Category Archives: happenings at the library

Yoga at the ACL on Mondays, 9-10 AM. Pre-registration is required; you can sign up here. There is no charge for yoga, but donations to the library are welcome and appreciated.

For now, ACL To-Go will still be offered. Please continue to make your book requests by using our online form. Our volunteers will contact you when your items are ready for pick up. Pick up times will be when the library is open (see above).

Our free bicycle delivery service to Auburndale, West Newton, and Newton Lower Falls will end on Tuesday, July 13 to give our delivery “crew” a well-deserved break and vacation. Many, many thanks to Robyn and Nathan Phillips!

We are so happy to see those of you who have made it down
to the library in-person these last few weeks. We have so
many new puzzles, games, and titles for young and old for
you to check out. And, robot coding kits (KIBO, Kubo, and
Cubetto) for use in the library!

Please bear with us as we slowly increase our hours.
Currently, we are open on Tuesdays 10am-12pm,
Thursdays 6pm-8pm, and Saturdays from 10am-3pm.
Occasionally, for example, during the heatwave, we were
able to open for additional hours as a cool,
air-conditioned space for you to escape the heat.

Follow us on Facebook to get the latest updates on these impromptu openings and more. During the visits, we are still asking for your help in wearing a mask in order to provide a safe and welcoming space for all patrons including families with children who may not be vaccinated yet and others who may be immunocompromised. Thank you for understanding. Also, just a reminder, we will not be open on Saturday, July 3.

If you’d like to see the ACL open for additional hours, please let us know by filling out this form.

The ACL is exploring ways to expand our “Library of Things” collection. We currently have games, puzzles, and ukuleles, and hope to add more fun and useful things to our collection.  We would love to hear your thoughts on how we can grow our inventory of items to borrow. Please fill out this short survey (https://tinyurl.com/ACLlibraryofthings) to share your ideas. Thank you for helping us plan! And thanks to our intern, Erica Wieher, from Lasell U. who put together this survey and is planning a Zoom cooking class for kids. More news on that to come!

Don’t worry if you are not ready to come visit the ACL in person yet. We will continue to offer our ACL To-Go services with Tuesday and Saturday morning pick up times between 10am-12pm, as well as free bicycle delivery to Auburndale, West Newton and Newton Lower Falls.

Please continue to make your book requests by using our online form (https://tinyurl.com/ACLBookrequest). Our volunteers will contact you when your items are ready for pick up. 

We are so excited to launch ACL Express In-Person Browsing and to welcome you back into the library! Starting on Saturday, May 1, you can book 15 minute appointments to come visit the library in person on Thursday evenings between 5pm-7pm and Saturday afternoons between 2pm-4pm. Bookings can be made via this link (https://tinyurl.com/ACLBrowsing). Just check the box next to the time slot you are interested in, click the blue “submit and sign up” button at the bottom of the screen, fill out your details, and click the blue “Sign Up” button to book the appointment.

We are welcoming 2 adult patrons for each 15 minute slot. Each adult member of a household must have their own appointment. Please remember to wear your mask and continue to maintain a 6 foot distance with folks not in your household. More details about the protocols for in-person visits can be found here. Please read them before making your appointment.

We are asking for your help in adhering to the protocols in order to keep all of our volunteers and patrons safe. Thank you! We look forward to seeing you at the ACL!

Many thanks to the folks who have already filled out our re-opening survey. If you have not filled it out yet, please do so as it will help us with our re-opening plans. We are still closely monitoring the guidelines from the city and state as well as protocols from other local libraries regarding in-person browsing.

We are very grateful to volunteer Tim Moore who is helping us install a Lexan barrier around the circulation desk. Thank you for your survey input, patience, and support. Thinking of the day when we can all gather at our special library again!

Here is our Valentine’s Day Story Time! (https://youtu.be/llW2CcKoRbo)

If you would like to order our Valentine Craft-to-Go, just enter that in our order form: https://tinyurl.com/ACLbookrequest

You can choose Saturday, Feb. 6th or Tuesday, Feb. 9th to pick up your bag. We will call you when your craft-to-go is ready. Let us know if you need a glue stick. Please order your craft by noon on Friday, Feb. 5th so we have time to make all the bags. Enjoy!

Please note that the ACL will follow the Newton Public Schools (NPS) decision on closures. We want our volunteers to be safe during these days so a closure may affect our delivery schedule. Rest assured, we will get your book requests fulfilled/delivered as soon as it is safe to do so. NPS announcements are on their homepage: http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/.  If the snow hits on a Saturday, we will make our own call and follow the will of our volunteers on duty. It will be announced on our Facebook page, Instagram @auburndalemalibrary, and website.