One thing that the economic downturn has meant for us at the Library is that we’ve been seeing more and more people who are looking for jobs. Here’s a website that offers help if you’re looking for a job in the growing field of green industry.
Green Careers Guide is an online resource for people seeking careers within the wind, solar, and geothermal industries. It’s free and membership is not required. On the site you’ll find green job listings and best places to train for green jobs. If you’re an entrepreneur type, the site offers tips on starting your own green business. Have a look!
Maybe you’re a native speaker who wants to read books in el idioma. Maybe you learned Spanish as a foreign language but like to keep up, and reading is one way to do that. Either way, we’ve got books for you.
Do you like mysteries? We’ve got quite a few, including a Spanish translation of John Burdett’s Bangkok 8 and of Jeffry Lindsay’s Dexter in the Dark–Dexter en la oscuridad. Or try one written originally in Spanish, such as Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez’s El cielo llora por mí.
Are you more interested in literary fiction? Try Laura Restrepo’s tale of thwarted love, Olor a rosas invisibles (If you’re a gringo and not feeling confident about your Spanish, take heart: it’s a bilingual edition).
If your reading habits tend more toward nonfiction, a perennial favorite among our patrsons is books on Che Guevara. We have Diarios de motocicleta and the Castañeda biography Compañero : vida y muerte del Che Guevara. If you’re interested in more recent events, you might sample a Colombian journalist’s account of her romantic relationship with a drug kinpin, Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar.
Do you like graphic fiction or comics? We have some manga in Spanish, as well as several collections of the world-famous (and delightful) Argentine comic strip Mafalda.
Whatever your interests or tastes (in whatever language), come on by. We’re bound to have something for you.
…. (June 17) the library will be closed. As you may know Somerville figures prominently in the early years of the War of Independence. The Continental army that beseiged British-occupied Boston set up its fortifications in much of what is now Somerville. And of course it was on Prospect Hill that the first flag of the United Colonies was raised–which the British, for reasons unknown, assumed was a flag of surrender.
The Library has added Mango Languages Database to our growing list of electronic resources. This database can be used at the Library or from home. Go to our database page and scroll down to Mango Languages to get started.
Mango is designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start. Whether you’re learning how to order a pizza or ask when the game starts, Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses.
June 2, 1851: Maine becomes the first state in the Union to pass a law banning alcohol.
June 3, 1851: The populations of New Hampshire and Southern Canada increase by thousands in a single day as people flee Maine.*
June 14, 1822: Charles Babbage sends a proposal to the Royal Astronomical Society for a difference engine for “the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables,” but his proposal gets lost in all the buzz surrounding the soon-to-be-released “iDifferenceEngine” from Apple.
June 15, 1776: Thinking that it’s not enough to give the finger to just one government, the three counties of what would become Delaware decide to go for a twofer, declaring independence from Great Britain and seceding from Pennsylvania.
June 17, 1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought, and within months is commemorated by Americans in plays, patriotic engravings and poems. Never mind that it was really fought on Breed’s Hill. Or that we lost.
June 20, 1837: 18-year-old Victoria becomes Queen of the United Kingdom. Her reign lasts 63 years, proving that some teenagers really can hold on to a job.
June 21, 1919. Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet rather than surrender it to the Allies. Was ist Deustch für “sore loser?”
June 26, 1409: Double your schisms, double your fun: first Angelo Correr in Rome and Pedro Martínez de Luna in Avignon were both claiming to be Pope. Then some cardinals in Pisa voted to make Petros Philarges Pope as well. Wouldn’t “Papal Survivor” have been an awesome reality TV show?
Our thoughts and good wishes are with all of you who have lost jobs as a result of the recession. We’re here to assist you to the extent possible, with resumé writing tips, job search help, and books such as these:
We are now offering a new Museum pass to the House of Seven Gables, located in Salem, Massachusetts. We will offer one pass per day and each pass will admit 4 people at half price. Normal adult admission is $12.00 and child admission (5-12) is $7.25. Please visit our website for more information on reserving museum passes at the library and feel free to book your pass online. Salem is a great town to visit during the summer and the museum is also offering extended evening hours from July-September: 10AM-7PM.
“Welcome to Salem’s premiere historic site, located on the Harbor! Discover 330 years of Salem’s history as you experience this museum and collection of historic buildings.
When you arrive at The House of the Seven Gables - which constitutes its own national historic district on The National Register of Historic places - professional guides will warmly greet you for an unforgettable historical experience. Outside, spectacular seaside gardens await you. Inside of The House of the Seven Gables, also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, you will discover a mysterious secret staircase where you least expect it! Built in 1668, this is the oldest surviving 17th century wooden mansion in New England. The House of the Seven Gables inspired author Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his legendary novel of the same name.
As a matter of fact, the very home where Hawthorne was born, was moved to The House of the Seven Gables and now lies just feet away from the mysterious mansion made famous in fiction. When you step into the Nathaniel Hawthorne House (c. 1750), you will learn about the life of the famous author.
But there’s more… The House of the Seven Gables also has an 18th century granite sea wall, and two seaside Colonial Revival Gardens. The museum houses more than 2,000 artifacts and objects, more than 40 framed works, 500 photographs and glass plate negatives, and more than 650 volumes in our research and rare book library.” (http://www.7gables.org/tour_gables.shtml)
Throughout our nation’s history there have been wars, some just, some unjust. But there’s one constant to all those wars: the men (and more recently, women) who fight them, who suffer, who sacrifice, whether out of patriotism, out of a belief in the war itself, or out of the plain conviction that it’s their duty as soldiers to follow orders. Today is the day we remember them.
Since Memorial Day began as a day to honor Civil War dead, the next time you’re at SPL check out James M. McPherson’s What They Fought For: 1861-1865. In this highly accessible book, one of our greatest Civil War historians brings to us the voices of Civil War soldiers on both sides as they explain in diaries and letters why they enlisted and why they fought.
In terms of books written and documentaries made, the War of Independence, the Civil War, and World War II tend to get the most attention. Why not redress the balance by reading about World War I? If you’re interested in nonfiction, pick up The Last Days of Innocence: America at War: 1917-1918. Or try some classic American fiction: Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is set on the Italian front, while The Sun Also Rises explores the physical and psychological toll some young Americans still suffer after the war.
a thought that occurs during sleep, which may or may not be relevant to a situation in waking life?
a mere biological function?
Whichever theory you subscribe to (except for that last one, which sounds like no fun so let’s just pretend it isn’t there) the Library offers books that just may help you to understand the meaning of your dreams.
…reared its scaly head out of the primordial ooze of the Internet this week, but somehow I doubt Google has anything to fear. Wolfram Alpha went live on Monday, and it has interesting possibilities that, however, seem far from realization. While Google is more about searching text and images, Wolfram is about numerical data and computation, with some search capability thrown in. Users new to Wolfram are advised to try a few of its basic functions–such as type in the names of two stocks (you’ll get comparative prices) or the name of a city (you’ll get census data) or a date (you’ll get important events).
My experiences with Wolfram were lackluster–much like those of the writers for CNET, who gave Wolfram a test run. I, like the guys at CNET, had a lot of trouble figuring how to craft my queries. I was okay with simple queries: I typed “euro dollar” and found out that one euro was worth $1.36. I typed “scallops” and got nutritional data on an average serving. But when I typed “murders per capita United States” I got a message I would soon become very familiar with: “Wolfram/Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” (I got the same response for the queries “wolf attacks Boston Common 2008″ and “total population bear-fish hybrids”). I didn’t have much luck with other queries. I typed “When was the Battle of Britain?” and got statistics on the town of Battle in the United Kingdom. I typed “September 22, 1986″ (broadcast date of the first episode of the TV show ALF) and got sunrise and sunset times in Boston for that date, as well as how many weeks and days ago it was, but also the dispiriting response, “no known major notable events” (shows how much they know about television) I got the same message for April 14, 1865 (the Lincoln assassination). To be fair, when I typed in July 4, 1776, Wolfram did acknowledge American independence.
Anyway, I’ll keep experimenting with Wolfram, and let you know how it goes. And if you’ve something to share about Wolfram, let us know by posting a comment.
Maybe you’re a native speaker who wants to read books in el idioma. Maybe you learned Spanish as a foreign language but like to keep up, and reading is one way to do that. Either way, we’ve got books for you.
the world-famous (and delightful) Argentine comic strip 
June 2, 1851: Maine becomes the first state in the Union to pass a law 
plays, patriotic engravings and poems. Never mind that it was really fought on Breed’s Hill. Or that we lost.
constant to all those wars: the men (and more recently, women) who fight them, who suffer, who sacrifice, whether out of patriotism, out of a belief in the war itself, or out of the plain conviction that it’s their duty as soldiers to follow orders. Today is the day we remember them.
1945-1975
…reared its scaly head out of the primordial ooze of the Internet this week, but somehow I doubt Google has anything to fear. 
Entries (RSS)