Delayed Opening - Thursday 3/1 - Library Hours 11am-9pm

Monthly reminder that this Thursday is the first Thursday of the month, which means we will have a delayed opening to accommodate staff training. Library Hours 11am-9pm.

Snow Emergency Parking Ban begins Tomorrow at 6:00PM

Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee has declared a No Parking Snow Emergency Ban on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, at 12:00 P.M. The ban shall be effective six hours later at 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, February 29, 2012.

There shall be no parking on the City Streets from 6:00 P.M.; until such time that the ban is lifted. Motor Vehicles parking in violation of such ban (City Ordinance, sec. 19-89) are subject to towing under the authority of the Lowell Police Department and such towing will be at the owner’s expense (sec. 19-90). Motor Vehicles shall also receive a parking violation ticket.

FREE Parking for City residents who do not have access to "off-street" parking during “Snow Emergency - No Parking Ban” available at:

George Ayotte Parking Facility

11 Post Office Square

Lowell, MA 01852

Independent Film Night - Thursday, March 8th @ 6:30: The Piano in a Factory

What will one do for the love of music? For the love of one's child? For the loss of love? This month's independent feature film, The Piano in a Factory (Gang de qin) features some of the most basic geometric designs for coping with the human condition: hope, derangement, and beautiful music. The film centers on Chang, who is trying to prove his worth to his estranged wife and win custody of their young daughter by securing a piano for her. After a number of failed attempts to purchase, fake, and even steal one he recruits a rag tag bunch of sympaticos to help him build one from scratch in an disused factory. The dream sequences are wonderful to behold, and the contrast between the lovely music created in and among the industrial wasteland is a perfect metaphor for Chang's struggle to find the positive in his desperate situation. There's a lot of heart to this film, and a lot of love among the ruins.

The Piano in a Factory, a film by Zhang Meng. The film is in Mandarin with English Subtitles. Run time 105 minutes. Please note: These Independent films are not rated by the MPAA and should be considered for mature audiences. The Pollard Library Independent Film night occurs on the 2nd Thursday of every month. The events are free and open to the public. Made possible by the Friends of the Library

"All Our Voices" Art Exhibit (March 5th - 31st) Opening Reception March 6th, 5pm-7:30pm

We are excited to host the "All Our Voices" art exhibit at the Pollard (March 5th-31st). This is an innovative and inspiring community art project led by bookmaker artist Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. Groups and individuals have been making handmade books to contribute to a freestanding exhibition that will displayed at the Lowell Women's Week breakfast on March 5. The exhibit will then be brought over to the Pollard and be displayed on the first floor landing of our grand staircase through the month of March.

Don't miss the Opening Reception, Tuesday March 6th from 5pm-7:30pm. In addition to refreshments and book-making materials will be provided for folks to create their own books to contribute to the exhibit. After the exhibit is taken down, Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord will bind all the books together to create one book that will be archived at the Center for Lowell History. This project will create a visual and verbal representation of the diverse community of women in Lowell.

Here is a video from the Lowell Women's Week website featuring Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord introducing the project and detailing the steps of the bookmaking process:

Got Books? Friends are Gearing Up For the Annual Booksale! You can help!

The Friends of the Pollard Libary are gearing up for their annual booksale fundraiser to be held Friday-Sunday, May 18th - 20th, 2012 at the Lowell Senior Center, 276 Broadway St.

The Friends will be accepting book donations at the Senior Center from 9am-12noon on the first Saturday of the month from now until the Sale. (March 3rd, April 7th, May5th). So if you have some books you'd like to donate please bring 'em down to the Senior Center this Saturday. And if you're interested in helping out on the receiving end, email Kerry at friendsofthepml@yahoo.com

Howl Heard Round Lowell

Have you heard the Howl in Lowell? It's rocketing around the local blogosphere, twittersphere, facebookworld and I couldn't help but post the video here. Howl in Lowell is set to launch March 1st as an online arts and entertainment magazine for the Mill City founded by Rita Savard and Caroline Gallagher. Richard Howe posted a full explanation and letter from the editors on his blog this morning. So keep your ears peeled to hear the howl of local "angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night." et al.

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! 's 90th Birthday (March 8-11, 2012)

We just got a delivery of the brochures for the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! birthday weekend celebration (March 8-11, 2012). Jack would have been 90 this March 12, 2012, and LCK! is pulling out all the stops in tribute to our hometown hero. There is so much going on, we can't list it all here, so come on down and pick up a brochure or check out the LCK! website.

Hunger Games Teen Event & Food Drive - Friday, March 23rd — 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Here's your chance to help your neighbors, help yourself, and support your favorite tributes in the upcoming games! No, not the 2012 Olympic Games, the theatrical release of the Hunger Games. Come on down to the library on Friday, March 23rd from 3:00-4:30 to make buttons in support of your favorite district. We’ll also be engaging in some competitive games—“may the odds be ever in your favor.” But here's the part where you get to help your neighbors and yourself: bring a non perishable food item for donation to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, Inc. from this suggestions list and you will be entered in a chance to win movie passes! You'll be helping out a great cause, (because, in the end, hunger is no game). This event is for teens in grades 5 and up. No sign-up is required. If you have any questions please contact the Youth Services Department at 978-970-4122.

Photos from our Recent Vision Station Open House

Here are some photos from our recent Low Vision Station Open house. We want to thank New England Eye Institute for sending their Mobile Eye Clinic to administer eye exams, and Stuart Flom of AdaptiVision, Inc., for giving comprehensive demonstrations of our new equipment. Pollard Memorial Library Foundation, the Lowell Lions Club, and individual donors for funding the great low vision stations available for use on the first floor of the library. If you or someone you know are interested in using the low-vision station please call the reference desk at 978-970-4121 to make an appointment for an orientation.

The Pollard Library will be closed Monday, February 20th, for Presidents' Day & Next Week is Lowell Kids Week

The Pollard Library will be closed next Monday, February 20th in observance of Presidents' Day.

And don't forget, next week is Lowell Kids Week! There are tons of free family friendly programs going on all around Lowell (including at the Pollard). The NPS has put together a handy schedule and a one page at a glance guide. And you can keep up to date on all the latest Kids Week news on their Kids Week Blog. Important to note that weather cancellations will be announced on WCAP 980 AM. Have fun!

Friends Meeting Thursday 6PM

Friends, Lowellians, Countrymen, lend me your ears...

Or just attend the Friends of the Library meeting this Thursday at 6pm. The hot topic is the planning of the annual booksale. The Friends of the Library is a group of people dedicated to supporting the library and its staff. This independent, non-profit organization raises funds via annual membership dues and book sales to help pay for museum passes and some wonderful library programming for the public. So, if you want to lend a hand to support your library and meet some great local folks in the process come on down to this meeting. Lend a hand, meet some friends, sounds like a good deal.

PBS Masterpiece - Great Expectations - This April

As if Downton Abbey weren't enough...PBS Masterpiece just released a teaser trailer for it's modern adaptation of Great Expectations premiering April 1st, & 8th. Of course, this adaptation was made in celebration of Dickens's 200th birthday which you should have heard of by now. There's lots going on round the world to celebrate and lots in your own back yard with the Dickens in Lowell yearlong celebration.

This Masterpiece adaptation of Great Expectations is the perfect opportunity for you to get a jump-start in advance of our Lowell Reads Great Expectations program this June-August. That is if you don't mind spoiling the reading experience. After all, there was a recent article in the Boston Globe's Braniac section that claims spoilers actually make stories better. It releives the anxiety of the unknown, or something like that.

Three Films in Three Days

It's always exciting to see the jersey barriers go up on Arcand Drive, because then you know Winterfest is almost here. We just wanted to remind you the Pollard is joining the fun with our own little disparate film fest tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.

PROTEKTOR - TONIGHT 6:30PM

First up is our monthly independent film night (2nd Thursday of every month) featuring the WWII inspired film from the Czech Republic, Protektor. This film, by Marek Najbrt, is a winner of 9 Czech Lions (Czech Academy Awards) and tells an intimate story of a husband and wife torn apart by the limitations imposed by the occupying German Nazis. If nothing else, it's interesting to witness the effects of the WWII German occupation of Czechoslovakia from the perspective of a modern Czech filmmaker. Protektor has not been rated by the MPAA and should be considered for mature audiences. The run time is 102 min. and it is in Czech with English Subtitles.

GOING BLIND - TOMORROW 1:30PM

Then, tomorrow as part of our See What You've Been Missing! Low Vision Open House, we will be screening the documentary Going Blind by Joseph Lovett. After years of suffering from diminishing vision due to glaucoma, Mr. Lovett decided to reach out to investigate and document how people all over the world respond to vision loss. The Lowell Film Collaborative has written a nice piece about the film and Mr. Lovett we appreciate them helping spread the word. So, come on by to the Vision Station Open House and see the station Demo from 12pm-1 and stay for a facinating documentary at 1:30PM. Not Rated. Run time is 82 min.

THE SMURFS - SATURDAY 1PM

There's something winterly about the Smurfs. Not in the sense that they're cold and cheerless, quite the opposite. But there's something about them that smacks of winter. Not sure quite what. Perhaps it's their blue skin? Or their white pants? When it came time to pick our annual family Winterfest matinee it was clear that the little guys were going to get the nod. So, come on by if your downtown enjoying the arctic fun at this Saturday's winterfest and warm up for a spell in the library with a modern take on a cartoon classic. The Smurfs—directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara, and Hank Azaria—is rated PG. Run time is 103 minutes.

NF Book Club - An American Requiem by James Carroll - Thursday, March 1st @ 6:30pm

What a refreshing thing it is to discuss a book with a diverse group of attentive and considerate adults. Reading is such a solitary, intimate and sometime arduous experience that to be able to share one's gained insights with a larger group of people who partook of the same solitary, intimate and sometimes arduous experience is a rare and wonderful thing. We're lucky this book group meets every month. What I mean to say is thank you once again to the Pollard's Non-Fiction Book Group, for this past Thursday's heartfelt discussion of The Emperor of All Maladies.

And to announce to Greater Lowell book lovers, it is time to set your sights on the next Non-Ficiton monograph. The selection for next month's discussion should be very interesting indeed. On Thursday, March 1st @ 6:30pm we will be discussing An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us by James Carroll.


Carroll is a former priest and Boston Globe columnist and this memoir won him the National Book Award in 1996. Here is a short synopsis from the jacket:

In this dramatic, intimate, and tragic memoir, James Carroll recovers a time that one of us will ever forget - a time when parents could no longer understand their sons and daughters and when you people could no longer recognize the country they had been raised to love. The wounds inflicted in that time have never fully healed, but healing is something that Carroll accomplishes in telling his family's remarkable story. The Carroll Family stood at the center of all the conflicts whirling around the Vietnam War. ... An American Requiem is a benediction on his father's life, his family's struggles, and the legacies of an entire generation.

Mr. Carroll will be reading from American Requiem at Suffolk University's Modern Theatre on February 15th. Unfortunately, it appears this show, which was free and open to the public, has been SOLD OUT.