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Hingham Public Library News News Updated 4/27/08
Joan R. Gasparello Memorial Lecture
About the Joan R. Gasparello Memorial Lecture Series The Joan R. Gasparello Memorial Lecture honors the memory of a dynamic Hingham resident who worked tirelessly in support of Hingham 's educational institutions including Wilder Memorial Nursery School and the Hingham Public Library . Mrs. Gasparello died at the age of 75 on August 7, 2005.
Boston Classical Guitar Society/Hingham Public Library 10th Anniversry CD on sale now
Produced by the BCGS with 12 tracks featuring music performed by: Providence Mandolin Orchestra, Robert Margo and Wendy Silverberg, The Back Bay Guitar Trio, Aaron Larget-Caplan, Sharon Wayne and Jenifer Schiller, David Newsam, Frank Wallace, and Gerry Johnston. To purchase your copy for $10/CD visit the Library's Circulation Desk or the AV Desk.
If you wish to order by mail, please visit www.bostonguitar.org .
Proceeds support the Sunday Sounds Special music series at the Hingham Public Library.
We gratefully
acknowledge additional support from:
Library Trustees dedicated a sculpture created by Susan Luery on Sunday, January 13, 2008 The Trustees of the Hingham Public Library dedicated a sculpture created by internationally recognized sculptor Susan Luery . The dedication ceremony took place at the main entrance of the Library on Sunday, January 13, 2008. Hingham Town Moderator Thomas L. P. O'Donnell was the event's keynote speaker. Shown below are sculptor Susan Luery [seated left] and the models who sat for the sculpture. Photos courtesy of Library Trustee Edward Boylan.
The Trustees of the Library commissioned Hingham resident Susan Luery to create a life-sized bronze sculpture depicting a young mother and her daughter enjoying a “story-time” while seated on a two-tiered base formed from Deer Isle, Maine granite. The sculpture is located adjacent to the Library's main entrance.
Susan
Luery was born in Baltimore and attended the Maryland Institute
College of Art. Her gift for sculpting was refined in Carrara, Italy,
where she worked with Alberto
The Book Club of the Hingham Public Library
Next Book Club Meeting: May 27th-Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen Newcomers are welcome to drop in at any meeting. Library staff will be pleased to help readers place reserves on current book selections. For more information, call the library. reference desk (781-741-1405, x2650).
Wireless Internet access available
Library ELF helps users track their library accounts
Hingham Public Library cardholders may register with Library ELF, a free service that helps you track your library loans and holds. It is similar to HPL's OCLN Email notification service (which sends holds, overdue and bill notices to you by email rather than by mail or telephone) but with some important differences:
Although this is a great, user-friendly service, we wish you to understand that Library ELF is a private service that is not affiliated with the Hingham Public Library or the Old Colony Library Network (OCLN). Please read Library ELF's FAQ and Privacy Policy before deciding to sign up for the service. Card holders will be using the ELF service at their option. If you choose to sign up, it's easy. Have your Hingham Public Library card number and PINready, then create an account on Library ELF's website. Be sure that the Old Colony Library Network (OCLN) is selected from the list of libraries when you go to add your library card. You also will find links on the Library ELF site to ask questions. Set up is quick and easy and you may close out the account at any time if it does not meet your expectations or needs.
Next National Issue Forums discussion on 5/17:“Money & Politics: Who Owns Democracy?”
The Library's next session will be on Saturday, May 17 at 2 PM in the Whiton Meeting Room. The topic is “Money & Politics: Who owns Democracy?” See the participation sign up details below for this free program. For more information on the National Issues Forums, please visit its website www.nifi.org . These forums, organized by a variety of organizations, groups, and individuals, offer citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, to make choices with others about ways to approach difficult issues and to work toward creating reasoned public judgment. The Hingham Public Library's upcoming Forums focus on issues such as political financing , schools in the 21st, and America 's role in the world. The forums provide a way for people of diverse views and experiences to seek a shared understanding of the problem and to search for common ground for action. Forums are led by trained, neutral moderators, and use an issue discussion guide that frames the issue by presenting the overall problem and then three or four broad approaches to the problem. Forum participants work through the issue by considering each approach; examining what appeals to them or concerns them, and also what the costs, consequences, and trade offs may be that would be incurred in following that approach. If you are interested in participating please call Library Director Dennis R. Corcoran at 781-741-1405 x2600 and leave a message that includes your name, phone number, an email address [if you have one] and an indication of your desire to participate in the NIF discussion group. About the “Money & Politics: Who Owns Democracy?” forum on May 17th
Alienation, distrust, and disillusionment are among the most common words used to describe American feelings about politics. How is the role of money in politics causing the problem? What can be done?
Money has always been a political problem, but today there is a widespread perception that the political thirst for cash is out of control. Now so much money changes hands in politics — upward of $2 billion in a presidential election year — a cloud of suspicion rises. Darkening this cloud above our political system is the daily news about the staggering amounts of money that lobbyists spend to kill legislation or obtain tax breaks and favored treatment in regulations. In Washington , D.C. , alone, more than $1.4 billion a year is spent on efforts to influence federal officials.
The relationship between money and power inevitably raises questions about two clashing democratic principles, the freedom to support political causes and the right to political equality. As Americans, we take it for granted that we can give money or other assistance to any cause or candidate that advocates our views and interests. But Americans also believe that the entire political system, including everything from running elections to apportioning budgets, must be done in the spirit of “one person, one vote.”
The significant level of public alienation from politics calls into question the very legitimacy of our democratic form of government. What's wrong? What can be done? To help citizens sort through this important issue, three approaches — or choices — provide a framework for public deliberation. Each approach offers a different diagnosis of what's wrong and a direction for public action on this issue.
CHOICE 1: Reform the Campaign Fund-Raising System
Democracy cannot thrive unless political candidates have enough money to inform citizens about their competing ideas and qualifications. The problem is that more than 90 % of political contributions come from wealthy contributors and special interests, which often have matters pending before government. As a result, many elections are fund-raising competitions, and the democratic principle of “one person, one vote” is corrupted into “one donor, much influence.” In this approach, the nation must regain control of elections by choosing from a menu of reform options that includes publicly funded campaigns and regulations that prevent special interests from subverting the public interest. The nation is moving in this direction, but it's been a halfhearted effort lacking a real commitment to clean up politics. It's time to get serious about making real reforms.
CHOICE 2: Rein In Lobbyists and Politicians
Campaign finance reforms will only disappoint and disillusion citizens because they focus narrowly on political campaign contributions, which are dwarfed by the billions annually spent on lobbying politicians. So reforms that curb special interests' spending on political campaigns merely redirect the flow of money in politics, sending it deeper underground. In this view, the way to reduce money's corrupting influence is by exerting much more control over the way politicians and bureaucrats at every level of government interact with special interest lobbies. In addition to new restrictions on lobbying, there also need to be more restrictions on politicians.
Ballot measures, which permit voters in some states to enact or repeal laws when politicians ignore the public will, should be permitted in all states and at the federal level. Laws should also make it easier for voters to recall elected officials who aren't serving the public interest.
CHOICE 3: Publicize All Political Donations, Don't Regulate Them
Our representative system of democracy has withstood the test of time and, until the 1970s, worked well without much regulation of campaign finance. Then the Watergate scandal precipitated a rush to regulate political contributions, restricting everyone's freedoms. But freedom resists regulation, and the reform effort backfired, systematically distorting our democratic system and causing more damage than the occasional bribery scandal ever did. Elections are now tipped toward incumbents, celebrities, and the rich. Most challengers cannot raise enough money to compete. Political gridlock is epidemic. To revive democracy, we need to free candidates and advocates to raise the money they need for competitive campaigns that draw public attention to important issues and decisions. A new requirement for fuller and faster disclosure of all political donations is the best way to deter corruption and head off conflicts of interest. |
Joan's
husband, Ralph Gasparello [shown right], approached the Library
Board of Trustees in 2006 about the prospect of endowing a lecture
series in Joan's memory. The Trustees were delighted with his offer
and enthusiastically accepted. The series aspires to bring world
issues and culture to our residents by presenting leading writers
and thinkers in a local forum organized by the Hingham public Library.
The Trustees of the Library plan to present one or possibly two
major events each year through the Joan R. Gasparello Memorial Lecture
Series. 
The
sculpture is a gift to the Library from Hingham residents Pat and
Jim MacAllen . The MacAllen family has a four-generation association
with Hingham and its public library. The sculpture is dedicated
to the memory of “Thelma and William MacAllen and their love of
Hingham”. The MacAllens selected the Hingham Public Library for
their gift because they believe “the Library fosters a celebration
and love of reading that can be shared by parents and their children
throughout their lives”. 
Sparapani,
Maestro sculptor of Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Luery's
best known sculptural works may be Babe's Dream”, the 16-foot monument
to Babe Ruth located in front of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in
Baltimore and the Cal Ripken, Jr. monument that welcomes fans to
his museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. Her works also can be found in
private, public and museum collections throughout the world. 
The
Book Club of the Hingham Public Library meets at 7:30 pm on the
last Tuesday of each month in the Fearing Meeting Room. The building
is fully handicapped-accessible. 
Wireless
equipped laptop users will find they can obtain wireless Internet
access throughout most of the Library's lower level, Reference area,
the Cafe and the Courtyard (currently closed for the season). The
Library provides a wireless 'G" network.
National
Issues Forums (NIF) is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally
sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues.
It is rooted in the simple notion that people need to come together
to reason and talk — to deliberate about common problems. Indeed,
democracy requires an ongoing deliberative public dialogue.