Saturday, October 30, 2004

Quilt Winner

The drawing for the beautiful quilt, sewn by longtime library supporter Marjorie Reid, was held on Thursday, October 28. Congratulations go to lucky winner Suzanne Carlson of Greenfield! Enjoy your quilt!

Thanks to all who bought raffle tickets for supporting the Friends of the Library!

Wednesday, October 27, 2004


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello


pumpkin party Posted by Hello

pumpkin party


Posted by Hello

pumpkin party


Posted by Hello

pumpkin party


Posted by Hello

Pumpkin party


Posted by Hello

pumpkin party and mask making


Posted by Hello


even more masks! Posted by Hello


more masks! Posted by Hello


Mask making at the library. Posted by Hello

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Website updates

There's a new perk for attendees of the auction at the library! In the Night Kitchen (the restaurant by the Montague Bookmill) has generously donated dinner for two. The catch is that it will not be auctioned off, but rather it will be a door prize for one of our lucky ticket purchasers!

More new links have been added to our Online Resources page under the Local Resources section. Click on CISA's (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) site and NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association)'s site and see what they have to offer.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Staff changes

The staff wishes the best to Mary Anne Ladd, one of the friendly faces at the desk, in her retirement. Mary Anne was with the GPL for eight years, working at circulation and ordering much of the great new fiction that came in through our doors. We will miss her greatly but hope she enjoys retirement very much!

In other news, Mary Kostanski has joined the staff as a permanent employee. Many of you know Mary from her work at the library as a page. She will now be greeting you at the circulation desk with a smile. Also, Diane Holmes started recently in the page position that Mary so recently left. Check out the staff page for our updated photos, and come on in and say hello to us all.

Debate fact checking

Have you been watching the Presidential debates? Want to know the facts behind the statements? Check out FactCheck.org published by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

With all the hype surrounding the candidates' statements, this site can be a little hard to get to, but keep trying. It's worth the wait.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Saving Webpages

Are you tired of having to write down URLs that you then can't find? Or saving sites as favorites and then not remembering what the URL stands for? Looksmart has just acquired Furl.net, a site created by Mike Giles of Amherst, and this may be just what you are looking for.

To quote their website: "Furl is a tool for saving, sharing and finding information (you know, the pages you want to save for future reference but then can never find again). At the core, Furl is a place to store content you find on the Internet and know that you can find it again at any time in the future (i.e. articles, product descriptions, web sites, e-commerce receipts, etc.)... [by] enter[ing] any word or phrase you remember from it. "

Furl is free and offers 5 GB of storage to each user. Try it out, and see if it works for you.

Monday, October 04, 2004

NEWSLINE

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is pleased to announce that NEWSLINE is being offered through the Braille and Talking Book Library at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown.

Developed by the National Federation for the Blind, NEWSLINE is an electronic system that allows users to listen to newspapers and magazines through a synthetic voice output via any touch-tone phone. By calling in on a local or toll-free number, users can choose any newspaper in the system and listen to that day's, the previous day's or Sunday edition. Users can also select what section or article they wish to read; and the system allows then to change speed or voice quality, spell out words, or search for a particular subject.

Massachusetts newspapers currently include: Ayer Public Spirit, Berkshire Eagle, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, Groton Landmark, Harvard Hillside, Lowell Sun, North Adams Transcript, Pepperell Free Press, Shirley Oracle, Springfield Republican, and Townsend Times. Major newspapers and some magazines from throughout the US and Canada are also included.

Individuals wishing to sign up for this free services are encouraged to contact the Braille & Talking Book Library by phone at (800) 852-3133 or via email at library@perkins.org. For more information, go to www.perkinslibrary.org.

New link

We have added AGRICOLA (the National Agriculture Library), article citation database to our list of great sites on the Library's Online Resources page. This is a nice supplement to Infotrac, and can assist you in finding just the right article for your agricultural needs.

Auction Update

The list of auction items has been updated! Remember, this is just a sample of what is being auctioned off. There will be even more great things to bid on when you come.

The silent auction will run from 3 - 6 p.m., with a live auction with auctioneer Doug Pratt from 6 - 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the library, the World Eye Bookshop, Foster's Supermarket, Farrell Insurance Agency, Greenfield Savings Bank, or from any Board Member of the Friends.

We'll see you there!