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New Groups at the Library

Two new groups recently started regular meetings at the Chelmsford Library:

Chinese Conversation Circle
Similar to our other conversation circles (English, French, Spanish), the new Chinese Conversation Circle is to help people improve their ability to speak Chinese. The group is led by library volunteer Sherry Santangelo, and meets on the last Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room on the lower level of the main library. For more information, visit the Chinese Conversation Circle webpage.

Technical Skills Share Group
The Technical Skills Share group (a spin-off from the Acton Networkers group) are unemployed people keeping their technical skills sharp (and leaning new ones) by working collaboratively on a technology project. There are both hardware and software specialties needed for the project, so everyone is welcome to come and contribute whatever expertise you can. The group meets every Thursday from 1:30 – 6:00 p.m. in the McCarty Meeting room (side B). For more information, visit the Technical Skills Share Group webpage (for more employment resources, visit our Career and Employment Resources subject guide).

Both of these groups are open to everyone, as are the other groups, programs or exhibits that take place at the library. For more information, please contact Kathy Cryan-Hicks at kcryanhic@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x109, or view upcoming scheduled meetings on our Events Calendar.

New Library Events Calendar

The Library has a new events calendar: http://calendar.chelmsfordlibrary.org

This is where all Library programs and events will be listed, including non-profit community groups using the Library’s meeting rooms.

The new calendar includes a search menu on the left, which lets you limit to events based on location, type and age group. To see a summary of any event, hover your mouse over the event on the calendar, or click on an event to see the complete details.

To keep up with what’s going on at the library, be sure to bookmark http://calendar.chelmsfordlibrary.org and subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also build different RSS feeds based on your search criteria – just search for your location/type/age combination, then click the RSS Feed link near the top of the calendar. That way, you’ll always be notified of the events you’re interested in.

Soon we’ll also have an automatic way for groups to reserve rooms at the library. In the meantime, please refer to our website for meeting room reservations. If you have questions about the new calendar or booking a meeting room, please contact the Library’s Administrative Office at 978-256-5521 x100 or nrager@mvlc.org.

And don’t forget the most important event this week: Trick-or-Treat in Chelmsford is 5-8pm on Saturday, Oct. 31st!

Pleasure Reading for Adults

This summer, we’re encouraging adults to rediscover the pleasure and magic of reading!

Join the library’s staff for brown bag lunch series called “Now… It’s Your Turn.” While this program is aimed at baby boomers – you’ve worked hard, and now it’s time to relax and enjoy yourself – it is open to everyone.

The lunch series will be at noon by the library’s fireplace, and will feature book talks on both current and classic titles you can add to your summer reading list.

If you’re looking for reading suggestions, check out the latest series bibliography or visit the library’s Reading Room web page. Then, come to one of the lunches and enjoy talking about what you’re reading.

For more information, visit the “Now… It’s Your Turn webpage,” or contact Mayleen Kelley (mkelley@mvlc.org) or Becky Herrmann (bherrmann@mvlc.org) at 978-256-5521.

Share Your Story!

Everyone has a story to tell – what’s yours?

From May 20th to June 17th, the MacKay Branch will be a drop-off point for The Story Box Project. This is a global story sharing project – stories that are dropped off by Chelmsford residents will be collected in a Story Box that will be shared with other New England communities, and they’ll share their stories with us.

Before the story box is sent on, we will hold a Story Box Celebration on Wednesday June 17th at 6:30 p.m. where we’ll share many of the stories we collected. Our Stories will then be packaged up and the Story Box will be sent off to another library in the region where they will collect stories and send it on to somewhere else.

The Story Box should make it’s way back to Chelmsford in early 2010 packed full of stories from all over New England.

Story submissions begin on May 20th. You can drop it off in person at the MacKay Library, submit them through our online drop box, or mail them to MacKay Library, Story Box Project, 43 Newfield St, N.Chelmsford, 01863.

The Story Box Project was founded by Kevin Cordi, an Academic Storyteller at Ohio State University. For more information, check out the MacKay Programs webpage, or contact Bonnie Rankin at the MacKay Branch at brankin@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x214.

10 Years of Genealogy

The month of May is the Tenth Anniversary of the Chelmsford Genealogy Club, and they are celebrating with some great programs:

Mary Lee Dunn, author of Ballykilcline Rising: From Famine Ireland to Immigrant America
Sat May 2nd at 1:30 p.m. – POSTPONED – Check the website for a new time.

Marcia Melnyck’s presentation, “Investigating the Dash (1842-1929): Following an Ancestor from Cradle to Grave”
Tues. May 5th at 7 p.m.
Creating a timeline of an individual’s life can produce many surprises. Take a new look at those elusive ancestors and fill in the blanks of their lives – who knows what you’ll discover!!

Dick Eastman, editor of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
Tues. June 2nd at 7 p.m.
This weekly newsletter has grown into a daily publication that is read by more than 40,000 genealogists all over the world, and the website has grown to also include discussion forum, a genealogy encyclopedia, and two online genealogy bookstores.

The Chelmsford Genealogy Club meets monthly at the Chelmsford Library on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. This is an informal genealogy group for sharing of information and ideas serving Chelmsford and surrounding towns. The group is open to everyone, and anyone interested in researching their family history is encouraged to attend.

For more information on the Chelmsford Genealogy Club contact Judy Sylvia at jjsylvia582@aol.com or Bob at robert.pacitti@analog.com, or sign up for the email newsletter, to be notified of meeting times, special events, and other genealogy news.