Around Town

Library Seeks Residents to Take Part in Watertown Collective Memory Project

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The Watertown Free Public Library is launching a project called the Watertown Collective Memory Project and you can be a part of it! The Watertown Collective Memory Project (WCMP) is “a yearlong initiative to build a digital collection of stories and photographs from Watertown’s recent history, up to the present day, that captures the full breadth and diversity of our community,” as Local History Librarian Caroline Littlewood described it. Though the project is led by Littlewood and other members of the Watertown Free Public Library (WFPL), they are encouraging other local organizations to contribute and will be relying on volunteers to help run the project. The Historical Society of Watertown and Watertown Cable Access Television are both partners in the project as well. 

The WCMP first got started as part of a refurbishing of the WFPL’s digital history records and has since developed into a community-wide project to build a collaborative and accessible digital history of the town. For Littlewood especially, who started her position at the WFPL during the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has come to mean much more than uploading files.

Around Town

Library in February: First Watertown, USA Summit, Author Talk, History of Hip Hop

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The Watertown Free Public Library previewed the events coming up in February:

Here’s one of the more delightfully quirky programs we’ve ever hosted: On Tuesday evening, 2/8, join WFPL for Watertown Where?! — the first-ever Watertown, USA summit. We’ll meet up virtually to swap local history stories and share what makes our Watertown unique. Watertowns represented include MA, NY, SD, CT, MN, and TN. 

Also coming up: Jerald Walker will join us virtually to discuss his award-winning essay collection, How to Make a Slave, and the acclaimed Illstyle & Peace ensemble will present The History of Hip Hop at the Library for children grades K and up! Library News

We’re wishing happiness, good health, and relaxation to Library Director Leone Cole as she retires from WFPL after 27 years. The Library as you know it today wouldn’t be possible without Leone’s steadfast commitment to providing exceptional library service.

Around Town

Community Members Will be Part of Search for the Next Director of the Watertown Library

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Watertown Free Public LibraryThe Watertown Free Public Library. The Watertown Library will be looking for a new leader with longtime Library Director Leone Cole announcing her retirement. Cole has made her mark on the Watertown Free Public Library, said Chair Leanne Hammonds. “Leone Cole is retiring after 27 years as library director,” Hammonds said. “She has done incredible work at WFPL and she will certainly be missed!”

Around Town

LETTER: A Fitting Way to Honor Watertown’s Retiring Library Director

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Watertown Free Public LibraryThe Watertown Free Public Library. A Fitting Tribute To A Local Superstar

After 27 years, Leone Cole, Our Library Director is Retiring, Here’s An Idea to Thank Her for Her Service to Watertown

Dear Watertown,

Under Leone’s innovative and forward-thinking leadership, our library has become the heart of our community – welcoming, serving, and educating people of all ages and from all walks of life, through even the most challenging of times. Our library has had such a positive influence − in ways we can only begin to imagine − on the lives of so many who have entered that building on 123 Main Street. Book groups, films, music, our History Room, research assistance, the Hatch Makerspace, storytelling, community talks/events, Project Literacy, the Library of Things, courses in finance, exercise, citizenship, and more have brought our community together. As many residents of Newton, Belmont, and Waltham will tell you, our library is their library of choice.

Entertainment

Watertown Library Announces One Book, One Watertown Title for 2022

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The following announcement was provided by the Watertown Free Public Library:

WFPL invites you to participate in One Book, One Watertown 2022! This year’s book selection challenges us to question how we engage with the natural world around us. Braiding Sweetgrass, by botanist and Citizen Potawatomi Nation member Robin Wall Kimmerer, is a “hymn of love to the world” that gifts insight about scientific knowledge, Indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.” Kimmerer shows how other living beings — asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass — offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. 

This year, we encourage readers to go slowly and savor this beautiful book — either all at once, or in bits and pieces.

Around Town

Watertown Library Events Moved Online Due to COVID, See What’s Happening this Month

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Watertown Free Public LibraryThe Watertown Free Public Library. The Watertown Free Public Library provided the following announcement:

Due to the recent increase in Covid cases, all in-person Library programs will be canceled or moved online for the month of January. Here’s what this means:

January programs that were scheduled to take place in person will be canceled or held virtually. This eNewsletter includes updated information.January programs that were scheduled to take place virtually will continue.Front Lawn Story Time will move to Facebook Live beginning 1/6/22.Outside groups that have booked meeting rooms can continue to meet.Library services and in-library browsing will continue. We hope to resume in-person programming in February, 2022, but will adjust as necessary.