Lowell Spinners discounted tickets at the library!

 
The Friends of the Library have once again generously purchased a Lowell Spinners pass that library patrons can take advantage of to get discounted tickets to terrific minor league baseball just 30 minutes north of Maynard. The Spinners are the Single A-Short Season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and play in beautiful LeLacheur Park on the campus of UMass Lowell. Former Lowell Spinners that have gone on to play in the major leagues include Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Bucholz, Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, and many more.

In addition to great baseball, the Spinners have lots of great giveaways and promotions throughout the year. To see their complete promotional schedule, click here. 

Anyone with a valid Minuteman Network library card can check out the pass, which is valid for up to 6 general admission tickets for $3 per ticket at any of the 38 Spinners home games. This is a 50% discount! The pass must be presented at the Spinners ticket office on the day of the game to receive the discount.

Reserve the pass at the Circulation Desk or by calling 978-897-1010 x100. 

Know your community resources: Maynard Historical Society

In what will become a semi-regular feature on this blog, I'd like to take a look at community resources that some in Maynard may not be aware of or might be in need of a reminder of. As you already know, Maynard is a fantastic small town with a lot of great things happening in it. And now to lead us off...

While the library does have many resources for those looking to learn more about Maynard's history including town reports, all the books written about Maynard, most of Maynard High School's yearbooks, and more, we are far from the only stop for local historians seeking more information. For those serious about really delving into it, The Maynard Historical Society exists entirely to promote the need to remember the town's proud history since its inception in 1871.

The society does an excellent job of cataloging its collection online and posts photos of most individual items as they are put into the system. There are so many interesting pictures of buildings, people, and artifacts from all periods of the town's history. One of my favorites is their extensive collection of postcards that you can view here. You may search or browse the collection here: http://collection.maynardhistory.org/

The society also puts out a quarterly newsletter with bits of interesting newspaper articles from years past along with first-hand stories from those that have lived in the town for a long time. If you join the society, which you can do here, you can get the newsletter mailed to your house with each new issue.

Also worth noting is that the society will be soon be holding its June meeting on Monday, June 17th at the Maynard High School. It will be one of the final functions to be held in the building before it gets turned over to the demolition company. The program for the meeting will be the history of Maynard schools with an extensive slideshow and program covering the history. There will be a select number of prints on display from their collection - every MHS yearbooks in their collection and a bunch of artifacts.

Lastly, the Historical Society is currently housed in the Maynard Medical building of Clock Tower Place. The only time to visit is on Wednesday mornings and it is recommended that you contact the society's president, Dave Griffin before going down to make sure that they are open and able to take a visitor. You may contact Dave 978-394-2375 or email him at davebets@mac.com.

Back issues of the Maynard Beacon-Villager

Hello, Maynard!

We just started a subscription to America's Newsbank, a service that will provide library patrons with access to current and archived issues of the Maynard Beacon-Villager from August 2005 to the most recent issue published.

America's News allows you to easily search or browse news articles, editorials, birth/marriage announcements, obituaries, and special sections. Just about everything you see in the Beacon-Villager goes into this database.

Interested in reading past articles and editorials on the 129 Parker St. location? Do a search for it and you'll get 174 relevant results. The library alone has almost 1,400 results but you can narrow down your search by adding other keywords or by selecting a date range for the results to fall into. We're very excited about this resource for all kinds of purposes and hope you take the chance to try it out as well.

You can try America's Newsbank by clicking here or find it later at www.maynardpubliclibrary.org/databases. Remote access from home is limited to Maynard residents only. For more information, contact the Reference Desk at 978-897-1010 x103 or mayill@minlib.net

May is Mystery Month in Maynard

Coming off a fantastic Maynard Book Festival visited by a variety of Massachusetts authors that included among others Gregory Maguire, William Martin, and Barbara Shapiro, the Friends of the Library have two more exciting nights of author visits coming up this month.

On Tuesday, May 7th, Katherine Hall Page and Spencer Quinn will be making appearances. Katherine's "Body in the..." books are tremendously popular in our collection and she'll be releasing a new title (Body in the Piazza) next week! Spencer Quinn's mysteries are told from the perspective of a dog who is owned by a detective.  This allows Quinn to create a comic narrative and allows the plot to take turns that would be impossible with a human-only cast of characters.

Just a few weeks later on Thursday, May 23rd, the library will be visited by Hallie Ephron and Linda Barnes. Hallie is a relatively new mystery writer but her first book "Never Tell a Lie" received excellent reviews and was adapted for a film as "And Baby Will Fall" on the Lifetime Movie Network. Linda Barnes has written 16 novels, many of which feature Carlotta Carlyle, a smart, independent, tough-as-nails Bostonite etched in the hardboiled tradition.

Both events start at 7pm and are free and open to the public. Books for signing are from Porter Square Books. 

Graphic Novels? We've got the best around!

Are you or your children a big fan of graphic novels/comics? If so, then make your way over to the Maynard Public Library as our collection fairly recently expanded thanks to a very generous donation from a local comic store owner.  Last year, Tim Finn, the owner of Hub Comics in Somerville, donated almost 200 graphic novels for the purposes of getting more kids into comics by making them accessible for free here at the library. The donation consisted of high quality reproductions of comics from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Most of them are collections of X-Men, Spider Man, Bat Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and much more. These stories are gentler and less violent and less sexual than the way superheroes are portrayed today, and are appropriate for children of all ages.

With the boost to our already large graphic novel collection, Maynard boasts one of the best selections in the area. Check out our full graphic novel collection the next time you're in! It's located on the 3rd floor all the way up against the left wall of the building if you're looking out onto Nason Street.

Wondering what graphic novels to start off with? Our library's Director Stephen Weiner has written several books on graphic novels including Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel and The 101 Best Graphic Novels. Both are in the library's collection, check them out sometime to get yourself started, or back into, graphic novels sometime!

Both are in the library's collection, check them out sometime to get yourself started or back into graphic novels sometime! Thanks again, Hub Comics!

OverDrive E-Book service improved!

An updated version of the Digital Media Catalog went live for the Minuteman Network yesterday, allowing for a much more user-friendly way to browse for and borrow e-books and audiobooks.

The one thing I’m most excited for in this process is the ability to read the book in a browser without having to download any software. For many library patrons that have tried to download e-books over the last couple of years, this has been the tricky part that has led to technical difficulties. Assuming all works well with this new version, e-books will be easier than ever to find and read.

Once you get to a title that you want to read, you'll have the option of downloading it to your device/computer or simply reading it in your browser. Once you click "Read," it'll pop right up and you're set to go. Returning it is just as easy.

Try out the new download service here or to read a guideline of all the changes, click here.

Send an e-mail (jrobichaud@minlib.net) or comment below if you’re interested in sharing your thoughts on the new way of downloading e-books. And remember to swing by the Reference Desk if you're ever stuck on downloading e-books in any way.

Historic Walking Tours of Maynard

With the nice weather hopefully holding for a while, this is a great opportunity to try one of the Historical Commission's "Walking Tours of Maynard." The tours were compiled by Peg Brown, one of our town's local history experts and features sites all over Maynard and its unique past. 

I just did most of the New Village and Maynard's Hill tour last week. I thought it was interesting to note that the first ever Maynard Public Library was actually located on the site where Jarmo's Auto Repair is on Acton St. It was housed in part of the Acton St. School that was torn down in 1902 and the present building was erected. I hope to do more as the spring weather melts away all this snow!

There are five tours available and map brochures can be picked up at the Reference Desk here at the library. They can also be downloaded via the Historical Commission's website here. Here is the list of tours along with their length in distance and estimated time to complete:

1. Main Street and The Mill (2 miles, 1:15)
2. Assabet Village (2 miles, 1:45)
3. New Village and Maynard’s Hill (1.9 miles, 1:30)
4. Great Road (West: 2 miles, 1:30; East: 2.25 miles, 2:15)
5. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge (varies)

These tours are designed to be printed on 8.5 x 14 inch paper (legal size).  They can be printed on regular 8.5 x 11 paper but may be hard to read.

Happy walking!