Hi Rumbo readers. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all. We sure had
a nice parade and I give a lot of credit to Councilor Marie
Gosselin and the whole committee that organized it. By the way,
that was my husband Norm appearing as Saint Patrick. The library
had the Mayor and Irish Vice Consul Marianne Bolger for story
telling to kick off the events of Irish Heritage Month. I was very
happy to see that everyone expected for that event showed up
because it was one miserable day. Nonetheless it turned out to be
great fun.
This weekend is the Nora Joyce show featuring Sharon Kennedy
and next week George and Terri Kelley doing a recital of
traditional Irish songs. Be sure not to miss either.
We had the pleasure of serving as a venue for the Young Opera
Company of New England last week. They performed Dido and Aeneas
for a large and appreciative audience. Even though the performers
were of high school age or even younger they performed at a very
high level. They will be back in the Fall doing The Magic Flute.
April 5th is Library Legislative Day in the state. I will be going
to the State House to talk to our local elected officials about
the importance of continued support of libraries in Massachusetts.
This is an important issue because the library depends on aid from
the state to support so much of our programming. This is true of
almost all libraries statewide. Our individual municipalities
support our day-to-day operations but, in order to run special
events and progressive programming, we need to seek funding from
the state or elsewhere. Our elected officials in the state,
Senator Susan Tucker and Representative William Lantigua certainly
are supportive but I will still attend in order to thank them for
their help over the years. This event is not just for library
personnel. Others may attend and register their support for
libraries.
As I have mentioned, we are looking for grant funding in order to
start a program of “Conversation Circles” in the library to help
ESL speakers improve their skills and comfort level with English.
In the meantime, we will be offering space to Pathways for Family
Literacy to run a similar program. The “Pathways” program is
shorter term than what we have planned and would be a great way
for interested participants to get started. Conversation groups
are a growing trend in ESL. While classroom learning is definitely
a necessity for beginners, conversation groups allow students to
work on their language skills in a more natural environment. They
are ideal for folks who have a fair bit of formal English training
but do not live or work where English is spoken regularly. Using a
new language in a natural conversational setting is probably the
most important element in helping people to “think” in the
language being learned. Get in touch with Emily Hoffman as
Pathways (a part of Greater Lawrence Community Action Council) for
more information on this program.
Plans proceed for the April opening of the Addison Gallery exhibit
of the White Fund paintings. Curricula are going out to all the
schools in the city so our students can learn about these works. I
will make sure to catch you all up on things as they proceed.
Meanwhile, see you at the library.
EDITORIAL
