Uncategorized – Springfield City Library

Be Love

What is Be Love?

BE LOVE is a growing movement of courageous acts to achieve justice, which we define based on these words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”

BE LOVE seeks to strategically define and unleash the true power of love to unite humanity, cultivate true peace, and create the Beloved Community. The movement has a three-pronged call to action:

Be educated on what it means to Be Love
Build inward character and outward community and
Be a part of creating a more just, humane, equitable and peaceful world, using the principles and steps of Kingian Nonviolence (Nonviolence365).

Here’s how our local Be Love Project works

With arts and culture, we will demonstrate the power of community to develop our movement, one artist at a time. Help create a visual of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “The Beloved Community.” Participants are invited to participate either individually or communally by decorating puzzle pieces. Decorated puzzle pieces will be collected by August 29, 2024 and assembled to be featured at MLK Day 2025.

We are planning Be Love events forthcoming in the Fall with an open invitation for community members to engage as a lead up to MLK Day on January 20, 2025.

This summer, please plan to join us at the Mason Square Summer Concert series on Thursdays, July 25 and August 22 from 5 to 7 pm and create your Be Love pieces onsite. The Mason Square Branch Library will host these concerts, rain or shine, at 765 State Street, Springfield.

How can YOU participate?

You have a powerful perspective—share it by creating your own puzzle piece in this art engagement project! As you craft your Be Love puzzle pieces, you might think about:

How do you see “Beloved Community” around you?
What do you feel would better make “Beloved Community” around you?
How do you act in the spirit of courageous love?

Puzzle piece packets will be made available at all Springfield City Library locations, local youth serving organizations, and can be made available upon request to info@mlkjrfs.org.

Seize the opportunity to craft in communion with others or to take them home and return them by August 29, 2024. This project stretches across our great region; community members of all ages will be invited to create a puzzle piece with a personal reflection of what it means to “Be Love.”

Partners

Springfield City Library is proud to partner with MLK Jr. Family Services and Springfield Cultural Partnership to expand this social justice art engagement project, as a part of The King Center of Atlanta’s growing national movement, ‘Be Love’.

Scan the Van

Local Authors – Submit Your Information

Local Authors – sign up now!

Please fill our this form to submit your information to be added to our database of local authors – we will pull from this list for all future author fairs!

For questions, please email emckinstry@springfieldlibrary.org.

Vamos a conversar sobre la equidad digital en Springfield

En una serie de conversaciones (en persona y por computadora) con la comunidad, para asegurarse de que todos los residentes de Springfield tengan acceso a una conección rápida, accesible y confiable al internet en el futuro.

Contribuya sus ideas y experiencias a la planeación de la equidad digital de la ciudad en las reuniones comunitarias organizadas por Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (Comisión de Planificación del Pioneer Valley).

Date	Location
Jueves, Octubre 26, 5:45-7	Biblioteca Brightwood, 359 Plainfield St
Lunes, Noviembre 13, 5:45-7	Biblioteca East Forest Park, 136 Surrey Rd
Miércoles, Noviembre 29, 5:45-7	East Springfield Neighborhood Council, 1437 Carew St
Jueves, Noviembre 30, 5:45-7	Biblioteca Mason Square, 765 State St
Lunes, Diciembre 4, 5:45-7	por Zoom: https://bit.ly/3tWwvH5

English / Español

Springfield high school yearbooks available online (WWLP)

The free catalog offers Springfield high school yearbooks dating back as far as the 1900s. Since August 2022, the library has collected more than 400 yearbook donations.

Check out the story from WWLP

July 18, 2023:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Springfield City Library launched its high school yearbooks online.

The free catalog offers Springfield high school yearbooks dating back as far as the 1900s. Since August 2022, the library has collected more than 400 yearbook donations.

If you have a yearbook from Springfield, consider donating it to be digitalized in the library’s archive. According to the Springfield City Library’s website, the following high school yearbooks have not yet been donated:

Conservatory of the Arts
John J. Duggan Academy
Liberty Preparatory Academy
Pope Francis Catholic School
Springfield High School (1828-1840)
Springfield High School of Science and Technology (1996-present)
Springfield Public Day High School
The Springfield Renaissance School

Reference Librarian Maggie Keane said, “We’ve received over 400 yearbook donations, with around 250 unique items – the response has been tremendous! But it won’t end there – we’re still actively seeking donations, especially from later decades and missing years. We’ve also learned a lot about digitizing collections with Digital Commonwealth, and look forward to adding more local Springfield materials over time.”

Collecting the yearbooks from members of the community has proven to be a very heartwarming and nostalgic experience for everyone involved and the librarians working on the project have enjoyed hearing the stories behind why people chose to donate either their own yearbooks or yearbooks of loved ones.

Deborah Smith of Springfield donated to the library’s collecting stating, “As someone who has done a lot of genealogy research over the years, I know how helpful, and interesting, high school yearbooks can be. I was most pleased to donate two books from the 1940’s that belonged to my late husband’s aunts, and hope they prove useful to someone.”

Candyce Carlon, of Rochester NH, sent the library her mother’s yearbooks in the mail. “My mom loved her time at Technical High School, and she would be thrilled to know that the yearbooks she treasured could contribute to your project.”

Robert Sarnacki, of West Springfield, donated the 1963 Tech Tiger yearbook that belonged to his brother Tom. “I was happy to hear I could donate the yearbook, rather than it ending up chopped up somewhere. I always figured someone somewhere could get some use out of it. I would be a terrible waste not to do what the library is doing.”

A man in France was looking for his mother’s 1931 graduation photo from her senior yearbook from the High School of Commerce, he said, “Seeing my mother’s image, as well as her many school activities, brought tears to my eyes.”

Additional high school memorabilia is on display at the Central Library located at 220 State Street in Springfield including early edition yearbooks, class photos, newspaper articles, varsity letters, class superlatives, and more.

Visit Springfield MA High School Yearbooks to see the collection

Heat Closures

Wellman Hall has no air conditioning and is closed when when the heat and humidity levels are deemed unhealthy.

If there are no events scheduled, public computers and printing services will be available in the Computer Lab on the first floor. Library programs will remain the priority.

COMPUTER LAB HOURS

Mon, June 17: 12-5
Tue, June 18: 9-5
Wed, June 19: 12-5
Thu, June 20: 9-5

The rest of the building will remain open to provide normal library services. In addition, branch locations will operate normally. Follow this link to view our other locations and hours.