Mayor Marty Walsh has appointed an outreach manager to assist homeless patrons using the Boston Public Library

Homeless patrons in the South End branch of the Boston PublicLibrary, their suitcases lined up nearby

In an important move for the Boston Public Library system, Mayor Marty Walsh stepped  up to the plate and appointed a full-time outreach manager for the many homeless individuals who use the main library and its branches for shelter and services. The positive development both acknowledges the difficulty for library staff to manage the growing number  homeless in public libraries --some of whom have mental health, behavioral and addiction problems-- with the rights of homeless to use the public library and the need to develop comprehensive strategy for services to a population that has nowhere else to go for simple needs like using restrooms or shelter from inclement weather. To that point, the BPL plans to hire a reference librarian who specializes in health and human services and make available guides to addiction recovery and housing.

Library patrons waiting in Library Park for the library to open

Boston is following in the footsteps of other public library systems that have used a variety of strategies to both manage homelessness among their patrons and develop creative library-based programs to assist . In 2008, the San Francisco Public Library was the first to hire a social worker specifically to reach out to homeless patrons and coordinate the extensive social service system already in place near their main library of meals distribution, such as finding housing, providing medical care and assisting with other services. In Pima County, AZ, the library system hired a public health nurse in 2012; its branches are served by 16 to 20 nurses provide services either once a week or once a month. In Denver, library staff shows residents of a women's shelter how to use a computer and sign them up for a library card. In Dallas, public library staff get homeless patrons and staff members together twice a month for Coffee and Conversation. At a recent talk about HIV awareness, a member of the health community was on hand to answer questions. After the talk about 15 attendees got tested for the virus, according to a PBS News Hour  article. 

The BPL outreach manager, Mike Bunch, who was employed in a similar position at the  Pine Street Inn,  is bilingual in English and Spanish. Before he came to Boston, he worked with shelter and treatment providers in Austin, Texas. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer and will be stationed at the Copley Central Library, while assisting staff in branch libraries where needed.

To the Galapagos: Renowned Naturalist, David Clapp, and “Talkin’ Birds” Radio Host, Ray Brown, will talk about the Galapagos, on Wednesday, May 17 at 6:30 PM

On Wednesday, May 17 at 6:30 PM, two serious birding specialists, renowned researcher, lecturer and naturalist David Clapp and Ray Brown, host of Talkin’Birds and WCRB classical music programs, will treat you to a lecture with slides about the birding environment in the Galapagos. Clapp, who has led Smithsonian Journeys trips for many years, has taught at Northeastern University and worked with conservation organizations worldwide for decades. He has been with the Massachusetts Audubon Society most of his professional career,  trained  up-and-coming naturalists, and studied many species of the avian population.

Talkin'Birds host and South End resident, Ray Brown

Brown, who joined the  WGBH many years ago, is a regular contributor  to NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon where he illuminates the audience about the latest news in the world of birding. Last year, Brown gave a very well-received presentation at the South End library about bird migration patterns, called The Magic of Migration, as part of the Local/Focus Urban Birding installation in the library’s Tremont Street windows. This year, he organized a birding tour to the Galapagos in late September with the Sunrise Birding nature company, and will have information available for anyone who might want to join to fill the last two cabins.

Brown is a longtime South End resident. His Talkin’ Birds show is now heard on 16 stations around New England, and in the larger world through streaming and podcasts.  Guests on his show include avian aficionados and birding luminaries like David Sibley, Sy Montgomery (Birdology) and Donald Kroodsman (The Singing Life of Birds) as well as experts from birding conservation organizations such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Wildlife Federation and the American Birding Association.

The Galapagos talk is free to all. Refreshments are served.

Annual Meeting Tuesday, January 31 at 6:30 PM

You're Invited to the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the South End Library Tuesday, January 31 at 6:30 PM: Meet Your Neighbors, Participate in the Board's Election, Get an Update on Programming and Library/Park Renovation, Bring Your Ideas, and Enjoy the Delicious Refreshments

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Snow or not, the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) will take place tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 31 in the community room of the library. Members of FOSEL will have the chance to elect to a one-year term a slate of candidates that includes current directors Marilyn Davillier, Jeanne Pelletier, and Michelle Laboy; new directors Maura Harrington and Jon Santiago, as well as Kim Clark, a current advisory-board member who has agreed to serve on the voting board. Current officers Marleen Nienhuis (president), Ed Hostetter (clerk) and Barbara Sommerfeld (treasurer) are serving a two-year term to end in 2018. The slate of Advisory Board members includes Adam Castigliani, Susanna Coit, Liane Crawford, Don Haber, Stephen Fox, Jacqueline McRath, Mary Owens, Mari Passananti, Lois Russell, Licia Sky,, Anne Smart and Karen Watson. More detailed bios are available at the meeting. In addition, there will be updates on our finances, our programs (The South End Writes, Local/Focus, Summer Jazz Concerts and the Play Reading Book Club with Arts/Emerson). Your suggestions and ideas will be warmly received.

The library is fully handicapped accessible. We serve refreshments. 

The South End Library/ArtsEmerson's Play-reading Book Group Resumes Saturday, January 28 at 10:30 AM; Includes Tickets to the Acclaimed Play "Beauty Queen of Leenane." Free to All

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

The Play-reading Book Club sponsored by ArtsEmerson and the South End library will resume this Saturday, January 28, at 10:30 AM at the South End branch when a group of local library patrons and ArtsEmerson organizers will begin to read and discuss the script of award-winning play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, Beauty Queen of Leenane. The Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) is funding the three-play program, which promotes access to the theatre and community building, free to all. There are five sessions, including attending the play itself on February 8, and a final get-together on February during which the participants share their experiences with friends and family on Thursday, February 16. ( An article by theatre critic Hilton Als about playwright McDonagh and The Beauty Queen of Leenane appears in their week's The New Yorker.) The first play in the series was Mala, by acclaimed local playwright Melinda Lopez; the final play in the program will be 17 Border Crossings by Thaddeus Phillips, for which the play-reading sessions take place during April; going to the play will be on April 19 at 5:30 PM..

17 Border Crossings

If you would like to participate in the Play-reading Book Club for The Beauty Queen of Leenane starting this Saturday, January 28 at 10:30 AM, please get in touch with Anne Smart at the South End library at 617 536-8241, or by email at asmart@bpl.org. You can also contact Akiba Abaka at ArtsEmerson at 617 824-3071, or by email at akiba@artsemerson.org. Tickets to the play are at a vastly reduced $15. However, if you can't afford it, the tickets will be complimentary.

The South End Library's Holiday Party Is Upon Us with Jazz & Blues Band Pat Loomis and his Friends, and a Home-cooked Meal by Staff: Tuesday, December 13 at 6:30 PM, Welcome to All

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It's that time of year again for a home-cooked meal, a fine jazz & blues interpretation of holiday music by Pat Loomis and his Friends, all of it taking place between the book stacks of the South End library on Tuesday, December 13 at 6:30 PM. As always, John Hampton, husband of library staffer Carol Glass, will prepare the delicious Southern-style meal of chicken and trimmings, and volunteers plan to bring home-made desserts. (More desserts are always welcome.) Pat Loomis will play the alto-sax. His son, Antonio Loomis, will be on the guitar, while Daniel Day mans the bass and the fabulous Zeke Martin will ply his drums.

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The event is free and open to all. The South End library is fully handicapped accessible.

You Are Invited to Join the Arts/Emerson Play Reading Book Club: Read Three Plays, Talk About Them With Emerson Artists, See the Performances Live on Stage: First Play is "Mala" by Melinda Lopez

Melinda Lopez, playwright of "Mala"

The Friends of the South End Library has agreed to fund an exciting initiative by South End staff librarians Anne Smart and Matt Krug, which invites local residents to join the ArtsEmersonPlay Reading Book Club. Participants will read, discuss, and analyze three plays before seeing them live on stage. Emerson College will provide scripts, facilitators and even refreshments (always a good thing). Conversations with the theatre artists will take place at the Paramount Theater in downtown Boston. The program has been available through the BPL's Dudley Library branch for three years and is highly recommended by its librarian, Alan Knight.

The first reading is of the world-premiere production by ArtsEmerson of Mala by Melinda Lopez. She has been described by WBUR as one "of Boston's most important writers"and is currently a Mellon playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company.Mala runs from October 27 to November 20. The second play in the series is The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a 1996 black comedy by Martin McDonagh, a celebrated Irish playwright. It was nominated for numerous Tony awards, and will be on stage February 8 through 19. The third play candidate is still under discussion.

Martin McDonagh, playwright of The Beauty Queen of Leenane

The Play Reading Book Club is one of several initiatives sponsored by ArtsEmerson's Seats Lab project to promote theater literacy throughout the city.  It is facilitated by trained teaching artists in the Emerson College Master in Theater education program. The purpose of the program is to expose as many people as possible to the theater and the experience of theater going.

To reserve your place, please contact Anne Smart or Matt Krug by email at asmart@bpl.org or mkrug@bpl.org, or by phone at 617 536-8241. Or just stop by at the library. The program is free to all. Tickets will be at a reduced rate. The limit is 30 participants. 

Bucking a Poor Performance by a Search Firm, BPL Trustees Chose Interim President David Leonard as President, Serendipitously Picking Someone Who May Have Been the Best Candidate to Begin With

David Leonard, the new BPL president. Courtesy, the Boston Globe.

After a public process that included about a dozen citywide "listening sessions" and many hours of work spent by the well-connected 14-member search committee appointed by Mayor Marty Walsh, the Spencer Stuart executive search firm tasked with  finding the best new BPL president can factually claim it delivered. Never mind that David Leonard already was the interim president who nimbly had taken over a year ago from the tilting leadership boat captained by Amy Ryan and her stubborn defender, former Library Board chair, Jeff Rudman. Never mind that one of the two other candidates selected from more than a hundred applications,  Andrea Sáenz, first deputy commissioner at the Chicago Public Library, dropped out on the eve of her public interview "for personal reasons." Or that Spencer Stuart did not vet the other finalist, Jill Bourne, the city librarian of the San Jose (CA) Public Library, well enough to find out that actually moving to Boston would create "personal problems" preventing her from relocating. Or that, after Bourne was unanimously chosen for the job by the nine BPL trustees over Leonard, the city of San Jose would do all it could to keep their popular library director in town, including giving her a salary increase that could not be matched by Boston's wage rules. Apparently, Spencer Stuart's contract with the BPL was not paid for by taxpayers' funds. Martha Stewart would have called that "a good thing."

Jill Bourne, city librarian of the San Jose (CA) Public Library, the day of her interview at the Copley Library

Leonard, a longtime South End resident who took on the interim  presidency at one of the lowest points in the BPL's relationships with its branches, staff and Friends groups, has by many accounts been "a breath of fresh air." He's been more accessible than the previous leadership, and was already well-versed in the operations side of the BPL, where he started as chief technology officer in 2009. He has overseen the $78 million renovation of the Johnson Building, due to open on Saturday, July 9, as well as  branch improvement projects, including the ongoing construction of the Jamaica Plain branch, expected to be completed in 2017. Reports from the BPL fundraising scene hold that he seems comfortable and effective in that setting, having recently obtained several private grants for library projects. He mentioned during his candidate's interview that his partner works in the philanthropic arena, as well. Leonard's  reports to the public meetings of BPL trustees in the last year have been informative, comprehensive and well organized (FOSEL attends most of them). In his seven years at the BPL, Leonard has also served as both the acting director of administration & finance and separately as acting chief financial officer. He recently began a PhD program in Library Information Science at Simmons College.

Andrea Saenz, first deputy commissioner at the Chicago Public Library

During his presentation to the Library Board in May, Leonard described himself as an immigrant from Dublin, Ireland, an only child and the first one among his cousins to attend college. As a young gay man, before Ireland's Reconciliation and economic boom, he experienced firsthand the power a library's safe space holds for someone like him who is "trying to work out who you are." Developing non-municipal funding sources for the BPL and collaborating productively with the community, staff and  various other public groups are among his top goals, he said. In response to Library Board members' questions, Leonard cited the lack of appropriate processes at the BPL and inattention to environmental concerns as contributing to the calamitous events of 2015.  He said he learned, especially in regard to procedures, how little had actually been written down. This does not lend itself to accountability or knowledge transfer and is "ironic" in a library, he commented. Diversity in programming and in staffing was another subject the trustees broached: Leonard said that issues of race, diversity and inclusion had not been tackled "systematically" at the BPL but that "conversations and corrective measures around diversity will soon begin."

It must have been awkward for the Library Board to have to ask a candidate they did not vote for as their first choice to please take the job after all, but Leonard was as gracious in defeat as in victory. When the trustees selected Jill Bourne over him, he called it "a great choice." When they turned to him after Bourne declined to accept the top post, Leonard said he was "thrilled, humbled and honored"  to become the library's new president.

Summer Arrived in Library Park with Musician David Polansky Entertaining a Happy Crowd of Kids Singing Songs about Spiders, Rabbits and Buses Going 'Round and 'Round

The South End has only six percent open space which may be why its parks are so treasured, even when the pavement is cracked and the weeds at times more prominent than plantings. Summer arrived in Library Park today when the first of a series of children's events planned by the South End library staff kicked off with a much-appreciated return by musician David Polansky.

The performance is one of the many sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library. It was attended by some forty children accompanied by parents, nannies and teachers, and elicited enthusiastic sing-along responses and curious investigations by young Southenders of instruments, stuffed animals used to illustrate songs, and other props.

Other programs for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers coming up are: 

*Sing and Dance Along with Little Groove, a Boston-based Music and Art Enrichment group, Mondays, June 20, July 18 and August 15 at 10:30 AM

*English-Spanish Story Time with Pine Village Preschool, a Boston Parents Paper Family Favorite Language Immersion program with songs, stories and crafts, Wednesdays June 15, August 17, September 21 at 10:30 AM.

*Jouvet Shortell and Spanish in Motion for pre-schoolers, Wednesdays, July 13, July 20 and July 27 at 10:30 AM

*A Music Concert for Pre-schoolers with the Community Music Center of Boston in Library Park, Wednesday, August 10 at 10:30 AM

All events are free. For further information, contact the South End library at 617 536-8241 or check their web site, linked here. 

Bowing to Public Demand for a Change in BPL's Top-down Culture, Library Trustees Appoint Jill Bourne as President, a West Coast Librarian Who Values Collaboration and Outreach

After a lengthy search process for a new BPL president that for the first time included numerous sessions with the public and staff, the BPL's Library Board choose the candidate they said would represent a change to a more inclusive, collaborative and transparent management culture.BPL's interim-President, David Leonard, and the Director of Libraries of San Jose, CA, Jill Bourne, each made their case on Saturday, May 21 in front of the nine BPL trustees and a surprisingly large audience of members of Friends groups, library employees and patrons. The two were the only ones left standing out of an initial group of 200; a third candidate opted out at the last minute. While the trustees repeatedly praised Leonard during his presentation for the outstanding job he had done stabilizing the BPL after last summer's raucous disintegration of the previous BPL leadership, it was clear from some of their questions during the interview, and comments after both candidates had spoken, that the "outsider" would win out over the "insider."

Jill Bourne after her public interview in a conversation with Search Chair John Palfrey, seen from the back

Trustee questions about Leonard's take on "lessons learned" from all that went wrong when he worked under the last BPL president, Amy Ryan, were an early indicator of what one trustee  described as the "incumbency penalty" that would be hard to overcome, despite Leonard's strong and, at times, moving presentation. In her interview, Bourne focused on the many ways in which she said she had worked at increasing library services in poor and immigrant communities in Seattle and San Francisco, expanded library hours and staffing, and created beneficial partnerships with Silicon Valley tech companies in the city of San Jose which, she explained, did not have a strong tradition of philanthropy. In choosing the outsider over the insider in less than twenty minutes, the Library Board cast aside the obvious advantages Leonard would have brought, having held senior positions for more than nine years at the BPL in administration, finance, technology and project management. "We are at an inflection point," commented trustee Carol Fulpe, who added that Bourne represented "a new way of thinking" and "a breath of fresh air." "I believe it won't take Jill long to start working," assured trustee Byron Rushing.

Bourne gained the bulk of her librarian's experience in the innovative and forward-looking libraries of Seattle and San Francisco. Seattle renovated its entire library system within ten years by means of a $200 million dollar bond issue, called Libraries For All, that voters approved by almost 70 percent in the 1990s. (The average time it takes to plan and renovate one library in Boston is ten years.) The Seattle renovation included a stellar new downtown library and 26 branches redone in whole or in part, including three that combined affordable housing and libraries, according to a report on this project. Bourne worked on a number of them.

Jill Bourne (facing), making the case for her appointment to the BPL trustees in a public hearing

In San Francisco, the public library was the first in the nation to hire social workers on its staff, in 2009, to assist and manage their large homeless population, a venture that has since expanded to include the formerly homeless, and has been featured on PBS. A moving and path-breaking photo exhibit of homeless patrons at the San Francisco downtown library, moreover, called Acknowledged, also described the many ways in which those showcased in the exhibit had become homeless. One of them was a descendant of President Abe Lincoln. In 2015,Acknowledged moved to the MLK library in San Jose, where Jill Bourne was in charge as its director.

Do You Have Any Audio Recordings, Tape Decks, CDs, Records or Tapes to Donate to Library Staffer Matt Krug? He Needs Them for Audio Collages and Sound Art Projects...

SE library staffer Matt Krug, striking an experimental pose

The BPL has some amazing staff members, including at the South End library, where music aficionado Matt Krug, formerly from the East Boston branch, is dedicated to, among other things, creating Sound Art. He uses anything that is already recorded, including conversations, to make "sound loops" for the electronic music he likes to create. He cites composers John Cage and David Tudor as some of his muses, and the musical group Kluster. He needs your help: Please donate any audio recordings you might have laying about, and tape decks, too. They will not be returned.

Experimental music is a personal hobby of Krug's, which dates from when he was a child, and recorded everything all the time. He also had a radio show called Live At Dinner Tonight. "You have to get out of the realm of traditional music" to enjoy the experimental side, says Krug, who enhances the sound loops he makes with key board or bass, even though he is not a trained musician.

Krug organizes the themed movie series on Fridays for the South End library, and he is planning to hold a sale of records and CDs in Library park sometime soon. Stay tuned.

Poet and Master Teacher Barbara Helfgott Hyett Will Offer an Eight-week Poetry Workshop for Adults Aged 55 or Older on Monday Mornings at the South End Library, Starting April 4

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Poetry is coming to the South End branch in April, with an eight-week program taught by Barbara Helfgott Hyatt. The award-winning poet, professor and public lecturer will be at the South End library on eight Monday mornings, starting April 4, to teach poetry to both beginning and experienced poet colleagues aged 55 and over. Sponsored by the BPL and a National Leadership Grant from the US Department of Museums and Libraries, the AARP, and other organizations interested in supporting and benefitting  America's seniors, the program is limited to 15 people, and free to all. The workshops run from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and will show participants how to review the elements of a poem, the many forms a poem can take, and the various ways of editing a poem. The students will read, write and share their poetry every week. According to the poet's web site, Helfgott Hyatt has published five poetry collections, including In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps, which was selected Booklist's Editor's Choice. Other collections, including The Tracks We Leave: Poems on Endangered Wildlife of North America and Rift were widely reviewed. Her poems and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines including the New Republic, the Nation, the Hudson Review, the Massachusetts Review, Agni, Ploughshares, the Women's Review of Books, and in over 30 anthologies. She is the recipient of two Massachusetts Artists Fellowships in Poetry, the New England Poetry Club's Gertrude Warren Prize, the Herman Melville Commemorative Poetry Prize, Fellowships at Yaddo, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and many other prizes and grants, including a Brother John Fellowship for Excellence in the Arts, awarded by the Boston Foundation in 2009.

Helfgott Hyett has taught English at the Teachers as Scholars program at Harvard, MIT, Trinity College, and Boston University, where she won the Sproat Award for Excellence in Teaching English. As a poet-in the-schools, she has served over 200 communities and was artist-in-residence at the MFA and the Fuller Art Museums. She is currently the director of PoemWorks, the Workshop for Publishing Poets, in Brookline, MA, which was named “One of the Best Workshops in Boston” by the Boston Globe.

A Sign of the Times: Overdose Prevention Training, How to Administer Narcan, and the Details of How to Call 3-1-1 Will Be Explained at the South End Library on Tuesday, March 22, 6:30 PM

Volunteers at the Roslindale branch of the BPL practicing overdose prevention and Narcan use

The South End branch of the BPL will host an overdose  prevention seminar on Tuesday, March 22nd, at 6:30 PM. Berto Sanchez, manager of the Boston Public Health Commission's Addictions Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Support Services Services, will be there with his team to explain how to identify signs of an overdose and  how to administer Narcan. Along with the overdose prevention training, the team will address details about calling 3-1-1 for needle pick-up and any other questions that may come up.  Over the past year or two, needles have been found inside the library's restrooms, sometimes inside the pages of a book, in Library Park and in the surrounding neighborhood. Anne Smart, head librarian, who organized the seminar, has had to acquire needle-disposal boxes for the branch.

Berro Sanchez illustrates a point

Overdose prevention training began earlier this year when a member of the BPL's Roslindale library staff approached State Representative Liz Malia, who chairs the Legislature's Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, to see if she could help bring overdose-prevention training to the library. She could, the staff was told and, with the additional sponsorship of State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and Boston City Councilor Tim McCarthy, that session was held last February 11 at the Roslindale branch of the BPL, an event covered by the Roslindale Transcript.

The South End Library is fully handicapped accessible. Seating is limited. The event is free. We offer refreshments.

FOSEL's Annual Meeting Will Present a New Slate of Board Candidates for You --Yes You-- to Elect on Tuesday, February 2 at 6:30 PM: Meet Your Library's Advocates and Enjoy the Refreshments

Poster design by Mary Owens

On February, 9, at 6:30 PM, the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) will hold its Annual Meeting and present the audience with an excellent slate of candidates for its voting board. In addition, there is a separate slate of library aficionados who have agreed to be board advisors and use their skills and interests to enhance the library's role in the community. The terms are for one year, but can be renewed.  The audience elects the board, and that means you, so please come and participate. The seven candidates for the voting board each have specific expertise and abilities in the three areas that FOSEL wants to focus on for the next two years, namely library/building maintenance and renovation; library park maintenance and renovation; and programming.The board candidates, alphabetically listed, are:

Marilyn Davillier (programming), a licensed, clinical social worker who wants to start a South End Parenting Forum at the library, with her husband, Ed Tronick, a noted researcher in child development and parenting

Ed Hostetter (building/park), actively involved in the South End as a Garden Steward for Southwest Corridor Park and a GED math tutor at USES. His background includes teaching, building and psychiatric nursing. Ed looks forward to becoming involved in the library at the nearby corner on his street – with a curiosity about what meaningful contributions/services a library might deliver to our complex diverse neighborhood in these changing & challenging times

Jeanne Pelletier (building), an attorney and longtime neighborhood activist for the Hurley School, Hayes Park, the South End Historic Society, and the South End library who is currently overseeing the restoration of the historic Ayer Mansion, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Michelle Laboy (park/building), an architect, planner and urban engineer who created the LightWells in Library Park; she teaches at Northeastern

Marleen Nienhuis (everything), founder of FOSEL, who has recently rejoined the board as clerk/secretary and writes the library updates for the FOSEL web site

Mari Passananti (programming), author of The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken and The K Street Affair. She recruits authors for The South End Writes, and writes the introductions for the speakers who come to talk at the library

Barbara Sommerfeld (everything) has been the outstanding treasurer of FOSEL and has graciously agreed to do more of the same. She has an MBA from Northeastern, worked for non-profits, and currently tutors at St. Stephens. She has lived in the South End for 45 years.

The advisory-board members, alphabetically listed, are:

Adam Castiglioni (programming), who was the clerk/secretary for six years, during which time he recruited several speakers and used social media to publicize FOSEL events

Kim Clark (everything), an avid library user whose specialty is marketing and promotion for business and non-profits

Susanna Coit (programming) is in her final semester of the archives program at Simmons' School of Library and Information Science. She studied Afro-American Studies and Special Education at Smith College. She wants to encourage the relationship between the South End Library and the community through social media and events/programming. As a frequent user of library resources, Susanna is looking forward to supporting the South End Library's role and efforts in the neighborhood, where she has lived since 2008.

Marian Ellwood (programming/building), a scientist specializing in regulatory affairs, who loves the library

Stephen Fox (building/park), the chair of the South End Forum who has been a longtime advocate for the South End library and its park

Jacqueline McRath (programming), who has written about the arts for the Bay State Banner. She is an advocate for African-American artists and poets,  chairs the Teresa India-Young Scholarship Committee for fiber arts, and organizes fiber-arts exhibits at USES, like the current one, on exhibit till the end of February.

Mary Owens (programming), the graphic designer who has created all the beautiful posters for the South End Writes author series at the library, as well as the designs for the FOSEL tote bags, and the library signage on Tremont Street

Curtis Seborowski (building), who has been president of FOSEL since October 2014, and spearheaded the project for new library signage

Lois Russell (programming), a former journalist, is a fiber artist and basket maker whose sculptural work appears in national exhibitions and publications.  The former president of the National Basketry Organization, she currently serves on the boards of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston and Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of Simmons College and Stanford University. Lois is interested in developing arts and public-health programming for the library, in collaboration with other board members.

Licia Sky (programming), a singer-songwriter who professionally runs experiential-movement workshops and would like to start poetry open-mic readings at the library

Anne Smart has worked for the BPL for 25 years and has been the head librarian at the South End branch for 20 years. She holds a Masters of Library Science from the University of North Texas, and grew up on the South Shore.

Karen Watson (building) is currently working on a project to develop exciting window installations at the library that tap into the South End library's creative community with library-themed displays.

At the South End Library Next Friday, December 20, from 10 AM till Noon: How to Enroll for Health Insurance Under the Affordable Care Act

The wonderful staff from the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) will come to the South End Library next Friday, December 20, to answer any questions you might have about the Affordable Care Act as it will apply in Massachusetts. Not only that, the multilingual staff  will help you enroll. For free, if necessary, or at a low cost, if you qualify. The public forum is free to all. For additional information, call the BPHC at 617 534-5050.

A Reminder to Donate a Little or a Lot to the Best Institution in Your Neighborhood: the South End Branch of the Boston Public Library

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A few weeks ago, the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) sent out a mailing to local residents asking for financial support. Your response has been heart-warming and is much appreciated. Just in case you were not on the current list, and feel rejected or left behind, here is a copy of the appeal letter for you to ponder and respond to. The funds we collect from you will help FOSEL to pay for its programs as well as  physical improvements in the library itself. These range far and wide, from the flowering perennial gardens around the trees on Tremont Street facing the library to the reupholstery and refurbishing of the branch's seating area and library counter. The programs include our authors' series, soon entering its fourth year, The South End Writes, which brings South End and not-so-South End luminaries to your library. Last summer, we drew on South End's local jazz-and-blues heritage to bring fabulous bands to Library Park; this will continue next summer. Thanks to FOSEL, the library is now fully handicapped accessible.

New improvement projects and programs are in the planning stage, awaiting additional funds to make them come true. This is where we turn to you. Please send your donation to the address listed on the letter to the left. Or use our PayPal account. All contributions are fully tax-deductible in the year they are made. All the money will come back to you in programs, events, and a refurbished and welcoming library and park. Every donation of $50 or more will entitle you to one of FOSEL's beautiful book bags. You can pick up the red or the green one with a receipt for your contribution at the branch. FOSEL thanks you for your continued generosity.

FOSEL Holds its Winter Public Meeting on Wednesday, December 4, at 6:30 PM at the South End Library: Bring Your Ideas and Suggestions

Local Realty Group Organizes Public-School Assignment Forum, Tuesday, November 12, with Proceeds to Benefit the South End Library

Do Your School Assignment Homework Forum, November 12

Raising funds for our local library branch is usually accomplished by an annual mail solicitation put together by the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL), or by FOSEL making a special request from a generous donor here or there who loves libraries. As an unexpected and  happy addition to this admittedly ho-hum fundraising arsenal, a local realty firm, the Steve Cohen Team of Keller Williams Realty, has now organized  a community event in which panelists hope to explain a complicated new assignment system to public-school parents for a $10 admission ticket, the proceeds of which will benefit the South End branch library.  In an informative article on school assignment in the Boston Globe this week,  an education advocate was quoted as saying that it’s "not the easiest system to understand."

The November 12 event intends to help elementary-school parents  wade through the new process that began this month for the coming school year of 2014. Topics are new tools being made available for school-choice research and what is being done to improve the quality of public-school education. Panelists include local education and government representatives like Mark Kenen, Executive Director of the MA Charter Public Schools Association; Bill Linehan, Boston City Councilor, Distirct 2; Lee McGuire, Chief Communications Officer, Boston Public Schools; Mary Tamer, Member, School Choice Advisory Committee; Ann Walsh, Chief of Staff for John Connolly; and Josh Weis, Hurley School & Boston Latin Parent, an expert on New Choice & Assignment Policy.

South End culinary lights, Myers & Chang, will provide refreshments. It starts at 5:30 PM at the South End's Ben Franklin Institute of Technology located 41 Berkeley Street. For further info and registration,  click here.

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Tortuous Road to a Better East Boston Library Leads to Sparkling New Facility that Offers Fewer Books (from 66,000 to 18,000) and Leaves Its WPA Murals of Sailing Ships Awaiting Restoration

BPL Trustee Paul LaCamera

It's probably safe to say that, if not for BPL Trustee Paul LaCamera, the beautiful new East Boston branch library  opening November 2 on Bremen Street would never have been built. Just like a previous plan for a new East Boston library, completed at considerable expense in 2008 and aging quickly on a dusty library shelf, was not going to be built.

LaCamera, formerly the General Manager for WBUR, who grew up in East Boston, took a stand at a BPL trustee meeting in 2010 when he refused to agree to shutter one of the two East Boston branches before a new facility would replace it. In a last-ditch effort to get LaCamera's consent to close a total of four libraries --and a unanimous vote-- before an enraged audience watching the proceedings in Copley Library, Mayor Menino, in a phone call to BPL president Amy Ryan, promised he would include funds for a new East Boston Library in his next capital budget. But LaCamera still abstained. Immediately after the other BPL trustees agreed 5 to 1 to close the four branches, including East Boston's Orient Heights. However, they passed an additional amendment that the next new library would be built in East Boston. And...here it is.

The new East Boston Library, by Rawn Architects

The graceful $17.25 million new East Boston library was designed by the same firm, Rawn Architects, now working on the renovation of the Copley Library's Johnson building. The firm was the architect as well for libraries in Mattapan and downtown Cambridge, among other places. The East Boston branch has more than twice the space of the two libraries it replaces, Orient Heights and Meridian Street, but far fewer books, about 18,000 instead of 66,000, a bone of contention for neighborhood groups who assert that, in East Boston, expensive electronic devices are not likely to replace books for a largely poor community.

Ships Through the Ages East Boston Library Murals by Edward King

Another bone of contention are some 15 Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals of 19th-Century whalers and clippers, painted by Rockport artist Frederick Leonard King in the 1930s. They all used to hang in the now-closed Meridian branch but only four will be on display in the new library. The Ships Through the Ages Series requires major restoration to the estimated tune of $150,000, an amount the Friends of the East Boston Library hopes to raise, according to an excellent report on the subject earlier this fall on WBUR, linked here. Their goal is to hang all the paintings, restored, in the new branch one day, so the series will evoke the nautical past of the East Boston neighborhood, where once these very ships were built.

BPL Executives and Community Advisors Express Excitement about Johnson Building's Proposed New Design but Face Uncertainty over Incoming Mayor's Commitment to the Renovation Project

Mock-up of Johnson building's Boylston St redesigned entrance

The long-overdue Johnson building renovation effort seemed on a roll: Mayor Thomas Menino allocated more than $14 million in what turned out to be his final capital budget for a much-anticipated facelift to the Copley Library's cavernous Johnson building on Boylston Street. Real estate interests were salivating at the prospect of  some of the library's street-level acreage being turned into retail space --as yet undetermined in focus but pledged to be 'compatible' with the library's mission. A prominent architectural firm, William Rawn Associates, was hired for the construction of Phase 2, to start in December. An engaged and lively group of local citizens, the Community Advisory Committee, met numerous times to come up with the best possible redesign to revive the moribund city block on Boylston Street where the library is located. This summer,  the BPL and its trustees made a strong presentation before the Boston Landmarks Commission for permission to remove the granite chastity belt of plinths that now encircles the building on three sides, condemning the entire block and the library to a state of perpetual chill. All good and well. The question is, with Mayor Menino leaving office in a few months, what will the new mayor, John Connolly or Marty Walsh,  think of it all?

Second Floor Johnson Building facing Boylston St, Children's Room on left; Teen Space on right

The governance structure of the BPL makes the mayor of Boston The Big Decider in the library universe. One of the side effects of this autocratic set-up is that the trustees do not have their own political or financial power base from which to defend the interests of the BPL as they diverge from the mayor's. He appoints the nine trustees, who serve at his pleasure; they are not vetted or approved by either the city council or another public entity.  The trustees hire the BPL president, keeping a close eye on the mayor's wishes; five years into the job, the current president, Amy Ryan, is likely to face contract renewal. Finally, whatever residual financial autonomy the BPL once had was wiped out in 2008 when the roughly 200 library trust funds, totaling close to $60 million, were moved from the BPL president's control to the mayor's budget office, despite vehement protestations by then-BPL president Bernard Margolis.  Therefore, in theory, the Johnson building project could grind to a halt for lack of support by the new mayor, or even his mere desire to want to review the entire project and its premise before moving forward or sideways.

Proposed Fiction Section, alongside Exeter St, with stairs leading to Mezzanine

That would be too bad, as became evident at the Community Advisory Committee's meeting on October 18,  when Rawn Associates presented a mock-up proposal of a vibrant new Johnson building artfully connected to the McKim building with initial designs to become visually integrated with the street scape on Boylston Street.  The nine quadrants that form the basic design of the Johnson building are opened up to light flowing in from the enormous windows on the first and second floors, with easily navigated and color-guided pathways to browsing areas, circulation, fiction sections and Bostonia collections, as well as 21st-century spaces for teenagers, children and tots on floor two. Sets of bathrooms on the second floor alone make the entire renovation worthwhile: no bathrooms exist there now. Many details remain to be worked out, among them what art work or fountain or installation to place in the center of Deferrari Hall, the enormous lobby behind the current Soviet-style lobby on Boylston Street that dwarfs the information desk in the center of it, where  a forelorn staffer or two bravely dispense directions to bathroom and book.

The integrated street scape/library entrance on Boylston Street is still mostly a concept to be fully developed and finalized in subsequent phases of the renovation project. An immediate complication is the unfortunate location of the portable public restroom in front of the BPL, part of a large city contract that is said to bring revenue into city coffers as it injects tackiness into the library site. City representatives at the Friday meeting said it was the most popular street bathroom in Boston, exceeded in usage only by the one located in City Hall Plaza. "In that case, perhaps City Hall Plaza could use a second one next to it," was the tart response from Community Advisory Board member Meg Mainzer-Cohen, also the executive director of the Back Bay  Neighborhood Association.

The next Community Advisory Committee meeting, open to the public, will be held January 15, at 9 AM, in the Commonwealth Salon of the BPL. This meeting will focus on the exterior, landscaping and partnership spaces. For more information on the Johnson building project, click here.