News You Can Use
March 5th 2015
Here is part 2 of the Q & A with Dr. Alice LoCicero, who will be at the Central Library on Thursday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m. to discuss her new book, Why “Good Kids” Turn Into Deadly Terrorists: Deconstructing the Accused Boston Marathon Bombers and Others Like Them.
Aren’t you afraid that people will disparage you for writing about the perpetrators?
Yes. And I hope people will understand after talking with me for a few minutes that my goal is prevention, plain and simple. As a social... Read Post
March 4th 2015
Cambridge author Alice LoCicero will be at the Central Library on Thursday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m. to discuss her new book, Why "Good Kids" Turn Into Deadly Terrorists: Deconstructing the Accused Boston Marathon Bombers and Others Like Them.
In her book, Dr. LoCicero argues that the exploitation, by opportunistic zealots, of children and young adults—whether from Sri Lanka, Somalia, Tunisia, or her own hometown of Cambridge, MA—can be stopped. After years of research into youth violence and... Read Post
February 24th 2015
Join us at the Central Library on Wednesday, March 4th at 7:00 p.m. as we welcome Nan Levinson, author of War Is Not a Game: the New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement They Built.
On July 23, 2004, five marines, two soldiers, and one airman became the most unlikely of antiwar activists. Young and gung-ho when they first signed up to defend their country, they were sent to fight a war that left them confused, enraged, and haunted. Once they returned home, they became determined to put their... Read Post
February 13th 2015
Worried about how much of your personal information Google, Facebook, and other online software providers have collected?
Concerned about overbroad government surveillance programs hoovering up your private
data? Uneasy about criminal hackers who might seek to exploit you?
Our online privacy is indeed under threat, but the good news is that there are technology tools to help us fight back. Join us at the Central Library, February 21 at 11:00 a.m. Alison Macrina, a librarian and privacy rights... Read Post
January 28th 2015
SPL opened at noon today. The libraries will close at their regular times tonight. Normal hours resume tomorrow.
Stay warm.
January 26th 2015
Due to snow.
To pass a little of the time, read this poem by Wallace Stevens, because I like it.
The Snow Man
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That... Read Post
January 26th 2015
The Somerville Public Library will close at 4:30 today due to the impending storm.
January 7th 2015
All main exhibits at the JFK Library and Museum are closed until mid-March while the museum undergoes renovations. However, there is a small exhibit on the Cuban Missile Crisis open to the public. Admission is free.
The research rooms will still be open, but as always researchers should call in advance to schedule their visit. 617.514.1600 .
January 3rd 2015
Concerned about your privacy (or lack thereof)? Join us at the Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., Jan. 10 at 11:00 a.m., where James O'Keefe of the Massachusetts Pirate Party and other privacy experts show you how to use the web anonymously, encrypt your mail, stop companies from using your cell phone to track you, and more. This is a hands-on workshop, so please bring your laptop, tablet, or smartphone so we can help you install the latest anonymizing software and show you how to... Read Post
November 26th 2014
Somerville Public Libraries will close at 5 pm today and will be closed all day both Thursday and Friday.
Normal hours resume on Saturday, November 29.
November 24th 2014
Do you have a Gmail account? If you're reading this (and therefore an Internet user) you probably do, since Gmail is the most popular email service. After all, it's reliable and it's free, right? Well, it's free in that we don't pay money for it. But as the saying has it, "If you're not paying money for the product, by default you are the product." Google collects information about you and what you do online and sells that data to other businesses so that when you're online, you'll be... Read Post
October 17th 2014
Do you use Whisper, the social networking app that provides a safe virtual space to say things you wouldn't on Facebook? That supposedly guarantees anonymity? Well, according to The Guardian, Whisper not only tracks its users, the company staff monitor the activity of users who might soon be newsworthy, and they maintain a searchable database of posts, including posts users think they've deleted. Whisper also recently revised its terms of service: even if you have turned off your smartphone's... Read Post
October 14th 2014
When you check out a book (or anything else) from the library, that information is supposed to be private. Safety is essential for personal exploration and growth, and one way to help people be safe is ensuring that what they read or watch or listen to is known only to them and whomever they decide to share that knowledge with.
One of the software programs developed for reading ebooks is Adobe Digital Editions. And recently various sources reported that the latest version of the program,... Read Post