Dear Patrons, Supporters and Sponsors,

The last day of the Storefront Library at 640 Washington St. will be Sunday, January 17, 2010. If you haven’t had a chance to come by, please do! This weekend, in addition to storytime and a special science activity, we’ll be giving tours for the American Librarians’ Association Midwinter Conference.

Thank you to our host Archstone for extending the donation of the storefront space into 2010. The extension let us serve more patrons, gather more evaluation data, and capture the attention of librarians nationwide coming to Boston. We’re optimistic about what happens next—both for Chinatown and for other experiments in the model of the Storefront Library.

Click “Continued” below for a detailed description of how we will disperse some of the components of the Storefront Library to seed emerging projects in the neighborhood, including a new community reading room in development by Friends of the Chinatown Library. We’ll continue to report on the progress of these projects and ongoing efforts to bring library services to the neighborhood at storefrontlibrary.org.

Although it’s time for us to move on from this space, Boston Street Lab is already working on several new projects that build on what we’ve learned. Watch for a new outdoor project based on the language learning programs and translation services you experienced in the Storefront Library. So, although we’re moving on, we’re not going away—let’s keep in touch.

It has been a thrill and an honor to work on this remarkable project with all of you.

Leslie and Sam Davol
Boston Street Lab

Continued…

At the Storefront Library, whether you’re attending a program, reading a newspaper, or working the Drawing Lab, you’ll find yourself among people making the most of a formerly vacant storefront—doing things together and doing things “alone.”

As always, we’re open late on Thursday until 8PM. And we’ve got your favorite bilingual storytime at 6PM featuring Jan Brett’s “The Mitten” and “The Hat” and a hedgehog craft.

Join us, and do your thing.

Drawing Workshop in the Storefront Library
Sunday, January 10, 12PM-3PM.

MAKE YOUR MARK and DRAW in the Drawing Lab! Come DRAW and EXPLORE with artist, Deb Putnoi. You will: Draw to music and different sounds; Draw using your sense of TOUCH as your guide; Experiment with DIFFERENT DRAWING MATERIALS; Draw on different kinds of papers and surfaces. This workshop is for EVERYONE to DRAW: young and old, experienced artists and beginners. It is for those who love to draw and for those who may be afraid to draw.

Discussion on the History of Chinese Restaurants
Sunday, January 10, 2PM.

Join in for a facilitated discussion on the history of Chinese restaurants. This event is presented by the Chinese Historical Society of New England in conjuction with the exhibit “Chow Mein Sandwiches, Chicken Wings, and Cheese Burgers,” which is on view in the Storefront Library through January 17. Curators of the exhibit, John Eng-Wong and Heather Lee, from Brown University, will be on hand to facilitate.

Start off with Storytime at 11:30AM. We’ll read the Very Hungry Caterpillar and make our own caterpillars to take home. We’ll be bilingual throughout (English and Cantonese). Thanks to Volunteer Staff Laura Jean and Celia for teaming up for this event.

Then, from 12PM-1PM, join educators from Opera Boston for an hour of special storytelling and craft workshop inspired by one of China’s most beloved stories, Madame White Snake. Madame White Snake, a powerful white snake demon, wants more than anything to become a human and experience love. After meditating for one thousand years, Madame White Snake is granted her wish. Come and learn about the many adventures that she and her maid, Lady Blue have as they begin their human lives in Hang Zhou, China. We’ll also make Chinese opera masks to take home.

Tonight’s storytime is all about moose.

Join readers Sharon Tomasulo and Annie Wu at 6PM for Moose Tracks by Karma Wilson and If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff. We’ll make our own antlers to wear. Bilingual reading (Cantonese).

The Library is open Thursday nights until 8PM. When you visit the Storefront Library and give us feedback, we learn more about what a future, permanent library could be like in the neighborhood. Come down and tell us what you think!

Join us in the Storefront Library today for two language learning events:

1PM—English Language Conversation Practice. Join a guided conversation to practice your English skills. All levels—drop in anytime from 1-2PM.

5PM—Workshop on ESOL Courses & Scholarships at The American Chinese Christian Educational and Social Services.  Come learn about Intensive courses for improving pronunciation and English for Restaurant Workers, scholarships, and a school “Enrichment Program” for grades 2-5. Presented in English and Cantonese. 免費講座﹕基督教華人社區服務中心成人英語冬季強化班和春季班及獎學金. 基督教華人社區服務中心將詳細介紹它們開設的成人英語課程。本講座重點介 紹提高讀音水平和針對餐館工人開辦的冬季強化班﹐以及從初級到中級水平的春 季班。最後﹐還將介紹有關申請春季班全額或半額獎學金的情況,以及面嚮K2至K5 年級的放學後豐富課外活動的計劃。講座以及散發材料均為中英文。

The Storefront Library is closed for the holidays and will re-open January 3, 2010.
图书馆在假期会关闭直到２０１０，１月３号．
Many of our volunteer staff are traveling home for the holidays right now. Have a safe and happy holiday break. See you in 2010!

Join us today at 5PM for a free workshop hosted by The Chinatown Human Development Studio: “Childcare with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center.” Learn about BCNC’s Child Care programs, including family child care homes, the Acorn Center for Early Education and Care, and the Red Oak After School program. The workshop will help you answer: What should I know about selecting a quality child care program? How do I enroll a child in one of the programs? What will it cost?

All workshops conducted in both English and Cantonese. Free and open to the public.

The Storefront Library will be closed Sunday, Dec. 20 due to a snow storm. We expect to re-open on Monday for regular hours 11AM-6PM.

因为明天十二月二十会下大雪，我们闭馆一天

On Sunday, Hope Nguyen entered the 4000th donated book in the Storefront Library Online Catalog, as Amy Cheung, Program Manager, looked on.

In two months, more than 40 volunteers have contributed nearly one thousand hours of public service in the Storefront Library, and it’s fitting that Hope was there to mark our latest milestone. Hope has a remarkable combination of kindness, good humor, and tenacity that she lends to the library every Sunday. Her extensive work with the collection means that any book you borrow has probably passed through her hands.

We love data in the Storefront—cataloging donated materials means we can circulate books efficiently and learn about what the community wants in a library. But the success of this institution depends on something more important: the dedication and generosity of our volunteer staff. Thank you to Hope Nguyen and all the Storefront Library Volunteers for their service.

Join us from 2-4PM Sunday for a repeat of yesterday’s “Shadow Puppet Theater.” Try out Chinese Shadow Puppets using kits provided by the Boston Childrens’ Museum. Drop in anytime. For all ages.

Chinatown Storefront Library from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.

This Saturday, we’ve got five events for you and your family:

1. Listen to Storytime at 11:30AM.
2. Join Be the Match and learn how easy it has become to become a bone marrow donor (and how critical your donation can be for Asian Americans and people of mixed-race descent). 12-4PM.
3. Check out Chinese Shadow Puppets with hands-on activities using kits provided by the Boston Childrens’ Museum. 2-4PM.
4. Attend a special bi-lingual tour of the Copley Branch of the Boston Public Library, arranged by the Storefront Library. 3PM at Copley.
5. Publish yourself in a hand-on workshop from the experts at the Papercut Zine Library. 3-6PM.

Or just stop by to use the internet, read a newspaper, or borrow a book.

The Storefront Library is run by volunteers—come by, meet the team, and cheer them on as they produce another Saturday in the Storefront.

Chow Mein, Chicken Wings, and Cheeseburgers: Recalling Downcity Chinese in the Postwar Era is a photo exhibit of historic Chinese restaurants in New England that revisits the world of Chinese restaurants in downtown Providence from its heyday in the wake of World War II through its decline in the 1980s. The exhibit remembers Ming Garden, Mee Hong, and Luke’s Restaurant through the families that owned and ran them. It also explores the consumption of Chinese food and culture by the greater Downcity Providence community.

The Chinese Historical Society of New England brings to Boston an exhibit that originally was on display at the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. The exhibit will also feature historic restaurant photos and materials from the CHSNE collection.

The Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) will host an opening ceremony that includes a brief presentation by Heather Lee and Amy Johnson, co-curators, and comments by John Eng-Wong, visiting scholar from Brown University’s Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America. The opening is free and open to the public. Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 5:00-7:00 pm. Contact Chinese Historical Society of New England at 617-338-4339 or email info@chsne.org

Join us for a unique event in the Storefront Library on Saturday, December 12, 3-6PM: a workshop for teens introducing zines (“zeens”) and zine-making. The free session will cover the basics: how to spot zines, where to look for them and what they can be used for. It will also feature step-by-step instructions on how to construct a zine and opportunities to make your own zine. More from the Papercut Librarians:

“We hope this will be the first in a series of “Immediate Zine” group zine-making experiments hosted by The Papercut Zine Library, in collaboration with the Storefront Library.

Papercut staffers will lead a conversation exploring the big questions of whats a zine? Where do zines come from? Why do people make them? What do they look like? If I were to make a zine, how big should i make the margins? How do I work this long-arm stapler? etc.

Participants will then be asked to build themselves a page or two for a group-zine on the topic of: Free Expression. Take some time to write something up, draw a cartoon, build a collage, whatever. The results will be laid-out, photocopied and collated on the spot, giving participants a full seed-to-cabbage type of zine-making experience–plus a new zine full of original art and ideas.

Background: The Papercut Zine Library, booted out from the rad free space it occupied in Harvard Square for four years, was this fall graciously offered some shelf-space by the Chinatown Storefront Library. The Storefront asked Papercut to run a zine-making workshop, and this is what we came up with. It could turn out prettty good, we think.”
—Papercut Zine Librarians

Monday evening, the Storefront Library hosted a rousing spoken word performance sponsored by students of a Storytelling, Performance and Production class at the University of Massachusetts, Boston in collaboration with the Asian American Studies Program at U. Mass.

Open to the public until 9PM, the Library was packed and standing room only—which is good thing for poets and also our expectations about what a library, a storefront, and a city can offer.

Thanks to all today’s Storefront Library volunteers who logged a total of 36.5 hours of public service, and also Liz Coffey, Amy Sloper, and the folks at Home Movie Night for a terrific show this evening. Visit the multimedia player here at storefrontlibrary.org for photos from Saturday’s events, including Storytime run by Lucy Borgheiinck (Simmons GSLIS ‘11) and Celia Ho, and Chinese Celebrations run by Laura Jean Miller (Simmons GSLIS ‘08).

Join us Sunday for Chinese Celebrations from 2:00pm – 4:00pm where you can drop in and learn about Chinese celebrations through hands-on activities. For all ages.

Please note we’ll open 15 minutes late on Sunday at 11:15AM. Closing time remains 6:00PM.

Start things off with Storytime at 11:30AM. Follow with Chinese Celebrations from 2:00pm – 4:00pm where you can drop in and learn about Chinese celebrations through hands-on activities, guided by Storefront Library staff, using kits provided by the Boston Childrens’ Museum. For all ages.

Wrap it up with Home Movie Night—a celebration of amateur film where you are invited to show and watch your old home movies on super 8, 8mm, 16mm, DVD, and VHS. Local film archivists will be on hand to help. Film check in 5PM. Viewing starts 6PM.

And of course, we’ve got books you can borrow, newspapers, magazines, and a Drawing Lab.

Come to think of it, you could really spend your whole day in the Storefront Library.

[Update 6:30PM] Home Movie Night is underway—thanks to everyone for coming out on a snowy evening.

Tonight was record-breaking—three simultaneous events and scores of people using the library into the evening. But why is busy important to us?

In short, the more you use the Storefront Library, the more we learn from this experiment.

Boston Street Lab and the Storefront Library Interns and Volunteers are committed to documenting the broad demand for library services in the community. But we’re also committed to uncovering specific data about exactly what works best, when it works best, and how to produce it efficiently. We believe that a fine grained understanding of how the community uses this temporary library can inform and inspire advocacy for a permanent library branch in the neighborhood. We also think it will help us develop other small-scale, street-level cultural uses of space in downtown Boston.

Film Screening: From Hutong to Highrise: The Transformation of Beijing, a documentary by Jasper Goldman and Beatrice Chen
Friday Dec 4 6pm. (20 minute film). Here’s an event Flyer—help us spread the word.

In the summer of 2001, urban planning students Beatrice Chen and Jasper Goldman, traveled to China to document the rapidly disappearing urban fabric of historic Old Beijing. Amidst observations in the hutongs (narrow lanes) and the siheyuans (courtyard houses) that are unique to Beijing and conversations with Beijing residents, they discovered an escalating debate about the endangered fate of these historic neighborhoods that extended beyond the technical issues of architecture. The people, the community, the lifestyle, the culture, the politics and economics were all central to the debate that could easily tip the scale between the preservation of a neighborhood and the demolition of a neighborhood.

Continued…

The Storefront Library will host a meeting of Friends of the Chinatown Library, Friday, December 4, 4:00pm. All welcome. For more information and to rsvp, contact Lisette Le, Civic Action Coordinator, Chinese Progressive Association, 617-357-4499 or lisette@cpaboston.org

Storefront Library staff coordinated and delivered a donation of 350 high quality classic fiction titles to the Quincy Upper School, a Boston Public School on Arlington Street that serves grades 6 – 12. The books had been carefully selected from high school reading lists by a donor who asked for our help in getting these books into the hands of local high school students.

Storefront Library staff sought out Peter Chan, a chemistry teacher at the Quincy Upper School, (photo above) who is spearheading an effort to create a library for the school’s students. (They have a room which long ago served as a library, but it is not yet operational.) Peter accepted the books on behalf of the Quincy School. We are considering other ways that the Storefront Library can help the Quincy Upper School Library get up and running.

Stay tuned for more news about how the Storefront Library will be collaborating with the Quincy School in the months ahead.