South Hadley Public Library

Renaissance science program Mount Holyoke College is currently hosting a fun and educational program on Renaissance science, magic, and medicine. On February 19th, at 11 a.m., the South Hadley Public Library hosts a “wizard show” during school vacation. Fans of Harry Potter will love this educational, exciting, and entertaining free show featuring real science Hogwarts-style, presented by Mad Science of Western New England. Kids will enjoy the Mad Professor's bubbling potions, fire, and Tesla wands, flaming wizard's paper, mystic substances, magical ice, and a rainbow potion. No sign-up required.

Tax Forms
We have received the Massachusetts tax booklets, as well as the most frequently used Federal tax forms. If you need something we don't have, you can view and print forms and publications from the IRS or Mass.gov websites. Printing charges in the library remain at 10 cents per page.

The Library announces a new way to learn languages online. Byki, short for “Before You Know It,” is a rapid learning system employing spaced interval repetition. The Byki visual and audio learning method takes users through a series of simple steps to memorize words and phrases in a new language, including their meanings and proper pronunciation, in the shortest possible time.

§ You can learn over 70 languages—Afrikaans to Zulu, plus English as a second language lessons for speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

§ Advanced Pronunciation Analysis helps you perfect your pronunciation skills. Individual progress tracking and assessment tests help identify areas for improvement and move you in the right direction.

§ In addition to Byki Online’s advanced learning tools, you have access to an array of online language and cultural resources, including one-click access to Facebook and Twitter language communities, as well as Byki language Blogs featuring a collection of articles covering the language and the culture that surrounds it.

Sign up for a free account from here and then you will be able to access the Byki Online system directly from anywhere with an Internet connection, via a web browser on Windows or Mac computers.

Western Massachusetts public libraries are cooperating with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to help identify areas that don't have broadband Internet access. Click to take the brief survey, describing the speed at which you connect to the Internet at home or your office. The survey has a link to test the speed of your connection.

View the February Library Newsletter.

View earlier newsletters

This Week's Coming Events (click on an event to see details)

See the entire calendar, which lets you email reminders to yourself or a friend about upcoming events.

Online databases from Facts on File! The Library now has access to three reference databases. African-American History Online, American History Online, and American Women’s History Online. Each has thousands of entries—topical entries, biographies, maps, timeline entries, primary source documents, and images—which are hyperlinked and allow you to follow a path to related entries. Your library card number is your key to log in to these authoritative resources from home, school, or office.

Web site hosted courtesy of

Crocker Communications, Inc.

Looking for a Flu Clinic? http://flu.masspro.org/clinic/ is a web site that helps you locate public flu clinics in Massachusetts. Currently, the clinics listed are providing season flu immunizations and some clinics are offering pneumococcal (“pneumonia”) immunizations. The site also has links to the most current information on both seasonal and H1N1 vaccines from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control. When the information becomes available, the site will list public clinics that provide H1N1 swine flu immunizations.

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The Library has two

genealogical databases--Ancestry.com (in library only) and HeritageQuestOnLine.com. Call the reference department for details.

538-5045

Computer Use:

Up to 1 hour Internet access is available on a first come/first served basis. If no one is waiting, patrons can get up to four 15-minute extensions. Patrons may now have multiple computer sessions per day, and may sign out and log in to another computer, as long as they have not used all their time for the day. The Library reserves the right to limit Internet access at certain peak usage periods (e.g., after-school, vacations, summer months), or grant additional time, in order to provide fair and equal access to all.

Museum Passes

Call or drop by the library to reserve or check out a day pass for one of the following museums:

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Holyoke Children's Museum

Massachusetts ParksPass

Mystic Aquarium Discount Pass

New England Air Museum

Norman Rockwell Museum

Springfield Museums

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Page updated February 8, 2010
Maintained by Bob Williford