Haverhill public library – Thinkers Link

Hello all. The end of the school year came around faster than I expected and I find myself right smack in the middle of my summer vacation! I hope all my teacher friends and my student allies out there are enjoying their free time and making the most of this nice weather.

Our friends at the Haverhill Public Library (HPL) have released their July lineup of free events. Besides encouraging you to continue reading even through the summer months with their reading programs, the HPL also hosts a number of these events to get families out of the sun for a few hours. Below I have highlighted their July calendar for you. Some of these events require registration and I encourage you to contact the library for more details about each of the dates. The HPL can be reached at (978) 373-1586.

Date	Time	Place	Audience	Event
July 1,2	4:30 pm	Auditorium	General	Movie: Fences
6	2–3:30 pm	Milhendler Room	Grades 6-12	Activity: Teen Crafternoon
8	10:30 am–noon		Adults 18 +	Activity: Tie Dye Tea Towels
13	7–8:30 pm	Auditorium	General	Talk: Holistic Health/ Andy Morris
17	7–8 pm		General	Activity: HPL Photography Group
18	6–8 pm	Auditorium	General	Talk: Healthier Snacking at Work/ Chef Liz Barbour
	7–8:45 pm	Milhendler Room	General	Activity: Knit and Crochet Group
22	2–4:30 pm	Auditorium	General	Movie: The Zookeeper’s Wife
26	1–3 pm	Auditorium	Ages 14+	Activity: Teen Murder Mystery Party
29	2–4 pm	Milhendler Room	Adults	Activity: Coloring Club

For more information and an updated schedule, visit HaverhillPL.org. All events are free and registrations can be confirmed online or by calling the library.

Among the many projects that I have to keep myself busy, I have been brainstorming ideas for the coming school year. Inspired by my oldest son’s creativity (he made a short five minute video that you can find here … if you have a Facebook account.) I started thinking about hosting a contest for “New Covers for Classics”, or something like that … I am open to suggestions.

Right now I am leaning towards making it a digital art project, that is, the final product must be presented as a digital file of some sort. My thinking on this is that while I love the traditional pen, paper, paintbrush, canvas artwork (as can be attested to in every issue of INKBLOTT, the HHS student arts & literary magazine) I believe that today’s creative types also need to be familiar with the digital tools available to them (and their competitors). If and when I do decide to host such a competition/ contest, I will be sure to announce it on this blog.

In the meantime, below you can find four quick examples that my son and I put together using nothing more than stock photographs from the Internet and free photo manipulating software, GIMP, which I have written about before (see 04/11/09). This kind of project reflects the inclusion of the arts in the STEM movement to transform it into the STEAM movement. While the tools we used to create the final project were digital, our brainstorming and idea gathering were artistic processes that asked us to consider the themes, symbols, characters, motifs and other central ideas of the novels for which we were creating covers. We sketched and took notes using pen, pencil and paper before we moved to our digital tools. (Interestingly, none of our pen & paper sketches looked anything like our final products, but that’s fodder for another post …. Maybe.)

Hope you found something interesting and that you are enjoying your summer. … And Happy July Fourth in advance. Que viva la INDEPENDENCIA!

The Haverhill Public Library (HPL) is a great resource, not just for students but for everyone. Just as technology has transformed the way we do everything else, it has changed our relationship with the library as well. When I was a kid, the library was just a building that warehoused books. Today it is still a great place to find printed material, but it is also a place on the internet that gives us access to valuable digital information.

Our good friends Nancy Chase and Rachel Gagnon, librarians from the HPL, visited on Thursday, November 13, 2014 to introduce us to some of the digital resources available. They spoke to Ms. Quinney’s, Mr. Lavieri’s and Mr. Rossetti’s classes and plan to return in the future. Here’s a brief introduction to the services they spoke about:

Free legal music: Downloading music from unauthorized sites is still considered piracy nowadays, even though there is no high profile site like Napster in the news any longer. Freegal Music is a great alternative and it is free and virus free (which is always a big deal). While library users must deal with a weekly download limit, all songs do have a sample clip which lets you preview the songs. All songs are in MP3 format and videos are in MP4 format; there is no DRM content. The mobile app is free and available at the Apple App Store and through Google Play.

Hoopla: Someone paid the copy people at this company good money to sell their service, so I’ll let them speak for themselves as to what this app is all about.“Freedom starts here, now.Bringing you hundreds of thousands of movies, full music albums, audiobooks and more, hoopla is a revolutionary digital service made possible by your local library.From Hollywood blockbusters to best selling artists and authors – not just the hits, but the niche and hard-to-find as well – you’ll soon discover that hoopla provides you the freedom you’ve been searching for to experience, explore and enjoy what you want, when you want, and where you want.Simple to access and use, without the hassle of having to return the items you’ve borrowed, all you need is your library card, a web browser, smart phone or tablet to get started. The freedom you want is here, now. Sign up today!”

Overdrive: Another great app that every student and avid book lover should have. Overdrive allows you to download books, audiobooks and some videos to your smart devices. They have a good, brief introduction video here and like the other services above, content is never overdue since it “disappears” from your account and your devices when it is due back. Overdrive is available for iOS, Android, Kindle and Windows Phone, as well as for Windows and Mac desktop platforms.

Zinio: Like newspapers, magazines and other periodicals have seen their print subscriptions plummet since the advent of the internet. For a while, these print sources simply offered their content online for free, but those days have passed. Nowadays, you’ll need a subscription to access most of the content of these sources. Fortunately, the public library offers you a great alternative to buying all those magazines. Through Zinio, you are able to access all the magazines that your local library subscribes to, including back issues. You can download content to read while off-line, and like with other digital services, the content disappears from your device when your time expires.

All of these apps are free to download and use on any of your devices. Highly recommended for both teachers and students, and anyone else who wants to get the most from their public library. Hope you find something useful and thank you for stopping by.

Tag: Haverhill public library

OMG, it is summer … ideas.

Free Apps from HPL