Beverly Public Library

The library is pleased to announce its new ebook collection! All of the 200 ebooks in this growing collection are in the EPUB format. This is a newer open standard, and is supported by many devices including the Sony Readers and Nooks, but not unfortunately, the Kindle.

The titles for our opening collection are a mix of recent, popular books for adults, teens and older children, including reading group favorites, romances, memoirs and biographies, history, and more. Visit our ebook information page to learn how to search for and download these titles. Classics and public domain titles are not included at this time as these books are often readily available at no cost in a variety of formats (including EPUB and Kindle) on sites like Manybooks.net and Google Books.

We hope to add other e-book formats and types of material later and welcome your suggestions for additional titles.

What challenges did Greg Mortenson face as he climbed K2, the second highest mountain in the world? What does it feel like to climb straight up the face of a mountain? Experience rock climbing on the Greater Beverly YMCA (Sterling Center)’s well equipped 25 foot indoor rock wall on Sunday, March 14 from 1 – 3 PM. There are four different routes, for all abilities for ages 6 and up. This event is free and open to the public.

This spring, John Tischio will be presenting a series of 10 classes on opera at the Beverly Public Library. He has been teaching this course, called “Opera, The First Broadway” for almost 20 years and has lectured at many libraries and community colleges in the area including Lexington, Carlisle, Newton, NSCC, and Middlesex CC. Each week he will present a different opera to the class and discuss the literary work on which the opera is based, the composer of the opera and finally the opera it self. This part of the presentation is accompanied by an excerpted video presentation of the work. The first class is Wednesday, March 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. and the rest will be on March 24 and 31, April 7, 14, 21, 28 and May 5, 12, 19. Registration is required and limited to 15 people. To register, please contact John Tischio directly at 978-535-1796 or verismo@comcast.net.

Do you have a favorite author – or three, or five? Would you like never to miss one of their new novels? The Beverly Public Library soon will start an automatic reserve program, where you can request to have new novels by today’s hottest authors put on hold for you as soon as they come out. In order to do this, we need to know who YOUR favorite authors are! The next time you are in the library, pick up a ballot and vote for up to ten authors you think should be among the favored few. Votes will be tallied and the top 100 authors will be eligible for the program.

Actual sign-ups for the program will start after we finalize the list for “Beverly’s HOT 100.” When the program starts, you will be able to sign up for whichever authors you like that are on the list – one, two, a dozen or more. When a new book by an author you’ve signed up for is released, we will automatically put a reserve on the book for you. If you decide you don’t want that particular book or don’t want it on reserve for you at that time, you can cancel the reserve yourself or ask the library to do it. But otherwise you will never ‘miss the boat’ on getting your name in for a new title from your favorite authors again!

On Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 PM, Nancy Bonne, formerly the main library’s Children’s Librarian, will present a multi-media show of her recent trip to the Taktse School in Sikkim, India, where Nancy helped the school librarian establish the school library and label and catalog books. Nancy also had a daily schedule of book talks in the older grades, and story times with the younger children. Hear the amazing details about how this school got started, including the involvement of the school’s principal, who used to be one of Nancy’s patrons as a child.