reference and Children's Library Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

What do you think of when I say, “Food allergies”?

Maybe you think they are like seasonal allergies, where there is discomfort, a stomach ache, and maybe some coughing and sneezing.

Not So Required Reading

Read Alli Palmgren's column in the September 3, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Alli is the Technology Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

As another school year begins and I start to see the St. Catherine’s students trickle in each afternoon to get a jump on their homework, I am hit by a familiar pang of jealousy. They have no idea how much I would give to trade places with them. I love my job, I just love school too. I always have.

In high school, I managed to talk my guidance counselor and parents into granting me an exception in order to get out of having an assigned lunch or study hall so that I could take more classes...for fun. My guidance counselor looked at me like I was nuts as she signed the paperwork, but I figured I could eat between classes and do homework on the bus ride to tennis matches or in the lodge between ski races. No one can say I didn’t try to get the most out of my 13 years of public education.

Empty Nests: Rediscovering Your Own Wings

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the August 27, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

    I will re-experience the empty nest when our grandson, Colin, leaves home for college next fall. When my nest first emptied, after my youngest daughter left for college, I was caught up in a whirlwind of  my own leavings. I had just sold our family home, was finishing graduate school, and had just begun my first full-time job in over twenty-five years. I remember swallowing my tears whole as I brought the last carload of freshmen gear into my daughter’s dorm. I successfully ignored a wrenching as the loss of everyday motherhood tore me in two. It had been biting at my heels for three years as our life as a family tore itself apart in a divorce.

Do You Believe In Magic?

Librarian April Cushing is head of Adult and Information Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column published in the March 5, 2015 issue of the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin.

It all started when my 29-year-old called in a panic asking if I had her college diploma. Having accepted a job in London, she had quit her current job, sublet her Brooklyn apartment, and applied for a visa to work abroad. Now she needed to provide proof that she had actually graduated.

I was pretty sure the document was stashed in one of the boxes of Abby’s stuff I had saved, along with multiple containers of memorabilia from my other three girls. While not exactly a hoarder, I seem to be incapable of discarding anything that might turn out to have some sentimental value during my children’s lifetimes, or possibly their descendants'. You just never know.

Up North or Down East in Maine

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the August 13, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

    I moved away from Massachusetts as a young child and returned for a long visit at the age of 19. Here in New England as a young adult, the Boston Bruins and fried clams had me at hello. I also fell in love with a Boston boy, which I don’t entirely regret because he was the reason I returned to live in Massachusetts a year later.

    I quickly picked up New England slang and colloquiums like “packy” and “wicked” and “the Gahden.”  However, I never quite got the hang of “down Purity” or “down Zayre’s”.  It seemed a disgusting grammatical habit of my group of Bostonian relatives and friends to leave out the prepositions "to" or “at.” No one cared about my annoying complaints, though. Purity Supreme and Zayre’s eventually disappeared as they were swallowed up by competitors and the habit seemed to disappear with the 20th Century.

Wait! I Need to Finish Procrastinating

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the August 6, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I don’t remember exactly when I recognized one of my most annoying behavioral traits, procrastination. In all likelihood, I picked the horrid habit up as a child or teenager. It wasn’t until I was in college, however, that I truly realized it was plaguing my life.

In college, most of us seemed to fall into two camps.  There were those who had their papers stacked up in advance all semester, ready to hand in on the due date.  And, there were those of us who wait until the last day, hour, or minute. I genuinely admired the first type and identified with the second.

Hearing the Call

Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Nancy Ling's column in the July 30, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

When my oldest daughter was four year’s old she informed us that she wanted to be an ornithologist when she grew up. I’m not sure where she learned that word, probably from her favorite television show at the time, Blue’s Clues, but I do know that she loved birds from early on. Soon her little sister caught the passion too. Rather than collecting American Girl or Barbie dolls, it was the Audubon toy birds that filled our house.

You’ve probably seen these stuffed birds in a variety of stores. My girls loved to squeeze each bird’s belly to hear its individual song. As parents, we never minded the girls saving their funds in order to add the next bird to add to their collection. At least they were learning about nature while playing. More than this, the reward came when walking outdoors together. When we heard a sound like birdie birdie birdie, our girls would turn their heads, invariably one of them saying “Mama, there’s the Cardinal.”

Monkey Bars and Rope Swings Just Got Real

Liz Reed is the Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz's column in the July 23, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

“Ah-roo!” “Ah-roo!” This is the call-and-response chant of modern day Spartans, as heard by yours truly several weeks ago in Barre, MA.  I accompanied my boyfriend to his first-ever Spartan race on a farm in Barre where he scaled greased walls, carried boulders, crawled under barbed wire, and ran about 8 miles with over 2,100 other racers. About 5,000 Spartans raced in Barre over the course of the weekend.

            Spartan Race is one form of Obstacle Course Race (OCR). Other popular OCR events include: Tough Mudder, and other mud runs; BattleFrog; CrossFit Games; Ironman; Ultraman; Peak Races; Death Race; and weekend warriors. The sport is growing in popularity so quickly that by the end of this summer, I wouldn’t be surprised to see new forms of OCR springing up. According to journalist Erin Beresini in her book about her immersion in the world of endurance racing, “Off Course: Inside the Mad, Muddy World of Obstacle Course Racing”: “Obstacle course racing is the fastest-growing sport in U.S. history. Every week, thousands of marathoners, CrossFitters, and casual weekend warriors shell out money to run through mud and fire, crawl under barbed wire, scramble over ten-foot walls, and dodge baton-wielding gladiators. They are a new wave of athlete for whom running thirteen or twenty-six miles just isn’t enough. They crave a primal challenge…”  The USA Obstacle Racing Association (www.obstacleusa.com) estimates that over 400 obstacle racing events are produced in the United States, and almost half that number are produced in other countries.

Tackling the Appalachian Trail

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the July 16, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

 This past weekend, an ultra-marathoner (41-year old Scott Jurek of Boulder, Colorado) finished “hiking” all 2,189 miles of the Appalachian Trail. His journey ended at Mount Katahdin in Baxter, State Park, Maine. Katahdin.

What makes his hike unusual is the fact that he finished in the fastest time ever – 46 days, 8 hours, and 8 minutes. He averaged 50 miles per day, beginning on Springer Mountain in Georgia on a day in mid-spring, May 27. Katahdin means “the greatest mountain” and the hike ends in Maine in what is called the One Hundred Mile Wilderness.

 I once fancied hiking the Appalachian Trail – an entirely unrealistic journey for me. It was fun dreaming, though, and I took books out of the library and briefly charted a course until I remembered that I didn’t really like to hike.

Hot and Steamy Reader's Advisory

Read Kate Tigue's column in the July 9, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

After a long and dreary winter, the hot weather we thought would never arrive is here!  It’s July and that means the dog days of summer are right around the corner.  And whether (get it?!?) or not we realize it, many of us change our reading habits with the change in weather (ha, I can’t stop!).  Some of us eschew heavier tomes and gravitate towards light beach reads.  Others (like myself) use the summer to catch up on books we’ve wanted to read, the ones we never seem to get to during the rest of the year.

First Place Ribbon!

We are proud to report that on May 4, 2015 the Morrill Memorial Library's submission to the Massachusetts Library Association 2013-2014 Public Relations Awards won first place in the "News" categories. A representative 24 columns from 2013 and 2014 were submitted. They were written by Marg Corjay, Shelby Warner, Nancy Ling, Diane Phillips, Brian Samek, Bonnie Wyler, Marie Lydon, Norma Logan, Allison Palmgren, April Cushing, Liz Reed, Kate Tigue, Jillian Goss, and Charlotte Canelli.

Little Golden Books Old and New Again

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the July 2, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

As a former children’s librarian, a mother to three daughters, and a grandmother to a brood of grandchildren, I can’t imagine life without shelves of books for children. Hundreds of picture books are published every year, and libraries have the challenge of fitting them on the shelves of their children’s rooms. In libraries like ours in Norwood, we often have to defer to a one-in, one-out policy which means “weeding out” the worn and unread books to fit the new. It sometimes breaks our hearts to withdraw a lovely book that hasn’t acquired the following that some of the newest books have.

As a very young child, my family treasured reading and books. I don’t remember my own experiences reading many picture books, though. Besides our well-worn copy of Make Way for Ducklings (published in 1941), and my mother’s own copies of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, not many children’s books made our family’s cross-country move with in the late 1950s.

Don't Use Your Face as a Brake Pad

Read Alli Palmgren's column in the June 25, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Alli is the Technology Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

Bicycles are my thing. For years, I raced almost every weekend from April to January in whatever discipline that season offered: road, cyclocross, XC mountain biking, and track. Racing has given me my friends, my health, my identity, and my husband (we met at a bike industry Christmas party, but that is a story for another day).

Sun Tzu and the Art of War

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the June 18, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I love lists. I’m always drawn to lists like “The Ten Best Movies for a Rainy Afternoon” or “A Hundred Things to Organize Before You Retire.”

I especially like lists of books because, well, mainly because I’m a librarian, and that’s my job.

I’ve always been curious about a title that appears on most lists of “books you must not miss.” I read many classics as a child and college student, but I was never required to read, or never was introduced to, the military classic of all time. The Art of War, by military general and philosopher, Sun Tzu was written sometime around 522-496 B.C. I must confess, I managed to avoid reading The Art of War until this past year until it was assigned reading for a master’s of public administration course in strategic leadership.

A Little House in the Woods

Diane Phillips is the Technical Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.  Read Diane's  column in the June 11, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

 A few months ago, on a chilly spring night, my family and I were looking for something interesting to watch on TV. We stumbled across Treehouse Masters with Pete Nelson and his crew. We’d never seen an episode before but were intrigued by the premise of a professional treehouse builder and curious to see what he’d build. After watching a few episodes, we were all having the same idea: we need a treehouse in our backyard!

50 Years Plus of Beatlemania

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the June 4, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

One day, a few years ago, I found my diary from 1965 and I chuckled at the entry from a day in late summer.

“Went to the movies and saw Help!  I LOVE Paul” it read.

That Paul, of course, was Paul McCartney, the cutest Beatle, in my opinion.

Volunteers Make a Difference

Norma Logan is the Literacy Coordinator at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read Norma Logan's column in the May 28, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Most people think of volunteerism in conjunction with hospitals, the Red Cross, animal shelters, or overseas agencies.  There are many more volunteer opportunities than these and varied reasons for people who seek them out.  I am interested in volunteerism because I train and work with literacy volunteers in the Literacy Volunteer Program at the Norwood Library, and I, myself, was once a volunteer tutor.

It's All in the News

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the May 21, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Most weekdays, I wake up to local, national and international news on the radio, specifically NPR.  It doesn’t take long to get an assessment of the state of the world if it’s changed overnight.  I don’t get a morning newspaper anymore. To be honest, I get most of my news from logging onto my tablet or phone.  From there, social media, blogs, posts and alerts update me throughout the day. The occasional times I am unplugged or out of range, it only takes an instant to figure out the state of things when I tune back in.

You Are My Sunshine

Margot Sullivan is a part-time reader's advisory and reference librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column as published in the May 14, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

My three and a third year old granddaughter is a joy.  She has an infectious laugh but when she is telling a joke and thinks she is pretty funny – the laughter changes and her Dad says “oh boy here we go again”! There are not enough words to describe her – loving,  independent, curious, stubborn, imaginative, bossy, caring, exuberant, fearless, and more.  Never did I think how wonderful it would be to watch this child grow ever so quickly.

The Library Needs YOU!

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the May 7, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

How are we doing? What could we do better? Those are the simple questions that the Morrill Memorial Library needs answers to and there are several ways you can let us know.  A quick and painless method is by completing the online survey.  It's available on our website at this easy URL: www.norwoodlibrary.org/survey. (You'll also be receiving this link to the survey in your Norwood Light bill this month.) Another way is to fill out a paper survey that is available at the library and several other places in Norwood. This month, we hope to get answers from over a thousand library users.

Number of Days Since Last Move: Zero

Liz Reed is the Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz's column in the April 30, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Since leaving my childhood home to attend college, I’ve never lived in a single location longer than 20 months. Sure, I’ve lived in Boston for three years, but in that time I’ve occupied three different apartments. In fact, I’ve moved a whopping 18 times since 2006. Ouch. Our current lease will be up at the end of August; we’ve chosen not to renew, bringing my grand total of single abode living to two years. Now it’s time to start the search process all over again.

History with a Little Bit of Murder

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the April 23, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Many readers, including librarians, have guilty pleasures. For more than one of the Norwood librarians, it’s cozy mysteries, specifically those about knitting or cats. Others are addicted to romances or chick-lit. Still others succumb to self-help books, including those written by what other librarians might call “self-promoting quacks.” For a few of us, true crime is the genre that always catches our fancy.

Librarians, of course, are like kids in a candy store – we have every imaginable title at our fingertips and well within our reach. Most of us rotate our guilty pleasures, those books that raise a few eyebrows of our colleagues, with other titles that are much more redeemable.

A Season of Hope

Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Nancy Ling's column in the April 16, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Spring. The word itself puts a bounce in our step. After this harsh winter, it might make us take flight. Besides being a seasonal change, spring gives us a sense of hope. Life is opening around us. The smell of soil and blossoms greet our mornings. We can hear the cardinal’s song again. Best of all, we are no longer rushing from car to house in order to avoid becoming a human icicle. We’ve started to shed a layer of two.

Old Wives' Tales in the Kitchen

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the April 9, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

“Feed a fever, starve a cold.”  I can never remember the correct version of this advice when I actually have a cold or a fever. Am I supposed to feed the fever or the cold?  When I’m sick and want a warm bowl of macaroni and cheese or a cold cup of sherbet, is this bad or is it good?

Guess what? It doesn’t matter because that’s not how the real old wives tale goes, anyway.

21st Century Parenting

Read Kate Tigue's column in the April 2, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

Social media.  Sharing.  Friending.  Following.  Trending.   We hear these words and phrases on an almost daily basis but what do they really mean?  Social media is simply a phrase used to describe websites or applications for mobile devices that allow us to connect and share with other people across the world in different ways via the Internet.  The most popular and recognizable of these are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.   Each of these services allows you to create an account and then see the information of other people who also use the service.  Facebook is a personal online bulletin board that allows you post messages, pictures, videos, and links to other websites.  Twitter allows each user to post a message under 140 characters long.  Instagram is an online photo album that encourages other users to view and comment on your pictures.

The Princess Bride - As I Wished It

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the March 26, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

My daughters were very young when the film version of The Princess Bride released in October of 1987. It had a Motion Picture Association of America rating of PG which warned that it might contain material that parents would not want for young audiences. A Parental Guidance rating usually means bad language, violence or frightening scenes not recommended for young children. And there might be kissing, of course.

My Husband is a Tapeworm

Read Alli Palmgren's column in the March 19, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Alli is the Technology Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

It is almost a foregone conclusion that most librarians are prolific readers and often surround themselves with others of a similar persuasion. From my experience, a love of reading is often passed down through the generations, so readers often come from families of bookworms. Additionally, many librarians seem to choose partners that share their passion for the written word.

Boston's Own Dr. Spock

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the March 12, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

 We’ve all taken our seats at the Mugar Omni Theater at Boston’s Museum of Science and settled in as the lights dim. The first thing we always hear is an explanation of the amazing visual and audio effects with its 180 screens and 360-degree speakers. It begins “this is a test” and during the three-minute introduction we listen to a familiar voice, that of Boston-born Leonard Nimoy. His voice has been testing “who put the bomp in the bomp, she’bomp, she’bomp” since the theater opened in 1987.

Nimoy grew up in Boston’s West End, an area between Beacon Hill and North Station. It was just three blocks from the museum, but sadly his childhood home is no longer there. His neighborhood of Italian and Jewish immigrants was razed to give way to urban renewal in the last half century. Nimoy speaks lovingly of his neighbors and friends and in a commencement speech at Boston University, he recalled trying often to find the spot where he lived on Chambers Street, but to no avail. It’s impossible in this new neighborhood of hospital buildings, parking garages, and high rises.

Nimoy moved to California long ago taking some acting classes at Boston College and deciding that acting was what he wanted to do. Nimoy’s father, a Jewish barber, believed that his son needed to fall back on a skill other than acting.  However, Leonard moved to California long ago after taking some acting classes at Boston College. His passion led eventually to his role as Spock in the three seasons of the original Star Trek series.

While I was never a Star Trek aficionado, I was once married to a Trekkie or Trekker and hence, my daughters were raised on Vulcan milk, so to speak. Reruns of the original series (1966-1969), the six Star Trek films (1979-1991), and all 178 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation were constantly on our television sets. Some of our pets were named after Star Trek characters (Klingon) or actors (Whoopi Goldberg). Starship Enterprise ornaments always hung from the branches of our Christmas trees, and we always teased one of our daughters about her Spock ear – a little sharp point at the top of one of them.

I sometimes blame my non-Trekkie tendencies on the fact that I could never give the Vulcan salute, (with its sentiment “Live Long and Prosper” – that of the four fingers of either hand separated by the middle and ring fingers into a V shape. I always figured this was a gift that one was born with – like being able to roll one’s tongue (a genetic trait).  It certainly is evidence of manual dexterity, and even some of the actors in Star Trek did have to preposition their fingers in the Vulcan salute because, they, like I, can’t seem to manage it.

            

That said, I soaked up Star Trek episodes through osmosis – either by walking through the room where Star Trek episodes or movies were playing  – or by being too lazy to get off the couch when episodes were always, inevitably tuned in. I always had great respect for Spock, half-Vulcan and half-human. Emotionless, yet logical and grounded, Spock had great respect for us, and us for him.

        

What I never knew about Leonard Nimoy, until his death at the age of 83 this past February 27, was that he was also a poet, a photographer, a film director, an author and a recording artist.  A search of the Minuteman Library catalog for Leonard Nimoy results in over 172 hits or thousands of items. These include all of the varied Star Trek movies and TV series, two autobiographies, voice-overs in various documentaries and movies, and his celebrated photographic series, “The Full Body Project” published in 2007. In addition, he wrote several books of poetry and sings baritone on his five pop albums that feature songs like “I Walk the Line” and “Proud Mary.”

           

I didn’t realize that in addition to directing two of the Star Trek films (III: The Search for Spock in 1984 and IV: The Voyage Home in 1986), he also directed Three Men and a Baby (1987) and The Good Mother (1988). Before creating his role as Spock in, he acted in television shows that include the gamut of popular television in the 50s and 60s: Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Sea Hunt, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Get Smart, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and dozens more.  He did voice overs for half a century, and after he had retired from Spock, he continued acting in television series such as The Fringe and The Big Bang Theory.

            

In 1975, Nimoy wrote his first autobiography, I Am Not Spock. It was partially an attempt to separate himself from the Spock role. In his second memoir, I Am Spock published twenty years later in 1995, he explained that he loved playing Spock and was very proud of it.

            

Nimoy’s long and productive life is to be admired. After taking those summer classes at Boston College after high school, Nimoy studies photography at UCLA.  He earned a master’s degree in education at Antioch University in Austin, Texas. Boston University and Antioch College both conferred Nimoy with honorary doctorate degrees. He wrote and spoke fluent Yiddish. Nimoy was much beloved by his five grandchildren. In 2009, another beloved Boston resident, Mayor Tom Menino, proclaimed November 14, 2009 as Leonard Nimoy Day in the City of Boston. He will always ‘live long and prosper’ in the hearts of Trekkies everywhere, especially in his hometown of Boston.

The Winter of My Discontent

Librarian April Cushing is head of Adult and Information Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column published in the March 5, 2015 issue of the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin.

If you were to pick one title to sum up this much-maligned season, Hugo’s “Les Miserables” might come to mind. Or maybe “The Winter of Our Discontent.” I was pretty sure Shakespeare first penned those immortal words but to be sure, I did what any good Reference Librarian would do: I googled it. So begins the tragedy “Richard III”: “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” I wondered if the future sovereign had survived a tough winter himself back in 1471 before “snow events” become commonplace, so I read on. It seems Will was waxing more metaphorical than meteorological.

Sweet Land - Tale from the Heartland

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the February 27, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

With the exception of a few years I spent living in such exotic places as Texas and Ireland, I spent the other 60 years of my life making my home on either the west or east coasts of the United States. I’ve lived within a drive to an ocean and sometimes had a bird’s eye view of a bay.

What about spacious skies, fruited plains, and waves of grain and the landscapes of The Great American Midwest? Besides a very quick drive (mostly at night) through the uppermost United States, the tall grasses of the prairies and the little houses in the big woods were simply foreign to me.
 
It wasn’t until I was fortunate enough in college to have a terrific American Lit professor that I was introduced to the short stories of Willa Cather. As it was a survey course covering many years, we concentrated on Wharton and Twain, Chopin and Hawthorne. It was the plain and simple language of Cather, however, that drew me in. I did, in fact, compare the grammatical construction of the short stories, “Neighbour Rosicky” by Cather and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In my estimation, Cather won for the rhythms, the imagery, and emotion of her work.

Prints in the Snow

Read Jean Todesca's column in the February 20, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Jean is the Head of Children's Services at the Morrill Memorial Library.

Let’s just say, I live in the woods. Although my home is 17 miles southwest of Boston, you would think I lived in the Maine wilderness. Day to day, I forget the large amount of wildlife that surrounds me. With the current snowstorms that we have experienced, there are reminders everywhere. The many paths the deer created through the snow. The tiny white footprints impressions placed all over my driveway. The mounded tunnels running across the ground.

When my children were young, we identified many animal tracks using library books. We’ve seen deer, squirrel, opossum prints and many more. We watched tunnels develop that were created by voles and squirrels.

Animal tracking is a great outdoor activity for both adults and children. The Children’s Department has books to guide in the identification process. “Who Was Here? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks” by Mia Posada and “Wild Trackers! A Guide to Natures Footprints” by Jim Arnosky are nonfiction titles. “Who’s Been Here? A Tale in Tracks” by Fran Hodgkins and “Tracks in the Snow” by Wong Herbert Yee are picture book titles that will introduce the experience of tracking in story form.

As the animal population changed, I’ve returned to books to help identify coyote and fisher cat prints. As this snowy winter wears on, try animal tracking. You’ll never know what you might find in the “wilds” of Norwood.

A Gift You Never Thought to Ask For

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the February 12, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Last summer, we learned that we would be grandparents, again, in early 2015 and it was twins. Two more babies to love! How cool was that!

Early in the fall, our family was told that one of the babies not only had a severe heart defect but that she, our precious new granddaughter-to-be, would be one of the 6,000 babies born each year in the U.S. with Down syndrome.  Her twin and brother would be born “normal.”

Gerry and I were not sure if it was our old-age wisdom, or perhaps simply our unaffected acceptance of any baby to our family, that this child would have lessons, wisdom, and gifts to offer our family.  We were, so-to-speak, grateful just to know that she would be joining our family and we were convinced that all of our family would welcome our granddaughter and grandson with open, loving, and accepting arms.  We felt amazingly blessed with this news.

Answers to the Question Why

Bonnie Wyler is a Literacy/Outreach Librarian at the library. Read Bonnie's column in the February 5, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I am known in my family of origin as the one who’s always asking questions, and

often too many.  The answer I often got was an exasperated, “WE don’t know!” 

Perhaps that is why I am drawn to books that answer the question “Why?”   Although

I love a good story I can lose myself in, at this point in my life I am more likely to

browse the nonfiction shelves of our library, looking for answers to questions about

health, nutrition, sleep and other quality of life topics.  I’m finding books that address

these questions in depth and satisfy my curiosity in the process.  Two of the topics

I’ve read about recently are memory and sleep.

Like most of us in middle or late middle-age, I wonder what has happened to my

memory.  These days I am making lists like crazy in order to remember important

appointments, errands, and my daily to-do list.  I can’t seem to remember anything for

A Whale of a Tale

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the January 29, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

           Over the recent holiday break, my husband, Gerry, and I toured the New Bedford Whaling Museum on the south coast of Massachusetts.  We’ve developed an appreciation for New Bedford, a city that has been undergoing a cultural Renaissance in recent years - much like that of Providence, RI, and Worcester, MA. New Bedford claims to have had one of the highest per capita incomes in the world during its whaling-capital heyday in the 19th Century.>

Curing Cabin Fever Blues

Read Jean Todesca's column in the January 22, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Jean is the Head of Children's Services at the Morrill Memorial Library.

Oh No! The days are shorter and winter’s cold has settled in.  The kids are getting restless and cranky. It’s time to find cures for “Cabin Fever”. Bundling up everyone and getting some outside activity is an answer, but some days it’s too too cold.

Cure 1. Let’s get moving! The library offers books and DVDs to enhance your fun. The DVDs; “Yogakids” and “Barney. Shake Your Dino Tail!” will get them exercising. “Llama Hoppity Hop”, “From Head to Toe” and Doreen Cronin’s titles “Bounce” and “Stretch” are books you can move to.

Cure 2. How about cooking?  You can eat like a super hero with “The Official DC Super Hero Cookbook” or enjoy cupcakes from the “Pinkalicious Cupcake Cookbook”.  Why not travel the USA with “The United States Cookbook:Fabulous Foods & Fascinating Facts From All 50

Cure 3. Get crafty!  The Children’s Department offers books covering sewing, papercrafts, knitting and more. Kids can recycle egg cartons, milk jugs, and cardboard tubes. Titles like “Fun Things to Do with Egg Cartons” and “Fun Things to Do With Milk Jugs” have fun ideas. Budding artist will find titles to enhance their skills. Titles include “Oil Paints” by Mari Bolte and “365 Things to Draw & Paint” by Fiona Watt.

Cure 4.  Learn a new game.  The library offers many books that contain instructions for Chess, Minecraft, Checkers, and more.

Cure 5.  Just sink into a good book.  Librarians are here to assist in finding the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winters day.

So, bundle up, stay warm and use the library to help you enjoy our winter season.

Airports: A Local Experience

Victoria Andrilenas is an Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Vicki's column in the January 15, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

My husband and I moved to Norwood a few years ago and have enjoyed learning about the town and community.  One local feature that was a nice surprise for me is Norwood Airport.  I grew up near a small airport and my family has long been interested in aviation and airplanes.  For me the noise of planes flying overhead brings back memories of being out in the backyard during the summer and looking up to see what kind of plane was overhead; one summer there were some gliders which was exciting. 

Many of today’s municipal airports were sites of major events in aviation history and served as training fields during World War I and World War II.   “Norwood: a history” by Patricia Fanning provides some history on the Norwood Airport.  In 1942 a small airfield was approved by the town as the site of the Norwood Airport.  The new airport was used for military training until the end of World War II.  After the war, local aviation company Wiggins Airlines moved their aircraft sales and repairs, and flight lessons from Canton to Norwood and expanded their business to include passenger and cargo operations (150-151).  This past fall the Wings of Freedom tour of historic World War II made its annual stop here on Norwood Day.  College Park Airport in Maryland is considered to be the nation’s longest continuously operating airport and was the site of the Wrights’ early military demonstrations.  Today it has a small museum and is used for general aviation.  Pearson Airfield in Vancouver, WA is part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and was the landing site of the first transpolar flight from Moscow in 1937.  My childhood airport was near several early airplane manufacturers.   Alastair Gordon’s “Naked airport: a cultural history of the world’s most revolutionary structure “examines the history of airports.

New Year?

Liz Reed is the Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz's column in the January 8, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
As the new year blossoms, the trope of New Year's resolutions overwhelm us. We quickly assess our lives and find them lacking just in time for a clean slate. Just like the first fresh page of a new notebook, there's so much opportunity to the new year. Maybe I'll get in shape and lose that weight this year, maybe I'll read "War and Peace," maybe I'll quit smoking, or finally organize my shoe collection. All of these are great ideas but usually by Feb. 1 they end up crumpled in a corner. So how do we make New Year's resolutions stick?

No Need to Wait for the New Year

Jillian Goss is a graduate student of library science at Simmons College in Boston while she also works as a Library Assistant at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Jillian's column in the January 1, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

As the new year blossoms, the trope of New Year's resolutions overwhelm us. We quickly assess our lives and find them lacking just in time for a clean slate. Just like the first fresh page of a new notebook, there's so much opportunity to the new year. Maybe I'll get in shape and lose that weight this year, maybe I'll read "War and Peace," maybe I'll quit smoking, or finally organize my shoe collection. All of these are great ideas but usually by Feb. 1 they end up crumpled in a corner. So how do we make New Year's resolutions stick?