Bob Dylan turns 70

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is recognized worldwide for the impact he has had on rock music since his career began in the early 1960s, and he has maintained his popularity among fans and critics alike over the ensuing decades. Although known primarily for his caustic and candid lyrics that reveal a defiant stance on authority, politics, and social norms that was prevalent in America in the 1960s, Dylan's fans come from a variety of age groups, all of whom identify with the raw human emotion expressed in his lyrics. As further evidence of Dylan's broad appeal and the magnitude of his contributions to music, he performed in Bologna, Italy, in September of 1997, after receiving a special invitation from Pope John Paul II. The notoriously private artist revealed more of his personal life with a documentary film and autobiography published in 2005.

Dylan has composed more than 500 songs since early 1960s; recorded with rock groups including The Band (1975), The Traveling Wilburys (with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison, 1988 and 1990), and The Grateful Dead (1989); solo singer and musician in concerts since early 1960s, including appearances at Newport Folk Festival in 1962 and 1965, Woodstock Festivals in 1969 and 1994, and Live Aid benefit concert in 1985.

For full article visit our website www.framinghamlibrary.org and follow the Databases & Articles link to the Gale Biography in Context database.

Source Citation:
"Bob Dylan." Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 24 May 2011.

Dale Chihuly at the MFA

With passes from the Framingham Public Library to the Museum of Fine Arts, you will be able to visit “Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass” without additional cost.  At the MFA until August 7, 2011, this amazing exhibit showcases both new and archival work of this master glass artist.

Born in Tacoma, WA, and now based in Seattle, Chihuly received a Masters in Fine Arts and taught for many years at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.  His work is exhibited in over 200 museums worldwide, and is included in many private and commercial collections.  Want more info? Look here!

To reserve passes to the MFA or a variety of other places, start at our web page, http://www.framinghamlibrary.org/ and follow the links to Museum Passes.  You can book the passes yourself, or call us at (508) 532-5570, ext. 4361.

What to do about winter damage?

We had a long rough winter and many of us have building and yard damage to prove it. 

After a severe winter you may see discolored leaves, burned evergreen needles or leaves, dead branches, heaved root systems, and broken limbs and branches.  The extent of winter damage can best be determined once spring growth is well underway.

This is the time of year to prune all dead twigs and branches back to within a quarter of an inch above a live bud.  Prune to remove badly damaged or broken branches, to shape the plant and stimulate growth.

An application of fertilizer to the soil around winter damaged plants, accompanied by adequate watering will usually help plants and shrubs to compensate for winter injuries.
If you have plants close to areas that were heavily treated with salt last winter, you may want to take a soil sample to the county extension service. They will test the soil and, if it is warranted, advise you how to improve and enrich growing conditions.   Start here: www.umass.edu/soiltest.

It is a good idea to flush the area around plants exposed to road salt.  Apply two inches of water over a 2-3 hour period and repeat 3 days later to leach most of the salt from the soil.  Foliage can also be rinsed with lots of water to wash away any remaining salt spray. For future planning, consider putting salt tolerant plantings close to the road.  Some examples are roses, red oak, junipers, white oak and Scotch pine.   

While you are in the yard, walk around your house and look for possible winter damage.  Check the roof, inspect the foundation, look for rot on wooden decks and stairs, check the soundness of the window frames.  Clean the gutters and air conditioners.

Did you know we have a fun, fast and easy language learning program called Mango Languages?

You can access Mango Languages for free anywhere there is internet with your Framingham Public Library card. You can even download a Mango Languages app for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad from iTunes!

Mango is an easy and effective way to learn to speak a foreign language. Mango is available in two versions:

Mango Basic:
Perfect for a foreign language beginner, Mango Basic teaches everyday greetings, gratitudes, goodbyes and helpful phrases in a short period of time. The courses, which require only two to five hours of time to complete, are currently available in 34 foreign languages and 15 English as a Second Language (ESL) courses.
You can view all the supported Mango Basic languages and ESL courses here: http://www.framinghamlibrary.org/mango.htm

Mango Complete:
Mango Complete offers a 100-lesson course that digs much deeper and is designed to provide a more complete understanding of the entire language and culture. It is available in 31 foreign language and 14 ESL courses. Foreign language courses include Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. ESL courses include Spanish and Portuguese.

Visit http://www.framinghamlibrary.org/ and click the Mango button to get started!

Massachusetts Newstand - FREE newspaper articles!

Search current and older newspaper articles from 1980-present in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Quincy Patriot Ledger, The Worcester Telegram, the Berkshire Eagle and the Lowell Sun plus other local newspapers from Massachusetts Newstand. Access this from home with your library card number for free.

Isn't it great to know that if you can't find that piece you've been wanting to read but some well meaning family member (or you!) flipped into the recycle bin...that you can come here and find it using a few keywords? Go to http://www.framinghamlibrary.org/and select "Databases and Articles" from the left column.Then follow the link for Massachusetts Newstand.

New in the Framingham Room

The Framingham Room is the corner of the Reference Collection devoted to local history. We have two important new collections housed there.

Through the efforts of a volunteer who was formerly the archivist at Wellesly College our collection of Wallace Nutting manuscripts, archives and memorabilia has been organized, boxed and indexed. Wallace Nutting was a Renaissance man...minister, author, painter, furniture designer. He colorized illustrations that remain quite popular to this day. Nutting and his wife lived in Framingham from 1912 until his death in 1941.

The library also owns an eclectic collection of old photographs. Some are reproductions, others original. Some of the pictures date back to the nineteenth century. They cover many aspects of local life and history. The photographs are indexed and available for viewing whenever the library is open.

Make a Difference

"One person can make a difference and everyone should try." John Fitzgerald Kennedy

There are many opportunities for anyone and everyone to make a difference. The Reference Staff would be happy to help you find your way to improve and enrich our community. Here are some examples of projects waiting for you!

Coach Little League or Soccer
Become a Big Brother/Sister
Support a new mother or elderly person through weekly visits
Become a Literacy, ESL Volunteer or a Reading Buddy
Knit hats for cancer patients, mittens or afghans for foster children
Be a docent at a museum
A Volunteer at an Animal Shelter
Deliver books to the homebound
Train for a walk, run or bike ride, to raise money for charity
Get involved with a local food bank
Find a local service organizations whose mission interests you.
Participate in activities with developmentally disabled youngsters.

Please consult our Community Information Database at Framinghamlibrary.org for more ideas. Community initiatives and opportunities are often posted in the library newsletter and can also be found on the shelves by the Pearl Street door to the library.

Spellman Museum

Summer is coming and you may be looking for local activities. Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Framingham Library Association and other supporters, we are fortunate to be able to offer a wide range of passes for free or reduced admission to local museums, historic attractions, botanic gardens, and zoos. With the help of the library pass program, you and your family can explore new attractions and revisit favorites.

You may book a pass by calling the Reference Desk at 508-532-5570 ext 4361, or you can view their availability and reserve passes yourself by starting at our web page, www.framinghamlibrary.org.

A lesser-known local attraction is the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History. Founded in 1960, the Spellman Museum, on the campus of Regis College in Weston, is one of only 2 museums in the country devoted to stamps and postal history.  The Museum provides a variety of services to assist collectors as well as members of the general public who have questions about stamps and postal history. The Spellman Museum's collection is estimated at 2,000,000 items including representative, worldwide stamp collections; individual items of rarity and curiosity; representative specialized collections of a particular stamp, topical and thematic collections; and information about the development of the postal and telegraph system.

In addition, The Spellman Museum Library is the major philatelic library in New England and one of a handful of significant philatelic libraries in the United States.

They are open Thursday through Sunday from 12 noon to 5 pm. Our pass admits 2 adults for free; children under 16 are always free.   Check their web site,  http://www.spellman.org/ for special exhibits.

May is National Barbecue Month

The technique of cooking over hardwood coals or a low fire, or with smoke and indirect heat from hardwood, at a low temperature (about the boiling point of water) exists in a great many different cultures, and has from time immemorial: Europeans and Africans were both familiar with it before they arrived in the New World and found the native Indians doing it.


The word barbecue came into English only some five hundred years ago. In the first decades of the 1500s Spanish explorers in the Caribbean found the locals using frameworks of sticks to support meat over fires. They did this either to slow-cook it or to cure and preserve it. Both on the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and on the northern coast of South America this apparatus was called something that the Spanish heard as barbacoa.

Barbecue pits date back to 25,000 B.C., and starting around 1600 B.C., the ancient Greeks were hosting open-pit barbecues. Writing in the eighth century B.C., the Greek epic poet Homer describes an early barbecue: Among guests of honor were Ajax and Odysseus, and the pit master was Achilles.

In the 1600s, shooting firearms at a barbecue was declared unlawful in Virginia. By 1769, barbecue was an American social and culinary institution. An entry in George Washington's diary that year states: "Went up to Alexandria to a barbicue."

Barbecue flourished first in the South, where the domesticated pig was and still is the meat of choice. Barbecue followed the herds of cattle west to Texas, where beef was and still is synonymous with barbecue. And in the Midwest, Southern and Western barbecue traditions crossed and mingled.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries regional barbecue developed into the well-defined varieties, styles and sauces that have made America the barbecue capital of the world. It was the food of the poor--slaves, cowhands, rural country folk.

It was the alfresco feast of the rich--who hosted lavish barbecue parties. And it was the crowd-pleasing bash of politicians--from Boss Tweed to Lyndon Baines Johnson, Jimmy Carter to President Bush. In the 20th century, the rediscovery of regional American cuisine has refueled our interest in barbecue.

Ready to barbecue?

The following titles and many others can be found in our cookbook section at call#’s 641.5784 & 641.76

Low and slow : master the art of barbecue in 5 easy lessons / by Gary Wiviott ; with Colleen Rush.

Smoke & spice : cooking with smoke, the real way to barbecue / by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.

Serious barbecue : smoke, char, baste, and brush your way to great outdoor cooking / by Adam Perry Lang

For a review of barbecue smokers and grills visit:

Amazing Ribs - All about Barbecue, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking

Galt Technology - Internet Guides, Buying Guides, and product reviews