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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.

New History Book Group

There is a new History Book Group starting on at the library on Thursday, April 30th.

Do you have an interest in history? Library volunteer Bob Hanlon will be leading a new book group on the last Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in the conference room. This group is for people with an interest in history - local, U.S. and world history.

The titles will be determined by the participants in the group. Attend the first program April 30th and help choose future titles. For this first meeting Bob suggests reading
The Old Middlesex Canal, by Mary Stetson Clarke.

For more information on the new book group, visit their webpage or contact Kathy Cryan-Hicks at kcryanhic@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x109.

For information on all of the book groups at the Chelmsford Library, visit our book groups webpage.

New Library Calendar

With the start of the new year, the Chelmsford Library is also launching a new events calendar!

The new calendar is easier to read, will have more events and activities on it, and offers new features for patrons. These include:

• Year, month, and day views for events
• Sign up for RSS feeds of all events, or just certain kinds:
  • All Events
  • Childrens & Teen Events
  • Adult Programs & Events
  • Clubs & Organizations meeting at the library
• View just certain types of events (ie, Kids, Adults, MacKay events, etc.)
• Send yourself email reminders from the calendar

The new calendar also has a new web address: http://calendar.chelmsfordlibrary.org. Be sure to bookmark it, or subscribe to an RSS feed, to keep up to date with what is going on at the library.

Another feature of this calendar is that is allows library events to automatically show up on the Chelmsford Community Calendar, hosted by Chelmsford Telemedia. Bookmarking the Community Calendar lets you see what's going on around town.

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.