Rappin' with Alexander Hamilton

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the January 28, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The name Hamilton is nearly a household word. One of my daughters lives one of the many Hamilton avenue, streets, and boulevards in our country. At least 28 of our 50 states boasts a city or town named Hamilton. Hamilton College is the third oldest college in New York. It was chartered in 1812 and is one of the oldest colleges in the United States.

Empty Nest - Full Basement

Librarian April Cushing is head of Adult and Information Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column published in the January 21, 2016 issue of the Norwood Transcript Bulletin.

You can tell a lot about a person by her basement. I’ve spent more time than usual below street-level lately, between putting away Christmas accoutrements and re-homing clutter in preparation for a proper house-cleaning. My basement has been filling up faster than a debutante’s dance card. As I made my way through the maze it struck me how much of the stuff belongs to my kids. I’m not talking about the remnants from childhood. I’m referring to the clothing, kitchenware, artwork, books, bikes, bedding, wedding miscellany and giant golf mat they left behind when they took off. And there’s the rub: I don’t mind having their belongings under my roof; I’d just rather have them.

I’m struggling with the fact that three of my four daughters now live far away, and probably getting farther. My youngest, in New York City, plans to study overseas, my 30-year-old recently moved back to London, and the newlyweds just drove 3,000 miles in the opposite direction to begin married life in San Francisco. I’m grateful to have one child who promises to stay put. The peripatetic nature of my progeny is particularly difficult for this Norwood resident whose neighbors all seem to live within shouting distance of their kin. Sure, I’m envious.

Inspiration at a Midwinter Meeting

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the January 14, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. I belong to several professional organizations for librarians, and the largest of these is the American Library Association. ALA has been holding annual conferences in June since 1876. In fact, it held one of its first summer conferences right here in Boston in 1879 with its largest participation in its then five-year history – 162 members.

The numbers have grown, and currently, there are less than ten cities large* enough to host the annual ALA conference (held in June) with the highest number of attendees nearly 30,000 (Washington, DC in 2007). Other annual conferences destinations are Anaheim, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Chicago. (*Large conference cities are those who can house the attendees to area hotels and shuttle them back and forth between the event venues.)

The Selfish Knitter

Liz Reed is the Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz's column in the January 7, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Early January is a time to pause and take a breath. The holidays are over, the hustle and bustle of the past month has slowed, and winter is just getting started. As I recently mentioned to some friends, winter is the knitter’s natural habitat, especially if you’re a knitter who enjoys working with wool. I’ll go a step further here and say that if winter is the knitter’s natural habitat, January is our nesting time, the time when we can settle in, hunker down, and focus on projects that we want to do for ourselves.

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.