Self-Help Is Just Around the Corner

Read April Cushing's complete hilarious column in this week's Daily News Transcript.

Excerpt:

It all started with the car window that wouldn’t close. My kids make fun of my minivan, which I’ve defended to the last dent. Until, that is, I tried to raise the passenger window on a recent Monday morning and it wouldn’t budge.

I enjoy a gale-force breeze as much as the next passenger, but halfway home from a weekend on the Cape I’m burrowing into my hoodie ready to join my canine companion in the back seat when I glance over my shoulder and, uh oh, no Duffy. As I said, I blame it on the window. Since I’m due at the Morrill Memorial Library reference desk at 9 a.m. there’s no time to turn around.

But being the resourceful librarian I am, I immediately call my neighbor Story Fish—his real name, and yes, he’s a fisherman—who rescued the pup waiting patiently at my back door. Story was chuckling but I was horrified. I mean, I’ve left my kids behind before, sure, but never my dog. April Cushing, Adult Services Librarian

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

Read Kelly Unsworth's entire library column in the Daily News Transcript.

Excerpt:

Some 30 years later, my daughter experienced her own version of the “Giant Peach” vacation when we happened upon a small, stone building that houses the Shelburne Free Public Library in Shelburne, Mass. We were fortunate to be passing by while the library was open, as it is only open for three hours every other day. The building had seen no renovations, and consequently had the smell and feel of a cozy one-room schoolhouse. What it lacked in modernity, however, it made up for with charm and a surprisingly good selection of books overflowing the wooden shelves. Kelly Unsworth, Children's Librarian

For Reading Out Loud!

Read Charlotte Canelli's entire column in the Daily News Transcript this week.

Excerpt:

Reading aloud has become somewhat of a lost art in our culture and in the 21st Century. Before television and radio, and mercy me! computers, families spent valuable time reading to each other. And not just to children. Rhythms and language, descriptions and visions were shared with utmost attention to the written word by entire families of all ages. The Read Aloud America and United Through Reading groups are two of the non-profit organizations encouraging a rebirth of a read-aloud generation.

Most experts agree that reading to children is the single most important factor in later reading success.

As adults, we know the importance of reading to our children. We stop – or our children stop us – at some point in the chain. We rarely read to them after a certain age and certainly not to each other. While the electronic audio books serve its purpose well, listening to audio books in any format is a solitary activity. Too much of our present-day e-World is convenient but lonely as it lacks the connectness and comfort we find in the shared experience of listening and reading to each other. There is something lost in the translation – the attention we must pay to read and to listen. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Tweet, Tweeting, Tweeted

Read my entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

Excerpt:

Twitter’s claim on its homepage is that you can “share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” My problem with Twitter is that the world is a very big place. I can’t possibly keep up with all my email, my Google Reader aggregator and my online feeds, my Facebook family and friends. How can I possible discover and share with the rest of the world in constant 140-character Tweets? Why do I have to know these things?
Recent studies of this phenomenon called Twitter have found that millions of others haven’t caught on either. Recent studies (on the Internet and in print media) claim that Tweeters flock to the site and then never return. Around 60 percent of those who register are just not staying around to “get it.” Some predictions claim that only 10 percent of all Internet users are really using Twitter. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

It's All In the Delivery

Read the entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

Excerpt:

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … No! It’s a book! And it’s on its way to your library.
Most Morrill Memorial Library users know that they can request a book (or an audio book, a music CD, a DVD, or a video) from another library within our Minuteman Library Network. Most know that it arrives at the speed of…well, a book. Have you ever marveled at how this system works so well and so fast? Do you wonder how we work this magic? From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Weekday, a.m. Library has not opened yet. Come in and walk up the stairs and turn on the Waiting List computer. Check to be sure Print Station is up.

Uh-oh, strange message. That’s because the power went off last night during the thunder and lightning storm. Go to the Reference Desk, drop off books, papers, reviews taken home, turn on Reference Desk computer, and then turn on the reference computer in the office and check to be sure the printer is turned on. Beth Goldman, Reference, Outreach and Technology Library

Read the entire article by Beth Goldman, Outreach and Reference Librarian, in the Daily News Transcript.

Food for Thought

When my book club met at the end of the summer, 2008, we courageously decided to tackle fresh mozzarella cheese. Call me a skeptic once again but I never imagined that a cheese made at home, in an ordinary kitchen, could be palatable, let alone absolutely delicious. I was amazed when my group of wine-sipping book ladies frothed up a delicious, fresh hunk of mozzarella in the time it took us to make a quick dinner.
Excited, I deigned to make my own cheese weekly. You guessed right - that never happened because I am, after all, not living the good life in the Virginia mountains that Kingsolver did. I’m not forced to invent my dinner each night but instead come home only to serve it.
Yet, I appreciate the effort and seek out those homemade, local creations to add to my family table. Perhaps that is what Kingsolver hoped we all would do - food for thought. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Read my entire article in the Daily News Transcript this week.

A Traveler's Tale

We might have heeded the weather report and waited until morning. We might have turned around before we hit torrential downpours just 20 miles northeast. Yet, we were hearty, hardy, and determined travelers and we left on our three-hour trip mid afternoon on the 1st of July.

Even in my vacation reverie, snatched from car ride slumber, I knew that Gerry’s words “We’ve lost it” were extremely bad news. The not-quite-locked-down Space Cadet, buffeted by wind and rain, had finally rebelled against her load. Her lid had burst upward and she had carelessly spilled her guts onto the slick, wet, and crowded highway at the worst time of the day: the evening commute.

We braved a nerve-jangling stop in the breakdown lane and then forlornly watched our brave driver – husband and grandfather – retreat backwards and disappear around the curve and to seek out what remained of our rooftop load. The three of us helplessly left behind held our breaths as large UPS and Wal-Mart trucks whipped by at breakneck speeds. Our hearts sank as we imagined shreds of sleeping bags, tents, and towels pummeled into the tarmac of the busy highway. We anticipated turning toward home, sheepishly admitting defeat after the very best of attitudes and intentions. Worst of all, of course, we realized our champion was braving the speeding lanes of vehicles. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

You can read my entire article in the Daily News Transcript this week. Happy travels!

Databases At Your Fingertips

If you are interested in learning a foreign language, just scroll down the alphabetical list to Mango Languages and voila, you are there! We just added this to our database collection but this program has been very popular with patrons at other libraries and we expect you will love it. If offers 12 languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, ESL Polish (English for Polish Speakers), ESL Spanish (English for Spanish Speakers), and ESL Brazilian Portuguese (English for Brazilian Portuguese Speakers). Marie Lydon, Reference Librarian

Read Marie Lydon's entire article in the Daily News Transcript this week.

The Sane in Maine

Whenever I go over the Piscataquis Bridge from New Hampshire to Maine everyone in the car with me must open their windows and let the “clean Maine air” fill the car no matter what time of the year. Then I wave my arms out the window and yell, “Yippee, I am in Maine!”

I always wonder what the people think in the cars behind us. My family smiles and humors me. Now I have my library friends doing the same thing!

I love Maine. Most of you head to Cape Cod and, yes, it is a shorter drive, it is nice off season, and the water is warmer, but the rocky coast of Maine is beautiful; and there are a multitude of unexplored places to enjoy down many of the peninsulas. Margot Sullivan, Reference Librarian

Read Margot Sullivan's entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

It's All In a Name

Near the turn of the 20th Century, and on the eve of the first Centennial of the library building, the Committee of One Hundred Names was formed in time for the celebration. The mission of this committee of seven was to find eleven more names. What a daunting task! A century of writers had been born since the building had been built. Some of the original names were hidden or lost during the ensuing years and the two additions. The committee noted that only four women’s names now graced the building and that most of the authors carved on its walls were writers for adults.
For three months the public was asked to nominate. Names came from elementary schools, from library users, and from the general public and 144 names were received. The file of nominations is several inches thick and includes testimony and heartfelt letters from an enthusiastic public. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Read my entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

Frankly, My Dear

Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to remember back half a day let alone nearly a half-century. After our visit to the Margaret Mitchell House last Saturday we rented the 226-minute epic movie in all its glorious color. Watching it brought back memories of Kleenex-fisted hours mourning Scarlett’s mother, father, and daughter and the epic and historically conjured scenes of Atlanta and Civil War.
Viewing it again after many years I realized that I’d somehow forgotten some of the details of the book and the momentous movie. I did remember, however, exactly where I’d shelved the book at home and wondered if I will pick it up now that I know where Margaret Mitchell sat in her apartment and where she placed the many editions of the varying manuscripts. Frankly, my dear reader, I just might. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Read my entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

Summertime and the Reading Should Be Easy

My eldest daughter spent her whole summers reading from first grade on. What always amazed me was the fact that she brought many of her elementary favorites along with her everywhere we traveled even into high school. Roald Dahl’s “BFG” (or known as Big Friendly Giant) hung on among her summer reading collection that included Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” and Stephen King’s “Carrie.” I must admit my raised eyebrows annoyed her but she, as usual, knew what she was doing. Today she is an educational consultant, and not surprisingly, an extremely prolific reader who actually reads while she is walking to her ride on the T in Boston.

She learned the best lesson there is: that reading could be easy and fun, especially in the good old summertime. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Read my entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

Travel Adventures With April

I couldn’t have planned a trip to Paris without going to the library first. Since I work there, admittedly all it took was a detour to the 914s on the Morrill Memorial Library’s second floor and I was good to go. I’m a travel book junkie. For me, half the fun of going anywhere is to read about it first, then point to the passage in the guidebook and say (to myself), “I’ve been there,” or “I did that,” even if it wasn’t all that great.

I’ve never set foot in Seattle or Siena but I’ve been to the City of Light three times. Three of my four daughters have spent at least a semester there, and three times I’ve crammed my carry-on with travel guides from Fodor, Frommer, and Rick Steves. April Cushing, Adult Services Librarian

Read the entire article by April Cushing, Adult Services Library at the Morrill Memorial Librarian, in the Daily News Transcript.

It's Historical

It is our nature as humans to identify with the brick and mortar, the clapboard and granite of our lives. Many of us leave memories behind in the houses we leave as we move on in life. Yet, we expect that our places of worship, education, recreation, and culture will be there when we return to them. This must be especially so in Norwood, a town of deep familial and community roots. From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Read the entire article in the Daily News Transcript.