Enter Somerville, a city packed with stories larger than itself, to salute a heritage that justifies the fierce pride of its citizens. Share a perch on one of Somerville's celebrated hills with Dee Morris and Dora St. Martin and watch the raising of America's first flag and the stringing of its first telephone line. Strolling from neighborhood to neighborhood, this brief history knocks on the doors of everyone from the father of Fenway Park to Missy LeHand, Franklin D. Roosevelt's private... Read Post
Library Blog
July 15th 2008
We are very lucky (and excited!) to have the kids from Kidstock! back again this summer for another series of great theater for children!
The first performance will be “A Conga Line” which will be held on Wednesday, July 16th. The next show will be “The Emperor’s New Kangaroo” on Wednesday, July 30th, and the final performance will be “Surfing Beauty” on Wednesday, August 13th.
All performances are in the library... Read Post
July 14th 2008
Wild Reads is the Massachusetts Summer Reading theme this year and the children's room has some great book ideas to help get you started. If drawing is your thing, we have books to teach you how to draw wild animals, dinosaurs, and underwater creatures. If you enjoy true stories of real animals, you might like reading about Knut, a polar bear cub raised at the Berlin Zoo, or Owen and Mzee, a hippo and a tortoise who strike an unusual friendship. Below is a suggested book... Read Post
June 24th 2008
Here at the Central Library’s reference desk we have a companion – a statue of a Greek boxer who, in accordance with long-standing Library tradition, we call Clarence. Clarence is actually Damoxenus, and he has an interesting history.
“Damoxenus. A boxer of Syracuse, excluded from the Nemean Games for killing his opponent in a pugilistic encounter. The name of the latter was Creugas; and the two... Read Post
June 5th 2008
It's been nearly a year since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in J. K. Rowling's 7-volume saga of "the boy who lived," and while Rowling has assured fans that there's no use expecting any more about Harry from her word processor, it doesn't look as though she's going to have the last word. I'm not talking about Potter fan fiction, crazy amounts of which can be found on the Internet. I mean books - books that don't... Read Post
May 23rd 2008
When I got my first job in a library I was surprised to discover how much nonfiction people read. At that time I read fiction almost exclusively and didn’t see the attraction of nonfiction. Sure, one might occasionally need resume writing tips, baseball stats, or advice on where to stay in Vancouver, but surely these types of books couldn’t account for the huge amount of nonfiction that crossed the circulation desk every day. So what on earth were these... Read Post
May 2nd 2008
Just this: when you buy books (and other items like CDs and movies) at the Friends of the Somerville Public Library's book sale, the proceeds help to fund library programs, including the Museum Pass program. The particular big teeth pictured here belong to a fossil kronosaurus on exhibit at Harvard's Museum of Natural History. Harvard's Museum of Natural History is one of the many museums the Library offers passes to, so that Somerville residents can visit them for free, or at a substantial... Read Post
May 1st 2008
Welcome to the Somerville Public Library Blog! The Library staff hopes to keep you informed, entertained, and in touch with what is happening at the Library. Visit our blog to find out about special Library events, news about Somerville, new books and databases, helpful websites, and book recommendations.
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P.S. We do realize there's no more snow in Somerville,... Read Post