Chorover Series Presents David Brody 4/7

David S. Brody
The Chorover Author series of the Swampscott Public Library will present David S. Brody on Wednesday, April 7th at 7:00pm. Mr. Brody is a Boston Globe bestselling writer whose latest novel is Cabal of the Westford Knight. Inspired by the legend of the Westford Knight, the novel tells the tale of the 1398 secret visit to Westford, Massachusetts by Scottish explorers. According to the legend, they carved an effigy of a fallen comrade in stone. This carving is visible today.

Brody serves as a Director of the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA). An expert on pre-Columbian exploration of America, he graduated from Tufts University and Georgetown Law School. He resides in Westford, with his wife, novelist Kimberly Scott, and family. Mr. Brody is also the author of The Wrong Abraham, about a Holocaust survivor who enlists the aid of his niece to prevent a terrorist attack on the city; and Blood of the Tribe, about a bitter land dispute between the Mashpee Indians and a local Cape Cod town. Free tickets for this event will be available beginning Monday, March 22nd.

Mango Languages Database

We now have an online database for learning foreign languages, and with ESL capability. What is Mango? Mango Languages is an online language-learning system teaching actual conversation skills for a wide variety of languages. The online learning system is so easy to use, you’ll see incredible results after just one lesson! Languages include Greek, German, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian. You may log in at Mango Languages
To use the database, you must be a Swampscott resident. You will have to put your library card number and last name on the login page in order to use Mango.

Thank you from Reach Out and Read

Thank you to everyone who donated new or barely used children’s books for our local “Reach Out and Read” Program. The goal of this program is to promote reading at a very early age. These books are donated to the Lynn Community Health Center.

Ongoing Groups Meeting in March

Knitting Club

Join the Needlers a knitting group at the Swampscott Public Library. This group meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 10:30a.m. The March meetings will be Wednesday, March 10th and Wednesday, March 24th. Crocheters are welcome to join our group. We make our own projects or items to be donated to charity. Members can be beginners or experts.

History Buffs

The local history group led by Lou Gallo will meeting on the first Friday of every month. The March meeting will be Friday, March 5th at 10:00am. Anyone interested in the history of the town is welcome to attend.

Dinner Detectives

The Dinner Detectives, the library’s mystery book group, will meet at 6:00pm on Tuesday, March 2nd to discuss Hired Help and Mysteries. New members are always welcome.

Book Group – CHANGE OF DATE!

The March book will be Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Originally, the meeting was schedule for March 23rd. That has been changed. The group will meet on THURSDAY, APRIL 1st at 7:00pm.

Monday at the Movies – NEW GROUP!

The Swampscott Public Library is presenting a series of free movies, followed by a discussion of the film. Everyone is invited to attend and bring along a friend. Refreshments will be served during the presentation. The March meeting will be Monday, March 8th at 1:00pm, and the film will be Blue Sky.

TAX PREPARATION ASSISTANCE

Volunteers from the AARP’s Tax Aide Program will be at the library Tuesday afternoons from February 2nd through April 13th to help people fill out their state and federal income tax forms. Appointments are required for this service. Appointments can be made by calling the library (781-596-8867) starting Monday, January 25th. Please bring your completed tax forms from last year and any pertinent forms or statements that have been mailed to you this year when you come to your appointment.

Friends of the Library Membership Renewals

We are shifting our membership year from a calendar year to October 1st through September 30th. We ask that you consider renewing your membership as soon as possible. If you did not receive a membership envelope in the mail, please pick one up on your next visit to the library. All memberships created or renewed prior to September 1, 2009 will be honored for the remainder of this calendar year. Anyone who has joined or renewed their membership after September 1, 2009 will have an active membership through September 30, 2010. We greatly appreciate your understanding and support as we make this transition.

HOME DELIVERY SERVICE

Are you a patron who loves to read, but is unable to come to the library? Please contact the library to request home delivery service. A library volunteer will bring the books to your home. Please call the Main Desk at the library at 781-596-8867.

And thank you to the people who volunteered to provide the service–we really appreciate it!

Friends Name Volunteers of the Year

The Friends of the Swampscott Public Library announced the Volunteers of the Year at a recent recognition luncheon. Sid Epstein was honored for serving as treasurer of the Friends for 13 years. Estelle Epstein, Sid’s wife, was also named Volunteer of the Year. As the head of the Tin Box Poets, she manages the judging of the Lee Golomb Cadiff Teen Poetry Contest each year. This involves reading over 200 poems to select the finalists. Our town is privileged to have such fine, community-minded people.

RECYCLING PROGRAM: A WIN/WIN FOR YOU & FOR THE LIBRARY

The Swampscott Public Library will begin collecting used inkjet, laser printer cartridges and cell phones. Each year more than 350 million inkjet and laser cartridges are thrown away. In addition, 35 million cell phones are discarded. The library will collects these items and send them to the Funding Factory, an organization that provides equipment to nonprofit organizations in exchange for recycled materials. For each donation, Swampscott will receive points that can be traded in for printers, monitors, and other technology.

Donating these materials will help keep the earth clean and earn equipment and supplies for the Library. Look for the recycling box in the lobby. Thank you for supporting this green project.

NEW ONLINE RESOURCES: the library comes to you

To help make sure that Swampscott residents have information available at the tip of their fingers we have added some new online resources and renewed our subscriptions to others.

For anyone who needs business information check out ReferenceUSA. It’s the number 1 source of information on businesses for researchers, students and job seekers.

People interested in genealogy will want to check out both HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com. Both have images of census records from 1790 to 1930 plus a variety of other primary sources for genealogists. HeritageQuest can be viewed from any internet computer while Ancestry.com can only be viewed from computers within the library.

For the do-it-yourselfers we have subscribed to Chilton’s, a site filled with repair information for automobiles and light trucks.

In addition to these new resources, we have many other online sources such as encyclopedias, local and national newspapers, downloadable audiobooks, and more. Access to some of these sites is limited to only Swampscott residents but other databases are provided by the Board of Library Commissioners and the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System and they are open to any resident of northeast Massachusetts.

To see our entire list of online subscriptions click on the ‘Catalog and other Resources’ button on the top left side of the screen. Please note that you will be asked to enter your library card number when logging in to any of these resources.