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June selection: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: Wellness by Nathan Hill, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Libby or Hoopla. This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome. For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019.

Join us to craft homemade gifts this holiday season. Learn to make one-of-a-kind beads from recycled strips of paper. Once the beads are constructed, thread them into a piece of jewelry for yourself or someone else. Recommended for children ages 6-12 with a caregiver. Tuesday, December 9: Paper Bead Jewelry Monday, December 15: Tissue Paper Flowers Please note: latecomers arriving after 4:30 p.m. may not have time to complete this project.

The City of Cambridge is committed to using technology to increase accessibility to and transparency of information owned by the City. Providing access to information is one means through which the City can foster engagement and collaboration with its citizenry. Making government data available in easy to find and usable formats can create meaningful opportunities for the public to help solve complex challenges. New datasets and visualizations will be added on a regular basis and existing datasets will be updated on a periodic basis.   

Swap extra seeds, plants or harvested items from your garden at the Library! Learn informally about Cambridge's pollinator biodiversity and why it's so important to grow and share food, strengthen and grow our local food economy, and most of all...to get our hands dirty while we get to know our neighbors, our community and our place in the world around us. Kids can make a pollinator finger puppet or take home a kit to make one.

Join us for a lively discussion of a great book in person at the Main Library! Snacks will be provided. For ages 7-9 and a parent or caregiver. This month's book is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary Lennox is a sickly and spoiled 10-year-old girl sent to live with her reclusive uncle after the death of her parents. When she arrives at his rural estate she meets a cast of characters including a friendly housekeeper and a mysterious cousin who she hears crying at night. When Mary discovers a hidden garden that has been growing wild for years, she decides to restore it in secret. Choose either the original or one of our graphic novel adaptations and come ready to compare and contrast! Copies of this month's book are available at the Children's Desk. Both caregiver and child should read the book before the discussion to participate. Registration is required — only one registration is needed per family. For questions about parent/child book group, please email Rachel: rbeaton@cambridgema.gov

Internationally renowned photographer Barry Schneier captures Boston's unique and impacting folk music scene in his new book The Song is Still Being Written, released in September 2024. The book is a collection of photos and narratives capturing stories of singer-songwriters, past, present, and future who have made the Boston/Cambridge area their home for artistic development and specifically from those who have graced one of the most heralded performance spaces in folk history, Harvard Square's Passim (originally Club 47). The program includes a performance by Kemp Harris, one of the artists profiled in the book. Schneier will be in conversation with James Sullivan, arts and culture correspondent for the Boston Globe. Barry Schneier is an internationally recognized photographer who has been immersed in the music scene since the mid-1970s. His work has been exhibited in multiple shows and is in the permanent collection of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, the Folk Americana-Roots Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Beginning April 3, 2023, the City of Cambridge will implement a one-year street cleaning pilot program designed to evaluate the effectiveness of its street cleaning operations, while seeking to reduce the impacts of towing on residents. During this pilot program, towing associated with street cleaning will not be enforced, though residents should continue to move their vehicles accordingly, following the posted street cleaning schedule. Additionally, parking tickets issued for street cleaning will be raised from $30 to $50.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is in order of importance. It is better to reduce than reuse; better to reuse than recycle. Reducing and reusing prevent the environmental impact of making new items. All disposal has financial costs to the city. Recycling and composting cost the City less than trash. Still, preventing waste in the first place is best for Cambridge and the environment. It is one of the key recommendations in the Cambridge Zero Waste Master Plan.

Join the Cambridge Public Library in celebrating National Poetry Month with a reading and talk by the acclaimed poet and author Tracy K. Smith. A former Poet Laureate of the United States, as well as the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, Smith is one of the nation's foremost experts on poetry and its unique power to—as she writes in Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times—“help you to love every other thing in the world around you.” Registration is required.

Join us as we edit and create Wikipedia pages related to artists of color! At an edit-a-thon, people work together to contribute to Wikipedia, often focusing on expanding our knowledge of underrepresented groups. You might add to the information on an existing page, create a new one, find reliable sources for others to use, or copyedit and format a page. No experience necessary! Laptops will be provided. This program is generously supported by the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library.