All posts by Brian Herzog
Chelmsford Town-Wide Cleanup: Sunday, April 28th, 2013
Join in and help clean up our town!
When: Sunday, April 28, 2013
Who: YOU, your family, friends, co-workers, church, school or scouting group, etc.
Where: Your neighborhood, schoolyard, playground, and other public spaces where there is litter
Bags & gloves are available from the recycling office while supplies last – they can be picked up during regular office hours of 9am-1pm. For more information contact nparlee@TownofChelmsford.us or 978-250-5203.
The Town-wide Cleanup this year is sponsored by Allied Waste.
For more information, contact the Office of Recycling and Solid Waste. You can also visit ChelmsfordRecycles.org for more information on recycling in Chelmsford.
Mosquito Spraying in Chelmsford April 15-25, 2013
The Chelmsford Board Of Health has released this public notice about aerial spraying for mosquito larvae:
AERIAL APPLICATIONS TO CONTROL MOSQUITO LARVAE
The Towns of BILLERICA and CHELMSFORD will be conducting helicopter applications of the biological larvicide, BTI, to control mosquito larvae between April 15, 2013 and April 25, 2013. The applications will be conducted over specific large wetlands within the two communities. Applications will be done between daybreak and dusk.
Richard J. Day,
Chelmsford Board of Health
Richard Berube,
Billerica Health DepartmentApril 12, 2013
There is an online map of the spray areas [pdf] on the Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project website, as well as a description of the process.
Anyone with questions should contact the Chelmsford Board of Health, 50 Billerica Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824, 978-250-5241.
Arbor Day Tree Planting and Dedication at the Library
Celebrate Arbor Day with the members of the Country Lane Garden Club as they plant and dedicate a Japanese pseudocamellia on the lawn of the Chelmsford Library.
The event is schedule for Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 11 a.m., and the public is welcome.
For information on the Country Lane Garden Club visit their website http://www.gcfm.org/countrylanegardenclub/Home.aspx
And if you’re interested, please check out some of these tree planting resources available at the library.
Town Common Purple Beech Photos Donated to the Library
The well-known and much-loved purple beech tree, planted on the common in 1892, was taken down in November 2012. Present on that day was local photographer Steve Hardwood, who chronicled the process of bringing the tree down.
He donated his series of photographs to the library, to commemorate the event and the life of the tree. Steve’s photographs were supplemented by additional photos from the collections of Fred Merriam and the Chelmsford Historical Society, and Library staff also researched news articles about the tree.
This entire collection was then framed and hung in the Group Study Room, on the lower level of the Library, near the Library’s other historical resources. Please check out this tribute the next time you’re in the Library.
The Library would like to thank Steve Hardwood for getting the ball rolling, and also Fred Merriam and the Chelmsford Historical Society for contributing to the project. The generosity of community members like this helps preserve Chelmsford for future generations.
The Chelmsford Community Read-In Needs You!
There are more requests than ever before to have volunteers read in the classrooms. Please consider taking a few moments to participate in this community wide program. The teachers and the students so appreciate it!
This year’s community read-in is the week of April 8-12, 2013.
If you’re interested in encouraging literacy by taking some time out of your day on and reading to school kids, please print, complete, and return the 2013 Chelmsford Community Read-In interest form to:
Tara Trainor
25 Middlesex Street
North Chelmsford, MA 01863
For more information, contact chelsmfordreadin@gmail.com.
Chelmsford Volunteer Fair is Saturday, March 16, 2013
Are you looking for interesting volunteer work?
Do you represent an organization that needs volunteers?
The annual “This is Chelmsford” Volunteer Fair is this Saturday!
Saturday, March 16, 2013
10 a.m. – noon
at the Chelmsford Senior Center
75 Groton Road, North Chelmsford (map)
Any teens or adults looking to volunteer in the community, or for activities to add to your resume, are encouraged to attend and connect with local organizations and agencies that need help. Over 30 groups will be exhibiting this year, and a complete list, with links to their websites, is available on the Volunteer Fair webpage.
Organizations or individuals looking for more information on the Fair should contact the Library’s Community Services Department (kcryanhic@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521, x109).
ChelmsfordVolunteers.org
For more information on volunteer opportunities and organizations, check out ChelmsfordVolunteers.org – it offers a calendar of events, a searchable database of organizations, and links to other online volunteering resources.
Snow Depth After Storm on March 8th, 2013
Library staff took an unscientific snow depth measurement on one of the granite benches in the library courtyard after the snow storm of Friday, March 8th, 2013:
13.5 inches!
New Look for Overdrive Ebooks and Audiobooks Catalog
The online catalog the library uses for ebooks and downloadable audiobooks, called Overdrive, updated its website with a new look this weekend. If you haven’t already, please check it out at http://mvlc.lib.overdrive.com.
There is an online guide that introduces all the new features, and new printed guidelines will be ready soon. A few important changes to note are:
- The way to choose how long you’d like to check out an item has changed dramatically:
- Below the large BORROW button on a title’s information page it will say “This title can be borrowed for 14 days. (Change).” Clicking on the “Change” button will allow you to set a new lending duration.
- From the ACCOUNT screen in the SETTINGS tab on the right of the page and must be done BEFORE a title is checked out in order to take effect. As always, everything but WMA Audiobook titles can be returned early so we recommend the maximum checkout duration for eBook titles as they can always be returned early but they cannot be renewed.
Any change made to this setting from either the method in 1 or 2 will become the new default.
- Patrons can now return their EPUB and MP3 Audiobook titles early directly from their “Bookshelf” screen in the new OverDrive web interface. Below each title is a new button “Return Title” so a patron will not have to return the title through Adobe Digital Editions as was required previously.
The new look only applies to the website – people using the mobile app will not notice any change. If you use Internet Explorer 7 you will need to download the Google Chrome plug-in to display the page correctly, as that version of the browser does not support all the features of the new layout. Alternatively you could update to the latest version of the browser.
If anyone has any questions please contact the Reference Desk.
Would you like a library card that works everywhere in the state?
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is researching whether or not a state-wide library card (a single card that would work in every library in the state) would be of interested to residents of Massachusetts.
In order to gauge interest, and expectations, of a state-wide library card, the MBLC is asking that everyone please fill out a short survey and let them know what you think:
Survey Link: http://mblc.state.ma.us/cardsurvey
Due By: Friday, March 1st
The idea of a state-wide library card grew out of the MBLC’s Resource Sharing Committee, which is trying to identify ways to improve library services and better allocate budget funds to best benefit Massachusetts library patrons. Your input will definitely help in their efforts. Thanks!
Sign up for One-on-One Computer Training Sessions
The program from last year that funded one-on-one computer instruction at the library has been extended, and we’re happy to offer this service again! Sessions start on February 19th and will run for about nine months.
Sessions are being scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday mornings (10am and 11am) and evenings (6pm and 7pm) – contact the Reference Desk at 978-256-5521 x211 to schedule an appointment. Any technology topic is fair game – using a computer, downloading ebooks, getting an email account, learning software like Excel, installing software, or even just a quick refresher.
These instructional sessions are made possible through the BTOP program at UMass-Lowell, focused on improving digital literacy.
For more information, contact the Reference Desk at askus@mvlc.org or 978-256-5521 x211.