Career Spotlight Series at Springfield City Library

FOCUSING ON A VARIETY OF JOBS


The upcoming nine-part Career Spotlight Series at Springfield City Library will help adults and teens understand the realities of various careers while they consider different work opportunities. Discussions will feature adults who make their living in a specific field talking about job conditions and opportunities, training requirements, and future expectations in that field. The series begins on Tuesday, April 5, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Sixteen Acres Branch Library, 1187 Parker Street, with graphic artists and web designers Victoria Chapman of Weyakin Designs and Julie Waggoner of MicaBlue Creative. During National Library Week, April 10-16, we’ll focus on librarianship, hosting Karen Demers of Wilbraham Public Library and Eric Warren of Springfield Technical Community College Library on Monday, April 11, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Central Library, 220 State Street. The next day, Tuesday, April 12, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., teaching as a career will be discussed at the Sixteen Acres Branch Library, with Amy Turner of East Longmeadow High School and Robert Chasen of Catholic Charities Southside. Additionally we will highlight: nursing, Tuesday, April 19, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Sixteen Acres Branch; artists, Tuesday, April 26, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Sixteen Acres Branch; real estate, Thursday, May 12, 6:30-7:30pm, at the Forest Park Branch, 380 Belmont Avenue; postal workers, Thursday, May 19, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Forest Park Branch; and accountants and tax preparers on Thursday, May 26, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the Forest Park Branch. For additional information please call (413) 263-6828, ext. 221.

This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Urban Gardening Series at Springfield's Pine Point Branch Library

Grow Food Everywhere!

Join urban farmer/food educator Peter Merzbacher for an interesting, informative, and free agriculture series being offered at the Pine Point Branch Library, 204 Boston Road, Springfield. Mr. Merzbacher, of New Growth Gardens, believes in cultivating healthy urban ecosystems with community engagement and creating commercially viable urban farms and gardens. Topics include how we benefit from locally grown food and gardening in the city, how to evaluate your site, build raised beds, create a compost pile, decide what to grow, use mulch, and generally maintain your garden from early spring through late fall! All workshops will be held on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Pine Point Branch. To sign up and to learn more, please call (413) 263-6855, or visit us online at http://www.springfieldlibrary.org/. The upcoming workshop schedule is:

• March 30 Introducing Urban Gardening


• April 6 Garden Planning


• April 13 Garden Preparation and Installation


• April 20 Garden Maintenance

Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries Host Reception and Dinner

On Saturday, April 9, 2011, at 6:30 p.m., the Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries will host the ninth annual “Dinner with Friends” in the Learning Commons at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on the UMass Amherst campus. The event features talks by two notable speakers: Roy Blount, Jr. and Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, as well as a champagne and hors d’oeuvre reception with UMass Amherst student jazz musicians, and a gourmet dinner.

 Corporate sponsors of the 2011 “Dinner with Friends” to date include Amherst Books, Brattle Book Shop; EBSCO; Elsevier; Gale, a part of Cengage; Hampden Bank; Herman Miller/OFI; Marcus Printing; MicroTek, Inc.; Print Associates; Taylor Rental; UMass Catering; and Wiley-Blackwell. The evening is a key fundraising event for the UMass Amherst Libraries.

This year’s proceeds will benefit the W.E.B. Du Bois Center. For more information, visit: http://www.thewebduboiscenter.com/.

 Tickets are $140 per person or $250 for two ($95 and $160 are tax-deductible donations respectively). Complimentary passes for the parking garage will be provided. Handicap parking is available next to the Library.

UMass Amherst Libraries are open to all residents of Massachusetts, offering a rich array of resources and services.

For more information and to make reservations contact Carol Connare at (413) 545-0995, email friends@library.umass.edu, or visit the Dinner with Friends web site http://www.library.umass.edu/dinner. Individual and corporate sponsorships are available starting at $250. For more information about the Libraries visit http://www.library.umass.edu.

Dinner with Friends, April 9, 2011 – Speakers’ bios:

Roy Blount, Jr. is a humorist, sportswriter, poet, performer, lecturer, dramatist, and writer. He is the author of 21 books, including Alphabet Juice (2009) and Hail, Hail, Euphoria!: Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made (October 2010). Blount’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Playboy, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic. His work has also been anthologized in such collections as The Best of Modern Humor and many others. He is a panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me and the president of the Authors Guild. Raised in Decatur, Georgia, Blount received a bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt and a master's degree from Harvard.

Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina is the host of the nationally-syndicated program “The Book Show,” on which she interviews every week some of the finest writers working today. She has appeared frequently on British television and radio documentaries. Some of her books include Mr. and Mrs. Prince (2009), A Room of Their Own (2008), The Annotated Secret Garden (2007), and Francis Hodgson Burnett (2006). Gretchen has a B.A. from Marlboro College, an M.A. from Simmons College, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. She has been a tenured professor at Vassar College and at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is now the Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor in Biography at Dartmouth College, where she is the first woman ever to chair the English department, and the first African American woman to chair an Ivy League English department.

UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES PROVIDE RESOURCES ON JAPAN

UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES

PROVIDE RESOURCES ON JAPAN

In response to Friday’s earthquake in Japan, the UMass Amherst Libraries have compiled a list of resources for the campus community and the public.  This list is available at http://guides.library.umass.edu/jpnearthquake. The web page includes links to live video streaming in Japanese and English, newspaper resources, official web sites, and scientific information regarding this tragedy.  

This page will be updated frequently in the coming days and will reflect current efforts by the library and community organizations to serve residents affected by this event. 

For more information, contact Sharon Domier (sdomier@library.umass.edu, 413-577-2633).