We'll also have a visit from a special guest. Brittney Lezon, of Ipswich MA, is a web graphic designer at Christianbook.com in Peabody, MA. In her personal time, she is most often making digital paintings or costumes of characters she's obsessed with. She has created various fanarts and cosplays from Doctor Who, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and The Last of Us.

She's a fairly new Whovian, having only started watching the newer series in August 2014. Since then she has made multiple Doctor Who related videos, the newest one being her first collaboration and biggest yet, a recreation of the famous goodbye scene from Doomsday. You can find her work at blezon.tumblr.com, and can follow her on Twitter at @twin_alchemist.

 

 

Funding for the Commonwealth's State Aid to Public Libraries Program is at risk, and we urgently need your support. According to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the administration is proposing 30% reduction in state aid to libraries from its high, which would have a significant negative impact on libraries across the state, especially smaller libraries such as Rowley's. Although the Rowley Public Library gets most of its annual operating budget through the Town, it relies on state support to make sure that our programs keep pace with the needs of the community. Technology and Resource Sharing is the other line item that is critical to the maintenance of library services and that could be severely affected by cuts. This is the program that allows our patrons to search the Commonwealth catalog to find an item that our collection doesn't have. Once it's ordered online, the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium delivers it right to the library, usually in a day or two, at an average cost of just $0.29 per item. Please take a moment to call or email your state representative and/or senator to let them know how important these services are to you as a Rowley resident, and ask them to fight to preserve equal access to information and resources. The budget is expected to work its way through the Massachusetts House of Representatives in mid-April, and the Senate will take up the debate in May. The process will be finalized in late June. For more information view the Board of Library Commissioners Legislative Agenda or visit the Massachusetts Library Association's Legislative Action Page

Interested in researching your family history? Start with yourself! Feel free to join us from 6-8 PM on April 11 in the Local History Room for Genealogy Club, where like-minded researchers can make use of the Library's resources, share ideas, and make progress on family stories. No experience necessary. No expert on hand, but those who have been working on this for a while will help you get started. New resources include Ancestry.com (for use in the library only) and Heritage Quest.  

If you can't find what you need in the  Merrimack Valley Library Consortium, try searching the Commonwealth Catalog. It allows you to search nine Massachusetts Library Networks and two Academic Library Catalogs at one time, with more members scheduled to come online soon. The Commonweath Catolog replaces the previous Virtul Catalog to link Massachusetts library resources. 

The Rowley Public Library buys many thousands of new books, movies, and CDs each year. We are now offering weekly email alerts showing you the newest books, DVDs, CDs, and audio books that we purchase each week. We hope you'll enjoy hearing about the many exciting bestsellers, movies, music, and recorded books almost the very moment they arrive at the library. Whenever you spot something of interest, you'll be able to click instantly, reserve it, and check it out at your convenience. And of course, like everything else in the library, this service is free, with sponsorship from the Friends of the Rowley Public Library.
To get started and see what the emails look like, just visit www.wowbrary.org. You can quit the weekly emails any time you wish. 

Freegal® Music is a free music service from your library. All you need is your library card number. Freegal offers access to about 8 million songs, including Sony Music's catalog of legendary artists. In total the collection is comprised of music from over 28,000+ labels with music that originates in over 80 countries. There is no software to download, and there are no digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. Access to Freegal is limited to patrons of subscribing libraries. Rowley patrons may download 5 songs per week (to keep!) and stream 3 hours per day. Visit www.rowleylibrary.org to get started.

The Rowley Public Library is excited to announce the launch of Mango Languages. Learning a new language with Mango Languages is free for all library patrons, and offers a fast and convenient solution for our community's increasing language-learning needs. Each lesson combines real life situations and audio from native speakers with simple, clear instructions. There are more than 40 foreign language courses available and 16 English as a Second Language (ESL) courses.Visit rowleylibrary.org to get started. 

The Rowley Public Library is participating in the Commonwealth eBook Collections. Click here to get started, or call 978-948-2850 for more information. This is a new statewide program in addition to our OverDrive ebook subscription through the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. There are currently over 177,000 titles in the collections.  

Check out one of our exciting discovery kits to complete at home as a family or to dig deeper into a topic or to explore a new topic. We have 22 kits covering a range of topics. Check the online catalog for details, give us a call at the library or pick up a brochure in the Children's Room the next time you visit the library.

Ongoing in-depth learning all year long!