• Books (64)
• Childrens (11)
• Column (15)
• Computer (9)
• Current News (46)
• Events (71)
• Friends of the Library (22)
• Library Information (83)
• mackay (2)
• music (3)
• One Book (24)
• Overdrive (10)
• Programs (29)
• Reading Room (37)
• Reference (21)
• Resources (54)
• Teens (5)
• Town of Chelmsford (47)
• Web Tools (5)

Find the Value of Your Antiques

If you're curious about the history or value of some of your antique furniture, vintage toys, or just old stuff, the library has quite a few resources that can help.

Every year we get updated copies of price guides for coins and money, stamps, sports cards, and other collectibles. There are encyclopedias and picture guides for almost every subject too - toys to cigars to watches to clothing. Most of these are in the non-fiction shelves downstairs, and the Reference staff is happy to help you locate the right book.

Chelmsford residents also have access to an online antique pricing resource called P4A Antiques Reference (P4A stands for "Price For Antiques") - it's a quick way to check how much an antique might be worth, based on what similar pieces have sold at recent auctions.

The focus is on collectibles and historic Americana, including furniture, china, glassware, folkart, brass, silver, iron, artwork, and major antique collectibles, with complete information on when, where, and for what price the antique was sold. The database will also provide a little background information on each item, including date, maker, etc, based on the information that was provided at the auction.

Because antiques are described differently by different people, don't give up after your first search. Try describing your piece in various ways, and also try the country of origin, material used, and maker, if possible.

If you have any questions about the P4A Antiques Reference database, please contact the Reference Desk.

Use Consumer Reports At The Library

Did you know the library subscribes to Consumer Reports? In fact, we subscribe to both the print magazine and the online database - and it's free for any Chelmsford resident to use!

We have two copies of the magazine - one upstairs with the regular magazines that you can check out to use at home (except for the most recent issue), and another complete set downstairs in Reference. The most current year is kept at the Reference Desk, and we also keep the last few years too.

In addition to the magazine, the library also has the Consumer Reports Buying Guide, and new and used car buying guides.

The online version of Consumer Reports is listed on the Reference databases section of our website - you'll need your Chelmsford Library card number to log in from home.

For similar resources, check out our Consumer Information webpage - it lists other subscription services provided by the library, as well as free websites.

Another great resource is the Boston Consumer Checkbook - instead of reviewing products (like Consumer Reports), it reviews local services, like plumbers, roofers, etc. Print magazines for the last few years are available by the Reference Desk, and online access is available too, but you must be in the library.

For help with these or any Library resources, please contact the Reference Desk.

Check Out The Online Newsstand

The library is now offering easy access to the latest articles in popular magazines!

For years patrons have had access to these same magazines, but they've been sort of buried in our subscription databases. Now, there's an "Online Newsstand" that displays magazine covers that lets you click right into that magazine.

Online Newsstand
Click a magazine cover to read the latest featured articles & more.

This is available both on our main website and also on our mobile website - that way, you can have easy access to read magazines while you're on the go. New articles are added as the magazine is published, and you can also scroll to see past issues. There will also be more magazines added soon, too!

If you have any questions about accessing these magazines or any of our databases, please contact the Reference Desk.

Changes to Reference Collection and New Study Rooms

The library will be undergoing a small renovation project starting this week.

One of our most frequent requests from patrons is for additional small study room space - for people to either study quietly on their own, meet with a tutor, or to have a small meeting. The library currently has one room available for this purpose, but in order to respond to this growing need of our patrons, we'll be building three new small study rooms with internet accessibility on the library's lower level.

Building More Study Rooms
Working with the Director of Public Facilities for the town, Gary Persichetti, and utilizing a combination of town employees and paid contractors, we will be able to accomplish the project (renovation and furnishings) at a very modest cost. The Board of Library Trustees have approved this project, funding it with a combination of endowment and state aid money. In difficult financial times, it is particularly gratifying that the library is able to meet user needs without requesting additional municipal funding.

Changes To The Reference Collection
To make space for the new study rooms, we'll be modernizing our approach to our reference collection. There is a growing trend in public libraries to interfile reference titles with the regular circulating collection. We will integrate a large portion of our heavily-used reference materials into the regular library stacks and de-accession titles that are now available via the Internet and in our on-line databases.

With this change, many reference titles will now be available for circulation for one week! This also addresses a growing need of patrons to use library materials in their own homes, instead of in the library. The shorter loan period (one week instead of three weeks) will also mean the material will still spend time on the library shelves, and thus be available when people need it.

Subject Collection Tables and Additional Seating
We will still have a small collection of non-circulating reference books, such as encyclopedias, which will be housed on index tables where some of the reference shelves currently are. We'll also use these index tables to highlight certain subject areas, such as genealogy, career resources, and auto repair, that are sometimes hard to find in the regular circulating collection. Also, these additional tables will increase the seating space for wireless access, a service need that has greatly increased in the last year. We'll be moving things around for the next few months to accommodate both the renovation and the new locations of items.

We hope you will pardon the transition, and that you will enjoy the new study space and access to the collection when this project is completed. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to talk to the reference staff, library trustees or to Becky Herrmann, Library Director, at bherrmann@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x101.

Education Resources at the Library

We've made some changed to the education-related resources at the library:

• New Section for EDU Books
  To make college directories and test study guides easier to find, we pulled them out of the normal non-fiction shelves and places them in a special section. These new shelves are located by the Teen Services Desk on the lower level, and are marked in the catalog by the call numbers EDU.

  Also on these shelves you will find financial aid information, FAFSA forms and worksheets, and college catalogs.

• New database: Testing & Education Reference Center
  This database replaces the Learning Express Library, and offers high school, college information, tools, practice tests and study guides, as well as application builders, and profiles of colleges.

  This database is also create for career and employment research. It has many practice test for career and proficiency exams, an online resume builder, a career research library, self-assessment test, and much more.

  The Testing & Education Reference Center, can be used from home or in the library - to get started, visit http://www.chelmsfordlibrary.org/reference/databases_alpha.html#TERC

For help with these education resources, please contact the Reference Desk at askus@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x211.