Welcome 2012, Thank You 2011

While Baby New Year is getting ready to cry the Pollard is getting ready for an exciting 2012. We have the the annual Foundation Author Night to look forward to, featuring Denis Lehane on May 24th.

Plus the Pollard is excited to be a partner in the Dickens in Lowell celebration aimed to celebrate Charles Dickens transformative 1842 trip to Lowell, as part of a global celebration of his 200th birthday. Stay tuned for details on our programming which will include a community reading program called Lowell Reads! where we'll be looking to get as many Lowellians as possible reading and talking about Charles Dickens' Great Expectations from June thru August. If you've read Great Expectations before, it's time for a revisit, and if you haven't you won't believe what wonders are in store for you.

Perched, as we are, on the eve of a New Year, it seems fitting to look back on the year that is about to expire. 2011 was a great year for the Pollard, here are a few highlights:Library Snapshot Day helped us catch a glimpse of a day in the life of our library. We got some great photos, and received lots of interesting feedback.


Lowell Film Festival. The Pollard was proud to be a partner once again in the Lowell Film Festival especially since the theme of this year's fest centered around the 150th anniversary of the commencement of the American Civil War. As you may know, our building was originally constructed as a memorial hall dedicated to the Lowell men who lost their lives in that great conflict. We have some impressive mementos including the Phillipoteaux murals in our 2nd floor reference area of some of U.S. Grant's victories, a piece of the ironclad warship the Monitor, and of course the marble slabs engraved with the names of the fallen Lowellians.
Foundation Author's Night featuring Linda Greenlaw. The affable swordfishboat captain came to the Pollard and regaled us with stories from her life.

New Library Database Evergreen! The Pollard, along with the other libraries of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium migrated over to a new open source cataloging system this past May and the transition was challenging but ultimately rewarding.

Summer Reading Program. Once again our Children's Summer Reading program was an outstanding success.
Fall Festival. Our first annual Fall Festival was a fun filled day featuring a Friends Bake Sale, a Food For Art Raffle, face painting, performances by Elaine Kessler and Dave Norton Trio. All at just the right autumnal crispness.

Poets, authors, lecturers, speakers, etc. In 2011, our library was graced with the writerly and oratory talents of Stephen O'Connor, Jay Atkinson, Kate Hanson Foster, Chaim Rosenberg, Paul Hudon, Steven Collins and RP Hale.

Holiday Celebration. To round out the year we hosted a special Holiday celebration featuring a special Santa visit for children with sensory issues, a holiday storytime and a showing of the Muppets Christmas Carol. A story written, by the way by one Charles Dickens, whom, we may have mentioned we are planning to celebrate in grand fashion in 2012. It all comes full circle.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Everybody, let's rock @ PML's 2nd Annual Elvis Birthday Matinee - Saturday January 7th @ 1PM

Mark your calendars and shine your shoes for the Pollard's 2nd annual Elvis Birthday celebration, Saturday, January 7th @ 1PM. This year's feature is Jailhouse Rock and it's sure to chase away those winter blues. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Library. A-thank you very much.

Non-Fiction Book Club: The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Thursday, January 5, 2012 @ 6:30PM

No, not that Prince. The Prince:

Have you ever heard someone or some entity’s actions pejoratively described as being "Machiavellian"? Ever wonder what that means? Ever wonder if indeed, the definition of "Machiavellian" might have changed somewhat from the facts of his philosophy. The Pollard's Non-Fiction book club has tasked itself with investigating this definition by reading Machiavelli's legendary treatise The Prince, originally written in 1513 and cited as one of the first works of political philosophy. We're going to see if we can make sense of what Niccolò was getting at and whether his ideas deserve the rap they’ve been given.

One of the great things about this month's selection is that since it was written in the 16th century, it is in the public domain and is widely available online. And it is a favorite amongst poly-sci profs so there are also study guides available to aid contextualizing the work.

Join in on the discussion! Despite the fact that we ask you obtain your own copy of the selected title (copies available to borrow from our library system, call 978-970-4121 with your library card to request one) the Pollard Library Non-Fiction Book Club is free and open to the public. We will be voting for future titles at the December meeting. For more information or to request a ballot please contact Sean Thibodeau, Community Planning Librarian sthibodeau@mvlc.org or 978-970-4118.

Holiday Closures at the Pollard

Library Holiday Closures:

Saturday, December 24th: 9am-2pm (Early Closure)

Monday, December 26th: CLOSED

Monday, January 2nd: CLOSED

We Wish You a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Holiday Vacation is coming up! Don't Forget to Reserve Your Museum Passes!

Nancye Tuttle's cover story in yesterday's Stepping Out gave lots of great advice to parents and caregivers for what to do with kids over winter break. We appreciate the fact that she listed the two great programs we're hosing at the Pollard in addition to a slew of other great free library programming in the area.

We also wanted to call attention to our museum pass lending program made possible in large part by the Friends of the Library. The library has passes available for free or discount admission for many area musems. From Lowell's own American Textile History Museum , Boot Cotton Mills Musem, New England Quilt Museum, and the Whistler House, to the Discovery Museums in Acton and the Children's Museum in Boston, to the Museum of Science and the Museum of Fine Arts. You can browse and reserve your pass today on our website.

Survey Time - What do you think about Evergreen?!?

Can you believe it's been seven months since our library consortium (MVLC) switched over to an open source catalog system called Evergreen. Now that we've all had some time to get to know the new system, MVLC is asking you patrons to share your thoughts on what you think about Evergreen. So, if you have a few minutes to complete their survey, we'd be grateful.