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When was the last time you had a conversation about current events with someone who holds an opposing view? If that experience left you feeling frustrated and shut down, join this virtual Cape-wide discussion with the News Literacy Project (click here for their site) to learn tools for speaking about current events and listening across divides. The discussion will take place Online via Zoom on Thursday April 25 at 5:30pm-click here to register. Please note that the library will be closed and you are expected to join the Zoom from your home. In today’s divided political climate it can feel impossible to hold civil conversations about current events – especially when misinformation and conspiracy theories abound. However, learning a few news literacy skills can help you keep conversations grounded in fact while maintaining the civility that is essential in a thriving democracy. About the News Literacy Project: The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit, is building a national movement to advance the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals—and ultimately a stronger democracy. |
Category: Education
Zoom talks this April!
We are fortunate to have many exciting Zoom talks in April! Please note that these talks are virtual only, and will not take place in the library (some talks may be recorded, and you can view the recording later by registering). Click the links for details and to register.
From the Library Speakers’ Consortium, we have three great author talks! These talks are funded for us by the Library Support Fund. Click here for a more detailed list of their upcoming talks!
Last week was Paula Johnson, author of “Smithsonian American Table: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us.“-you can view the talk now by clicking here!
Tuesday, April 9th, 1-2 pm, authors of American Mother
Wednesday, April 17th, 7-8 pm, Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last
Also, we have these talks, generously shared by other Massachusetts libraries, and sponsored for us by the Library Board of Trustees
April 16th, 1-2 pm, A Brief History of the Coast Guard with Captain Greg Ketchen (also part of our Falmouth Reads Together series) , click here to register.
April 24th, 7-8 pm, Author of Find More Birds: 111 Surprising Ways to Spot Birds Wherever You Are, click here to register!
Postcards from Falmouth: Falmouth Schools
Rites of passage, secret passages, iconic teachers. Let Jim Kalperis and Otis Porter take you on a tour through the history of Falmouth’s schools, from tiny Lawrence Academy to the much newer facilities of Falmouth High School. In conversation with Barbara Kanellopoulos, they recount staff and student stories, and the many transitions that shaped Falmouth’s public school system.
Former faculty member Jim Kalperis remembers that one of those transitions, from the old Lawrence High School to its successor on Lakeview Avenue, was accomplished with a bit of student legwork. “The students all assembled in the old high school,” he says, “and whatever they could bring and carry by hand, they all marched from that school over to the new Lawrence School.” Library staff and visitors now park where the old building stood, and the high school has moved on again – not once but twice.
Solar Eclipse Viewing Party
On Monday, April 8th bring a chair or blanket and join us on the library lawn from 2pm-4:30pm for games, music and solar eclipse viewing!
In Falmouth, the solar eclipse starts around 2:16pm with a 89.3% max coverage around 3:30pm and ends around 4:39pm. A free pair of solar eclipse glasses (provided by Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries) will be available to attendees while supplies last.
This event is weather permitting.
Solar Eclipse Viewing Party Flyer
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at (508) 457-2555 x7 or by email at info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org
Postcards from Falmouth: Falmouth Heights
Before it hosted iconic hotels and streams of summer visitors, Falmouth Heights was the remote edge of town. Join Valerie Harding to learn about its deliberate transformation into a summer resort at the hands of the Falmouth Heights Land and Wharf Company – and of her own memories of off season life in the Heights, which might not have been picture-perfect, but provided its own kind of fun.
“In the winter when those hotels were closed up, as kids you’d run across the veranda and it looked very ghostly inside,” she said in conversation with interviewer Troy Clarkson. “With the table still set up, you know, with salt and pepper still on the table […] there was not a light on in any house down there.”
Watch the oral history recording here.
Explore the postcard collection here.
Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.
Joy of Learning, April 2024!
Come join us in April for our ever-popular “Joy of Learning” series! We have offered Joy of Learning classes for many years, in April and October. They are taught by educators and other experts on a volunteer basis, for adults and for teens at a high school/college learning level.
Come learn something new and have fun! This program is free, sponsored by the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library.
This April, we have four classes:
Estate Planning Essentials with Jeff Oppenheim and Geoff Nickerson, 2 Mondays, 4/1 and 4/8, 3-4:30 pm
The Pathway for New Drug Approval in the U.S. with Mary Taylor Burtis 3 Wednesdays, 4/4, 4/11 and 4/18, 4-5 pm (lectures will be recorded for later viewing)
Aspects of Ocean Biography with Charles Lea, 4 Thursdays 4/4, 4/11, 4/18 and 4/25, 11 am – noon
Poetry of Robert Frost with Jack Easterling, 1 Wednesday and 3 Tuesdays, 4/10, 4/16, 4/23 and 4/30, 2 – 3 PM (class size limited to 15) THIS IS NOW FULL WITH A WAITLIST.
Scroll down for description and registration for each class!
Estate Planning Essentials with Jeff Oppenheim and Geoff Nickerson, 2 Mondays, 4/1 and 4/8, 3-4:30 pm, click here to register!
The first week will focus on estate planning. Participants will learn why an estate plan is important, elements of a good plan. Topics covered will include Health Care Proxies/ MOLST elections/Living Wills, Durable Power of Attorney for Estate Planning Purposes, Health care proxies/MOLST elections,/living wills and Mass Homestead Exemption (basic or statutory, elderly or disabled homestead and homestead for property held in trust).
The second week will focus on trusts. What a Trust is, and is not, including necessary elements for the creation of trusts. We will explain how trusts can be useful, and their limitations – specifically in terms of liability protection, asset protection, and, as how trusts relate to MassHealth considerations. We will differentiate between some different types of trusts- irrevocable trusts, revocable trusts, family trusts, marital trusts, and real estate trusts. The presentation will include a brief review of some of the highlights of the 2023 Massachusetts Estate Tax law changes and what the changes mean for families and individuals as they consider their estates and the best avenues for passing their estates on to the next generations.
Jeff Oppenheim has been an attorney in Falmouth since 1979. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Suffolk University Law School. In 2010 Oppenheim and Nickerson LLP was formed with his partner Geoff Nickerson. Their law practice focuses on Estate Planning and Administration, Real Estate and Business Law. The firm also represents a number of local non-profits. Attorney Oppenheim has been appointed by the Barnstable Probate Court to act as an Estate Administrator, Trustee, Guardian, Conservator and Conciliator. Geoff Nickerson is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Villanova University School of Law. His primary areas of practice include transactional real estate, business advising, and estate planning and administration. Geoff is active in the Falmouth community, having served as past Chair of the Board of the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce, past President of the Falmouth Road Race. Geoff presently serves as the Vice President of the Falmouth Scholarship Association.
The Pathway for New Drug Approval in the U.S. with Mary Taylor Burtis 3 Wednesdays, 4/4, 4/11 and 4/18, 4-5 pm (lectures will be recorded for later viewing), click here to register!
Mary Taylor Burtis, who has over 40 years of experience in this industry, will teach about how a drug is approved in the US and what information is publicly available regarding the FDA approval process. You will learn about the general clinical and nonclinical testing a drug must undergo before approval, what is on a drug label and how to get access to the label information. Other topics will be the length of time it takes (on average) to develop and get FDA approval of a new drug, the average cost of developing a new drug and how a company determines the price of a new drug. You will learn publicly available resources for learning about a drug’s safety profile.
Mary has over 40 years of experience, and is also an educator. She is an ex-US FDA Consumer Safety Officer with a long history of success providing regulatory and quality strategy for development of biotherapeutics. She has worked with US and international regulatory authorities, obtaining drug approvals with a focus on practical regulatory, quality, and compliance solutions. She is eager to teach interested people in the community about this topic!
Aspects of Ocean Biology with Chuck Lea, 4 Thursdays 4/4, 4/11, 4/18 and 4/25, 11 am – noon, click here to register!
This is a Falmouth Reads Together event for our 2024 book pick, The Finest Hours!
Week 1) Changes with Depth. How do the bodies of fish and squid change as they live deeper in the ocean, what drives these changes?
Week 2) Growing the Ocean’s Gardens. What kind of plants grow in the open ocean, what processes shape the creation of the start of the food chains and how does productivity vary across the wide ocean realm?
Week 3) Oceanic Ecosystems. As humans, we can spot big differences in terrestrial biota (forest, plains deserts etc.) but where are the big differences in the ocean world and what maintains these patterns?
Week 4) Changes in the Ocean Realm- There are likely to be changes on the way for ocean ecosystems as we press forward into the future. Increased ocean temperature and acidification as well as pollution and fishing may shape the future ocean. Do we know what’s going on or are humans just blundering on?
Chuck has a master’s degree and PhD in Oceanography from Texas A&M University, and studied the distribution of deep-sea squid for those degrees. He taught Oceanography at the Sea Education Association for 34 years. Chuck lives in Falmouth with his wife, two sons, a dog and a cat.
Poetry of Robert Frost with Jack Easterling, 1 Wednesday and 3 Tuesdays, 4/10, 4/16, 4/23 and 4/30, 2 – 3 PM (class size limited to 15), click here to register! THIS IS NOW FULL WITH A WAITLIST.
Robert Frost has probably been the most widely read poet of the last century-by both scholarly and common readers. In this course we shall read, read aloud, examine and discuss the wide range of Frost’s poems-some well-known, some not, but all thoughtful and moving. These will mostly be chosen by the teacher, but some by individuals in the class. Collections of Robert Frost’s poetry will be available for pickup at the Reference Desk. Class size is limited to 15, so please only register if you are able to attend all four classes. THIS IS NOW FULL WITH A WAITLIST.
Jack Easterling was a veteran English teacher for more than 40 years, and an academic director at the Emma Willard School. He also co-wrote a book on writing.
Autism at 18 and Older for Parents and Grandparents
We are happy to welcome Falmouth resident Lisa Jo Rudy back to the Falmouth Public Library on Tuesday evening, October 10th, at 6:30 p.m., for a second talk on autism. She was here in September for an introductory talk on this topic. Registration is requested; click here or call us at 508-457-2555 x 7!
What happens when an autistic child becomes an autistic adult? This workshop is a first step toward preparing your child or grandchild and yourself for adulthood. Topics include legal safety nets, SSDI, considering guardianship, special needs trusts, housing options, college, employment, and adult services. Start answering the question “what happens when I’m gone?”
Lisa Jo Rudy is the mother of Tom Cook, a young adult on the autism spectrum. She began writing about autism in 2006, as the About.com Guide to Autism, and, for several years, was of the top bloggers on the topic. In 2008 she founded an inclusive summer camp program in Ambler, Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the local YMCA. Lisa is the author of Get out, Explore, and Have Fun!: How Families of Children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome Can Get the Most out of Community Activities, published by Jessica Kingsley Press, and her works on autism have appeared in multiple publications including the New York Times and Museum News. Lisa is currently a consultant on autism and inclusion and has worked with numerous museums and community organizations to set up and support inclusion programs. She is currently serving as lead advisor on a National Science Foundation-funded autism inclusion project in the Phoenix Arizona area.
This event is free. Registration is requested, clic