Credits

Eat Healthy with Help from the Library


How many of us will make a New Year’s resolution to get healthier in the near future? The Children’s Room can help you get your young family members on the right path to a lifetime of healthy habits. You can find books for those just learning about health and nutrition in our E Nonfiction section. The books in this section, located in Row 12 under our display area, are separated into different categories appealing to the very young. The books about food, nutrition, and the body have a brown star on a bright green label. For older readers, you can find books on health and the body in Row 3 at j612 and books about sports and activities in Row 5 at j796. Read our list of recommended children’s books on food and nutrition.
posted by Lisa

Keep Everyone Occupied During the Holidays

Triple Dog Dare

Triple Dog Dare


Need to keep your middle school or high school student busy during the break? Check out some suggestions from the WPL Teen Blog.
Happy Holidays!

Covenant Congregational Church


Waltham has recently said goodbye to Covenant Congregational Church after 122 years in the community. The last service was held on November 21.

The church kindly donated to the library’s Waltham Room many items of interest from their collections. These include histories, photos and copies of deeds and record books, some even in Swedish from the early days of the Swedish Congregational Church.

They also generously donated a calligraphy of the history of the Piety Corner Chapel, the meeting place of the church. It was lovingly done in 1963, probably by Reverend Roger Palmquist, and shows beautiful attention to detail in the drawing of the church and the illuminated lettering. It currently makes a pretty display, along with some other of the items that were donated, outside the Waltham Room.

posted by Janice

Downsizing

Has anyone noticed how small everything is getting…The Corporate World
isn’t just downsizing its work force, it is downsizing in little tiny increments too.

Many years ago I noticed that the weight of a can of tuna had gone down.
Lately, it seems, more of the items we use are being pared down.

  • Bar Soap – has been made smaller, by making the indentations in the middle of the bar deeper.
  • Toilet Paper – the width of each piece is narrower- I noticed there is more space on either side of the roller!
  • Graham Crackers -are smaller, it takes more to cover the bottom of the pan I use for my special two layer pudding dessert.
  • Saltines – are smaller too…My hubby has to use more to sop up the soup, when he makes his “famous” Campbell’s Tomato Soup bisque. (I think the soup can is still the same size)
  • Cranberry Sauce – down from a 1-pound can to only 14 ounces – makes a smaller “plop” when it slides out of the can!
  • Tootsie Pops – The diameter has decreased – I was amazed to see how small they’ve gotten at Halloween time.
  • Wine Bottles – The dimples in the bottom of wine bottles are getting deeper.

I thought I had found an exception, recently I had to purchase some salt, which I don’t buy very often; actually I can’t remember the last time I had to buy salt. I noticed the price on the container, in my cupboard, was 69 cents. It was so old it had been “stamped” using the old fashion purple ink pad system.
At the grocery store, I was surprised to find that the price for salt was still only 69 cents. When I got the new container home, I noticed the weight on the old container was 26 ounces and the new container of salt listed the weight as 22 ounces; so it may be the same amazing price of 69 cents; BUT it weighs 4 ounces LESS!
Funny when you listen to the news, it’s all about people being overweight…you’d think with all the food package downsizing we’d be losing weight!

One place they haven’t been downsizing is at the fast food joints…
”Do you want to Super Size that?” (Sure just apply it directly to my thighs…sigh!!!)

Who can resist a bargain?

If you are looking for a bargain with fewer calories, stop in at the Waltham Public Library;
where you will find just about everything you are looking for and if we don’t have what you want we can usually locate the item at another location; either in our network or from a library out of our system. If you order a book from within the network, we can have it delivered to the Minuteman Library of your choosing for convenient pick up.
Sure we’ve got books but we have so much more than that, we also have DVDs, CDs, audio books, Internet access via in-house computers, as well as wireless connection throughout.

Programs are available for people of all ages, whether it be story hour and playtime in the Children’s Room or Opera, how-to seminars, book discussions, appearances by entertainers and civic group meetings in the Lecture Hall; there are many diverse opportunities offered at the library.

So come on in and try to resist our bargains!

posted by Jeanette

Announcing the 2011 Book Club List

On the third Thursday of every month but December, a delightful group of readers gathers in the Trustees Room of the Waltham Public Library to discuss a book.  We  come away from these meetings with a richer understanding of the books and admiration for the insights of the other participants.

Every year, I create the list of books for the coming year based on the group’s suggestions.  This year, as always, we’re mixing it up with a range of titles from near and far, now and then:

2011 Book Club Titles

If you would like to receive monthly reminders about book club meetings, you can subscribe to the list on the library’s web page under Subscribe to Library News.

Our first meeting in 2011 will be on January 20th, at 7:30 PM.  We’ll talk about Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, the story of an old man passing on family stories and secrets to his very young son.  Copies of the book will soon be available at the Circulation Desk on the 1st floor.  For more information about the Book Club, see the library’s webpage.  All are welcome — no need to sign up in advance.

Kate

Online Databases


Recently, the Waltham Public Library acquired many new databases.
These databases along with other library materials can be very helpful to students working on school assignments or anyone researching a particular topic. Our newest databases cover many subjects including History, Business, Literature, Biography, and Science.
All databases are available at the library for all users or from home to all Waltham residents who have a Minuteman Network library card. To access the databases from home you must visit the Waltham Public Library website and click Online Research. You will be asked to enter your library card number. Databases are listed alphabetically or by subject.

Our new databases include: