All posts by Todd Bowser
Featured Craft Classes in July from Creativebug
Creativebug is your portal to thousands of craft classes for all ages, interests, and skill levels. You can learn hundreds of crafts from book arts to chocolate work for free with your Chelmsford Public Library card, with new topics and classes added every week.
Here are some new additions to the Creativebug library and live programs debuting in July!
Available now:
Magpie Sketchbook: A Daily Practice
Join Rebecca Ringquist of Dropcloth Samplers for a short lesson each day that will stimulate your creativity and provide approaches and techniques for your own inspiring sketchbook. The course covers mark-making and collage techniques, then prompts you to respond to the initial images you’ve captured and created, to create richly layered artworks on every page.
Available July 10:
Make a Papier-Maché Vase
Learn to use papier-maché to make a beautiful vase modeled after a 16th century Italian ornamental design. Corrie Beth Hogg [www.corriebethmakes.com] will show you how use simple materials to produce stunning results, even allowing for a glass insert to make your vase functional! Templates for the basic design are provided, and you’ll learn how to decorate your creation beautifully.
Register for a LIVE children’s craft program on Tuesday, July 16:
Kids Art Camp with Sophie & Courtney
Join Courtney Cerruti [@ccerruti] at 4 p.m. on July 16th as she presents ways to get kids making stuff this summer. Learn fun and easy ways to make stamps, make marks, draw portraits and more.
Registration is required. Click HERE to register.
Available July 17:
One Square at a Time: Making Art on a Grid
Artists of all types struggle with where to begin on a blank page, blank canvas, or other raw space. Lisa Gongdon will show you how to break down the page into squares and approach the whole art piece as a collection of individual elements. You’ll learn how to make the crucial decisions about color, subject, and composition to tell your story.
Available July 24:
Woven Star Quilt Block
Learn to incorporate the woven star into your quilting. This is a great pattern that creates a stunning effect from relatively simple techniques. Sarah Bond [@slbphilly] will show you how to make the woven star using precision straight piecing and basic paper piecing, as well as a round version using curved piecing. Patterns for various sizes are included in the course materials.
Available July 31 on Creativebug TV:
Creativebug Mixtape: Crafts for Kids on Creativebug TV
A kids-focused craft program featuring all kinds of techniques and materials kids can use to make a plethora of crafts anytime!
You can access Creativebug anytime on our website under the “Research It” tab. Click the link to our Self-Education page, or find Creativebug in the alphabetized list in the drop-down resource menu.
Contact us at the reference desk (978-256-5521 ext. 1211) with any questions!
Celebrate African-American Music Month with Hoopla, Freegal, and Kanopy
In the month of June, we celebrate African-American Music Appreciation Month. The music of the African diaspora in America is foundational to all American music. While no one collection could capture all of the magic of Black music, you can find all eras of folk, blues, gospel, jazz, rock and roll, R&B, and hip-hop on Freegal Music and Hoopla Digital.
With Freegal, you can create your own custom playlists, stream songs, albums, and playlists, and download five songs each week that are yours to keep in your own media library. Listen to our African-American Music Month playlist right here, or create your own!
You might know Hoopla for its extensive collection of e-books and e-audiobooks with no waiting, but did you know you can also borrow movies, TV shows, and music? See the display below (click the cover images or titles) for albums you can borrow right now and listen to for a full week.
There are also great music documentaries available on Hoopla and our video-only streaming service Kanopy. Both services allow a 3-day loan for video titles.
- Little Richard: I Am Everything [Hoopla]: Biography of rock legend Little Richard and his under-recognized innovations as a writer, performer, and cultural icon.
- 20 Feet From Stardom [Hoopla]: Legendary singers whose voices you know, but whose names you might not know, including Merry Clayton (“Gimme Shelter”), Darlene Love, and Lisa Fischer.
- NWA & Eazy-E: Kings of Compton [Hoopla]: The true story of N.W.A., one of the most notorious and influential rap groups of all time.
- Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché [Hoopla]: The UK punk band X-Ray Spex was fronted by Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, who went by the name Poly Styrene and was one of the sparks that lit the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements.
- Michael Jackson: Life, Death and Legacy [Hoopla]: The majesty and genius of the musician and performer are contrasted with the troubled life and tragic death of the King of Pop.
- Tale of the Tape [Hoopla]: A critical look at the art of the mixtape and its vital importance to the development of hip-hop. Features Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, and J. Cole.
- TLC Forever [Hoopla]: The “CrazySexyCool” rise and short-lived career of TLC, arguably the R&B group of the 90s.
- Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami [Kanopy]: As much an international star as an American icon, Grace Jones is an unmistakable voice and uncompromising artist with a career spanning five decades. This is her story, uncensored.
- Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song [Kanopy]: The little-known story of one of the most enduring and haunting protest songs in the struggle for civil rights.
- Nas: Time Is Illmatic [Kanopy]: Pharrell Williams, Alicia Keys, Q-Tip, and Busta Rhymes are among the luminaries telling the story of a hip-hop legend.
- Jazz on a Summer’s Day [Kanopy]: A gorgeous film compiled from live performances at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, including music by Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, and Mahalia Jackson.
- Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes [Kanopy]: Jazz legend Ron Carter is the most recorded bassist in history. Learn more about his activist beginnings and the rest of his 60-year career.
- Always for Pleasure [Kanopy]: One of the great “silent” (that is, no narration) documentaries by Les Blank, Always for Pleasure reveals the spirit and joy of a New Orleans funeral parade, which begins solemnly in the church and turns into a party in the streets.
- Milford Graves: Full Mantis [Kanopy]: Not widely known in mainstream circles, Milford Graves was one of the most innovative performers in jazz. His high-energy drumming and experimental approach made him a truly original and inimitable talent.
Amazing New Features in Transparent Language
Our extensive language learning database has great new content and expanded features.
I studied French from grade school through college. With a total of thirteen non-consecutive years of study, I was excited to converse when I finally went to France. Upon arrival, I found no one spoke with the measured clarity of my accommodating teachers. Offering my mid-level understanding seemed to bait our hosts to run me right over with a stream of words that were stylish, of course, but often impossible for me to navigate.
Language learning only goes so far with traditional educational materials. The new Real World Collection in Transparent Language is designed for intermediate language learners who want to level up to true fluency, the ability to hold authentic conversations with native speakers.
If you’re in the process of learning Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Hebrew, Indonesian, Korean, Pashto, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, or Urdu, you can access unique materials that will boost your vocabulary, grammar, and cultural understanding of the langauge. Contextual and interactive content will enable you to challenge yourself to get over that hill without hitting the discouraging wall where it all seems to become incomprehensible again.
Even more new content:
- Transparent Language has added to its ASL offerings in response to the popularity of the sign language materials added to its collection last year. There is even a unique ASL for Librarians track. [Yay for us!]
- English learners can find materials specific to workplace interactions with Workforce English Essentials. New material is also available in the for Professionals courses in Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
- The Chinese offerings are also updated, including a 30×30 Challenge where beginners can get a big start in Mandarin with 30 days of 30-minute lessons.
- Transparent Language also now offers over 30 indigenous languages from all over the world, in collaboration with 7000 Languages, a non-profit organization devoted to preserving endangered indigenous languages all over the world.
- On top of all of this new content, users can now download lessons in the mobile app to continue learning when you’re not connected.
Apple Pie Contest Returns on November 12th!
On Sunday November 12, a sweet and spicy aroma will waft through the library. For the first time in four years, as many as twenty local bakers will enter the Grand Alley, their hearts and souls and hours of effort baked into flaky pastry as they vie for the crown in the return of the Chelmsford Public Library Apple Pie Contest.
An expert panel of local luminaries with sharp eyes and refined palates will be the proving ground for delicious pies from home kitchens all over the community. Join us in this fun feasting tradition for the whole family.
For a recipe so seemingly simple, there are a thousand variations. What is the secret to your apple pie? Is it the zip of lemon zest? The richness of brown sugar? The delicate crumble of a shortening crust? Cortland, Granny Smith, McIntosh apples, or a combination? What is your unique spice mélange?
RULES:
- All pies are to be homemade, with a homemade double crust.
- Pie filling must be just apples, with no other fruit such as raisins, cranberries, etc. with the exception of flavorings such as citrus juice or zest.
- Recipe must accompany the pie, including the type of apple(s) used.
- Contestants pre-register online on or before November 9.
- Contestants are asked to bring pies promptly at 1 PM when the library opens.
- Judging will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
- Winners will be announced following the judging with ribbons and prizes awarded.
- The general public will then be invited to feast on apple pie and apple cider. (You do not have to enter to come.)
There will be a People’s Choice Award for the most popular home-baked pie, voted on by attendees. And, all guests are also welcome to vote in the Best Store-Bought class. Five local supermarket pies will vie for your votes in a blind taste-test.
Join us beginning at 2:00 p.m. for feasting and festivity, supported by the Friends of the Library and freshly baked by your community!
If you would like to join the roster of bakers vying for fabulous prizes, you can use the registration form below, or contact jkenny@chelmsfordlibrary.org for more information. Participation is limited to the first 20 applicants. Please register soon! The deadline is Thursday, November 9!
Get more out of music with Freegal!
Do you reminisce about the uninhibited days of free* music downloads? Do you dabble in everything from pop hits to obscure masterpieces? Do you want to stream for hours, create your own playlists, and discover new music for free, anytime, without committing copyright infringement?
(*In all honesty, back in the Napster & Kazaa days of the ’90s & early 2000s, we were stealing, and while we had a bit of fun, maybe we deserved some of those bugs that ended up on our computers.)
With Freegal Music, you can have it all. Create an account with your library card and you can stream favorite songs and new discoveries right to your computer or mobile device. You can also download up to five songs per week, to keep, for free!
Search by artist, song or album titles, genres, even record labels. Look for surprises such as recorded live shows, classic and underground album reissues, and more. You can tap the 
heart button to add a song, album, or artist to your favorites.
You can collect your favorites into custom playlists and share them with your friends, or share them to the library’s playlist collection, where they can be accessed by fellow music enthusiasts in your community:
You can stream and download on your computer at https://chelmsfordlibrary.freegalmusic.com or you can get the Freegal app for Android here, and you can get the iOS app (for Apple devices) here.
You can also sign up for our Freegal Music Club using the form here. Receive a newsletter with new releases and learn about building a community sharing music through this great library resource. Learn what your neighbors are listening to and introduce them to something new from your own favorites.