Kimberly Crucioli Succeeds South End Liaison to the Mayor's Office, Faisa Sharif, Who Was Promoted to Deputy Director of Neighborhood Services, October 26

Faisa Sharif will be transitioning out of her role as Mayor Walsh’s liaison to Bay Village and the South End, and will become the new Deputy Director in the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. Mayor Walsh has appointed Kimberly Crucioli to step into liaison the role effective Monday, October 26th.

Faisa Sharif

Faisa had the following to say about her departure: It has been an incredible three years working with neighbors, civic groups, businesses and institutions on issues large and small. We may not have had time to accomplish every single thing before us but I’m proud of the collaboration and progress we made. I learned so much from all of you about our neighborhoods and your advocacy has personally benefited me as a resident of the South End. I never took that for granted.

Many thanks to Faisa for all of her work with FOSEL and the South End Library and a warm welcome to Kimberly!

BPL ADAPTS TO THE PANDEMIC AND REDOUBLES EFFORTS TO BE AN ANTI-RACIST ORGANIZATION

As we enter the seventh month of the COVID-19 pandemic, library operations adapt and move forward, as discussed at the September 29, 2020 meeting of the BPL Trustees.

At the meeting, BPL President David Leonard announced three new appointments: John Craven, a lawyer with significant labor and human resources experience, has been named Head of HR and Labor Relations; Angela Veizaga, formerly the Assistant Manager of Youth Services for the BPL, has been promoted to a new Director of Strategic Partnerships position; and Lina Raciukaitis will serve as the new Youth Education Specialist. Among Raciukaitis’s first priorities will be establishing a mentoring program on Zoom to assist school kids with remote learning.

Leonard reported that the BPL has done a good job of evolving to operate and stay relevant in the current reality, boasting of 40K new e-card registrations, almost 111K books on hold, and 1.9M items borrowed across digital formats (exceeding borrowing for the entirety of last year even though there was a gap between the March 16th closure of the physical libraries and the June 22nd start of TO GO service).

The BPL is currently offering more than 800 programs online with a full sortable calendar on bpl.org, including programs for kids, teens, adults, and seniors.  The Dan Rather Arc of History program alone has hosted over 1,000 people. 

BPL President David Leonard

Other available services include recommendation lists curated by librarians, personalized shelf service, book groups, suggestions for purchase, BPL TO GO (books on hold), printing TO GO in 24-72 hours, museum passes TO GO, and computer use at the Copley location (8-10 computers).   Other branches may be able to offer computer use with advance reservations as required by Health Department protocols. External WIFI has been expanded at nine branches, including the South End – supported by the BPL Fund.  Several new Hot Spots have been added with 75 more to come, and Chrome book lending continues. Leonard reported that one of the biggest challenges now is reaching underserved patrons.

As November draws near, BPL will be highlighting the importance of civic engagement by promoting the Census, offering two locations for early voting, designating several branches as polling places, providing ten ballot-box drop off locations, and offering educational programs about voting and democracy.

BPL is also doubling down on efforts to operate as an antiracist organization.  The Trustees have approved a Racial Equity Statement, a copy of which is available at BPL.org/racial-equity.  Recruiting, hiring, and collection development processes will all be adjusted to align with the Statement.  BPL is also engaging YW Boston for an organizational assessment and staff diversity training.

 Leonard outlined the following additional near-term priorities:

• Youth Engagement

• Workforce Development

• Equity work – marketing outreach, digital equity, reaching vulnerable and hard to reach patrons

• Capital Improvement – on track, back underway

• Fiscal Discipline

Progress on capital projects is moving ahead as well. Construction at the Roxbury branch is complete, and Leonard expects a hybrid opening in late October/early November.  Adams and Roslindale are on track for completion in the spring or summer of 2021, Hyde Park will be completed by summer 2021, and the design for Faneuil is complete, with construction set to begin in January 2021.

No major financial issues were uncovered in the BPL’s audit. Significant differences in revenue and spending from prior years are a result of changes in operations related to Covid-19.  Special event spending is down, contributions and gifts are up, fees and fines are down, there is more spending on books and less on contractual services. The Audit/Finance Committee discussed including racial equity statements in all contracts going forward.

The largest contributors to the BPL last year were:

 BPL Fund                                    $1,019,799

The Associates of the BPL            $663,004

City Wide Friends                           $41,030

FOSEL                                            $43,872

FOSEL’s contribution came from its Capital Campaign, and made possible new furnishings and furniture as part of last fall’s “refresh.” 

During the public comments portion of the meeting,  David Vieira, President of City Wide Friends, acknowledged the South End, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, and Eggleston Square branches as significantly expanding patron support. Viera also acknowledged Marleen Nienhuis for her 14 years as the FOSEL leader and thanked her for her dedicated service to the system.

Viera noted the “elephant in the room” – potentially large holes in the coming city and state budgets, and Leonard assured him that BPL is closely monitoring the situation, has imposed a partial hiring freeze (only essential positions), and has been reaching out to donors.  The budget will be addressed in greater depth at the November meeting.

Louisa Stephens, Executive Director of The Associates of the Boston Public Library, announced an exciting fundraiser -- an online auction to be held from 10/16-10/25.  Items for sale will include Zoom sessions with famous authors, a signed Downton Abbey script, inscribed books, and the opportunity to be named in the next thriller by Bender.  You can check out biditbookit.org for more info.

The new Roxbury Branch is expected to have a hybrid opening later this month.

Paula Cove of MLK Blvd and Jamada Smith expressed disappointment about the decision to name the branch library in Roxbury the “Roxbury Branch” rather than the “Nubian Square Library,” and about the lack of community participation in the decision. BPL trustee Linda Dorcena Forry noted that there had been several community meetings held in Roxbury at which people supported both sides.  For the record, she stated that the community process did indeed take place before the vote was taken by the Trustees.

Other announcements

• Fine forgiveness will continue until December 2020.

• There is a new Art & Architecture virtual booklet celebrating 125 years of the McKim Building, paid for in partnership with Bank of America.  It is available electronically at apps.bpl.org/tourbooklet/.

• Paula Sakey joined the Boston Public Library Fund as its Executive Director in June of 2020 to continue to broaden and enhance private philanthropy toward helping maintain and expand the Library’s free services.

 An executive session followed the public meeting for discussion of the Quincy mayoral request for the John Adams Collection to be returned to Quincy.  The Adams Collect is currently held in the BPL Rare Books Collection. Actively used by large numbers of historians and scholars, about 3,000 of the 3,500 volumes in the Collection have been digitized.

Upcoming Board of Trustees Meetings

*All meetings for 2020-21 anticipated to be held virtually via Zoom and may be subject to change.

• November 17, 2020, 8:30 a.m , Location TBD

• January 12, 2021, 8:30 a.m., Location TBD

• March 23, 2021, 8:30 a.m., Location TBD

• May 18, 2021, 8:30 a.m., Annual Meeting, Location TBD

A TRIBUTE TO FOSEL'S FOUNDING DIRECTOR, MARLEEN NIENHUIS, AS SHE STEPS DOWN

WITH KIND APPRECIATION FOR MARLEEN NIENHUIS

 “A hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.”  -- Maya Angelou

Marleen next to the Little Free Library Box she installed in front of her home after the pandemic caused the closure of the Library

The Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) offers warm thanks and heartfelt appreciation to Marleen Nienhuis for all she has done for the South End Library (SEL), Library Park and the neighboring community.  As a direct result of her dedication and hard work, the SEL has become a more relevant, attractive, and welcoming place for all.

Back in 2008, believing libraries to be among “the most important civic institutions of a democracy” and seeing the unfulfilled potential for the SEL to be a vibrant community resource, Marleen spearheaded the creation of FOSEL with the aim of renovating the Library’s interior, reorienting the Park from a site of neglect to a safe green space, and creating programs for the enjoyment and benefit of the neighboring community.

When shortly thereafter the City announced a plan to consolidate and eliminate branch libraries, Marleen and FOSEL tabled these initial goals and redirected their efforts toward advocating to save the library.  Happily, they were successful.    

Once the threat of closure had been averted, Marleen re-focused her energies on making improvements, beginning with the outdoor space.  Together with like-minded volunteers, Marleen set about cleaning up the Park, cutting back overgrown shrubs, replanting with donations from local nurseries, ensuring reliable trash collection, and organizing programming for both children and adults.  This work eventually led to a full redesign of the Park area to include a central plaza with seating, an overhaul of the soil, a new butterfly garden, and the installation of an automated irrigation system.  In the fall of 2019, before the landscaping was completed, Marleen oversaw the planting of thousands of bulbs, which provided some much-needed delight to the neighborhood during the 2020 spring bloom. 

Under Marleen’s leadership, FOSEL established a variety of successful programs including the popular author series, The South End Writes (bringing in celebrated authors to discuss their books), Local Focus Windows (featuring exhibits about activities of interest in the community), periodic Book Award highlights and displays, Easter egg hunts for community kids, jazz and blues summer concerts, and children’s performances.  In addition to creating these programs, Marleen managed their publication and promotion, building a membership for FOSEL, developing a newsletter to stay connected, and creating this website.

In 2016-17, when the Walsh Administration demonstrated an interest in renovating Boston libraries, including branches like the SEL, Marleen sprang into action, coordinating a proposal for a multi-phased plan to improve the Library’s interior with funding from a public/private partnership between the Boston Public Library and FOSEL.  Under the first phase of the plan, the existing interior of the Library would be “refreshed” and updated, with the following phase to see a much bigger renovation/expansion of the entire building.  The refresh was successfully completed in February 2020.  Today the Library looks wonderfully cheerful, comfortable, and inviting, thanks in large part to Marleen’s tireless advocacy and unwavering commitment to energize the community.

Marleen took a personal, hands-on approach to the planning and execution of all of these programs and improvements, generously deploying her many talents as a trained journalist, accomplished artist, charismatic speaker, and even competent seamstress (at one point taking up a sewing needle to make new cushions for a seating area in the Library).  She regularly put in full time work weeks on a purely volunteer basis.     

As she prepared to step down from FOSEL, Marleen took pains to ensure the organization would be well situated to move ahead without her. She undertook a successful campaign to expand the board and recruit volunteer directors to continue the work she started.  She also played a key role in establishing a large advisory board, comprised of talented and committed individuals with a wide range of skills, who graciously lend FOSEL their expertise as needed. 

Marleen’s contributions to the South End community extend beyond her efforts on behalf of the Library.  In addition to serving as the membership chair of the Rutland Square Neighborhood Association for several years, she was a key player in the transformative renovation of Titus Sparrow Park, working for years to make it an essential hub of family and recreational activity for South Enders.   

Throughout her many years in the community, wherever she saw room for improvement, Marleen stalwartly took up the challenge of making the South End a better place.  We salute her many contributions and celebrate her achievements.

-The Board of Directors of FOSEL, 2020-2021

Library Park's Long-awaited Renovation Has Been Completed, Pandemic or Not, with Funding from City and State, and Private Donations

In June and July, with the City still in a lockdown except for permitted construction work, Blade of Grass landscapers and Henry Hafenrichter, a local fencing contractor, completed the multi-year renovation of Library Park. Three years ago, the Parks Department agreed to redesign the park, rather than just repair what was broken (which was just about everything). The most important change, neighbors said in a local meeting about various proposed plans, was that the park offer an open plan, visible from all corners, with a variety of seating arrangements and a welcoming feel.

After the redesign, no money was left for landscaping the park but a $25,000 earmark from the State, requested by the then-newly sworn-in South End State Rep. Jon Santiago, and supported by our other State Rep., Aaron Michlewitz, came through in January 2020. That allowed FOSEL to contract with landscapers and fencing contractor, get approval from South End Landmark Dictrict Commission, and overcome the additional hurdles of Covid-19 permits in time to spend the State’s money before June 30, the end of their fiscal year. If it had not been spent by that time, the State would have taken back the earmark. Fancy footwork, assisted by knowledgeable employees of the BPL, helped to make it all happen in time. Additional renovation costs were covered by capital funds FOSEL had raised in 2017-18.

Library Park will only look better as the plantings settle in over the next year or two. They include Veronica, Echinacea, Buddlea, Amsonia, Liatris, Rudbekcia, Carex, Ginger, Ferns, Woodland Phlox, Hosts and Hydrangeas. The butterfly garden along Tremont Street has already shown its lovely colors. A timed drip-irrigation system was installed as well, to help the plants survive the latest drought. And FOSEL’s board has approved additional funding for another round of spring bulbs to make the spring 2021 habit of Library Park as beautiful as it was before. We’re culling the catalogues now, will order in the bulbs in the next week and plant in late fall.

Chances are, when abloom again, we and the park will live in better days.

The South End Library Staff Misses You: Please Visit the Reopened Branch for Pick-up, Drop-Off and a Masked Chat

Anne Smart

The staff of the South End library misses its patrons and hopes you will stop by for services, neighborhood updates (gossip is fine, too) or a chat. The South End branch has been open since July 13 for limited library services, specifically, holds and pickups of books, DVDs, and CDs placed online, over the phone, or via an app. 

Euronna Taylor

There is no browsing. But library staffers Anne Smart, Matt Krug, Euronna Taylor, Carol Glass and Margaret Gardner are happy to take your phone call or hear from you by email. The general phone number is 617 536-8241. Press ‘0’ and you’ll get a live librarian.

Their emails are: Anne (asmart@bpl.org), Matt (mkrug@bpl.org), Margaret (mgardner@bpl.org). Euronna (etaylor@bpl.org). Carol (cglass@bpl.org).

Matt Krug

In addition, BPL has announced Printing To Go, a new print-on-demand service at the Central Library. You can upload documents that need to be printed by filling out a form at bpl.org/printing-to-go, and pick up the print jobs 24 hours later at the Central Library in Copley Square. The printing service, provided for free, is limited to 10 pages per patron per day. Documents will be printed in black and white, single-sided, on 8.5" x 11" paper, and should not include personal information, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or other similar information. Print requests must comply with the Library’s Internet Use Procedures and Guidelines. 

When your items are ready, you will be notified and be asked to schedule a time to come to your preferred location. You will be able to pick up your items from the the South End library Monday through Thursday from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM; Fridays 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM; the branch is closed on weekends. At the Central Library, one can pick up reserved items from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday throughThursday, and from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Friday and Saturday. 

Carol Glass

BPL Trustees Vote to Change the Name of “Dudley Library” to “Roxbury Library” When It Reopens This Summer, Disappointing Supporters of the "Nubian" Moniker for the Renovated $17.2 Million Branch

The $17.2 million project to renovate the 27,000 square-foot Roxbury Library is located in Nubian Square, and due to reopen in the next few months.

The BPL Board of Trustees in their Annual Meeting on May 26, voted 7 to 4 to change the name of the Dudley Library to the Roxbury Library, after a heated but civil debate among the Mayoral appointees that sidelined the other proposed moniker: Nubian Library, championed by the Nubian Square Coalition. The vote follows earlier successful efforts by the Coalition to replace the names of Dudley Square, where the library is located, with Nubian Square, and the Dudley MBTA Bus Station’s, which is to be renamed Nubian Station.

The BPL’s Board of Trustees held its Annual Meeting on May 26, the first via ZOOM

Last year’s non-binding City ballot question about the proposed name change for Dudley Square was solidly defeated citywide, but within the precincts surrounding Dudley Square it passed with about the same lopsided numbers as it was defeated elsewhere. This is why Mayor Marty Walsh decided the local vote would ‘weigh heavily’ in the final decision. Thomas Dudley, a prominent Puritan politician and governor of the Bay State in the mid 1600s when slavery was officially sanctioned, left no trace of having owned slaves himself.

Trustee Linda Dorcena Forry, a former legislator, supported the name Roxbury Library

Trustee Chair of the Board Bob Gallery also supported the change to Roxbury Library

The vote to resolve what name Dudley Branch should have was to some extent forced by the impending reopening of the 27,000 square-foot branch library, renovated after decades of neglect at a cost of $17.2 million. A desire to settle the signage question in time for the reopening began the discussion, although BPL president David Leonard made it clear it was not determinative. And while the non-binding ballot question did establish strong support for changing the name of the square where the branch was located, it did not survey the specific question of whether the branch library should be called the Nubian Library, as well.

The Friends of Dudley Branch, who for decades lobbied and advocated to improve the branch library, favored calling it the Roxbury Branch, as did the Roxbury Historical Society. Some of the trustees supporting the Roxbury name said the branch would not just serve the largely African-American community living close to the library, but a much larger one surrounding it. Trustee Evelyn Arana-Ortiz pointed out that Roxbury was once largely German and Irish before it became African American, and is now increasingly seeing the growth of a very diverse demographic that includes a sizable Latino population. “Nubian Library doesn’t represent fully the history of Roxbury,” she commented.

FOSEL's "South End Writes" Program, Now Featured Remotely via ZOOM, Offers FREE Copies of the Speakers' Books from a "Little Free Library" Box on West Newton Street

The Little Free Library Box on West Newton Street brings free copies of books by authors hosted on its South End Writes via ZOOM speaker program

Now that libraries are closed, bookstores more difficult to access and navigate, and the South End Writes author program has become a ZOOM event, FOSEL is making a small number of copies of the featured writers’ books available for free on a first-come/first-serve basis from a Little Free Library box installed in the front yard of 160 West Newton Street.

Separately, the Boston Public Library (BPL) has started a program to deliver new books for children and adults, purchased from local booksellers to vulnerable populations in Boston. The goal of the privately funded BPL initiative, called Books for Boston, is to distribute 5,000 books. Several thousand have been delivered through partner organizations, including Healthcare for the Homeless, the Pine Street Inn and the Women’s Lunch Place, among others.

FOSEL’s initiative uses money from its South End Writes budget previously reserved for refreshments and flowers for its live events. As such, in the last week, copies of Laura Zigman’s Separation Anxiety (hosted by SEW on April 14) and Barbara Shapiro’s The Collector’s Apprentice (May 26) were placed in the library box. Ashley Molesso’ and Chessie Needham’s The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook, will be next (June 9), followed by copies of the widely praised novelist Carter Sickel’s The Prettiest Star and The Evening Hour (June 23). Martin Espada’s poetry collection, Vivas to Those Who Have Failed, will be made available after that (July 14) as well as an anthology of 93 poets edited by the celebrated poet, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage.

FOSEL RECOMMENDS: A Resource List from All Over the World for Keeping Kids and Young Adults Engaged While Home

The virtual Everywhere Book Fest on May 1 and May 2 will feature kid-lit authors, books and readings

FOSEL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR KEEPING KIDS ENGAGED WHILE HOME 

Compiled by Tracey Bolotnick

We know that many South End families rely on the library not only as a source of reading material for kids, but also as center of educational activity and community connection.  Although libraries across the Commonwealth, including the South End library, are closed for now, there are many great options out there for keeping kids connected to books and learning while staying safe at home.  We all look forward to the day when we can safely convene again in our beautifully renovated library.  Until then, here is a list of some recommended online alternatives for keeping kids engaged:  

 BOOKS AND READING

Thumbs-Up Books recommends picture books for children

Boston Public Library Online Resources.  It is still possible to borrow books and other resources from the Library even while it is closed by visiting:   https://www.bpl.org/stream-and-download/.    You can download or stream eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, movies, and more.  (Contact Anne Smart at asmart@bpl.org, (339) 203-0997 or Matt Krug mkrug@bpl.org for help using the library’s online services.)  

A Korean interface from the International Children’s Digital Library

International Children’s Digital Library.  A free and easily searchable source of online access to books from around the world in multiple languages for kids ages 3 to 13:  http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Author Hosted Readings and Activities.  Browsing You Tube or the web for live or recorded readings of your favorite children’s book authors will pull up loads of options.  Here are some favorites:    

 Grace Lin, an illustrator and author of middle-grade novels and picture books, is posting readings and drawing tutorials from her books on her You Tube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIQet5ij4zAuR_QGOQ1vAxQ.    

A children’s book in Farsi from the International Children’s Digital Library

 Oliver Jeffers, author of The Day the Crayons Quit and many other much beloved picture books is doing a daily live reading and posting the recordings on his web site:  https://www.oliverjeffers.com/books#/abookaday/

Story Time from Space.  On this site astronauts read children’s books in space (!) from the International Space Station: https://storytimefromspace.com/

Audible Stories.  Audiobooks for kids in six languages, free during the pandemic:  https://stories.audible.com/discovery

BPL Recommended Online Story Times and Do-It-Yourself Story Times: http://guides.bpl.org/c.php?g=1012154&p=7331668 http://guides.bpl.org/remote_resources_for_families/diy_storytimes

Games and Puzzles from the TATE Kids UK website

Everywhere Book Fest.  In response to the dozens of canceled books festivals, three young adult writers decided to start the Everywhere Book Fest, “a virtual gathering of kid-lit authors, books and readers that will bring the book festival experience to everyone” on May 1st and 2nd:  https://everywherebookfest.com  

ABC Mouse.  A digital education site for kids ages 2-8 with stories, games, and puzzles.  This is a paid service but offers a 30-day free trial: https://www.abcmouse.com/abt/homepage?8a08850bc2=T1240128372.1585770828.7485&cjevent=805ea6cb745211ea8328002d0a240613

BPL’s Booklists.  Book recommendations for different ages from the BPL: http://guides.bpl.org/c.php?g=1012154&p=7331685

Thumbs Up Books.  A resource for parents of young children looking for picture book recommendations:  https://thumbsupbooks.weebly.com/

Live footage from all over the world on Explore Live Cams website

 SCIENCE AND ARTS & CRAFTS

Tate Kids.  A dedicated kids’ website from the Tate Galleries in the UK with an assortment of art-themed games and quizzes: https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/games-quizzes.

BPL Crafts and Games List.  Links to a variety of crafts and games for kids from the BPL:  http://guides.bpl.org/c.php?g=1012154&p=7331687

Draw Everyday with JJK.  Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author of the Lunch Lady books, hosts a basic illustration lesson every weekday at 2pm:   https://www.youtube.com/studiojjk

Mo Willems Doodling.  The popular picture book author of the Knuffle Bunny series and other picture books is hosting doodling sessions on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8&feature=emb_title

The ArtisTree Community Art Center.  Videos with ideas for how to stay creative while staying at home: https://www.youtube.com/user/artistreevt

The American Museum of Natural History’s site is chock full of videos and activities about our natural world.

 Ology.  A science website for kids from the American Museum of Natural History with videos, games, activities, etc. on a variety of subjects:  https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology

New England Aquarium:  Visit the aquarium from the comfort of home:  https://www.neaq.org/visit/at-home-events-and-activities/?fbclid=IwAR2Psh0apSlCIn7VbS6X0UfbjYD9z6E8Bry7-gq0-F7Y-2T1R0tO-M3CJTA

The San Diego Zoo.  A site for kids including behind-the-scenes videos and stories, as well as a variety of printable activities and online games:  https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/videos

Explore Live Cams.  Live footage of elephants in Africa, of Earth from the International Space Station, of oceans, birds, stars and much more:  https://explore.org/livecams

Ranger Rick Magazine.  A kids’ nature magazine that normally requires a paid subscription but is free for now with games, activities, information, and back issues:  https://rangerrick.org/stuck-indoors/

Farm Food 360.  Canadian farm and food tours—from raising pigs to making milk and cheese, and virtual egg farm field trips and egg-speriments from the American Egg Board:  virtual egg farm field trips /  https://www.farmfood360.ca/

Did you know that some Canadian family dairy farms allow their cows to decide when they would like to be milked? And why should they not have a say in it? Find out on Farm Food 360’s website.

Skype a Scientist.  A program that allows kids to request to speak to a scientist and then connects them for a Skype conversation:  https://www.skypeascientist.com/for-families.html

The Kid Should See This.  A website of interesting and educational videos on a host of subjects:   https://thekidshouldseethis.com/

Science Kids.  Facts, games, quizzes, experiments, and more on a variety of topics:  http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/

The story of ten influential works of architecture on Kids Kanopy

Architecture for Young Adults, An Exciting Introduction, featuring a Kanopy Film on Architecture.  A 57-minute film telling the stories of ten influential works of architecture:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DA8L9dvyp0

Kiwi Co. Innovation Factory.  A website with loads of art and science project ideas for kids of all ages:  https://www.kiwico.com/kids-at-home.  

The Trustees at Home.  Virtual events and activity ideas from the Trustees of Reservations while their properties are closed:  http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/month/virtual.html

Kids/Kanopy Movies: Now, Kanopy offers children’s programming with Kanopy Kids. Parents can browse educational and engaging videos for children of all ages that promote positive social and emotional development and inspire creativity in young minds. We have partnered with Common Sense Media™ to provide developmentally appropriate age ratings for videos on Kanopy Kids. www.kanopy.com

February is the Month for Romance: The South End Library’s Parkside Book Award Winner Display Features the 2018 and 2019 RITAs, Selected by the Romance Writers of America (RWA) in Different Categories

South End Library Reopens after Four Months, with Many Kudos to FOSEL for the Success of their Public/Private Partnership to Pay for the Renovations

The festive reopening of the South End library on February 18 brought elected and appointed officials who complimented FOSEL on its public/private partnership to pay for the library’s improvements. From left to right: State Rep. Jon Santiago, City Councilor Ed Flynn, FOSEL president Marleen Nienhuis, South End Forum chair Steve Fox, City Councilor Frank Baker, chair of the BPL board of trustees, Bob Gallery, BPL president, David Leonard.

(Above: Marleen Nienhuis, president of FOSEL, and David Leonard, president of the BPL)

Since October 2019, Southenders have torn their hair out about not knowing where to go for neighborhood meetings, yoga classes, children’s stories, computer access, income tax assistance, movies, books, DVDs, museum passes, reserved book pickups, newspapers, magazines, a trip to the public restroom, or simply a chat with their friendly librarian. But on Tuesday, February 18, the South End library finally reopened its doors after a four-month stretch when the library’s interior was ‘refreshed’ with new flooring, fresh paint, additional outlets, reupholstered seating and new furniture. The festive occasion brought numerous elected and appointed city officials to the branch, as well as FOSEL board members and many library supporters who finally had a place to go for library services. “This may not seem like a long period of time for a library to be closed,” said BPL president, David Leonard, “but when you count on your library for computer access and story time, it is a long time indeed.”

A variety of seating arrangements in the adult area at tables wired to recharge electronic devices

Leonard spoke to the excited crowd assembled in the adult reading room and lauded the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL for the public/private partnership they put together to begin the renovation process at the long-neglected branch library. The cost of the ‘refresh’ was about $190,000,” he said. FOSEL wrote a check for part of the refresh of $50,000 from a fundraising campaign that raised $100,000 in a few months during 2017-18. Chair of the BPL board of trustees, Bob Gallery, echoed his appreciation for FOSEL’s public/private partnership, the first time a Boston library Friends group collected funds for capital renovation of a branch library.

The contributions by you, our generous donors, allowed us to write a check for $50,000 for the new furnishings that will benefit all South End library users. Thank you.

Comfortable seating near the parkside windows

The library now features light-blue and easy-to-clean new floors imported from the Netherlands; an attractive palette of blues on its diagonal walls; a fresh coat of paint throughout the first and second floors, new upholstery; a reconfigured space to allow for a variety of seating arrangements; electrically wiring inside high and reading tables; an attractive seating area for teens underneath the stairs; new upholstery and rugs in the Children’s Room; new electrical outlets throughout the space; a ceiling-mounted projector and slide-down screen in the Community Room; and much-improved signage. And, to the relief of many parents and caregivers, each of the two restrooms now offers a changing station. The space reconfiguration and furniture choices were recommended by FOSEL board member, architect Michelle Laboy, during a multi-year planning process that was combined with the quick and successful fundraising effort by FOSEL in the fall of 2017.

A small but separate area for teens and tweens with floor lamps and outlets to recharge electronic devices; panels divide the space from the adult computer area and can be used as a white board

A row of adult computers is now separated from the teen and children’s space with colorful panels

The refreshed Children’s Space features new rugs and upholstery, and new computer tables (below)

The heavily used banquette near the library’s entrance on the right was reupholstered and outfitted with new electrical outlets new the floor.

The ‘refresh’ originally began as an effort by FOSEL to jumpstart a major renovation of the dilapidated branch, which was not scheduled for any improvements, et alone an expansion, until 2025 due to an enormous backlog of many other sub-standard library buildings in the 24-branch BPL system. The FOSEL proposal called for a multi-phased renovation that would combine public and private funds for a new South End facility. The Friends raised $100,000, of which $50,000 was added to a 2017 City budget allocation of $132,000 for the First Phase of the project. But happily, the Walsh Administration decided two years ago to completely renovate and expand the size of the South End library after all, beginning with a Programming Study in FY 2020. As a result, the First Phase face lift became a “refresh” to last for the next three to five years, while the multi-million-dollar ‘Big Reno’ is being planned in an upcoming process of community meetings, demographic fact-finding, and design studies that will start sometime this year.

Librarian Matt Krug is thrilled with his standing desk near a parkside window.

Mayor Walsh’s Administration has made a major investment in the Boston Pubic Library system which, according to his South End spokesperson, Faisa Sharif, is a reflection of his dedication to making neighborhood public spaces accessible to all. Since he took office six years ago, more than $82 million was spent on the Central Library’s Johnson Building, now an attractive bustling hub that features a WGBH studio, the popular Newsfeed cafe, and a BPL Gift Shop. The almost $16 million renovation of the Central Library’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, to open to the public next year, will make it into an internationally recognized state-of-the-art facility of historical and art treasures. In addition, the BPL is in the process of looking for an architect to renovate the stately McKim building which adjoins the Johnson Building on Copley Plaza.

Among the BPL’s branch renovations, Jamaica Plain got a $10 million new facility a few years ago. The Adams Street branch, at $19 million, will be ready by 2021 and the $15 million Dudley Library renovation (perhaps Nubia library in the future?) is scheduled to reopen this spring. For the next five years, another $127 million is budgeted for several other library renovations, including the South End branch.

The current South end library improvements include a charming mural near the Children’s Room depicting a number of South End landmarks and cultural icons which FOSEL suggested the artist, Tony Capozzi, consider in his design, and he did. They include the BCA kiosk; Back Bay station; a row of bow-front brownstones; the Union United Methodist Church; a same-sex couple embracing; musical venues; planes flying over; and a number of cats, among other features. No dogs, regrettably. A similar mural is on he wall in the Chinatown branch, with its own iconic images.

he new Tony Capozzi mural in the South End library next to the Children’s Room, based on dozens of suggestions by FOSEL board members, each one of whom had their personal favorites.

On the 125th Anniversary of the completion of the BPL's McKim Building, President David Leonard Announces the Search is on for an Architect to Upgrade the 19th Century Masterpiece on Copley Place

The entrance to the McKim building on Copley Square

Reported by Yvette Jarreau

At the January 30 BPL Trustees meeting at the Central Library, BPL president, David Leonard announced he had sent out a Request for Proposal to find an architect to update the Copley Square McKim building. Tied at the hip to the beautifully renovated Johnson Building on Boylston Street, McKim was originally completed in 1895. Designed by Charles Follen McKim, the building had fallen into disrepair by the 1990s. A fundraising campaign by the BPL board of trustees at the time, which included library devotees William O. Taylor, publisher of the Boston Globe and William Bulger, president of the Massachusetts Senate, led to a partial restoration. But today, on the 125th anniversary of the McKim, another face lift is coming. While a firm amount of the expected cost has not yet been established, it is reasonable to assume it will not be less than the more than $80 million spent on the (very successful) renovation of the adjacent Johnson Building five years ago, according to sources within the BPL. Most, if not all, of the funding is at this point expected to come from private donations, according to City officials.

In his report to the trustees, Leonard pointed out that this anniversary year of the McKim the BPL is highlighting several civil rights achievements: the commemoration of the ratification of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote; hosting the post-conference venue of the NAACP Conference in July; and a number of Boston Pride events to celebrate equal rights victories of the LGBTQ community.  Reporting on the capital improvement projects now underway, Leonard noted the South End branch will reopen doors after the four-month closing for its ‘refresh,’ on February 18th. The Chinatown branch, closed due to a renovation of the China Trade building where it is located, may swing open its doors at the end of February or early March. And the long-awaited completion of the Dudley Branch is imminent, while great progress is being made with the expansion and renovations of the Adams Street and Roslindale branches.

The Bates reading room at the McKim building

BPL’s chief financial officer, Ellen Donaghey, highlighted key changes in the BPL budget from 2019, including increases in salaries and overtime related to collective bargaining and minimum wage increases; hiring into open management positions; and utilities cost increases, some of which are related to the impending opening of the 27,000 square foot Dudley Branch. Donaghey explained several energy efficient programs are being put in place to reduce energy costs.  The BPL’s Finance and Audit Committee approved a vote to move $6 million to a global equity manager called Impax Asset Management, a diverse, socially engaged, environmentally conscious money manager.

Chief of Collections, Laura Irmscher, Director of Library Services, Michael Colford, and Chief of Communications, Lisa Pollack reported on current BPL library usage:

• A recent Gallup Poll showed that the largest chunk of leisure time was spent visiting the library, across all age ranges, with an average of 10.5 trips during 2019, almost one per month, and outpacing time spent attending the movies. 

• During 2019, of the more than 21 million items in the BPL collections, nine percent are checked out and taken home; 75 percent are non-circulating materials used for research in the library; and 16 percent are special collections such as rare books, maps, prints, photographs, etc.  

• The top five branches in check-out usage were Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, East Boston, Brighton, and South Boston.  

• Book check-outs have remained stable at about 2.2 million from 2009 to 2019, but big increases  have occurred with downloading and streaming materials over that time span, with some decreased use in DVDs and CDs.

• BPL collections are “on the move” with 25 percent of the materials checked out at a branch coming from “elsewhere” in the BPL system. 

• DIGITAL SERVICES

  • The BPL offers several digital services:  Overdrive, Kanopy, RB (Recorded Books), and Hoopla, with almost 60 percent of usage in e-books, about 40 percent in audiobooks and the rest in music and video.  

  • In the past three years, digital circulation use has accelerated and will likely overtake physical use during the next year.  

  • The library has over 130 various online resources, across a wide range of subject areas which are accessible from home; the BPL is continuing to digitize BPL collections with focus on the most used.   

  • Reach in the last five years has increased about 23 percent system-wide.  Reach is defined as the usage of all library services including programs and attendance, visits, circulation, computer use and number of wireless sessions.

  • Computer and WIFI usage are changing as laptops and WIFI become more ubiquitous.

  • There is an upward trend in attendance at programs;  next steps will be analysis of what programs are most attended and and measurements of satisfaction with them. 

  •  Outreach is growing, activities like visiting schools, senior housing, providing services at other locations may become more important in our communities

  • Looking ahead the BPL will capitalize on digital growth, continue to make more collections available to more people, attempting to meet people where they are.  

DIGITAL COMMONWEALTH.ORG

• BPL manages this non-profit collaborative organization, founded in 2006, that provides resources and services to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives. It currently has more than 180 member institutions from across the state.

• Digital Commonwealth provides access to thousands of images, documents, and sound recordings that have been digitized by member institutions so that they may be available to researchers, students, and the general public.

WEB SERVICES

• The BPL website and catalog are integrated now and it is possible track usage behavior.  

• About 20 percent of the activity is related to “search” and one’s “account”

• 35 percent of sessions begin with search

• 42 percent come from mobile or tablet platforms rather than desktops

• Coming soon:  analyses of flow or paths within the site, event analyses, event registrations; all are opportunities for effective marketing of information and events.

 NEW BUSINESS

Ellen Duncan introduced members of the 2020 BPL Boston Marathon Team, a group of fifteen people.  Their fundraising goal this year is $112K; last year they received $135K.  More information can be found at this link here.

 PUBLIC COMMENT

(the members of the public at the BPL trustees meeting can sign up for public comment at the end of the public session. below, some of the comments:)

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS: 

• If a particular item is requested several times, does it get priority for digitization?  Yes.

• Is tracking on the website specific to individuals or is it anonymous?  It is anonymous.

• Trustees Meetings should be posted on the front page of the website when the date is nearing making it is easier to find.  Draft minutes should be connected to the meeting agenda so that people can see them easily.

THE NEXT BPL TRUSTEES MEETING WILL BE HELD ON THURSDAY, MARCH 26 AT 4:00 PM AT THE WEST ROXBURY BRANCH, 1961 CENTRE STREET, WEST ROXBURY. THE PUBLIC IS CORDIALLY INVITED. FOR ADDITIONAL TRUSTEES MEETINGS, CLICK HERE.

At the November BPL Trustees Meeting, More Good News for Boston Libraries Including, at Last, a Gift Shop

Reported by Yvette Jarreau and Marleen Nienhuis

BPL mugs with images of either the McKim or the Johnson Building now for sale in the Central Library’s gift shop next to the Newsfeed Cafe

 At the November 19 Boston Public Library Trustees meeting, BPL president David Leonard and his team continued to paint a cheerful picture of a public library solidly on the upswing. A new focus on staff development, community engagement and a review of its decade-old mission is going hand-in-hand with a good financial picture and major capital improvement projects across the entire system. Last but not least, after many years of comments by many suggesting a gift shop for the Central Library to capitalize on reproductions of its rich collection for a new BPL funding stream, one has opened next to the Newsfeed Cafe. “We now have the ability to prioritize and can step back from the crisis work to focus on the library of the future,” Leonard said. 

 Capital investment and operational budget support for the BPL under Mayor Marty Walsh continues to be strong. Staff morale, a perennial problem at the BPL, likely got a great lift when, for the first time in many years, the BPL closed its doors to the public for a day this fall to have a three-hour all-staff meeting with some 492 library employees. “It was a great event,” Leonard said. They focused on better customer service, community engagement, staff development and diversity. A staff appreciation dinner followed, with awards for years of service for some, topped by a visit from Mayor Walsh himself, who showed the flag of support for the BPL and answered the audience’s questions. 

A BPL all-staff meeting in November included a visit by Mayor Marty Walsh

Leonard also proposed a “draft road map” to refresh the current BPL mission, based on the so-called Compass principles hammered out a decade ago by his predecessor, Amy Ryan, after a successful fight against the Menino Administration’s plan to close up to a third of the branches. Leonard’s proposal aims to both place the BPL more squarely in the life of the community, while still preserving today’s information and records as “the history of tomorrow.” “We don’t want to be an archive because there already is an archive in the city,” Leonard said, “but we do want to be engaged with the larger community.”

 The current BPL mission was based on recommendations from public comments at a number of local branch libraries in 2010, including the South End branch. The goal was to:

• Be user centered

• Be a community gathering place

• Focus on special collections

• Focus on children and teens

• Be a center of knowledge

• Focus on access and innovation

• Be sustainable

• Be fun.

 These principles are still relevant today, Leonard said told the Trustees. But his proposed “road map” places’ sustainable funding growth’ right at the top of his list, together the with system-wide improvements to buildings, spaces and infrastructure that have been underway. Improvement and enhancement of staff and organizational culture, long a sore point among library users, also is in the spot light. Being ‘ready for the unexpected’ may seem an odd point until one recalls that the 2015 Marathon bombings happened on the Central Library’s doorstep on Boylston Street: 

1. Facilitate sustainable funding growth

2. Systemwide improvements to buildings, spaces and infrastructure

3. Enhance collection management, acquisitions, and access supporting the community’s needs

4. Enhance services systemwide with special emphasis on youth services

5. Develop and implement a digital, technological and innovation plan 

6. Improve and enhance the staff and organizational culture with a focus on support, engagement, productivity and customer service 

7. Be ready for the unexpected.

Leonard said the plan is for his roadmap to be reviewed by division, department, and staff meetings, and, refreshingly, to establish a process of public engagement, yet to be defined.

An architect’s image of the Rare Books and Manuscript Department’s renovation at the Central Library which will reopen to the public in the fall of 2021

The Adams Street library, 13,000 square foot in size, will include a reading garden and re-open in 2021.

The new 27,000 square foot Dudley Library will reopen sometime in 2020

 An update by the BPL’s Major Projects Manager, Alison Ford, provided a glimpse of the “system wide improvements” mentioned in Leonard’s report. The BPL’s capital projects under the Walsh Administration have amounted to well over a hundred million dollars spent so far for improvements at the Central Library, tens of millions more at some of the branches, and a similar amount to be spent over the next five years at others. There’s the $17.2 million, 27,000 square foot Dudley Square library, due to be completed in 2020; the $15.7 million overhaul of the Central Library’s Rare Books and Manuscript Department; and the $19.2 million, 13,000 square foot Adams Street library, to re-open in 2021. Other construction projects and upgrades are in the hopper as well, to wit, the South End library’s current interior improvements, to be completed in February 2020. Ford presented a list of other library renovation plans which have yet to be prioritized, among them the program study in the current budget for a new and expanded South End library, as well as for those of Roslindale, Faneuil, Fields Corner, Uphams Corner, Chinatown, Lower Mills and South Boston branch libraries.

Browsing at the Central Library’s new Gift Shop, next to the Newsfeed Cafe

 Ellen Donaghey, BPL’s Chief Financial Officer, gave information about the new BPL Gift Shop, a venture enthusiastically supported by the Trustees and staff. It offers a variety of items for sale, including ornaments, note cards, BPL mugs, mittens, hats and teddy bears. Separately, Trustee Evelyn Arana-Ortiz, chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, reported that the overall performance YTD 2019 of BPL investments was “strong” but the plan is to make some investment changes as a hedge after ten years of a bull market.

 During the Public Comment section, a library patron complained that the BPL only offers single-user access to the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald as a result of their “pay wall.” This is because neither publication has agreed to offer the BPL a “library product,” as for example does the New York Times., the BPL staff said. The best remedy would be for library patrons to contact these newspapers and ask them to make the Globe and the Herald accessible to library users, they said. 

 The Trustees of the BPL, appointed by the Mayor of Boston for five-year terms, have their Annual Meeting in May and schedule regular meetings every other month, either at the Central Library or at branch libraries. All meetings are open to the public and provide interesting information about BPL developments to the community. Public comment is welcomed at the end of every meeting. 

 The next BPL trustees meetings are as follows:

Thursday, Jan 30, 2020, 3 pm, Central Library

Thursday, Mar 26, 4pm, West Roxbury Branch

Tuesday, May 12, 8:30am, Annual Meeting at Central Library. 

For further info about BPL Trustees, click here.

Steve Kinzer's Biography of CIA Chemist Sidney Gottlieb, Tells the Dark Tale of the "Most Powerful Unknown American with a License to Kill from the United States Government"

Former Municipal Court judge, Herb Hershfang, introducing Stephen Kinzer.

Stephen Kinzer’s presentation of his latest, Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, brought some of the darkest tales of the 20th century to a perhaps somewhat unsuspecting audience at South End library on October 25. They were not alone. “Poisoner in Chief is my tenth book,” Kinzer confessed. “I tried to devote my career to figure out what lies behind the public facade we see. For the first time, I’ve been shocked by what I found. I can’t believe what’s in my book. What I stumbled on is the most powerful unknown American in history who had a license to kill from the US government.”

A former New York Times bureau chief in Nicaragua, Berlin and Istanbul, and current world-affairs columnist at the Boston Globe, Kinzer described the hair-raising tale of Sidney Gottlieb, hired by the CIA in the early1950s to be their chief chemist in charge of fining the key to mind control. The MK-ULTRA mind control project took place in the 1950s and 60s under CIA chiefs Allen Dulles and, later, Richard Helms. It involved brutal experiments on unsuspecting prisoners in the US and Europe. The purpose was to prove that by destroying people’s minds, they could replace it with one that could be controlled for whatever purpose the CIA had in mind.

The CIA fantasy that this could be accomplished, Kinzer said, derived from the fear of Communism, and specifically the treason trial of Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty in Budapest in 1949, who confessed to crimes he had not committed when he was either under the influence of some mysterious mind‐bending drug, or in a posthypnotic trance. This electrified the CIA and made them believe that the Communists had a key to mind control. The CIA decided that the US needed it for national security purposes and, they hoped, to defeat Communism. To this end, the CIA under Gottlieb’s direction, used research the Nazis had done in concentration camps, and even hired former Nazi doctors to work on the project. During the research for his book, Kinzer visited one of those CIA prisons in Germany where, in the basement, CIA doctors and Nazis carried out experiments on prisoners. Now a “lovely chalet” renovated by its new owner, Kinzer found the goings-on were known among the local population and even written up in the German news magazine at the time, Der Spiegel.

Author and investigative journalist, Stephen Kinzer, addressing an excited audience at the South End library on October 25

In a recent interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Kinzer described how Gottlieb brought LSD to America, purchasing all of it from its pharmaceutical producer in Switzerland. Assisted by funds from phony foundations, Gottlieb asked various institutions around the world, including hospitals and prisons, to use LSD on those under their control, for national security purposes. One of them was Whitey Bulger who received LSD every day for a year when in Federal detention. Experiments were also conducted in Kentucky where a number of African Americans were given three daily doses of LSD for 77 days to help destroy their minds, an effort in which the CIA succeeded, Kinzer said dryly. But they were not the only victims: A Gottlieb colleague, the bacterial warfare scientist Frank Olson, who had expressed doubts about the program and was considered a whistleblower risk, was found dead at the bottom of a 10-story New York hotel in 1953, ostensibly from suicide; his family later discovered he had received a severe blow to the head and might have been thrown out the window.

CIA Poisoner in chief, Sidney Gottlieb (l), with his attorney, testifying before a Congressional committee about LSD experiments in 1977

LSD was also distributed by the CIA to others, who took it of their own free will. John Lennon, the poet Allen Ginsberg, and Ken Kesey, who later wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, all obtained their first doses of LSD from the CIA. Lennon would say, “We always have to remember to thank the CIA.” After ten years, Gottlieb concluded that it was possible to destroy human minds, but not to replace them with new ones. He then turned to finding new poisons, and gizmos to dispense them, to use on those not aligned with US policy, including Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, and others.

When CIA director Helms was fired by Richard Nixon in 1973, he told Gottlieb that all records of his work needed to be destroyed. “No one can know,” Helms said. Seven crates of documents were removed over the stated objection of those in charge of CIA archives and discarded. But Kinzer found a lot of information in another archive, specifically, the CIA‘s expense accounts, as well as in letters Gottlieb’s wife wrote to her father, among other sources. Since Gottlieb’s death in 1999, moreover, it has become even more possible to piece together his astonishing career of 22 years in the CIA. Kinzer was able to draw on newly available documents and additional original interviews to write Gottlieb’s biography, although he jokingly prefers to say he was “on an LSD trip and saw Sidney Gottlieb there.”

Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and the acclaimed author of a dozen books including The True Flag, The Brothers, Overthrow, and All the Shah’s Men, was introduced by former Boston municipal judge, Herb Hershfang, who described the longtime South End resident as “a jewel.” He related how Kinzer gave up a scholarship from New York University to work for former governor Michael Dukakis and, at 21, became the youngest elected member of he South End’s Ward 4 committee. Kinzer’s passion for finding out not just the “who, when and where” but the “how did we get there and why” led him to quit the New York Times and become an author of books that delved deeply into the political role of the United States abroad, Hershfang said. He pointed with admiration to the 43 pages of notes at the end of Poisoner in Chief, a book he said he found “spell-binding.” Referring to Kinzer’s extraordinary skills as an investigative journalist, Hershfang quipped that, “while we have no proof that living among us has produced it, would also be hard to argue it harmed him.”

Sidney Gottlieb was different from other CIA operatives who, Kinzer said, were for he most part “silver-spoon aristocrats.” Gottlieb was the son of orthodox Jews emigrated from Hungary, and lived in the Bronx. He stuttered, and had a limp. Gottlieb, who experimented with LSD himself at least 200 times, lived in a cabin in the woods with no running water, milking his goats. After he left the CIA, he devoted himself to improving the lives of the poor, including those with leprosy, in Asia and Africa. He may have been the “most gentle torturer of the 20th century,” Kinzer said sarcastically.

Alison Barnet's Two October Presentations of her Recent Book, "Once Upon a Neighborhood: A Timeline and an Anecdotal History of he South End of Boston," Drew Crowds Passionate about Their 'Hood'

Author and urban historian Russ Lopez, who introduced Alison Barnet (right)

Ann Hershfang introducing Alison Barnet on October 15

In a first for the South End Writes author series, local history chronicler Alison Barnet had such an overflow audience for her scheduled talk about Once Upon A Neighborhood: A Timeline and Anecdotal History of he South End of Boston on October 8 that a follow-up event was held a week later. South End neighbors and friends passionate about the local scene filled the library’s community room on October 15 as well, reminiscing about the neighborhood as it was then (“a sense of community,” “people recognizing humanness,” “multiculturalism,’ “people easier to talk to”) and, perhaps less so, as it appears to be now to at least some (““coldness,” “distancing,” “gentrification,” “$5,000 baby carriages”). The emotions reached such a pitch that someone felt compelled to caution the audience that “history can become nostalgic. We shouldn’t idealize ‘our moment’ and not see the potential in ‘this moment,’” the attendee said. “Without denigrating history, there is our moment here, too.”

The author wearing a Hite Radio and TV t-shirt

The author of a series of perceptive, original and passionate analyses of the South End as both a place and a character, Barnet landed in the South End in the 1960s when, as a transfer student to Boston University, she was not offered dorm space. She found room in one of the “approved” living spaces for women at the time, the Franklin Square House on East Newton Street, where her love affair with the South End began as she walked from the South End back and forth to BU every day. As she reported in a previous book, South End Character, “I liked it when people spoke to me, and I found what they said witty, offbeat, profound, poetic, right on target, and never boring.” One of the founders of the South End News in the 1980s, Barnet also wrote Extravaganza King: Robert Barnet and Boston Musical Theater and Sitting Ducks.

Urban historian, Russ Lopez about to introduce Alison barnet on October 8

Pages from Once Upon a Neighborhood

Longtime South End resident Ann Hershfang, founder and board member of WalkBoston and a member of the South End Library’s History Collective, introduced Barnet on October 15 while urban historian, Russ Lopez, also part of the Collective, had done the honors for Barnet’s talk on October 8. Copies of the book were hot off the presses on the first night, and sold out at both events. At each reading, Barnet wore a series of T-shirts with logos of historic South End organizations.

The time line format in Once Upon a Neighborhood

Writing Once Upon a Neighborhood began five years ago, Barnet recounted, inspired by another Boston historian, James Vrabel, author of When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac. Initially believing it would be a few short pages, she became obsessed by its potential and, with the continued support of the Collective, completed it after four-and-a-half years. Helpfully organized as a time line, Once Upon a Neighborhood is a treasure trove of South End history with references to, among other items, an amazing list of publications, some of which survived but many not. They included, for example, the Midtown Journal; the Boston Chronicle; the South End Sun; the Boston Guardian; a newsletter called Hi Neighbor; the New South End; the South Bay Union; the SEPAC newsletter; the People’s South End News; The Neck. and many others.

Alison Barnet with a t-shirt from Chico’s Variety & News Co.

FOSEL has received a number of inquiries about where to purchase a copy of Once Upon a Neighborhood: A Timeline and Anecdotal History of the South End of Boston. Since the South End library is closed for an upgrade until sometime in February 2020, the traditional location for the book’s acquisition is not available. The author has emailed us to say that buyers can call her at 617-267-7018 and leave a message with a phone number. She will then arrange a sale, for $30, cash. When the library reopens, the book will be available at the counter.

Meredith Goldstein, the Boston Globe Advice Columnist, Says She's More Likely to Watch TV Shows in her Pajamas Than to Go Out on Dates

Meredith Goldstein, the Boston Globe advice columnist, was fighting off a case of “chair anxiety” in early October, just before the audience began to file in for her talk about her recent book, Can’t Help Myself: Lessons and Confessions from a Modern Advice Columnist. Would anyone show up and fill the chairs? Or would there not be enough of them? As a good crowd had settled in, she said, hopefully, “Library events always bring out the best questions.”

She began writing for the Boston Globe 15 years ago, doing features for the living arts and entertainment sections, covering the North Shore. She became “charmed” by what she called the ‘weird’ attachment people in New England have to this being their “home,” not something she found as much in Maryland, where she grew up. But after a few years reporting on the North Shore, she talked then-Boston Globe editor, Marty Barron, into what she described a “more voyeuristic exercise” to benefit Boston readers, namely an advice column. When she first broached the subject, Barron asked her, “What are you talking about? I am closing foreign bureaus and you want me to pay you to start an advice column?” Goldstein argued that, as with the very popular Ann Landers, the letter writers will tell you “what’s playing among people.” Barron agreed, but said she’d have to do it “on top of her regular assignments.”

The rest is history, of course. Goldstein was never asked about her qualifications for an advice column but then again, who would be the right person to answer readers’ heartfelt questions, she asked? “Therapists would be too responsible to advise strangers about personal problems in 300 words,” she pointed out. The first five years of writing the column coincided with her mother dying of cancer and a boyfriend who had dumped her. “The column is what pulled me through. It was a life line,” she said.

Describing herself as someone who, at 42, is more likely to watch tv in her pajamas than going on dates, she has noticed there is a sort of dating fatigue developing in general, perhaps as a result of the availability of so many dating sites. “You tend to have to check it all day long,” she pointed out. And she finds there are fewer letters about people snooping in their partners’ emails and discovering something upsetting, which then has to be revealed by admitting they were snooping, itself a transgression. Goldstein thinks the decline in snooping-related problems is due to “better passwords.”

A Boston Globe feature Goldstein wrote in August examined a rise in respect and the increasing popularity of romance novels, which she said was especially noticeable after the 2016 election. “Getting respect for romance books took way too long,” she said. “It’s true it is formulaic, but so are mystery novels.” In line with the closely related quest for personal happiness she addresses in her advice columns, she recently started a podcast which focuses on one subject per season. The first three are: the best way to get over a breakup; how to meet people; and how do you know someone is The One.

Breakups are really problematic, Goldstein reported. And there’s a gender difference in how people react: Men are told the “man up,” and women are advised “to take your time” to get over it. She discovered that there was a “breaking-up summit for teens” in the Boston area, which made her think that such seminars could benefit adults, as well.

Her Love Letters advice column has been running online and in the paper since 2009. Can’t Help Myself is based on the author’s column in the Boston Globe and includes stories about work romances, millennial friends, sickness and health, and grilled cheese. The column runs Monday to Friday on Boston.com, and in the print edition of the Boston Globe on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Previous novels include Chemistry Lessons, a young-adult novel about a young woman who uses science to manipulate her love life; and The Singles, about a group of dateless guests at a wedding. Goldstein has been interviewed by – and written for –  the Washington Post, Bustle, Elite Daily, Apartment Therapy, Shondaland, and Real Simple.

"Traces of the Trade," by Filmmaker Katrina Browne, a Descendant of the Largest Slave-trading Family in the US, Lays Bare New England's Complicity in Slavery and its Institutional Amnesia About It

When filmmaker Katrina Browne read her grandmother’s words two decades ago about the illustrious and prosperous Rhode Island family she was a part of, she noticed a brief reference to the ‘unpleasantness’ of the family’s trade in slaves. What she suddenly realized could be the true story of her ancestors rocked Browne to the bottom of her soul, said Dain Perry, her cousin, and led her to produce the documentary, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.

Shown to a packed audience at the South End library in September, Perry and his wife, Constance, who descended from slaves, facilitated the movie’s discussion, and described it as the unvarnished history of the largest slave-trading family in the United States, the DeWolfes, of Bristol, Rhode Island. “What happened then is not taught in schools or discussed at the dinner table,” Dain Perry said. “We suffer  from institutional amnesia, but Katrina wants us to discuss it. Slavery is a cancer on the soul of our nation. We have to build the muscle to talk about it. We don’t look for finger-pointing or guilt. We want to better understand how we became so stuck over race. It is not a problem of our own making. It is a terrible legacy. Our job is to figure out how to move forward as a nation.”

The DeWolfe cousins preparing for the trip that retraced their ancestors’ slave routes.

Browne had never made a movie before but delved into the archives of her ancestral home, now a museum, in Bristol. With ten of her cousins, including Dain, she traveled to re-trace the route the slave ships sailed, from Bristol to Cuba to West Africa, with rum to trade for African men, women and children. The documentary tells the story of how West-Africans were captured, baptized, made slaves in the name of God, and taken to DeWolfe plantations in Cuba. They were sold at auction in Havana and Charleston, while sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol. In the movie, another DeWolfe cousin sarcastically described the “brilliant vertical integration” of the DeWolfe empire on three continents, with slaves, ship-building, industrial processing of rum with molasses and sugar, as well as trade in textiles. Another of the cousins remarked upon the stomach for violence slave-trading required: A letter in archives requested a whipping pole be moved from in front of the writer’s store as it caused “blood to be splattered on the window panes.”

FOSEL board member, Gary Bailey, introducing Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, and was nominated for an Emmy for Excellence in Historical Research. FOSEL board member, Gary Bailey, an assistant dean for Community Engagement and Social Justice at Simmons University, introduced the Perrys and, referring to his own family’s history, said, “Three of my great grandparents had been enslaved. There can be no reconciliation without acknowledgment of slavery. The descendants of the DeWolfe family have begun to do the hard work of telling their story.”

Files in the Bristol Historical society show that slave-trading was supported by the whole town of Bristol and all the coastal towns along the New England shoreline, even when slave-trading had become illegal. The DeWolfe family sold shares to finance their voyages, and founded their own banks, insurance companies, distilleries and shipbuilding enterprises. They transported as many as twenty thousand enslaved Africans and amassed a fortune, together with enormous political power. By the end of his life, James DeWolf had been a U.S. Senator, receiving dispensation and favors from Thomas Jefferson, whose brother was installed as a customs official in Bristol to made sure the illegal slave trade could continue in that town.

Dain and Constance Perry, former South End residents, one descended from slave traders and the other from enslaved Africans, respectively, facilitated an audience discussion after the screening.

 Dain and Constance Perry lived in the South End four decades ago, he on Rutland Square, and she on Dilworth Street, once part of the New York Streets area, which no longer exists. She remembers “Mr. Crite” painting pictures of the neighborhood, a reference to Allan Rohan Crite, the now-famous painter of South End scenery. In the post-movie discussion, Constance Perry said that “my Jewish friends celebrate and remember their difficulties. They emphasize the importance of remembering. It is not the same here when it comes to those who were enslaved. We want to forget, not remember. We should remember through a lens of truth. Kierkegaard said that “we live our lives moving forward but we understand our lives by looking back.” 

She and Dain Perry asked the audience for one word to describe their feelings after seeing the movie, which produced a long list: Frustration; Sadness; Loss; Grieving; Hope; Anxious; Urgency; Disconnected; Terrified; Learning; Legacy; Gratitude; Truth; Aware; Anger; Shame; Despair; Lucky; Greed; Power; Useless; Time; Unknown; Ache; Resilient; Forgiveness; and Uncovered. Asked to elaborate on their words, one member of he audience said that after seeing the movie the idea of a white person’s ‘proud ancestry’ as the foundation of his life is somewhat ‘shakey.’ Another said that “white privilege is not about money, but about power.”

BPL Trustees Vote to Eliminate $135,000 in Outstanding Fines for Young Adult Library Users, Calling the Debt "Hard to Collect" and an "Obstacle to Youth Education"

Michael Colford, BPL’s director of library services

The Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library voted at a public meeting on October 3rd to eliminate all fines for library users under 18, systemwide. A longstanding project of Michael Colford, director of library services at the BPL, who requested the 11-member governing board of the BPL approve the amnesty, said the $135,000 in fines currently on the books for young adults are hard to collect, present an obstacle to youth education, don’t encourage the return of books, and are barrier to library use.

In making the BPL a fine-free institution for young adults, it joins 55 member cities of the Urban Libraries Council, a non-profit think tank, including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and a total of some 200 municipalities nationwide. The goal is to make the BPL fine-free for everyone, eliminating the outstanding debt of $1.4 million for all BPL cardholders.

The amnesty means unreturned books will stay on the user’s record until they are brought back but the accumulated fines have been forgiven. The cardholder can use the library and take out other books, as before. “The punitive approach is embarrassing,” added BPL President David Leonard. “The fines should not be a financial burden. We’d be on the wrong side of history.”

Reversing years of neglect, the BPL's Rare Book and Print Collection Now Has Been Inventoried and Will Reopen to the Public in 2021 Thanks to a $15.7 Million Overhaul

BPL Trustees Evelyn Arana-Ortiz, Robert Gallery and BPL President David Leonard

Only four years ago, a mold outbreak in the BPL’s Rare Book and Print Department at Copley Square brought home what years of neglect and underfunding meant for one of the top five largest Special Collections in the world: misplaced (and perhaps even missing) treasures and a lack of something as basic as an inventory were only the beginning of it. But a $15.7 million overhaul of the 20,000 square-foot space on the fourth and fifth floors of the Johnson Building should be complete by November 2020 and bring the collection back among the top rare books’ departments in the world which include Yale University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. Before the current reconstruction began, 250,000 books and 1,000,000 manuscripts were moved to a secure location elsewhere.

In the BPL’s Rare Book and Print Department

A Durer and a Rembrandt print that went missing in 2015 but were later found

Reflecting Mayor Marty Walsh’s stated commitment to repair and rebuild Boston’s public libraries, the renovated department will be accessible by glass elevators that now stop at the third floor. It will feature display cases to exhibit a range of treasures; a classroom for school groups and educational institutions; a reading room; adequate space for 17 researchers and staff; and, yes, a top-level security system with additional security layers for the rarest of manuscripts.

At the most recent BPL Trustees’ public meeting on October 3rd, Simmons College Professor Martha Mahard reported on having inventoried the 1.3 million items in the print and photography collection. Along the way, she came across a card saying, “must be in the library somewhere.” She said there now was a “foundational” inventory. The next step would be to create detailed descriptions of the collection, for which several specialists have already been hired. After the department becomes available to its staff, in November 2020, the collection will be tested for acclimation in its new surroundings. It is expected to reopen to the public by the fall of 2021.

The A-Beez Music Collective Closed Out the 2019 Summer Jazz & Blues Concert Series in Library Park with Seductive Vocalists and Soulful Musical Numbers

Vocalist Melissa Bolling

The last of the summer of 2019 Jazz & Blues concerts brought the Boston-based music collective, the A-Beez, to Library Park with much-appreciated musical numbers, including Overraged (Aaron Bellamy); Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) and Ramblin' (Ornette Coleman). With its roots in soul, funk, and R&B, the core musicians of the group, Amy and Aaron Bellamy, began their musical collaboration in the early 2000s as members of the Sam Kininger band (BMG Japan recording artists) and have since backed up numerous artists, including Chaka Khan, Beyonce, Terri Lyne Carrington, Elan Trotman, Martin Luther, Cody Chestnut, The Perceptionists and Club D’elf .

In addition to touring nationally and internationally, the A-Beez are staples of the local Boston scene, hosting a more than 14 years’ residency at Boston’s renowned Wally’s Café and performing in clubs and venues throughout New England and the East coast. They co-wrote and compiled a catalog of original material that became their debut album Never Going Back, released in April 2015. Their second studio album, Say Goodbye, came out in March 2018.

Amy Bellamy, keyboards; Melissa Bolling, vocals; Muu Williams, drums; Steve Fell, guitar; and Pat Loomis, saxophone.

Five Outstanding Vocalists of the Nephrok! Allstar Band and Pat Loomis's Friends Made Library Park the Best Place to Be on a Hot August Night While Listening and Dancing to the Motown Sound

No less than five vocalists sang their hearts out on Tuesday night, August 20, when the Nephrok’s Allstar band brought the Motown sound to Library Park and all the surrounding roof decks, patios and open windows around the South End library. An unusually warm and humid night where not a drop of rain tried to spoil the fun set the stage for a melodic and high-energy performance that brought some in the audience to their feet. They danced alone, with partners, with their infants and toddlers and a few with their puppies, not surprising in the pet-loving South End neighborhood.

Vocalists Sarah Seminski and Nephtaliem McCrary sing with Daniel Day (guitar), Pat Loomis (saxophone) and Scott Aruda (trumpet).

In the third of the four outdoor Jazz & Blues concerts of the 2019 season in Library Park, Nephtaliem McCrary and Sarah Seminski played into each other’s powerful renderings of Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell’s Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing and Stevie Wonder’s For Once in My Life. The other vocalists, saxophonist Pat Loomis, trumpetist Scott Aruda and keyboardist Ben Hillman joined them in subsequent titles, including I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Gladys Knight and The Pips); You Can't Hurry Love (Diana Ross and The Supremes); Ain't Too Proud To Beg and My Girl (both by The Temptations). Musicians Charlie Hunt (guitar), Daniel Day and Benny Benson (drums), playing with their usual skill and enthusiasm, were warmly received by the audience for their return performance.

Aiden Loomis receives a birthday cake after his dad, pat, sang Birthday by The Beatles for him.

Pat Loomis sang the last number for his son Aiden, who had requested it for his birthday. It was Birthday by The Beatles. A chocolate birthday cake came with the personal performance.

Next week, Tuesday August 27, another beautiful late-summer night is predicted by the FOSEL weather team, which this year has a special dispensation from the gods of rain..they plan to stay away.

A happy and engaged audience fills Library Park, with many others hanging over the fence on Tremont Street

Ben Hillman on keyboard, Charlie Hunt, guitar and Benny Benson on drums accompanying singer Sarah Seminski