“Everything has to come to an end, sometime,” wrote L. Frank Baum in “The Marvelous Land of Oz.” And on Halloween, Oct. 31, that “sometime” will occur at the Belmont Public Library as Maureen Conners, its long-serving director, will retire from the position she has held for nearly three decades. “I’m leaving before I turn into a pumpkin,” Conners told the Belmontonian on Monday, Aug. 18. Conners decision to turn in her library card was due in large part to the retirement of her husband from his job a year ago. “He has been saying that we should do things while we’re not ‘too old old’, and that sounded good to me,” the Medford-resident said. The Belmont Board of Library Trustees will discuss hiring a new director at its Tuesday, Aug. 19 meeting while the town has issued a job posting. Conners believe a new director could be named by mid-November. The salary range is $76,859 to $109,140 commensurate with experience and includes a full benefit package. Conners, a Cambridge-native who received a master’s in Library Science from Simmons College, has been at the helm of the library for the past 18 years, coming to the library from Watertown where she worked her way up from children’s librarian to assistant library director. Conners points to the introduction and use of technology as a significant accomplishment in her time at the library located on Concord Avenue. “When I got here, the computers were still in their boxes, waiting to be used,” said Conners, who also hired a technology librarian to allow the library to meet the need of a changing library clientele. The library has increased its digital services to include library-wide WiFi, tablets and e-books, computers for patrons and the introduction of Kindle and shared software. She is also responsible for establishing the Young Adults Room on the library’s main floor and the hiring of a young adult librarian to accommodate the needs of Middle and High School students. Conners said her greatest disappointment during her tenure was returning back to the state three separate grants from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners when the town would not approve either the spending for or location of a new library. “Hopefully, a new director will have more success,” said Conners.
So, What Is a ‘Belmontonian’?
Belmont now has a daily independent media outlet covering the “Town of Homes.”
The Belmontonian – a word used by several local writers to describe someone living within Belmont’s five-square miles – is dedicated to comprehensive, consistent local coverage based on honest journalism, without agenda or partisanship.
Well, that’s all well and good, but why does our “small” town – which is the 75th largest community in the Commonwealth so it’s not really that tiny – needs a new outlet?
To put it bluntly, Belmont is too interesting a community not to have one. The Belmontonian will be the local venue for news and all things media.
More than ever, Belmont is in the midst of fundamental change on such far-ranging issues from financing basic government and its world-class schools, the growing diversity of its population and the need to pull commerce into town.
And there are neighbors who all have a story to be told, teachers and students who are doing exciting things in and out of the classroom, families and parents seeking interesting events and activities.
With other local media outlets are undergoing rounds of cuts in coverage and staff or moving dramatically to publishing articles with little or no Belmont content, the Belmontonian is a response to public demand for hyperlocal news that others can no longer produce.
The Belmontonian will endeavor to embrace our entire town from politics, arts and culture, business, education, and sports; if it is about Belmont, you can see it here. And each morning, those who sign up for the morning newsletter will receive a list of the most recent stories and other media in your email.
The Belmontonian brand will include extensive use of social media such as the already popular “Belmontonian” Facebook page, Twitter, a Youtube channel and anything else I can get my hands on.
I’m a three-decade Belmont resident (still referred to as a “newcomer” by some), a proud parent of a child (“The Boy”) who spent 13 years in the Belmont School District, a dozen years as a hockey dad, an award-winning journalist and editor (including at the Belmont Patch for nearly four years) who can be found at my three home offices: the Starbucks’ in the Center and Cushing Square and in the library.
The web page will undergo improvements and design changes as technology and as my own tastes change but it will remain the go-to site for all media concerning Belmont.
But this site will only grown with your involvement: sending story ideas, telling me interesting facts, spending time talking at “the office” and, or course, advertise and sponsor those businesses which (hopefully) will place ads on the site.
Thanks for taking the time and bookmark the site right now!
Franklin B. Tucker, Publisher and editor, The Belmontonian.