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Amazing Library Book Inscription to Former Librarian
I think this is incredible, and apparently some of my coworkers knew about it and never told me. I work in the library in Chelmsford, MA, which is next door to the city of Lowell, the birthplace of...
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Reference Question of the Week – 10/23/11
I don't know if this question was Halloween-related or a coincidence. A patron came up to the desk, slid me a piece of paper with "manningtree" written on it, and said, Can you tell me where this tree...
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Library Closed Due to October Snow Storm
The storm that hit New England and the East Coast this weekend knocked out power to my library (like many, many other places). As a result, we're closed until further notice. The "CLOSED" sign by the...
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Cloud of Survey Comments from Library Patrons
A few months ago, my library conducted a survey of our patrons. We wanted it to be short+useful, so we called it the "60 Second Survey" and limited it to five questions, on things like which services...
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Reference Question of the Week – 10/7/12
This was funny. A patron walked up to the desk and asked, Do you have any information on the drive-in theater that used to be in Chelmsford? I've been here for about seven years, but had no idea there...
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How To Address An Envelope
Nicely serendipitous with last week's reference question, the library recently received this envelope in the mail: I'm not sure if this was deliberately done by a person, or just a computer filling in...
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This Is Why I Like Working In A Library
My library's One Book Chelmsford selection this year is Townie, by Andre Dubus, and the kick-off event was last weekend. To promote the book with patrons, we decided to hang up a punching bag right...
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Reference Question of the Week – 3/3/13
I think this is my absolute favorite reference question so far this year. It took a few days before the final answer emerged, and it all started with a patron sending in this message from our...
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Readers Advisory Initiative at the Chelmsford Library
This is a neat thing, but is such a large project that I'm still not exactly sure how to explain it all. At the end of last year, my library created a new position for a dedicated readers advisory...
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Reference Question of the Week – 6/16/13
I work in Chelmsford, MA, and the Town is in the process of establishing two "cultural districts" in two of our local historical village centers. It's similar to a historical district, but instead...
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Reference Question of the Week – 7/14/13
I've talked about pay phones before, but I like them - and we do still get asked about them - so here's the latest pay phone question. This week, a man came to the Reference Desk asking if we knew...
View ArticleChelmsford Gets a StoryWalk
My library has partnered with the Chelmsford Open Space Stewards to create a StoryWalk along one of our local trails. The idea of StoryWalk, which originated with Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT, is to...
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Library Volunteers Need To Be More Detailed-Oriented Than This
There are two elements to this story I need to establish up front: We have a PDF teen volunteer application on our website, which interested kids can download, print, and then bring in or mail to the...
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Library Closed Due to October Snow Storm
The storm that hit New England and the East Coast this weekend knocked out power to my library (like many, many other places). As a result, we're closed until further notice. The "CLOSED" sign by the...
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Check Out This Telescope!
I totally dropped the ball and am late in posting this. However, my library was featured in the October issue of Sky & Telescope magazine! The article focused on a practical program for circulating...
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Reference Question of the Week – 3/15/15
I had to wait to post this one until the event had passed, because I didn't want to skew the results. And also as a caveat emptor right up front, this might be one of those "you had to be there"...
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History In Job Titles
I was looking at some old Town of Chelmsford annual reports recently, to research the opening of one of the High School buildings in town. Just by chance, I came across a page that stood out to me (for...
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Reference Question of the Week – 10/18/15
Here's an email reference interaction that took place over the course of a few days this week - it had its ups and downs, but ultimately ended up being surprisingly positive. Everything started with me...
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