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Engaging Methuen Readers


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Bestseller Book Club

Come join the Bestseller Book Club (formerly the Romance Book Club) as we read through the bestsellers you may have missed. We meet the 1st Tuesday of each Month at 7pm, and every month we will have a different genre of bestseller to read and discuss.

September’s Title is a Best Mystery: A Death Along the River Fleet by Susanna Calkins

Lucy Campion, a printer’s apprentice in 17th Century London, encounters a young woman suffering from amnesia and the victim of an assault. When the woman reveals she is a nobleman’s daughter, Lucy must decide how far she will go to protect the woman.

The first meeting is on September Tuesday 5th at 7pm.  For the year’s schedule of books to read  click here.

Books are available to pick up at the Main Desk one month prior to the meeting.

New members are always welcome! For more information contact Pat Graham at 978-686-4080 x16.

 


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My First ALA Conference Experience

This past June, I had the opportunity to attend my first American Libraries Association Annual Conference.  This Conference is the largest conference for librarians, with nearly 20,000 librarians in attendance from around the world.  This is the prime opportunity to meet and network with colleagues, see the latest products available for libraries, check out what great things other libraries are doing, meet great authors and illustrators, and hear some wonderful and inspiring speakers.

Leading up to the conference, the schedule starts becoming available in bits and pieces so that before I knew it – I had “favorited” 4 things to attend all at the same time over and over again!  Therefore, as the conference drew closer, I refined my personal “schedule” to something more manageable that kept in line with my conference goals.  My goals including finding out more about participating in round tables, award juries, and other committees as well as professional development sessions and meeting a few vendors for our library.  At the conference, I found that it was great to have my personal “schedule” as a guideline – but the locations of said events really matter as some were about a half mile away within the conference center, or located in a hotel somewhere else in Chicago.  So that was a learning experience.

I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to meet with the Feminist Task Force, which I hope to become more involved with as well as the EBSCO Scholarship winners – a scholarship for which I had the pleasure of serving on the jury last year.  I hope to serve on a jury again in the future.  I spent a good deal of time in different sessions, during which librarians from all over the country created panels on various topics and shared what they were doing in their libraries.  I also went to the “Ignite Sessions” in which different librarians spoke for 5 minutes each on what they were doing, but each speaker was in no way connected to the other.  I loved these Ignite sessions, and hope to bring some of these ideas home to our library.  As a side note, one thing I learned was to get to any of these sessions early unless I wanted to sit on the floor!  The Exhibit Hall itself was huge.  I had specific vendors that I needed to speak with for various reasons, but I always swept by the publishers to see which pre-published books they might be handing out or what authors were signing books.

Chicago itself is a wonderful city!  I had never been before, and spent a few hours on either end of the trip doing some walking around and sightseeing.  I didn’t get to see or do everything of course, but my three favorite things were to go to the top of the Sears Willis Tower and step out onto the glass ledges, visit the Art Institute of Chicago, and take an architectural boat tour.  I highly recommend all of these things!

Overall, the conference was more than I expected.  I was overwhelmed and exhausted a good amount of the time, but I really felt plugged into the great library conversation taking place across the country (and world!).  I came back not just with ideas of things to do here in Methuen, but with a sense of confidence about my own librarianship and professional philosophies.  I’m still a pretty young librarian, professionally speaking, and I will always love to learn and experience new things.  I hope that I will be able to continue to attend conferences like this throughout the rest of my professional life.

 


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Kicking Butt and Saving Money…With the Library!

Libraries, right? They’re all about books and paper and dusty old cardigan-wearing women with chains on their glasses. Right? Right?

Obviously, all wrong. If I had chains on my glasses, they wouldn’t fall off my face whenever I sneezed. Also, I mislaid my last cardigan the other day while I was getting a tattoo. If you see it, please tell me. I’m cold and I want it back. It’s yellow.

Like this.

Just like librarians aren’t just cardigan-wearing book biddies, libraries aren’t just dusty, atmospheric book warehouses. One of the most popular complaints I hear at the reference desk goes something like, I hate reading. There’s nothing for me here. This is a fun desert. HAH! That’s where you’re wrong! Let me ask you one question: how does saving money strike your funny bone?

If you’re anything like me, then you just jumped up with a whoop and fistpumped so hard you hyper-extended your elbow. I love saving money! It’s the second best thing to adopting kittens and teaching them kung-fu. That’s why I love the fact that Nevins Library owns and loans a Kill-A-Watt.

IMG_1360

Hyperdrive not included.

What does the Kill-A-Watt do? As its name suggests, this device does kung-fu on your energy bill, much like a kitten might if I were allowed to adopt any more of them. Simply plug the Kill-A-Watt into the wall and then plug one of your household appliances – let’s say your XBox – into the Kill-A-Watt. Kick back with a little Call of Duty and the Kill-A-Watt will tell you how much juice your gaming habit is sucking out of your monthly power budget.

While you’re killing zombies, zombies are killing your checkbook. Who’s winning the game now?

Look what you’ve done!

The library will loan the Kill-A-Watt to you for one week, which is plenty of time to run a load of dishes, chill a batch of potato salad, and clean a pile of towels. Think you know how much all of that is costing you? I dare you to check. Maybe your fridge will turn out to be an inefficient carbon-gobbler that fairly screams to be repurposed into a shelving unit. Maybe it’s time to make way for a new dryer, or to do as I do and not wash towels at all. (Guys, guys, stop. It’s OK. We’re already clean when we use them. Think about it!)

How to recycle old refrigerator - Little Piece Of Me

Or whatever.

Take control of your energy use. Borrow our Kill-A-Watt and begin kicking some power bill butt today!

Image result for kitten punch


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Coral Reefs: Rainforests of the Ocean with Deb Gustafson

Nevins Library Presents

Coral Reefs: Rainforests of the Oceans

Thursday August 3rd, 2017  7-8:30 pm

Deb Gustafson, certified scuba diver and award-winning Environmental educator, will visit the Nevins Library with her gorgeous underwater photographs of reefs and ruins from her travels around the world documenting the sea life and stresses in the underwater world.

She has been to several underwater wrecks and reefs in both Figi and the Grand Cayman Islands and brought back some incredible images of coral and the effects of climate on these creatures.  These are really beautiful photos and they provide for us a glimpse of a place many of us will never see in person.  We hope you can join us to hear her talk and as always, refreshments will be served.

Click here to register for this program.  For more information, contact Kirsten Underwood at 978 686.4080 x13 or kunderwood@nevinslibrary.org


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Summer Reading isn’t just for kids!

It is true that most of the time, when talking about “Summer Reading”, we are talking about the books & projects our students complete over the summer for school.  But this isn’t one of those times.  We believe that Summer Reading can be fun, and we can include adults in that fun!  And don’t worry, there are no project assignments.

Right now, if you head to our Main Desk, you can sign up for our Summer Reading Program for Adults.  Between now and mid-August, all you would need to do (once you’ve signed up), is come in and log a book you read or listened to during the week and you’ll get a raffle ticket!  We draw a winner every Monday for six weeks.  The winner receives a $25 gift card to a local establishment.  It is really that easy! Please let us know if you have any questions – we’re happy to help!

Many thanks to the Friends of the Library for supporting our Summer Reading Program.


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Eco-Friendly Landscaping with Nanette Masi

The Nevins Library presents

Eco-Friendly Landscaping with Nanette Masi

July 19th, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

You read that right: it really is possible to have a beautiful home landscape that is also good for the environment! Our speaker, Nanette Masi, runs Back to Nature, an Amesbury-based eco-friendly landscaping company, and is a pioneer of wildlife habitat gardens in the area. Come learn how to make your own ecologically and visually friendly space!

To register for this program, click here.  For more information contact Anna Gooding Call at 978.686.4080 or agoodingcall@nevinslibrary.org


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Teen Coding Club

When it comes to computers, I like to think that I know a fair amount. I can troubleshoot with the best of them, and I know that Ctrl+Alt+Del can save the day sometimes. However, when it comes to the inner workings of computers I will be the first to admit that my knowledge falls short. The coding language that makes programs work is a matter I have yet to conquer. That is why I find it so amazing when people – especially young people – are able to learn and build creations out of right combination of keystrokes.

Because of that fascination, I am happy to share our new Teen Coding Camp that will be available to teens in grades 7-12 this summer at the Nevins Library. Led by two high school students who have participated and graduated from their own coding instruction, teens are welcome to come and learn the basics of computer codes like HTML and CSS. The club runs all summer and there is still space to sign up! The club is perfect for the beginner and for those teens who have already dabbled in coding.

Starting July 5th, each Wednesday the Coding Club will meet. One week will be spent learning some coding, which will then be used in a project the following week. It’s a great opportunity to really learn and use the codes.

For more information and registration click HERE or contact Amy at 978.686.4080 ex. 35 or nevinsteens@gmail.com.  Be sure to sign up before the classes fill up! I’m so excited to see what will be created through this club!
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