Category Archives: Uncategorized

Earth Day crafters…

Your bottle cap magnets are available for pickup at circulation desk. 

Thanks again to all our teen volunteers for running a terrific crafty session for everyone! We think you all are swell!

Newton Serves at the ACL: Sunday, April 29th from 12:30-3:30

It’s that time of year again…  We’re looking for a crew to assist with our annual grounds clean-up for Newton Serves at the ACL.  Join us (rain or shine!) for some general spruce up work, mulch spreading, and some light planting at the library.  More details forthcoming, but if you will be available to help out, we’d appreciate your pre-registering online with the city: http://www.newtoncommunitypride.org/NewtonSERVES-volunteer-2012.php.
Or, you may email one of our Newton Serves coordinators, the fabulous Liz Noon at liznoon@comcast.net.  If you are unavailable for Newton Serves, but would like to lend a hand some other time with gardening around the library, Liz would love to add you to her roster of volunteers.

In Need Of…A Couch Slipcover

We’re looking to give the couch in the adult non-fiction area a little facelift (the one in the fiction area was recently donated–it’s in great shape).  Might anyone out there have a slipcover that is in good condition and would aesthetically blend with our decor style of “community library chic”?  Please let danakhanson@gmail.com know.  Thanks!

April Vacation Week Fun

Kiddies home this week without much to do?  Come by the ACL for a little springtime excitement…
Tuesday 4/17: Story Time at 10:15 am
Lego Club 2 – 2:45 pm
Thursday 4/19: Magic Card Club 5 – 6 pm
Saturday 4/21: Magic Card Club 11am – 12:30pm

Oh yes, and we’ve got BOOKS for your kids to borrow, too.

Author Talk: Dr. Muriel R. Gillick At Norumbega Point, Wednesday April 11th at 7:00 pm

Next Wednesday night!  Dr. Gillick has offered to present a compelling talk co-sponsored by the Auburndale Community Library and Norumbega Point on her book about the remarkable story of two refugees during World War II, Once They Had a Country: Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War.

We will be meeting at Norumbega Point Assisted Living–which is located right near the Newton Marriott on 99 Norumbega Road in Weston.  (Bonus excitement about having the talk at Norumbega: folks can visit with resident Armando Rossi!)

About Dr. Gillick…

Muriel R. Gillick, M.D., is a geriatrician, palliative care physician, and writer as well as a Clinical Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has had a life-long interest in German history, World War II and the refugee experience. In her most recent book, Once They Had a Country: Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War, Dr. Gillick draws from a remarkable set of primary source materials to relate the story of her parents when they were teenage refugees in Europe during World War II. Their story reveals what it was like to establish a new life in a foreign country, over and over again, in constant fear for their lives. Ultimately the book demonstrates how citizens and the governments of Belgium, France, Switzerland, Brazil, America, China and postwar Germany treated refugees. Once They Had a Country also reveals the origins of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the basis of contemporary international law affecting refugees in many countries today.

Newton Serves at the ACL: Sunday, April 29th from 12:30-3:30

It’s that time of year again…  We’re looking for a crew to assist with our annual grounds clean-up for Newton Serves at the ACL.  Join us (rain or shine!) for some general spruce up work, mulch spreading, and some light planting at the library.  More details forthcoming, but if you will be available to help out, we’d appreciate your pre-registering online with the city: http://www.newtoncommunitypride.org/NewtonSERVES-volunteer-2012.php.

Or, you may email one of our Newton Serves coordinators, Liz Noon at liznoon@comcast.net.  If you are unavailable for Newton Serves, but would like to lend a hand some other time with gardening around the library, Liz would love to add you to her roster of volunteers.

Have You Ever Read A Book To A Kid?

Why, shucks, this makes you qualified to help out with Tuesday morning story time at the ACL!  We’re looking to expand our volunteer list of folks to read 4-5 books to toddlers/preschoolers once a week on Tuesdays from about 10:15 to 11:00 am.  We have puppets and crafty supplies to make you a rock star in the eyes of our young attendees.  We’d love to have you on our team.  Please contact Jaye at jaye.schneider@yahoo.com if you think you might be available once every couple of months or so.  It’s a very light gig–we just need some more helpers. 

Looking for Something to Do Over School Vacation Week?

Good times at the ACL this week…

Knitting Club (Saturday, February 18th 10:30 am)
Adults and kids alike can learn to knit at the ACL!  Have you or your child always wanted to learn how to knit?  A group of knitters assembles each week at the library to work on personal projects of varying levels.  Twice a month, our resident knitting expert, Judy Castaldi, is on hand to teach folks how to start from scratch or help them over the hump with a challenging maneuver. (Judy is there on select Saturdays…she’ll be there on the 18th, but not the 25th.) 

StoryTime (Tuesdays at 10:15)
Bring your toddlers and preschoolers by for stories, songs, puppets, and simple crafts.  Celebrate the cycle of the year (snowflakes! Valentines!) with other caregivers and children.  

Lego Club (Tuesdays at 2:00 pm)
Do you have a Lego fiend on your hands?  Come by with your kids to play with the most enormous collection of public Legos in Newton.  Parents and caregivers–grab a book and sit and read while the kids build…no Lego mess at your house.  Put an end to the winter afternoon “blahs”…  (This particular demographic is often interested in our Star Wars reading collection, which has had an infusion of several new books over the past months.)

Magic the Gathering (Thursdays at 5:00 pm, Saturdays at 11:00 am)
For the older kids: this is more of a drop-off gang.  Sort of like a cross between baseball cards and Dungeons and Dragons–complete mania for those who love it!  Has it been a while since your kids picked up their cards?  Again, these drop-ins are a great way to ensure good reading turnover for your kids–grab a new book or two every time you come and go.

UPDATED: Riverside Station Community Survey – fill out by Monday February 20, 5pm

Due to the tremendous response, we are extending the deadline for submitting a completed survey until Monday at 5:00p.m.

At the January 29th RSNC Community Meeting at the United Parish of Auburndale, The Riverside Station Neighborhood Coalition (RSNC) reviewed a survey questionnaire, intended to capture the sentiments of residents living in Auburndale, Lower Falls, and Waban. As a result of feedback from participants at the meeting, we have modified the survey. We will be compiling information based on the opinions of those who live in our neighborhoods.

The RSNC had hoped to create this survey online, but we were unable to find a tool that satisfied the requirements of the survey authors. Instead, we have created a simple word processing document for you to update and return. Please visit our website at www.riversidestation.info where you will find a printable version of the survey. The file, RSNC Survey.rtf is a Rich Text File, which should be compatible with almost all word processors.

Survey instructions

Please go to our website and open the survey in your word processor. Follow the detailed instructions included in the survey. When you are done, save the file. There are three ways you can submit your answers.

1) Send an E-mail (with your updated file attached) to: Survey.RiversideNeighbors@gmail.com (preferred choice)

2) Print completed survey and drop it off at:

Woodland Grove Condo lobby, 416 Grove Street, put in ?Riverside Survey box?

or

Auburndale Community Library, 375 Auburn Street, Attention Lynn Slobodin

3) Print completed survey and mail it to: L. Sweet, 416 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02462

Some clarifications for completing the survey:

  • The first section is simply choose one of three in each category.
  • The second section is on uses. This is your opportunity to say what you actually do or do not want at the site. There are 4 types of real estate uses listed: Office, Retail, Residential and Community. You can rank your top 5 choices in each type of real estate with 5 being the most important to you. If there are not five choices in a category that you want only put a number by the ones you do want, for example in office, you can put a 5 by professional office and leave the other categories blank. You are only allowed to use each number (i.e. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) once in each category. In addition, please select up to 10 no’s across all four categories, if there are 10 uses you do not want to see on the site.
  • The last section asks you to rank from 10-1, the most important items you want to see addressed, if the project moves forward. If you only want 5, then put 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and stop. You can use each number only once and it is for lines A through LL.
  • We encourage you to write comments at the end explaining why you have made some of your choices, or areas we may not have covered.
  • The surveys will be scored by totaling the responses in each line to determine the items that have the highest totals as being most important to the community. With the first batch processed over the weekend we have already seen some trends emerge.
  • In addition, for those of you who are not aware, you may want to consider that the Grossmans site in Wellesley will have a CVS, medical offices, and an age restricted residential building.

Unique Author Talk Opportunity at the ACL: Dr. Muriel R. Gillick (We Need Your Feedback On The Best Date/Time)

Unique Author Talk Opportunity at the ACL: Dr. Muriel R. Gillick (We Need Your Feedback On The Best Date/Time)

Dr. Gillick has offered to present a compelling talk at the ACL on her book about the remarkable story of two refugees during World War II, Once They Had a Country: Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War.  She has requested that we find a date and time for the presentation that would be convenient for a minimum of 20-25 people in order to allow for a lively discussion.  If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to activities@auburndalelibrary.org with an outline of your general day and time preferences.

 About Dr. Gillick’s Book…

 Image

 Muriel R. Gillick, M.D., is a geriatrician, palliative care physician, and writer as well as a Clinical Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has had a life-long interest in German history, World War II and the refugee experience. In her most recent book, Once They Had a Country: Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War, Dr. Gillick draws from a remarkable set of primary source materials to relate the story of her parents when they were teenage refugees in Europe during World War II. Their story reveals what it was like to establish a new life in a foreign country, over and over again, in constant fear for their lives. Ultimately the book demonstrates how citizens and the governments of Belgium, France, Switzerland, Brazil, America, China and postwar Germany treated refugees. Once They Had a Country also reveals the origins of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the basis of contemporary international law affecting refugees in many countries today.