Looking Back at Medford History with Sam Sednek

AI-generated transcript — the recording is the record.

[Unidentified]: Over the river and through the wood to Grandfather's house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow. Over the river and through the wood, oh how the wind does blow. It stings the toes and bites the nose as over the grass

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Welcome to Looking Back at Medford History. I'm Laura Duggan, your hostess. Today's guest is Sam Sednik, director of the Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library, located at 111 High Street in Medford. And here it is. Well, it will be soon. Sam has a BA from Boston University and holds a Master's in Library and Informative Science. She has served in the Peace Corps in South Africa. Following that, Sam was employed as the Teen Services Librarian in Haverhill and then later joined the Medford Library as Head of Children's Services. In 2023, she was elected to be the assistant director. Upon the retirement of Medford director Barbara Kerr, Sam was named the new library director on April 30th, 2026. Director Sam Sednick, welcome to Looking Back at Medford History.

[Sednick]: Thanks, Laura. Thank you for having me.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, really delighted to have you here. Yeah. I wanted to get to know you better, and I know you're off to a running start here as the new director.

[Sednick]: So we got a lot going on.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: We'll be talking about that.

[Sednick]: Yeah.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: My first question for you is what inspired you to become a librarian?

[Sednick]: Sure. So you did mention that I was in the Peace Corps. I had a BA in English Lit, and then I joined the Peace Corps. I served in the country of Lesotho, which is in Southern Africa. And when I was there, I was teaching English and science in a high school, and the high school library was just always locked. They had gotten some donated- It was locked? It was locked. They had some donated books from the 80s, but they were really, they were like falling to pieces. They had not been maintained, and so they were really hopeful that we could start a new library. And so we did like a ground-up build of this space and we got some new donations and by the time I left they ended up having to hire a part-time librarian for that space.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So you created a whole new library for them before you left.

[Sednick]: Yes, and so it really taught me the value of that kind of space. And it isn't just about the books. Those are absolutely important. But just having a place to come to and be in. So all of our students at this school, they walked in. Sometimes they walk in two, three miles in the morning to get to school. Two or three miles? And so if you got in early, it wasn't like you could go anywhere. The classrooms were maybe not open yet. But if we had the library open, you could come in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could go to the library. They could go to the library.

[Sednick]: And it was open a little bit after school too. So just a place to go, to sit down, to breathe, and that there's not anything being asked of you in that space oftentimes.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I bet they remember you very fondly. I hope so. Do they put your name on? I mean, we got the name of Bloomberg on the library. Oh, I would hope not. No, I don't I don't need that Sam said Nick library. No, they should they should in my opinion anyway Okay Anyway, so let's let's talk us. We're gonna start with a little bit of the history of the Medford Public Library And it just celebrated its 150th anniversary In fact, I think we had the sign here All right, there it is. Remember that? And I got a call from a friend of mine who knows I'm a reenactor. I do a variety of characters. And she said, we'd like to have you come and be a character from that time, 150 years ago. So then I asked him, would you like Thatcher Magoon to come, too? Because my vice president of my nonprofit likes to dress up. He's ready to be different characters. And so we both appeared. And I think that's the next picture, wasn't it? Let's see. Oh, no. Let's go back to the number three is the Thatcher Magoon Mansion. That's the first library that we had.

[Sednick]: Yeah, so we were in like a rented room down the street for a little bit before that library happened. But when he donated the house, he wrote a letter to city council and was like, this should be a library.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So there was a room before this one?

[Sednick]: Yeah, they had like a rented space.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: A rented space. OK. I didn't know about that.

[Sednick]: But it wasn't much. And I think it was a subscription library. I'd have to double check that. But you paid to be part of it, sort of.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That makes sense. Not a free public library. So this was Thatcher Magoon. He donated his father's mansion.

[Sednick]: Yes. And the off building, too. You can kind of see it tucked over there on that side. Yes. And my understanding was that one was the children's library and the other was the main library.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Oh, I see.

[Sednick]: They had them separate for a time.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, that makes sense. It makes sense, because different kind of needs. I mean, the kids are loud. Yes, I know. Oh, definitely. Yeah. And then, so they asked me, who should I send? Well, I looked to see who was alive at that time, 150 years ago, and I came up with Lydia Mariah Child. Yes, so here she is with Thatcher Magoon. And we arrived. There we are. So Bob found a nice top hat. I lent him my cane, and there we were. We arrived. And that's a costume that belongs to Lydia and my child when I had my production of her. So I just dug it out and said, where'd you get the costume? Well, I already had it. Closet, yeah. I have a lot of costumes, Sam. If you have a call for somebody, just give me, I might have a costume. In costume. Just keep in pace. Okay, so, now Sam, weren't you involved with the planning of the new library?

[Sednick]: Yeah, at the time I was the head of children's and so they had me on the building committee. I got to be there and talk about what we needed for the children's space primarily. I was also a big proponent of us getting a maker space in the library. A maker space, yes, okay. Because I think that libraries are really interesting spaces. Would you explain maker space for me? Yeah, so a maker space is a place that is where, it's a room designed for programming around crafts and making things. Our maker space has a laser cutter in it. It has a laser cutter. We have a Cricut, which is a vinyl cutter. It uses a knife instead of lasers, but it does similar things. We have six sewing machines, a serger. Yeah, so it's different types of equipment that you can use to make your crafting stuff easier. And then we have a whole wall, and we call it our consumables wall, of different supplies that people have donated. And you also have supplies. We have supplies. So if you're ever like, I just need to patch this pair of pants, and I think I know how to do it, but I don't have the supplies, you can come to the makerspace and you can probably figure it out.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So that everybody in the audience who needs like something repaired.

[Sednick]: Yeah.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I mean, besides checking out a book, you know.

[Sednick]: And if you if you if you're like, I don't know how to do it. Let me tell you. So Kate Cherian is our makerspace coordinator. Kate is there on Mondays from from six to eight thirty. Monday, six to eight. Yep. And on Fridays, Mouse is a volunteer that is there. And they are from four to six. And both of them are like fabric art humans. So if you need help with like fixing clothing or learning how to sew something, they're great resources. They're wonderful to ask those questions of because they can make anything happen. That's very good to know.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I have a few things that could be repaired. I might have to come down and see Miles. Yeah, absolutely. Right? Very good. Now, going back to the new library, I think you had a lot of help from, what was it, you got money from the state. I know you had to get in a queue to get some money for a new library, because obviously we needed a new one from the other.

[Sednick]: Yes. Yeah, so the state has a grant for library buildings. And Massachusetts is a pretty generous state in terms of how the state gives money to libraries. But their library building grant only happens every 10 years.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Every 10 years?

[Sednick]: Yeah. So you really, you like put your name in and like you're in or you're really sad about that for a while. And it was Mayor Burke had just been elected and the deadline was at the end of 2017. And there was not a lot of time in between. You had to scramble, huh? That and that, yeah. So like, I believe Barbara Kerr was appointed in April of 2016 and had to submit that grant by October. October of that year. And they were just like, write this now. Go. And so it was a bit of a mad scramble to get it all written and to do some of it. But the folks that worked for the state knew that we were in kind of a dire need. Because we also, we expected when we wrote the grant that it wouldn't happen for a couple of years, right? Because it's a 10-year grant cycle. A few people go first, but most people go three or four or five years down the road. And when we wrote it, we really thought that that's what was going to happen to us. That like, you know, in 2023, we would be starting this project. That is not what happened to us. They were just like, you're number one.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: You're number one? Did you almost fall out of your chair when you heard that?

[Sednick]: I think we were too busy trying to figure out what to do. We were like, we have to get a temporary space. We have to like find places.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: You had a lot on your plate.

[Sednick]: We had a lot to figure out.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: It's amazing, you know, staff to be able to do.

[Sednick]: Yeah, the staff is really good at

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: to relocate and then, you know, doing the grant thing, because I've written grants, and that can be pretty arduous, especially state ones. Right, Steve?

[Sednick]: Yeah, they're meaty.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I tell you. I know they are.

[Sednick]: But yeah, no, it was, it was, and we were really lucky. I mean, looking, looking back, right, because in 2020, we were still in our temporary space when the pandemic hit. And for a lot of libraries, it was really hard, because at the time, we didn't really, know how the disease was spreading, right? And so for, if you remember very early on, people thought it was a contact-based thing. So for a while there, we were like quarantining books when they got returned to us. We had this whole system. You quarantined books? Oh, we quarantined books. Like if you returned a book to us in early 2020, we put it in a closet and it had to sit there for 72 hours before we would let someone else check it out. Like we had this whole system. The books in quarantine. Quarantine books. But yeah, but honestly, because we had that temporary space, we had a hallway outside of our space. And so what we did was just like, well, we can't breathe on people. They can't breathe on us. Everyone's in their kind of little like pod spaces and what have you. So we just put books in bags, stuck people's names on them, checked them out to them, and stuck it in the hall. And people would come by, grab their bag of books.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, my husband did that. Yeah. I don't know if we showed the picture of the 1960s. Oh, that's the Total Library. That's the new one, yeah. That's the one. Yeah, let's go back to that. That's our old one. That's the old one. I remember that one. Oh, sure. I can still hear those doors open.

[Sednick]: You can hear the doors. The automatic doors in that building were very... You always had leaks, too. I mean, the roof was never quite right. So originally they had like, I believe they had a thing never to put on your roof, solar lights in the roof. And sometime after they had built it... You didn't get leaks with those. Yes, I've heard that. Well, they patched over all of them, but not... Correctly. And I think, you know, water just got in on that roof, and we never quite knew where it was going to come out. Like, normally when you have a leak, it's like, this is the same place. It was always a surprise, yeah. And it would come down, and those ceiling tiles would, like, fall because they get wet.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I can just see you guys running around with pots, like... Over there, over there. No, no, it's over there. That's the one, yeah. Oh wow, that's quite a story. So meanwhile, so then you get queued up. How did the connection with Bloomberg come, the three million dollars that he donated? Yeah. How did that happen?

[Sednick]: So as part of the grant, so we got $12 million from the state. $12 million from the state, all right. And the city was matching that, but the city was like, we need you to find as much other funding as you can find. Other funding, yes. And so the library put together a foundation, and the foundation went out to ask people for money. A nonprofit, right? Yep.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yes.

[Sednick]: And we have some Brooks students who did a penny fundraiser for us and gave us $100. Oh, pennies. so many people in Medford who gave what they could here and there. But the foundation did reach out to some of our big Medford alumni groups. And so Bill Cummings and Michael Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Group all really came in with quite a bit of additional funding for us. And so now the library does have its Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford public library and Charlotte was Michael Bloomberg's mother and She you know She lived in in West Medford and she would just take the city bus into the library like she used to go to that 1960s library and and do book clubs and other things up until she passed in the early 2000s, so She was a big library supporter.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's a really great way for Mike Bloomberg to honor his mother, is to help build a new library. That's just what, and her name, and his father's name. And his father's name, yeah. Can't do better than that.

[Sednick]: I think, yeah. Pretty good. Building your mama library is a real cool trick.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Not bad at all. And didn't Rich Caraviello also help a lot with this? Yeah.

[Sednick]: So he was on city council at the time. And so he was a big proponent of the state grant. So he was also on the building committee and helped really rally troops and get it through. Because we had to do city council meetings and all sorts of stuff.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: You need connections and political positions to help you.

[Sednick]: Oh, you do. Right? Yeah. You absolutely do. So we had a lot of really lovely friends and people really came out to show support to get that library built.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, and then you had Mr. Bonsignore step up to the plate, too.

[Sednick]: Yes, and we have a big old room upstairs now named after that family. It's wonderful. Yeah, so it seats 100 people, that room. We have most of our big programs in there, all of the real fun ones. So if you've ever been in the second floor of the library, that was another.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I've been in there often. I've used that, too, for my organization. Looking back, it has a history ink. We use it for a fundraiser for the statue, but I've also come to quite a few, you know, various presentations, guest speakers, and political debates. I was just there for maybe twice now for two different political debates. Yeah, there have been like a couple of panels for that. Great room. Did I tell you I interviewed Mr. Bonsignore? Yes you did, yeah. Before I knew what, I didn't know what he was doing with the library, I didn't know anything about him. I saw him on Facebook. Oh really? And he seemed to be so interested in Medford. So I sent a little message, I said, would you like to come on the show? And it was before I knew anything about him. He said, sure. So I didn't know he was going to fly in from Las Vegas, that he was this big time trial lawyer. And then I was like, oh my gosh, but he's a dynamo personality, isn't he? A lot of energy. A lot of energy.

[Sednick]: His office is on Forest Street, I think, across from the old high school. Yes, from the post office.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yes. But he spends most of his time in Las Vegas. But yeah, so he came in and I learned all that. And it must have been about maybe over five years ago, I was talking to him as I was interviewing him, I mentioned Sarah Bradley Fulton, that I wanted to get a statue for her. And it was before I had really done any real movements towards that. And he said that, when you get organized, get back to me. And once I set up a nonprofit, because you know you need to do that to raise funds, serious funds. And I re-contacted him. And he helped us a lot. He was one of our big donors. And he flew in for the dedication. That's really great. That was great. But getting back to it, let's go back. So then you got this beautiful, must be exciting to be a director, the new director of such a gorgeous, wonderful library. And how do you get your funds? You have two organizations, the Friends of Medford Public Library and the Foundation. Tell me about these two.

[Sednick]: This is a city library, so most of our funding comes from Medford City. Your taxes pay for all of our staffing for the most part, they pay for the operations of the building, they pay for the books that we have. The Friends of the Library and the Library Foundation pay for our programs. So when we run a story time or a historical lecture or a makerspace program, That money is largely coming out of the Friends or of the Library Foundation. Again, the Library Foundation does its own fundraising. The Friends do book sales. We have one coming up in September. At the end of September, all of the books that folks have donated to the library, we often don't need them because we buy the books. Right, sure. And so if we already have your book that you're donating to us on our shelf, we don't need a fresh copy of it. We give it to the friends. They resell them. And all that money that they earn go back into our programs.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I believe I've been to some of those. Steve? Yeah, my husband and I both have been to that.

[Sednick]: There's a bake sale on Saturdays, which if you don't need any more books at home, come for the bake sale.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Come for the bake sale. Then you don't have to bake that day, too. That's a good thing. Exactly. Right there. Now, people can volunteer at the library?

[Sednick]: They can. We have a couple different ways to volunteer. Right now on our website, which is medfordlibrary.org, you can click on the top bar and fill out a form to volunteer. And the three types of volunteering we have, we have folks that reshelf books for us, which is really lovely. We have folks that work on our new digital local history website. So if you are interested.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Local, digital, what's that about now?

[Sednick]: Yeah so our local history website is it's localhistory.medfordlibrary.org and we took so we have all of the newspapers on microfilm at the library. You do all on microfilm? Yeah and microfilm is kind of a pain to to look at right you have to like reel through it's not easy to search and so what we did And this was thanks to our friends, the Bloombergs, again. Bloomberg Philanthropies gave us a grant to digitize our microfilm. And so all of the- Well, that makes it a lot easier to access.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, all of our local- I can't remember back in the day going, yeah. I know Dee Morris does a lot of research. I bet she's really happy that you're getting a digital-

[Sednick]: Yes, and you can do a keyword search for it, for things now. And it'll jump you to the newspaper that we have. So folks that are volunteering with regards to local history, what we're doing right now is putting more information on the back side of it. So you see an image up on the screen, which is a newspaper. But who's the author? What date was it? What is it about? That sort of thing, volunteers are kind of tagging that information in. And so we have some wonderful volunteers helping us with that.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's terrific. Now you also, tell me about your quiet room. I thought that was interesting that you have a quiet room.

[Sednick]: Yeah, so that's on the second floor in the children's room. Second floor, okay. And it is designed for folks that have higher sensory needs than average, right? So if you are someone who is sensitive to sound or even sensitive to light, sometimes spaces like libraries can be really hard, right? Like, you know, children's play space, there's happy noise all around. And so if you are being overstimulated by what is happening in the library, you can kind of request that room. It is the one space that you can turn the lights off in. So if you need lower lights because the lights are too much, that is a helpful space. It has a bubble tube, which is kind of ominous if you happen to walk by the library at night because it changes colors. And when it goes to red, I'm like, ooh, what is happening? What is happening in the library?

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Do you think it's being haunted or something? Probably.

[Sednick]: But by friendly ghost. But yeah, it's a wonderful space.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I heard that you can check out a device that will see if you have ghosts in an air space. I think that was amazing. When I heard that, I said, really? Yeah, the ghost meter. You may have to take it to that room and see if it's haunted.

[Sednick]: I hope not. It's a new building. So if we are already getting haunted, we're up to no good.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Anyway, okay. Now tell me about the Learning Express library. What's that?

[Sednick]: Sure. So Learning Express is one of our databases. So that's on our website. And we actually pay for a number of different types of online subscription databases. Learning Express and many of the other ones that are there are there to give you access to oftentimes journals and other articles. Learning Express has some videos and other things to show you how something works if you would rather watch and learn. There's one right now, it's BrainFuse JobNow, where if you're looking for a job, you can get live resume help and live interview support from a person. Wow, that's just amazing. Right, like everybody needs a little, someone else to look at their resume before they send it off.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Especially if they're not getting any bites. I think we need to redo the resume. Go down to the library and get some tips.

[Sednick]: Yeah, so you can do that too. We call it book a librarian and you can actually book a librarian. You can tab one of us in and we'll spend an hour with you if you need someone to like do some additional research or if you want someone to look over your resume. But we also have these online formats that will do it for you. So even if you're sitting at home at 8 p.m. and you're like, oh, I'm not going to make it to the library, some of the online stuff will answer your questions and get it done for you.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I think we have an image of the, there it is, you have an amazing webpage. Yeah, we like it.

[Sednick]: It's full of stuff.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Do you have somebody working on that full time or something?

[Sednick]: Yeah, one of our adult services librarians, Mike Crockett, is in charge of our website, yeah.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, I think they do a great job. It shows you how much is available there. There's a lot. And how to use it if you're sitting at home, too. Very much so. So you have new books are listed also online. I noticed that. Yeah. I have that here. And let's see. And you have access to the Boston Globe, you said, on your?

[Sednick]: Yeah, so that's a thing that our network provides. And so again, if you go up there on that thing at the top where it says resources, if you go to all digital resources, you can get like a coded access to both the Boston Globe and also the New York Times. And so it basically you make an account with them and then you give them this super secret code that the library will give you.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Everything is a code these days.

[Sednick]: It's always a code. And for both of them, they kind of time out after a couple of days, but then you can just get the code again. So if you're ever like, oh, there's a paywall on this article, jump to MedfordLibrary.org, grab that code, and then jump right over that paywall.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: And right at your house, you know? Yeah. Your home. You don't have to leave your home. You don't even have to go anywhere.

[Sednick]: Yeah, that is wonderful. Please use the library in your pajamas on the sofa. It's fine.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's a good way to do it. Yeah. I'm always up extremely early and that's what, you know, I think that kind of thing would be great. Yes. Okay, so you have adult classes. I notice you have like a 3D printer badge class. What's this about?

[Sednick]: Yeah, so if you're taking that class, you're getting taught by me. So we have several 3D printers at the library. This was part of the maker space. And so when we got them in, none of us knew how to use a 3D printer. And so a couple of us kind of took some classes, learned just enough to get in trouble. OK. And so now I will teach you how to get in trouble, too. We can get you badged up. If you take that class, basically it gives you access to sending prints to the library. So if you are really into designing minifigs or if you are always breaking your coffee maker at home and it just needs a little piece to fix it, there's lots of things you can do with a 3D printer. They're kind of wild.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So the 3D, you can get parts that you need to fix something. Oh, you can. Yeah. Because I'm not really familiar with that.

[Sednick]: Yeah, I mean, I find that coffee makers are important to me. That's the thing that always breaks at home, right? Oh, yes. But it's always like a little tiny plastic piece. And the thing about the internet is someone else has also had that problem. And that person is smarter than all of us combined. And they have designed this beautiful replacement piece for you and put it out on the web for you to print. And so yeah, you can definitely do all sorts of things. crazy things. Or you can just print many variations of Pikachu if you would like because that's what our younger printers tend to do as we get lots of Pokemon.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, you know, libraries have really evolved from what you're saying and what is being offered. And then you all, is it a kayak? You can even take a kayak out?

[Sednick]: Yeah, so the Library of Things is our wild quest there. Here's my kayak. I want to take out the kayak. And everyone at the circulation desk is like, oh, because it's a heavy, it's a big duffel bag.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I'm trying to visualize that happening. I mean, that's got to be it.

[Sednick]: There's some weird things that go out. We have a sledgehammer now, too.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: A sledgehammer? Wow.

[Sednick]: You can check that out, also. I mean, you only need to use a sledgehammer, like, once.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Like, if you're doing the job. Yeah, but when you need it, but you don't need it all the time. Exactly. Wow.

[Sednick]: What's the most unusual thing? Most unusual thing. Well, okay, this could be unusual or could not be. There is a curiosity box that you can check out, and the rule of that is it is just a box. You will check it out with your library card. Whatever is inside it, you get to keep. You just have to put something back in it to return it to the library. That's fascinating. And I'm always, I'm very engaged by that because it's just, I like that. You see that? So you take it gift exchange happens.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, that is whatever's in it. You know, you've got like a boring day going on. I think I go down and get that box. Yeah. See what's in it. Then I get to figure out what to put in it. Yeah. You know, that could be a fun thing. I think, Hey, Steve, we're gonna have to check that out, right? Yes, definitely. I want to do that. OK. Now, you also have a lot of programming for youth, and I think that's really fine.

[Sednick]: There is so much. So Nicole Perreault is the head of youth services, and Sam Donahue is our children's services librarian. And they have a giant wall of programming, because with kids, you kind of have to do programming for each age group and each learning group, right? So you have the ones that baby laps it for the kids under 24 months. You have the toddler time for the two to three-year-olds. You have the story time for the three to six-year-olds. And on up it goes. And so they really do have a wonderful range of programs. And they really try to make sure that everybody has something that they can come to.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well, your expertise is really children. Yeah. And you're using that. And you're expanding past that, I know. But I think that you really bring that. So you created a richness of programming for the children. Yeah.

[Sednick]: Children is the bread and butter services of the library, right? Like when you have a new family, buying books at $18 a pop will quickly break your bank.

[Unidentified]: That's right.

[Sednick]: Especially with how often you're supposed to read to kids and how much they start reading when they're first starting off.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: We were talking about that earlier because If somebody has a baby, I always give them a book. And they go, when should I start reading this book to my baby? I said, like now. Because that's how they learn language. That is how they learn language.

[Sednick]: And it's also how to create that bonding experience between the parent and the child. It is an amazing way to get them into being readers. The children that have been read to for a long time, when they're learning on the laps of their parents, are the children that pick up reading a lot easier once they get into school and they already have some of those words kind of preloaded.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: They've already got those words, but it's also really bonding with the parent and the child, because I have fond memories. My father would read, he got a book when he was a child of Pinocchio, and I brought it. My brother found it and sent it to me. gave it to me. It's really, of course, the illustrations are wonderful, too. This is the original one, too, by the Italian fellow, Collodi? Yeah. And Pinocchio. And he would read a chapter a night to my brother, sister, and I. Here it is. He's got wonderful illustrations in this. And I think one time we were on a, we were renting a cottage up in the mountains, and he had forgotten to bring the book. And we were all like, oh, we don't get the next chapter. So my father made up a chapter.

[Sednick]: He just made it. On the fly.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Right on the fly. Oh, and such fond memories. And then when my husband and I got grandsons, I had the pleasure of actually, we were visiting, I think, an extended time around Christmas, the holidays one time. I brought this book and I read this to my grandsons. I started reading like a chapter. I try to carry on that tradition. I had a great feeling about that. It's sort of like my father reaching out with this book, and I'm now sharing it with my two grandsons.

[Sednick]: It's a great way to bond.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yes, definitely. OK, so now we move into oral history record. And you have a lady who's recording people.

[Sednick]: That would be Jenna Berry, she's our assistant director now.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Because she called me and she asked me to come down and so that's where I talked about the statue and my various adventures here in Medford too. And that was really fun to do and it's great the story to be preserved. You have to have it like you know recorded otherwise these stories will be lost.

[Sednick]: Yeah, so that's part of the new local history digital project, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[Sednick]: And so we are scanning up the newspapers, we're making sure those are online, but we're looking at our local history collection and we really have the old stuff. We have a lot of the old stuff. But as we get a little closer to now, it starts to kind of dry up a little bit. And so we're doing a real big drive right now to both record people's personal stories, because today's history, right, or today's moments are tomorrow's history. That's exactly right. It's really important to record this. And so we're trying to capture some of those live now. And hopefully, you know, 10, 15, 20 years from now, that's a real historical flavor to our local history collection.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, we also have my younger son, Matthew. He took it upon himself to record family stories. And he did this a number of years ago. And I started, and he recorded his uncle, and his father, and me, and his aunt Nancy. And now we've lost the uncle. Alan's no longer. But we have his voice telling stories. And what that means is to have that, and Nancy. And then a funny thing, when he was interviewing, my son was interviewing, Me he asked how did you meet dad? and so I told him the story about it's incredible story how we had broken up and then one day I decided I had to go to Walden Pond because we used to go there when we're dating and I started it was a huge rainstorm and Did I turn back? No, I had to pull aside at 128 It was so bad and do I go home? No, I continue going to Walden Pond and on be knowns to me my husband or my husband to be at that point and had decided to go to Walden Pond the same day. And when I drove up to Walden Pond, I got out of my car, the rain had stopped, I'm walking down to the edge where Walden Pond is, and guess who's walking up the other direction?

[Sednick]: A very wet husband-to-be.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: from the sound of it. I mentioned that, and then Matthew said, oh my God, I never heard that story before. I never thought to tell, you know. So, then when he interviewed his father, he got his, I want to hear your side of the story, which is also interesting. But anyway, what you're doing with the library, getting oral accounts, these are going to be really treasured. I think down the road, when people, how did this happen, or how did that happen?

[Sednick]: Yeah, and you'll see us like around the local election times. You'll also see me out on Facebook poking people too. Because part of what we're also collecting is ephemera from Medford. So when the local hit the ephemera, so that's the things that we all throw away. Which is to say during election season, you get all of this mail from your people trying to be elected, right? And we forget how many people are trying for these positions or even the people that do get them what they were saying sometimes. And so we have started trying to maintain a record of the folks that are running, what they're saying on their pom cards, that sort of thing. And so we're collecting that stuff as well. So again, if you come home during local election time and you have a stack of flyers and you're like, bring them to the library, we'll sort through them for you.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I think I have some for you. Yeah, absolutely.

[Sednick]: Yeah, we like to fill it in. And I will say, when Bob Skerry passed away, they donated some of the stuff in his attic. So it filled in some of the, like, 1980s, like, flyers. I think we have a really old Paul Donato flyer.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That collection

[Sednick]: Now it goes back a little further, but it really, it is information that sometimes doesn't mean a lot to us right now, right? You know who you're voting for, this is something you don't need. But down the road, you're going to want to know more about him. Someone's going to want to know, right?

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Absolutely, absolutely.

[Sednick]: Someone wants to know our history. Now you have, what is PorchFest? Yeah, PorchFest is a citywide program that is happening. We had a group come out for PorchFest and play out on our patio. Every now and then we do music performances out on the patio. We like to do really loud, brassy bands out there. I approve of that. You're competing with High Street, so you've got to be kind of loud. You're right, you've got to be loud or you won't be heard.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's true. Exactly. Makes sense. I'll have to come to that. Now, going back to checking out books, you can do it in person. How do you get a library card for people who have not done that?

[Sednick]: Oh yeah, if you have not done it. It's really, really easy. All we need from you is something with your name and address. So you can bring in a piece of a driver's license. If it doesn't have your current address on it, you can bring in a phone bill. And people will show it to us on their phones. We don't need you to print it out for us. So we just need to see that current address. We need to see your ID. We can get you a library card and go from there. If you are someone who only wants to do the library from your couch in your pajamas, you can also get an e-library card which lets you use our... E-library card? It'll let you just use our digital resources. But if you're ever going to come in and use our real resources, get the real card because that e-card doesn't work for anything else.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: No, that's right. So that's real interesting here. Now, I noticed that you have a therapy dog. Yeah, we have like Jojo. Three of them at this point.

[Sednick]: You have three now? Yeah. So Jojo is the one who is just like, I want to hang out with you. So if you have someone who's afraid of dogs and maybe needs to meet one, that is going to be super chill. Or if you just need like 15 minutes with a very unjudgy friend. JoJo's a great one. So you can book 15 minutes with JoJo. They hang out in study room one on the first floor. There are two reading dogs that are upstairs in children's. Reading, what, you read to the dog? Yes. So again, for kids that are just starting to learn how to read, if you are done having adults tell you how to pronounce things, I promise you that our reading dogs never tell you how to pronounce names.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: They're nonjudgmental, aren't they?

[Sednick]: They're very nonjudgmental. I have seen people read books about cats. They don't say anything about that. They don't care. So they'll listen to anything you have to read. And so you can book time with the reading dogs, too, if you just need to practice.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's wonderful. I like that. Well, dogs are really, when you're in trouble, you're troubled, and you have a dog, you feel like they understand somehow.

[Sednick]: They do.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: It's comforting. Yeah. And if you're trying to read, they look, you know, they're paying attention. They're looking at you with their big eyes. And that's encouraging. They don't judge. They don't judge. I like that. And also, I think there's a lot of stress in the world, I think. Hanging out with a nice dog is helpful. It takes the stress down a little. And now you have passes for local museums, too, don't you? Oh, yeah. So that's all the Friends of the Library.

[Sednick]: They're the ones who sponsor all of our passes.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: The Friends, OK, that organization. Yeah.

[Sednick]: And so we have all sorts of passes. Like, if you want something easy and local, we have a pass to the Royal House that you can get and go to the Royal House. I think that they're only open on the weekends at this point, but you can get that pass from us. We have Zoo New England pass, DCR, Audubon Society, Trustees Go. Aquarium, Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Those are expensive to go to, so if you get a pass.

[Sednick]: And so the passes, most of them don't get you in for free. They're like half off. There's some sort of discount.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That still helps enormously.

[Sednick]: It helps enormously, so it's definitely worth checking them out. A lot of the passes are digital passes at this point, so you can just go to our website on the big yellow bar on the side, click museum pass and book it and it will email you your pass.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So you don't even have to come to the library.

[Sednick]: Isn't that amazing? But there are a couple of them. I know like the DCR pass is like a a hook for your car, like it's a parking pass. And so there's a few that you have to pick up and that you have to return. But most of them, most of them, we just said you have to come into the library. Wow.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Get a book. All right. So, you know, the former director of the library, Barbara Kerr, was famous for dressing up in costumes. And have you ever done that yourself?

[Sednick]: Yeah. As a former children's librarian, I have definitely been caught in costume.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I think we can skip to number 11. Let's go to the number 12. Give me 12.

[Sednick]: Oh yeah, that's fine.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: We had you right there.

[Sednick]: You went real deep into the internet. I do. That is actually me and Haverill. I was the teen services librarian there and Hunger Games was out of tight and we did a Hunger Games program. A Hunger Games, okay. So there was a lot of running around with Nerf guns.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Well that's what that is because I was wondering if that was because okay so that's from Haverhill.

[Sednick]: That is from Haverhill. Honestly I think that picture is why I got hired. There it is. There's the one I was looking at. That's right here at Menford. I definitely had a couple onesies. A dragon huh? I have a really weird memory of that dinosaur costume.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: What is that memory pray tell?

[Sednick]: Well so that I was just at the library and I haven't the slightest idea of why I was dressed as a dinosaur but I was. But there was a time when we had to go down to City Hall and we were doing like an introduction to the library and anyone in town could come to it but honestly very few people did so it was like Barbara and Pam Kelly from the Senior Center and one of the city Councilors at the time and like two Random Medford citizens and I was coming from a school visit dressed as a dinosaur In City Council chambers with a bunch of people and I'm just like oh in dinosaur mode. I love that about you.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I think that's great you do that. You know what, when I started pitching for Sir Bradley Fulton, Michael Marks was on the city council at the time, a friend of mine, and he said, well, I'll help you with this. I wanted to have a Sir Bradley Fulton day. That's before I even thought of a statue. I didn't need a day. And he said, well, you have to come down dressed as her. I said, OK. And I thought to myself, this is either going to go very well or not well at all. It could be a big bust, but I'll do it if it means I'll get the support for a day, a special day for her here in Medford. So I showed up, too. So I know what that's like. You walk in. You just have to go. You have to be fully into it. You have to. You can't be hesitant. It's just got to be. So I came in. I never broke character.

[Unidentified]: I was her.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: I was not me. It was not me that was there. That was Sarah. And completely in character talking about who she was.

[Sednick]: Did you give Sarah's address when you were up at the mic? That's the real one. Oh, that's right. She's right there on Main Street. That's right. Exactly. It's like a 7-Eleven now, I think.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah. Yeah. So that was funny. No, that was really a riot. So I think that's great. I found that out here. And so let's see. What else do we have here? Any other? Oh. What I like about, I really like how you're getting artwork in the local history room now.

[Sednick]: Yeah, so we have a locked space in there. And so sometimes we pop out some of the pieces that we have. Because if you go into the local history room, you see the room. There's a secret closet over here that's under the stairs. And we have a lot of our more fragile stuff under there. Oh, really? And so we bring stuff out occasionally to show it off and then put it back away so that it doesn't get a lot of light damage or other damage.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: And see, I have a picture of it here for you. As you describe it, yeah.

[Sednick]: But yeah, you can see our statue right there in the back.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Yes, you see. And that was because I had that in my house, but I said, I can't just keep it here. So I talked to the sculptor first before I talked to you about maybe if the library wanted it, it should be there so everybody could see it. see i i learned how to share we appreciate it so we did that and and so we have the next picture you can see the you found a perfect place for it you open up the door and you see the distance let's see the next the close-up of the the 24 inch sarah yes there she is really really nicely right in there he did a great job with that and of course The actual one that's a little bit bigger than life is at Medford City Hall now. If you haven't been down where the bus stops, that's where it is. It's up on a little knoll up there. You can't miss her. She's right there on the corner. Isn't that a great place for her? She's got, yeah, it's right under the tree too. She's in the shade. She's in the shade. Yeah, well, she would like that. which I imagine on a hot day. I have to give our mayor credit because she came up with the location. Yeah, it's a good spot. Brianna, she did a great job with that. She helped us a lot with that. We appreciate it. And of course, we had the big dedication as Patriot State. So anyway, I really want to thank you for coming on the show and for being my guest. You get a gift. Did you know? I did not know that. Yeah, well, and so you can open it up here and see what it is. All right. Oh, and it's a sparkly bag. Everybody loves the bag. After a while, you might guess what this is.

[Sednick]: I think I got it. So today's magical thing. is a looking back at Medford History Month.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: Of course, so you can remember us.

[Sednick]: And I can drink all that coffee I need to keep going at the library.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: That's right. You can, definitely. Most definitely. Thank you so much. Well, it's been a pleasure having you on here. It's been a joy to come talk to you. So we should do it again. Definitely come back and give me an update on what you're doing at the library. Yeah, absolutely. Because I love to have people come back and tell me, give me a new version of what's happening with where they're doing things.

[Sednick]: We always have wild and crazy things happening at the library.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_23]: So I'm sure we'll be back. We'll have you come back. All right. Okay, well now it's time to say goodbye. This is Laura Duggan hoping to see you again on Looking Back at Metro History.

[Unidentified]: The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh Through the white and drifted snow Over the river and through the wood Oh how the wind does blow It stings the toes and bites the nose As over the ground we go