Effective Friday, Jan. 7, by order of the Orleans Board of Health, masks are now required in all town buildings. For more information, visit https://www.town.orleans.ma.us/home/news/mask-requirement-in-all-municipal-buildings

Story Hour on Thursday, Jan. 6 has been cancelled due to illness.

The parking lot at Snow Library is scheduled for closure beginning Thursday, Jan 6 to facilitate construction related to the town-wide wastewater project. During the planned week-long closure, the parking lot will be off limits to all vehicle traffic. The library itself will remain open to the public.

The lot is expected to reopen on Friday, Jan. 14.

Today’s meeting of the First Tuesday Book Club has been cancelled due to illness. Our next book discussion will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

Due to health concerns that have arisen at the library, the screening of “Nomadland” scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 5, has been postponed until Wednesday, Jan. 12.

Other movies scheduled for the Wednesday ‘Snow Cinema’ series will be moved back one week. “Respect” will now be shown on Jan. 19, and “News of the World” will be shown on Jan. 26.

Come to the library at 2 p.m. every Wednesday in January and see a feature film on the big screen in the Craine Gallery. The movie series kicks off with a screening of “Nomadland” (R) starring Frances McDormand on Jan. 5, followed by the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” (PG13) on Jan. 12, “News of the World” starring Tom Hanks on Jan. 19, and “Dear Evan Hansen” (PG13) on Jan. 26.

Masks are required for attendance. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Our annual Gingerbread House Making returned to the library’s Craine Room on Saturday, Dec. 11, when children gathered over tubs of frosting and platefuls of colorful candy to build and decorate their own little edible homes. Take-home kits were offered to those who weren’t quite ready or able to join us in person. See a photo gallery of the gingerbread houses, and their makers, here.

Beginning Monday, Dec. 20, ongoing construction work will cause periodic disruptions to library parking, including temporary restrictions on access to the rear parking lot. Check back for updates.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Linda Gordon, longtime library assistant at Snow Library, who died on Friday, Nov. 19.

A familiar face at our circulation desk since 1988, Linda was a gifted and shrewd librarian, highly dedicated to her work and esteemed in our community for her knowledge and love of books and art. She was also a caring and thoughtful co-worker. She will be greatly missed.

Services will be held at Nickerson Funeral Home at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 22, followed by internment at the Orleans Cemetery at noon. Service attendees must be vaccinated and masked. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sierra Club, Friends of Snow Library, or the Homeless Prevention Council in Orleans.

Her obituary is reprinted below.

The final week of Lifetime Learning's fall session begins on Nov. 15 and will include the following nine courses:

On Monday, Nov. 15 from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Ian Ives, director of Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary, presents a one-class course titled "Magnificent Ospreys." Discover ospreys' amazing abilities and learn how they recovered from the DDT years. This course is a hybrid. …

The seventh week of the Lifetime Learning Fall session beginning on November 8 will include the following six courses:

Monday afternoon, November 8 from 1:30 - 4:00, Marc Strauss presents the fourth and final in a four-class course called Classic Films Noir. In this class, Professor Strauss will introduce and show Lady in the Lake (1947). A discussion of the film will follow the screening. …

The sixth week of the Lifetime Learning Fall session beginning on Nov. 1 will include the following nine courses:

On Monday, Nov. 1 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Marc Strauss presents the third in his four-part course on "Classic Films Noir." In this class, Professor Strauss will introduce and show "The Big Sleep"(1946). A discussion of the film will follow the screening. This course is Zoom only and will not be recorded.

On Tuesday, Nov. 2 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Russ Leng, political science professor at Middlebury College, presents the first in a three-part course. "WW II: Reflections and Lessons." The first class explores "The Rise of Fascism in the 1920s and 30s: Could This Happen Here?" This course is Zoom only. …

The fifth week of the Lifetime Learning Fall session beginning on October 25 will include the following eight courses:

On Monday afternoon from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Marc Strauss presents the second in a four-part course on "Classic Films Noir." Film noir is a term that describes stylish Hollywood crime dramas, emphasizing cynical attitudes and motivations, and filmed in black and white. In this class, Professor Strauss will introduce and show "Murder, My Sweet (1944)." . . .

Snow Library has gratefully accepted a gift of $25,000 from the estate of Ann Booth Jamieson, who died in August 2020. The library’s Ann Booth Jamieson Fund will support library programs and the development of its collection. ..

The fourth week of the Lifetime Learning Fall session beginning on Oct. 18 will include the following courses:

On Monday, Oct. 18 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Marc Strauss presents the first in a four-part course titled “Classic Films Noir.” Film noir is a term used to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, emphasizing cynical attitudes and motivations, and filmed in black and white. Detectives Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, created by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, respectively, personify film noir in the four films that will be offered. In the first class, Professor Strauss will introduce and show “The Maltese Falcon” (1941). . . .

The third week of the Lifetime Learning Fall session will include the following courses:

On Tuesday, Oct. 12 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Steve Reynolds, director of plays and musicals at Eventide Theatre and Cape Rep, presents the second in a four-part course, "The Model of a Modern Musical: Gilbert and Sullivan’s Nautical Comic Operas: H.M.S. Pinafore and the Pirates of Penzance." The class will listen to and watch production videos and discuss each operetta. This class is a hybrid. . . .

The Lifetime Learning course "Slavery in Massachusetts Before the Civil War," with Linda Kennedy, has been rescheduled to Thursday, Nov. 18 at 10:30 a.m. It was originally scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 30.

The Fall Lifetime Learning program’s second week begins on Monday, Oct. 4 and includes the following courses:

On Monday, Oct. 4 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Jung-Ho Pak, Cape Cod Symphony's artistic director and conductor, and Dr. Michael Albaugh, Cape Cod Symphony's executive director, will present "Victorious Return: The Cape Symphony’s New Season and New Vision." The class, a hybrid, will explore the 2021-2022 symphony season along with the new vision of how the symphony will grow and flourish going forward.

On Monday from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Scott Harshbarger, former Massachusetts Attorney General, continues his reflections on the fragility and strength of American democracy. . . .

The following courses start during the first week of the Friends of Snow Library’s Fall Lifetime Learning session.

On Monday, Sept. 27 from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Beth Stein presents her one-class course, "American Impressionism: The Art of William Merritt Chase and “The Ten”. American Impressionism was a style of painting related to French Impressionism. In 1898, ten artists from Boston and New York joined together to form "The Ten," with the intention of creating their own society that valued originality, imagination and exhibition quality and with the purpose of exhibiting their work as a unified group of Impressionist painters. Stein will discuss the lives and achievements of "The Ten," with emphasis on William Merritt Chase, a member of this group who painted some of the most beautiful and beloved pieces of American art. This course is a hybrid. . . .

The town of Orleans’ wastewater infrastructure project includes the installation of a pump station at the village green across from Snow Library. The work began on Sept. 13 and will continue through November.

The construction work is expected to take place on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The library will remain open during construction. Parking in the back lot will be available on most days. During certain phases of the project, however, the entire library parking lot will be closed. It is anticipated that full lot closures will happen or about Oct. 15, Oct. 30, and during the week of November 1-7.