This year we have compiled our top 10 fiction checkouts for adults, young adults (teens), and children's books.
Gail Honeyman took the number one adult fiction spot this year with Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Paulette Jiles was a close second with News of the World. In third place, The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve. Somerville adult readers also showed a penchant for a good mystery in 2017.
Not surprisingly, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale from our YA... Read Post
The Boston area's white Christmas has given way to bone-chilling cold. According to National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson, local temperatures are and will be 20-25 degrees colder than normal into the next week. Frostbite is possible after as few as 30 minutes outside. Tomorrow the wind chill will be -13.
Here's what you need to do to stay warm and safe:
Make sure your heating system is working... Read PostIn This Book, Craftsmanship Is a Matter of Life or Death
In the underground city of Caverna, the setting of Frances Hardinge’s novel A Face Like Glass, a sip of wine can rewrite memories, a bite of cheese can spark visions, and certain perfumes make the wearer literally irresistible. Its citizens’ facial expressions, too, are carefully and expensively crafted and taught by experts, and the ability to display the perfect Face for any occasion is more than just a mark of status: it’s... Read Post
Today (Nov. 28) was Giving Tuesday, a day designated by the United Nations and New York City's 92nd Street Y as a universal day of giving, as a way to establish a contrast to the consumerism of the holiday season. But despite that rampant consumerism, the month of December is when Americans are most likely to donate to charities. According to some sources, a third of all charitable gifts in any given year are made in December: partly due to cultural pressures and partly due to deadlines for... Read Post
This past weekend we set our clocks back one hour as we do every year. Ideally when we get up in the morning it will be a little lighter, and, not so ideally, after we work we'll all be stumbling home in the dark. But why do we do this? Supposedly Benjmain Franklin first proposed daylight saving time (DST) as a way to save candles, but he also suggested waking the public by firing cannons at sunrise, so it's difficult to say how serious he was. The idea in its modern systematized form was... Read Post
The state Department of Transportation has just issued a Notice of Project Change for the Green Line Extension. The extension from College Avenue in Medford to the Mystic Valley Parkway has been delayed for fiscal reasons. The Notice of Project Change is intended to initiate further Massachusetts EPA review of the Mystic Valley Parkway Extension and give the public opportunity to comment on proposed design changes for Mystic Valley Parkway Station. You can find the complete text of the... Read Post
Welcome to our latest installment of Meet the Staff on the Library blog! This October, we would like to introduce you to two of our newest staff members, Julie and Lilly.
These two women bring a lot of great ideas, previous library work experience, and enthusiasm to their jobs at the SPL. Though Julie and Lilly work on a large variety of projects, they often find themselves working together to bring you great library programs. They’ve worked together on this year’s Somerville Reads... Read Post
This month on the blog and in our e-newsletter, we’re introducing you to our amazing staff from Tech Services and the Business Office! (If you’re joining us from our e-Newsletter, welcome to the blog!)
You might have seen these wonderful women around the Library, filling in wherever needed. You’ll often see Patty and Wendy in the Children’s Room (Wendy also does a great job at the Reference Desk), Christina at Circulation or in the Teen Room, and Weini at the Circulation Desk.... Read Post
On Monday, August 21, 2017, a solar eclipse will be visible in most of the United States. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun. While Massachusetts is not in the “path of totality,” Somerville residents should be able to see a partial eclipse -- as long as the weather cooperates!
The eclipse will begin around 1:30 PM and last until approximately 4:00 PM. It will peak in Somerville around 2:45 PM, when about 63% of... Read Post
We're past the late spring/early summer when many of us are beginning to think about what to plant on our back decks or in our window boxes. But there's no reason we can't start planning what to grow indoors. Plants are beautiful, they make us feel better, and they can even clean up our environment. Some plants are great for removing chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzine, carbon monoxide, and ammonia from the air. And even plants that aren't top of the line air-purifiers release oxygen,... Read Post
Last week I posted about the filter bubble--the selective bias programmed into search engines via your search histories and the cookies web sites leave on your computer. This week I'm posting about how to break out of the filter bubble, so that the results of your web searches don't merely reflect your previous searches but have a better chance of bringing you new information.
Step 1: Delete the cookies in your web browser. A cookie is a small file stored in your computer's web... Read Post
...which sites you visit? If you think you do, you're right only up to a point. Sure, you decide which links to click on, but who decides which links appear on your screen when you keyword search in the first place? If you're searching with Google, Bing, or Yahoo, they use your previous searches, the websites you've visited and your IP address to tailor your search results. And if you're logged in to your gmail account while using Google, your Microsoft account while using Bing, or your... Read Post
It's time for another edition of Meet the Staff!
For any of you who haven't met her yet (you really are missing out!), Brigid is our English as a Second Language (ESL) Coordinator at the Library. She oversees our ESL program, which means that she teaches classes at all three library locations, organizes a group of great volunteer tutors, and even coordinates library tours and/or field trips for her classes. As we mentioned in the July/August edition of our e-newsletter (be sure to... Read Post
Decades ago, when people were looking for jobs, they answered ads in the jobs section of a newspaper or a trade magazine. Sometimes they walked down streets looking for businesses with "Help Wanted" signs in the windows.
Then the Web came along and upended all that. Soon job seekers were going to Craigslist, or web sites for businesses, schools, or governments. And then databases like Monster and LinkedIn appeared.
And now you can just Google.
Yes, Google. As a... Read Post
Many Somervillians (such as the members of our thriving community of artists and writers) have specialized interests and undertake projects that might benefit from access to an academic library. However, many of those same people are neither students nor employees of any of the local universities.
Fortunately, Harvard now offers adult researchers with no academic affiliation access to its special collections: Houghton Library, The Harvard Map Collection, The Harvard Yenching Library... Read Post
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