WESTFORD — Assistant Director of the J.V. Fletcher Library Kristina Leedberg has shared the most recent edition of “What’s Happening at the Library?”
News from the J.V. Fletcher Library, 50 Main St., Westford, MA (1-978-692-5555), http://www.westfordlibrary.org
Unless otherwise noted, the following programs are made possible by the Friends of the Library.
Director’s Corner: Due to town budget reductions, Library hours will be reduced as of July 1, 2024.
Weekly Hours will be:
Mon – Thurs 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Friday 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Holiday Hours: In observance of the Fouth of July holiday, the Library will close at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3 and will be closed on Thursday, July 4.
Summer Reading Programs!: Registration is now open for the Kids (up to grade 4), Young Adult (grade 5 and up), and Adult Summer Reading Programs! The Summer Reading Programs run from June 26 through August 18.
The Whalemobile: Monday, July 1 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Sign up for one of four half-hour time slots to go inside the belly of a whale to explore the captivating world of these majestic creatures. Not only will you see, touch, and feel whale artifacts; you actually get to go inside the whale. Please sign up for one time slot. This program is strictly for kids in grade 1 and up and they must be accompanied by an adult. This program is generously funded by the KDK Foundation in honor of Kurt Kelly. Register here
Middle Grade Book Club: Tuesday, July 2nd at 3:00 p.m. The Middle Grade Book Club is open to Grade 5 through 8. For our first meeting, we will discuss The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly. Copies of the books will be available for registered attendees at the Main Desk prior to the meetings. Register here.
Adult Nonfiction Book Club: Tuesday, July 2 at 7:00 p.m. – We’ll meet in the downstairs Meeting Room to discuss Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Copies are available at Main Desk. No registration required. Email Charles Schweppe for more information.
Camp Read-A-Lot: Monday, July 8 at 6:30 p.m. Stories, songs, fingerplays, and roasted marshmallows over a (fake) campfire in the Meeting Room. All ages. No registration required.
Battle Bots: Wednesday, July 10 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. For grade 6 and up. Take your coding skills to the MobileQuest arena! In this program participants will modify Dash robots into ferocious animals with balloons, skewers, plastic straws, and more as they prepare for battle! Participants work individually controlling their battlebot until the last balloon is popped! All materials provided. Register here.
Family Concert with the Rolie Polie Guacamole Band: Thursday, July 11 at 6:00 p.m. This Brooklyn-based band will be in Massachusetts rocking out with out with us on the outdoor stage (inside if it rains). These guys are a GREAT time. This family program is for all ages. No registration required.
Adult Book Discussion Club: Thursday, July 11 at 6:30 p.m. Join us in the Mary Atwood Room to discuss The Wager: a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann. No registration required. Copies are available at the Main Desk and there are downloadable copies (audio and e-copies) available from Overdrive/Libby. Check out our Reading List for 2024.
Seed Catalog: Thanks to Patti Mason and the Westford Rotary Club, the Seed Catalog is once again brimming with a variety of seeds. The Seed Catalog is located on the ground floor of the Library.
Introducing Hoopla Flex!: Our Hoopla digital collection is growing! In addition to the 10 hoopla Instant borrows you receive each month with your Library card, Westford residents now will have 5 hoopla Flex borrows to use on bestselling titles specially marked hoopla Flex eBooks and Audiobooks.
With Hoopla Flex titles you will find new and popular e-books and audiobooks that you can borrow now or place on hold to read later. This collection is just for Westford card holders, so the wait time for new titles should be significantly less than other digital collections shared with the consortium. This collection will grow over time.
Not familiar with Hoopla? With Hoopla, patrons can read, watch, and listen to more than 950,000 eBooks, digital audiobooks, comics, movies, or TV shows that are available to stream or download. Patrons can sign up for Hoopla for free with a Westford Library card at hoopladigital.com or download the Hoopla app from their favorite app store.
Quick Links to Our Most Popular Services!
If you have questions or need assistance, please call us at 978-399-2300 or send us an email at westfordlibrary@westfordma.gov
Staff Recommends: The Wager by David Grann is our July adult book discussion pick and some of us hope it will be made into a movie! “From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, a mesmerizing story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang.”
Changes to Westford’s Curbside Recycling & Trash Program – A message from Mike Edwards, Assistant Town Manager – Strategic Operations, regarding recycling and trash.
Beginning July 1st, curbside collection of recycling and trash will be performed by the Town’s new contractor, E.L. Harvey. With the new contract, there are several changes you should be aware of.
- Your day of collection will remain the same, but the time may change. It is important all items be curbside by 7 A.M. on your regular collection day!
- The Town’s current limit of 3 containers with a total of 96 gallons for trash will be enforced. Recycling will remain unlimited.
- Bulk waste (green sticker) and white goods (orange sticker) collection will change. Please visit the website below for detailed information or call the Town Manager’s office at 978-692-5501.
- Customer service will be provided by E.L. Harvey by calling 1-800-321-3002.
You can help to keep Westford’s costs low by choosing to divert items from our trash stream. For more information on how to do this, and on other curbside program changes, please visit www.westfordma.gov/recycling-trash.
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