John Sacco Said It First About A (1993) Worcester Square Concert: "Just As Nice As If It Were Symphony Hall..."

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There was a lovely concert in Worcester Square by the Duo Sonidos last Thursday. What does this have to do with the South End Library? Only this: in February at the library, FOSEL's authors' series The South End Writes hosted former Police Blotter scribe Officer John Sacco who talked about his many years as observer and reporter of he local crime scene for the South End News. Occasionally, Officer Sacco, who loved the South End, would drift off into non-criminal subjects, as he did in his column in 1993 when, under the heading Point of View, he described another concert in Worcester Square, held in those very  'bad old days.' The description of the musical scene was nestled between an item about a 'Tremont St female' confronted by a 'culprit who gave her a beating' and another report about 'Meredith' who had been 'flagging down male motorists' for cash. All of which to say that about those Worcester Square concerts John Sacco said it first: "..it was just as nice as if it were in Symphony Hall.." Here is the long version of what John Sacco wrote in September 1993's Police Report for the South End News:

"One night recently a group of Worcester Square area residents held a chamber music concert in the park. It was a beautiful evening of fine music in a lovely setting. People in the area, not interested in the music, remained quieter as they went about their business. Mothers hushed noisy children at play. The soft music came through just as nice as if it were Symphony Hall, not an outdoor park. The South End was a pleasant place to be on a breezy summer night in Worcester Square."

For other Worcester Park concerts, visit the  WS Neighborhood Association's web site for their Facebook link..

What Do the MA Board of Library Commissioners and the Legislature's Library Caucus Have to Do with the Boston Public Library? Answer: More Than You Think...

MA Statehouse

In 2008, when two powerful Beacon Hill legislators resigned as trustees of the Boston Public Library, Mayor Thomas Menino did not replace them with other state legislators. The former trustees,  then-Senate President William Bulger and Rep. Angelo Scaccia, had previously funneled tens of millions of capital and operational dollars annually into the BPL to, among other projects, restore the Copley Library.  After their resignation, in protest of Mayor Menino's refusal to renew the contract for then-BPL president Bernard Margolis, there were no BPL trustees around on Beacon Hill to protect state allocations to Boston's libraries. At a time of severe economic stress, the state's portion to Boston's library budget was reduced from $8.4 million in 2008 to $2.4 million in 2010. This came on top of  several years of harsh city budget cuts to the BPL, not opposed publicly at the time by the remaining BPL trustees. Still, in 2008 it was generally believed by Boston library patrons that their local branch would be open when they awoke the next morning. How could it not be? But in 2010, BPL's  trustees and its president Amy Ryan proposed closing ten of the 26 local libraries and Boston's state legislators had to step back into the BPL fray, spurred on by their otherwise peaceful constituents who had turned into enraged local library supporters. The 24-member Boston Delegation to the Legislature passed a 2011 budget amendment threatening to cut the state's $2.4 million contribution to the BPL unless the City of Boston, as they put it, "funds and maintains operations for all branch libraries in service as of January 1, 2010." As a result, all the BPL branches remained open, albeit with reduced staff, despite the economic downturn.

Rediscovered awareness of voters' support for libraries' is reflected in the growing number of  state legislators who have become members of the Library Legislative Caucus. Founded in 2008 by former State Rep. Mark Falzone (D-Saugus), the Caucus is now headed by Rep. Kate Hogan (D-Stow), a strong library advocate elected in 2009. In her Maiden Speech to the Legislature in 2010, she described her mother's apartment looking just like a branch of the local library, and her mother as "the best-read person she's ever met" thanks to he public library. "Aid to public libraries is local aid," Hogan told her colleagues." The Library Caucus membership among House and Senate members has nearly doubled  from the 40 it started out with since Hogan became its chair, according to Scott Kjellberg, Rep. Hogan's legislative aide.

"The Library Caucus is helpful," said Cynthia Roach, Head of Library Advisory and Development for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The MBLC works on state aid to libraries, mostly in an advisory capacity with minor enforcement power centered in its state-funded library-construction programs. When asked about public awareness of the state's role in libraries recently, Roach acknowledged "we're in much better shape now."

Among the Library Caucus's early supporters is South End Rep. Byron Rushing, also the Second Assistant Majority Leader in the Legislature. Appointed to the BPL Library Board by Mayor Menino in 2010, shortly after he publicly denounced the BPL's lack of advocacy at the Legislature, Rushing has begun to re-lubricate the rails between the Legislature and the BPL. In March of this year, Rushing helped bring together the BPL's trustees and executives with MBLC's director Robert Maier and Library Legislative Caucus Chair Hogan at the Copley Library for a breakfast meeting; a previous get-together had already taken place at the Legislature in November 2011.

In April, Rushing reported that  44 legislators signed up for BPL library cards at a State House library event, "part of the effort to inform my colleagues that any resident of Massachusetts can apply for a card in the BPL," Rushing said. Following a language change engineered in the fiscal 2012 state budget by Rep. Hogan, the newly formed Library for the Commonwealth (formerly the Library of Last Recourse) expanded services and allowed all state residents to be eligible for a BPL library card, according to Hogan’s office.

The improving relationship between the state and the BPL strengthens the hand of an additional player in city of Boston's library system which, in its trustee appointments and budget allocation, depends almost entirely on the good, or not so good, graces of  the mayor of Boston. When the 2012/2013 state budget was approved last month, operating money for libraries was increased "slightly" from the level-funding provided the previous year, said Roach, of the MBLC. A position for a second state library construction specialist has been fully funded this year (the MBLC plays an important role in the construction and renovation of Commonwealth libraries) and money for a program for the visually impaired, Talking Books,was increased by three percent to $2.4 million. In addition, said Roach, the MBLC hopes to convince Governor Deval Patrickto approve a new bond bill for $150 million worth of library construction during the 2012-2013 fiscal year, something that would benefit, among other projects, the East Boston Library, now in progress. A previous library bond bill, for $100 million, will cover only the costs of the first seven libraries on the to-be-constructed list.

At this point, The East Boston Library's number on the list is...14.

South End Resident Judith Klau to Lead a Discussion of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" at the South End Library on Tuesday, August 7

Long-time South End resident Judith Klau will lead an informal talk about Shakespeare's most political play, Coriolanus, at the South End Library on Tuesday, August 7, at 6:30 PM.Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's tragedies, is being staged by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and directed by Steven Maler. It is performed for free Tuesdays thru Sundays, weather permitting, on the Boston Common, through August 12, at 8:00 PM, 7:00 PM Sundays.

The play is based on the life of the Roman general Caius Marcius Coriolanus (5th Century BC). Its themes of  the military leader's discomfort with civilian rule, as well as prevailing conditions of partisanship and disparities between rich and poor in Rome at the time, has kept the play relevant throughout the centuries. Don Aucoin, the theatre critic for The Boston Globe, commented in his August 3 review that by "staging a modern-dress “Coriolanus’’ in an election year, director Maler clearly wants us to think about what qualities we seek in our leaders, and about the ways in which partisan politics — seen here in the form of a pair of scheming, demagogic Roman tribunes played by Jacqui Parker and Remo Airaldi — can poison and undermine the functioning of a republic."

Ms. Klau, the former Head of the English Department at the Groton School in Western Massachusetts, found the Boston Common performance "brilliantly acted and remarkably affecting."  Although all performances are free, for a donation of $30 one can obtain "a very good seat right in front of the stage," she noted.

Head librarian Anne Smart has copies of the play available at the South End branch.

For more information about the play, call 617 426-0863 or visit www.commshakes.org.

South End Library Summer Program Notes, Including the Return of Pat Loomis's Annual Jazz Concert on Tuesday, July 17

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Summer is here, the tree gardens in front of the South End Library are in full bloom --all maintained by the Friends of the South End Library-- and library summer programming for July and August is in place. The listings are below.

Regrettably, the BPL still closes its branches on Saturdays in the summer, just when the kids are of of school and we need Saturday hours the most. Call the BPL (617 536-5400), the Mayor's Office (617 635-4500) and the City Council (617 635-3040), if you would like to register your interest in seeing this changed. According to City Council President Stephen Murphy, in a June 18 interview with the Boston Globe's Andrew Ryan,  "Boston has weathered the fiscal crisis better than other large cities and is facing its first “breathing room budget’’ in several years." Councillor Murphy, who came to the FOSEL sponsored candidates debate at the South End Library during his reelection campaign, has been a long-time supporter of library services, and would like to know about your support for  better library hours.

While you have our representatives on the line, consider asking for an additional night the South End library can be open, just like eleven other BPL branches. There are 25 branches in the BPL system. Eleven are open two nights a week. They include Adams, Brighton, Charlestown, Codman, Dudley, Honan-Allston, Hyde Park, Lower Mills, Mattapan, South Boston and West Roxbury. Fourteen, including the South End library, offer only one late night a week. Among the fourteen are some of the busiest in the system:  Jamaica Plain and West End. By contrast, the downtown Copley Library is open four nights a week, all day Saturday and  five hours on Sunday (except during the summer). Most of Boston's library patrons who fund the public library through their taxes do not live downtown, however.

Below are the summer listings for the South End Library, put together by the dedicated staff. If you have any questions, please call Anne Smart or  Margaret Gardner, the children's librarian, for further information. Phone: 617 536-8241.

The annual summer jazz concert and potluck by the fabulous jazz group Pat Loomis and Friends will take place at the South End Library on Tuesday, July 17  from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. All are welcome.

Toddler Story Time: Mondays at 10:30 AM. Songs, stories and craft for youngsters up to age three.

Pre-School Story Time: Wednesdays at 10:30 AM. Songs and movement, stories, and a craft for youngsters age three to five.

Spanish in Motion with Jouveth Shortell: four Wednesdays in August at 10:30 AM.

Summer Book Club for children aged six to nine: read a book; do crafts, and more. Mondays from July 9 through August 20, from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM.

Summer Book Club for children aged nine to thirteen: Choose books; do crafts and more. Tuesdays, from July 10 through August 21, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.

For all readers all ages all summer long: pick up your summer reading at the library; read and earn rewards for every five books you read; register for the BPL-sponsored DREAM BIG summer reading program in the library or on-line.

Additional Summer Programming: call the South End branch at 617 536-8241 to register for three-star programs listed below.

*** Make a Beautiful Dream Catcher for Your Room. Tuesday, July 10 at 2:00 PM

** Storyteller Mark Binder spins adventure tales about Giants and Giant Slugs for children aged six and up. Thursday, July 12 at 2:00 PM

*** Animal Rescue League Tours. Wednesdays July 18 and August 8. Meet at the SE Library at 1:00 PM sharp.

** Teddy Bear Sleepover. Tuesday, July 31 at 6:30 PM. For young children and a parent. Bring a teddy who will stay overnight. Children pick up their teddy the next morning, Wednesday, at 10:30 AM story time, where a "treat" will await them.

**Storyteller and librarian Danielle Schulman will spin world tales for  the BPL-sponsored 2012 Summer Reading Program, Dream Big. For children aged six and up. Tuesday, August 7 at 2:00 PM.

** Tide pools at the South End Library from the New England Aquarium. Thursday, August 9 at 2:00 PM.

** Museum of Science at the South End Library with Science Magic. Tuesday, August 21 at 2:00 PM.

Rutland Square Author Mari Passananti Will Read From Her First Novel, "The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken," Tuesday June 19 at 6:30 PM

"Don't go to the beach without it," is the advice of  Wendy Walker for her colleague Mari Passananti's first novel, "The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken." Passananti who like Walker once worked as an attorney, was raised by a Finnish mother and an Italian dad in Rhode Island before settling in the South End with her family. She is currently wriiting a suspense novel, tentatively titled, "The K Street Affair," scheduled for publication sometime this year. The reading will take place on Tuesday, June 19, at 6:30 PM at the South End Library, upstairs in the community room.

The same evening, there will be a fundraiser on the library's first floor to raise money for an ethnic weaving scholarship to honor the memory of fiber artist Theresa-India Young. The event will start at 5:30 PM.

South End Library to Host a June 19 Fundraiser and Silent-Auction to Establish the Theresa-India Young Memorial Scholarship at Mass College of Art

"Over the Rainbow," produced during Theresa-India Young's community-weaving workshop at the South End Library, 2003

On Tuesday, June 19, the South End Library will host a community fundraiser to establish an ethnic weaving scholarship at Mass College of Art in the name of fiber artist Theresa-India Young. Young, who specialized in the teaching and history of traditional fiber arts from African-American and Native-American cultures, passed away prematurely in 2008. A long-time resident of the Piano Factory Guild artists' building on Tremont Street, she held several workshops at the South End Library, and supervised the weaving of "Over the Rainbow," the wall hanging that has graced the stairway wall over the computer section of the branch for almost a decade.

Ms. Young amassed an enormous research library on world cultures that included textiles, carpets, ceramics, jewelry and books. They were donated to a number of local institutions, including Mass College of Art, the Tozzer Library of Harvard College, the Allan R. Crite Research Library and Wheelock College, among other places. The New York City-born artist had learned basketry, rug weaving and skills rooted in --the South-Carolina-based-- Gullah folk arts from her relatives, but won a scholarship to Boston University's Program-in-Artisanry for Textiles in 1975. Since then, she taught and lectured at many Boston institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts.

The June 19 fundraiser will offer a silent auction with special items for sale, such as Young's tassels and drapery tie-backs; works by different artists; vintage clothing; African sculptures; beaded necklaces; handmade notebooks and Egyptian calendars. The fiscal agent for tax-deductible donations to benefit  the Theresa-India Young Memorial scholarship fund is United South End Artists.

The event starts at 5:30 PM. There will be light refreshments.

South End Library and MSPCC Will Screen "The Preacher's Son," A Movie About Non-traditional Adoption, Tuesday, May 29, 5:30 PM

On May 29, the South End Library is hosting a film screening of The Preacher's Son, a 2009 movie about a male couple that builds a family with five children through adoption from "the train wreck" of foster care. The couple, Greg Stewart, a minister and preacher's son, and Stilman White, took the five boys --among whom were two sets of siblings-- and moved them from California to the American heartland. The screening is sponsored by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). After the film presentation (86 minutes), there will be an informal discussion about non-traditional and cross-racial adoption. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the South End Library. The South End branch is located at 685 Tremont Street, between Rutland Square and West Newton Street. Phone: 617 536-8241. Starts at 5:30 PM.

BPL's Popular Homework Assistance Program (HAP) to End This Month, But What Will Replace the After-school Tutoring Service in the Branches Next September Is Uncertain

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The Homework Assistance Program (HAP), that placed high-school students in their local libraries to tutor elementary-school children living in the same neighborhood, is ending this week. It is unclear what will replace the four-day-a-week after-school service in September, according to Anne Smart, head librarian of the South End Branch. It may continue for two days a week, but what will be available the rest of the time for students seeking homework help is still unsettled. Tutors participating in HAP were paid between $8.25 and $10 an hour, depending on how often they work. They are high-achieving students from Boston's public and private schools, a number of whom had been in HAP themselves when they were younger.

Jessica Snow, the BPL's Youth Services Coordinator, reacting to the outcry by the BPL's children's librarians in March, suggested that " there may be opportunities for the HAP mentors to participate in by volunteering”  instead of being paid. This may not be welcome news for some: Angela, a Josiah Quincy School junior,  who is in her second year as a HAP tutor at the South End branch, said that the money she earns is important to her. "It's the only job I have. I like not having to ask my mom for money," she explained. "She already struggles because I have two brothers in college. It's a lot of pressure for her."

Another HAP  participant at the South End branch, Winnie, said she would continue tutoring, even if she isn't paid. The Boston Latin School junior had been in the program when she was in 4th grade at the Quincy School in its Chinese bi-lingual program: as the oldest child in a family where only Chinese was spoken, she needed the language boost HAP gave her. "After I left, Margaret kept asking me when I would be a sophomore so I could tutor other kids myself," said Winnie, referring to Margaret Gardner, the children's librarian at the South End library. "One day, I showed up and said, 'I'm a sophomore now,' and then I began to work with the kids after school."

The news about the discontinuation of HAP came without a warning to the branches this March, upsetting children's librarians all over the city who valued the program. But according to one grant writer close to its funding strategy, the BPL  kept no reliable data to support the program's effectiveness. The library didn't appear to keep close track of the children they served, and the data that was available was a count from the teens who are placed in each library. Teens would count everybody they talked to as a participant regardless of whether they actually helped them with homework. It was also difficult to measure whether HAP had any impact on school performance, as there did not seem to be a connection to the schools or data from teachers.

HAP cost the BPL an estimated $200,000 a year and was a popular fundraising target for the BPL Foundation. As recently as last November, donors could become sponsors during a Foundation Gala Benefit, as well as during the the April “Big Thrill” fundraiser which listed the HAP program as one of its beneficiaries at that time (the web site for it has since been changed to reflect that HAP is no longer a fundraising goal).

South End branch head librarian Anne Smart said there is still a lot of 'push-back' by children's librarians at most branches to salvage the program, which is seen by her and most other branch librarians as beneficial at many levels. "The tutors earn some money and are motivating the younger kids because they are high-achieving students," she said. "The young ones can't wait to become tutors themselves."

Memoirist Christine Chamberlain and Custom Publisher Jane Karker will Tell You All You Need to Know About Memoir-writing, Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 PM

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On Tuesday May 22, at 6:30 PM, The South End Writes will host memoirist Christine Chamberlain and custom-publisher Jane Karker,who will discuss how to write memoirs of people and places AND get published. Here’s your chance to learn how to put into words your observations about the block you’ve lived on for so many years, or just a family memoir to encourage your children to think of you fondly. Chamberlain and Karker have helped develop a small body of such memoirs produced by residents of Maine, where they hail from, and would be happy to assist in starting such a collaborative venture in the South End.

Chamberlain, a Wellesley College graduate and former journalist who reported from Europe for various publications in the U.S., began to write memoirs when a friend asked her to do one of her mother. She has since completed more than 70, as well as histories of places and institutions, including the history of rowing at Dartmouth and one of the Cambridge School of Weston. Samples of her work will be available for viewing at the event.

Tonight's Reading by Author Leah Hager Cohen Cancelled Due to Family Emergency

The scheduled reading tonight, May 15, by Leah Hager Cohen had to be cancelled to to an emergency in the author's family. We wish her the very best and hope to reschedule the event when it is convenient to do so.

Next week, Tuesday May 22, at 6:30 PM, The South End Writes will host memoirist Christine Chamberlain and custom-publisher Jane Karker, who will discuss how to write memoirs of people and places AND get published.

Here's your chance to learn how to put into words your observations about the block you've lived on for so many years, or just a family memoir to encourage your children to think of you fondly. Chamberlain and Karker have helped develop a small body of such memoirs produced by residents of Maine, where they hail from, and would be happy to assist in starting such a collaborative venture in the South End.

We hope to see you there.

Massachusetts Library Caucus Came for Breakfast at BPL on March 21st --not May 21st-- Details to Be Posted in Very Near Future

From time to time, one gets egg on one's face, and this is one of those times for yours truly: the BPL trustees' breakfast with the Massachusetts' Library Caucus took place on March 21, and will not take place on May 21 as I reported earlier. I apologize for the error. A belated report on the event will be posted in the near future. Onwards and sideways...

Another Sign of Better Boston/Beacon Hill Library Ties: the Massachusetts Library Caucus is Coming for Breakfast at Copley's McKim Building on May 21

handmade books by second-graders on display in Donnell Library, NYC 2008

In a welcome sign that the BPL is working hard to improve its ties with the State Legislature, it is hosting a breakfast for the state's Library Caucus on Monday, May 21.  The caucus is made up of state legislators from all over the Commonwealth who see libraries as their special charge. Since 2008, when two powerful BPL trustees --MA Senate President William Bulger and State Rep. Angelo Scaccia--  left the Boston Library Board over the ousting of former BPL President Bernard Margolis by Mayor Thomas Menino, the relationship between BPL and Beacon Hill went into atrophy mode.

The Mayor did not appoint any state legislator to replace Bulger or Scaccia for several years, which meant, among other things, that for several  years no one from the BPL was at the Legislature advocating and lobbying for funds to maintain library services. It proved one thing: if one does not ask, one does not get. The legislature cut Boston's library budget; the mayor cut the library budget; and in 2010 the mayor and BPL President Amy Ryan proposed closing up to 10 branches. In the end, none were closed, in part because Boston's state representatives, hearing the outrage in their constituents' voices, threatened to cut off all state funding to Boston if any library branches were shuttered.

Shortly thereafter, State Rep. Byron Rushing, who had assailed the BPL trustees for their lack of competent advocacy on Beacon Hill during the 2010 library closure fight, was nominated to the BPL's Library Board. Immediate improvements ensued. He made public comment at BPL trustees meetings standard operating procedure. He took charge of the long-term strategic planning plan, Compass, which had earlier been initiated by former BPL trustee and author, James Carroll. The May 21 breakfast meeting is another sign of library-climate warming. Kate Hogan (D Stow), will give opening remarks after a welcome by Amy Ryan; the executive director of the Massachussets Board of Library Commissioners, Robert Maier, will discuss budget priorities for the state libraries; and Rep. Rushing himself will talk about ...Library Cards. Stay tuned.

The one-hour meeting is open to the public and starts at 9:00 AM.

Author Leah Hager Cohen Will Read from "The Grief of Others" on Tuesday, May 15, after an Introduction by South End Novelist Sue Miller

The South End Writes author series will bring author Leah Hager Cohen to the South End Library on Tuesday May 15th to read from her latest novel, The Grief of Others. She will be introduced by South End novelist Sue Miller, who invited her to speak at the program. The event will start at 6:30 PM.

Hager Cohen has been described as one of this country’s best novelists by the editor of the New York Times Book Review, Sam Tanenhaus. The Grief of Others delves into a family fighting for its emotional survival while whipsawed by the loss of a small child. A Boston Globe’s book reviewer described the writing as “fluid and insightful." The author, a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School for Journalism, has published both fiction and non-fiction books, and is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines. In one recent Boston Globe opinion piece she explained why the Pulitzer Prize Committee’s refusal to select a winner for its 2012 Fiction category was ‘a good thing;’ in another, she provided an insightful look into the working life of the South End Writes' most recent speaker, award-winning short-story writer Edith Pearlman.

Hager Cohen's other titles include the non-fiction books Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World, and Glass, Paper, Beans, as well as the novel Heart, You Bully, You Punk.

Head Librarian Anne Smart has many of the titles available at the South End branch for those who wish to borrow them: all you need is your BPL library card.

The final two South End Writes events of the season will take place on Tuesday, May 22 and Tuesday, June 19, both at 6:30 PM at the South End Library. Memoirist Christine Chamberlain and custom-publisher Jane Karker will talk about how to write memoirs of people and places AND get them published on May 22; and South End resident Mari Passananti will read from her first novel, The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken.

Edith Pearlman Will Read at the SE Library May 1, Followed by Fiction Writer Leah Hager Cohen (May 15), Memoirist Christine Chamberlain Accompanied by Custom-Publisher Jane Karker (May 22)

The South End Writes authors' series will be in full swing in May when authors Edith Pearlman and Leah Hager Cohen will read from recent work at the South End branch on Tuesday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 15, respectively. They will be introduced by local novelist Sue Miller, who invited them. Edith Pearlman's much-prized collection of new and selected short stories, Binocular Vision, has just been released in paperback. Just in time ,as every book venue in Boston was sold out of the hardcover version. The collection won the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2011 PEN/Malamud Award, and was a finalist in the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction. Pearlman won other awards, such as the Pushcart Prize, the O'Henry Prize and a number of others for previous work.

Leah Hager Cohen has been described as one of this country's best novelists by the editor of the New York Times Book Review, Sam Tanenhaus. Her latest novel, The Grief of Others, delves into a family fighting for its emotional survival while whipsawed by the loss of a small child. The Boston Globe's book reviewer described the writing "fluid and insightful." Hager Cohen, a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School for Journalism, is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, as well, and recently explained in a commentary for the Boston Globe why the Pulitzer Prize Committee's refusal to select a winner for its 2012 Fiction category was 'a good thing.'

CHRISTINE CHAMBERLAIN, a memoirist and biographer, will talk about how to turn your oral history, family history and any other history of interest to you and others into books that can be self-published. It can be the history of rowing, of first-generation families who want to preserve culture and customs for their children, or the history of institutions that don’t yet have one written down. Chamberlain, a former journalist working from Europe, will bring Jane Karker, a small publisher from Maine, who will provide pointers on self-publishing and display samples of self-published work. Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 PM.

FOSEL Wins $8,000 Grant from PRUPac for Handicapped-accessible Door at South End Library

The Friends of the South End Library is pleased to report that our request for a grant from the Pru-PAC Community Benefits Committee has been approved!! This grant, combined with generous donations from private donors and library patrons will ensure that the handicapped-accessible door will be installed as soon as Pru-Pac's funds become available. A date for the disbursement of the grant funds has not been set.

FOSEL applied for a grant of $8,000 to fund a capital improvement project at the South End branch of the Boston Public Library, specifically the installation of an automated door to allow library patrons with physical disabilities, as well as the elderly patrons and parents with strollers, to access their community library. As you know, the current doorway consists of two separate heavy doors both of which must be opened by hand. With the installation of a handicapped-accessible door, the South End Library will be one of a handful of BPL branches to become fully ADA compliant, since the library already has an elevator to the second floor.

BPL did not allocate money to support this vital need in their capital budget but it did express strong support for FOSEL’s campaign to raise funds for this project. As this is a capital improvement project, BPL will have direct supervision over the installation of any handicapped- accessible entrance way and control over the bidding process and the selection of a contractor. However, we anticipate a swift completion upon distribution of the funds from PRUPac.

Prudential Center developers contribute money to the fund only when a building permit is issued. Following issuance of the permits for the Exeter Residences, $302,500 was contributed. The second project, at 888 Boylston Street is currently in a holding pattern. However, when the required permits are issued another $169,500 will be contributed to the fund. It is unclear at this time whether the South End Library funding will come from future or current funding.

Having identified a handicapped-accessible entrance to the library as a priority issue, FOSEL embarked on a private fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to have an automated entrance system installed. To date, we have raised over $6,000 from South End residents to accomplish our goal. The Pru-PAC committee took into account which projects which had secondary funding sources, so our neighbor's generous contributions were a vital component in the approval of FOSEL's grant request. Thank you all!!

Award-winning Author Edith Pearlman Will Read from Her Bestseller, "Binocular Vision," at the South End Branch on May 1, with an Introduction by South End Novelist Sue Miller

Good luck trying to find a hard-cover copy of Edith Pearlman's latest short-story collection, Binocular Vision, at any of the local bookstores.

Barnes and Noble is out. Trident Books and Raven Used Books are out. Brookline Booksmith is out. The publisher is out. And there's a long waiting list at the Boston Public Library for the book, which won the 2011 Pen/Malamud, National Book Critics Circle, and Edward Lewis Wallant award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. The good news is the paperback issue will show up in the stores next week. But the BEST NEWS is that Edith Pearlman herself will read from the collection at the South End Library on Tuesday evening, May 1, at 6:30 PM.

South End resident and nationally known novelist Sue Miller will introduce Ms. Pearlman, whose profile was featured earlier this week in the Boston Globe. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library as part of its The South End Writes/The South End Invites authors series.

Reminder: The Easter Bunny Will Visit Library Park Sunday, April 8, at 11:00 AM

The Easter Bunny will visit the Fifth Annual Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library, Sunday, April 8, at 11:00 AM, right after the Egg Hunt in Ringgold Park sponsored by their Friends group, which starts at 10:00 AM. There will be refreshments, a separate area for tiny hunters, and police help crossing Tremont Street. Bring your own baskets, or use ours...Hope to see you there, on Tremont Street between Rutland Square and West Newton Street.

BPL's Homework Assistance Program (HAP), Popular at SE Branch and Elsewhere, to Be Cut After Twelve Years; Effectiveness Data Not Collected by BPL Administration; Librarians Upset

A long-time popular Homework Assistance Program (HAP) available at most BPL neighborhood libraries and the Main Library will be discontinued at the end of this school year in May. The news came to the branches in an out-of-the-blue email at the end of March from Jessica Snow, the recently hired Youth Services Coordinator for the BPL. The after-school mentoring program, highly valued by library staff, paid high-achieving students from Boston's private and public high schools $8 an hour to tutor K-8 students in libraries all over the city. It will be replaced by other after-school efforts, yet-to-be determined.

HAP cost the BPL an estimated $200,000 a year and was a popular fundraising target for the BPL Foundation as recently as last November when donors could become sponsors during a Gala Benefit. The upcoming "Big Thrill" fundraiser in April also lists the HAP program as one of its beneficiaries. But according to sources within the City-wide Friends Group, which is affiliated with the BPL, a lack of reliable data that should have been collected by BPL administrators to support the effectiveness of the program made it difficult to continue to raise funds for it.

Children's librarians all over the city are very upset and have written Ms. Snow asking her to reconsider. "I cannot believe that the library is choosing to end a successful program, which has been held for 12 years, without any discussion with the staff involved in developing and implementing this program," wrote one children's librarian. "Many of us consider the Homework Assistance Program one of the best programs we run for children and teens. It serves a vital need in our communities; helping children with homework and study skills (many of whom can’t get that help at home) and giving high school students valuable work experience." Another pleaded that "we can all together brainstorm a way to save this very successful and educationally sound program that has earned praise and support from teachers, parents, students, librarians, and donors alike for the past twelve years. I also am surprised and upset that such a highly praised and strong tutoring program would be so abruptly announced as terminated."

According to Anne Smart, head librarian of the South End branch, four high-schoolers tutor K-8 students four days a week for a few hours at her library. "It's a great program," she said. An email sent to Ms. Snow by a SE branch staff member said, "Since I came to the SE Library in 2001, we have had several HAP mentor families in which each sibling in turn on reaching 10th grade has followed the tradition set of becoming a HAP mentor. Many of our mentors live in the South End and first came here as young children. I can’t count how often I have heard elementary and middle school students say, “When I get to 10th grade I am going to be a HAP tutor.”

In her email response to the outraged librarians, Ms. Snow wrote that she "appreciated" the comments. She did not indicate whether she would reconsider the decision. As far as the high-school tutors are concerned, she wrote, "With the new out of school time programming there may be opportunities for the HAP mentors to participate in by volunteering."

"New Busy-ness" Measure Is Not Meant to "Compare" Branch Performance But to Assess "Reach" of Library Services into Neighborhood, Says BPL's Spokeswoman Gina Perelli

A recent measure by BPL administrators to redefine what makes a branch "busy," the so-called "new Busy," is not meant to compare branch libraries competitively, according to Gina Perelli, the library's communications director. Perelli also said that the measure was "proposed" and "still looking for input" from library staff. "The idea is to capture the reach of library services into a community," she said, "to look at how many contacts the staff has with patrons as opposed to just the figure for ciculation." The "new Busy" calculation, published late February in the internal BPL Weekly, did not include a request for comment from library staff, and listed the three branches with the highest numbers consecutively. They were West End, West Roxbury and Mattapan.

A BPL's branch's circulation was one of the measures used in 2010 to determine which libraries should be closed and which remain open. The "saved" libraries, which tended to be larger, would have more resources and be open more hours. However, a number of to-be-closed libraries, while small, were convenient for users' access while larger ones were hard to reach by public transportation, or because patrons were elderly, handicapped, or too young to walk longer distances. Testimony during the library-closing hearings in 2010 suggested that patrons of East Boston's Orient Height branch, for example, one of the four on the closing list, would have had to traverse the tunnel to get to the next closest library in East Boston.

The "new Busy" calculation adds to each branch's circulation figure the number for visitors, programs and computer sessions. However, it doesn't take into account the number of hours a library is open, or the number of computers available for computer sessions. Had this number been adjusted for hours open, in a "new new Busy" configuration, the three "top-performing" branches would have been West End, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan. BPL's Perelli acknowledged the flaw during a phone conversation and pointed out that the definition of a program was not set either. "Circulation also depends on how large a collection is," she added, agreeing that there might still be "a lack in uniformity" in the numbers used to assess  either a branch's reach or its comparative popularity.

"We are still reframing ourselves as a result of the Compass hearings," said Perelli, referring to last year's numerous meetings to produce the BPL's long-term Compass Strategic Plan. "It is still an internal adjustment, informed by Compass to look more broadly at the community."

A New "Busy" Measure at the BPL Re-arranges the Pecking Order of the Busiest Branches but Doesn't Account for Differences in Library Hours

A new metric to assess a BPL branch's "busy-ness" is was instituted by the BPL recently, one that adds three new numbers to the "old" busy-ness measure of "circulation only." "This calculation expands the conversation beyond just circulation to capture more examples of the diverse ways in which a Boston Public Library location is engaged in delivery of service and user interactions," according to the BPL Weekly, an in-house newsletter.

By the old standard, the Jamaica Plain branch topped all the others for busy-ness, a little uncomfortable perhaps for the Library's administration in light of their efforts to close it, together with three others --Faneuil, Orient Heights and Washington Village-- in 2009. The "new Busy" puts the West End branch first in the most-popular sweepstakes, followed by the big beautiful new library of Mattapan and the West Roxbury branch. Jamaica Plain finishes fourth.

Strangely, the new measure does not take into account the number of hours a library is open. The BPL branches offer their services either 48 or 45 hours a week. Nor is it adjusted for when those hours are. As the recent Pew Charitable Trust Report "The Library in the City" points out, increased weekend hours can do a lot to generate visitors and circulation. In Boston, just nine branches offer a full day of service on Saturday; all the others open their doors a half day only. The South End branch, like many others, closes all Saturdays during the summer --just when the kids are out of school. Similarly, eleven of the 25 branches are open two evenings a week; the remaining 14, one night only. By contrast, the Central Library is open four nights a week, all day Saturday and five hours on Sunday, for a total of 61 hours. Not surprisingly, the main library has the highest busy-ness number, even though most of Boston's library patrons live near the branches, not downtown.

The new busy-ness's value for "computer sessions" does not reflect the number of public-access computers available in a branch, either, although it stands to reason that the more computers can be used, the more will sessions there will be. Central Library has between 75 and 80 computers, according to its reference desk; Mattapan has 44, Brighton 31, and the remaining branches anywhere between 8 (West End) and 29 (Grove Hall), according to library staff answering the phones. The South End branch has 25.

If one adjusts the "new Busy" number for how many hours a neighborhood library is open, the list of Most Popular changes again. Let's call it the "new new Busy." The top performer in that calculation is the West End branch. Jamaica Plain's branch comes in as a close second, followed by Mattapan, West Roxbury, Hyde Park and the much beloved little Faneuil library, another one on the to-be-closed list. More surprising, it beats out the new Brighton branch, down in 14th place.