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.