Visit the Bridgeport History Center’s award winning  labor history exhibit:

Oral Histories

Picture Gallery

Bridgeport Labor Timeline and much more

click to enter

BRIDGEPORT — A funky orange, purple and black rug, purple booths and cafe-style tables and race-car rocking chairs that MP3 players can be hooked into are some of the essential items in the new teen cafe at the Burroughs and Saden Library branch downtown.

While libraries for decades have contained special sections for children and adults, “It’s the teenagers that you sometimes lose,” said Nancy Sweeney, youth services team leader for the library. “They traditionally do not have their own space.”

Thanks to the library staff and a group of city teenagers, however, that is no longer the case in Bridgeport.
This spring, with the help of a grant from the Pitney Bowes Foundation, the first-floor space at the city’s main library branch underwent a makeover.

A “Teens Only” sign now warns adults and children to keep out of the teen cafe.

Rafael Parüssolo, 17, said he was excited when asked to participate in the creation of the space. “I thought it was great,” he said. “I usually went to Fairfield branches and all of them have teen spaces.”

The space was officially unveiled in June ,and this month the branch began hosting special gaming and crafts events on Tuesday nights. This week’s special program featured an anime movie.

“It looks very modern and funky,” said Parüssolo, who will soon start his senior year at Harding. “When people think of the library they think it’s a boring place to go. It’s somewhere you feel you have to go for research or something, not somewhere you want to go. Now, they will have another option for entertaining themselves.”

Renel Bernadel, 18, a member of the Mayor’s Conservation Corps, said when he finishes his door-to-door canvassing he goes directly to the Bridgeport library. What draws him in are the computers, of which the teen space now has eight.

Sweeney said the library branches have used gaming systems and computers to draw in teens for several years. “It’s what they like,” she said. “You hope that once they are here they will say, `Oh, you have videos’ or, `Oh, I can read a book without buying it.’”

The city’s other branches have also made a concerted effort to engage teenagers. Teens who visit the Newfield Branch for years have been known to break out in song for karaoke and open mic nights or whip out their dancing shoes for Dance, Dance Revolution games on the Xbox gaming console.

In June, several library “regulars” won the “It’s Your Cause” video contest sponsored by Rosen Publishing and the Teen Health & Wellness website when they produced their own original music to create a video about personal space, with the aid of Sweeney and branch manager Mike Bielawa.

The library also provides educational activities, like the summer reading program in which teenagers win prizes when they read five, 10 and 15 books. As part of the teen cafe, the college preparation materials were also moved from the second floor of the library to the new teen area.

“We’re hoping once school starts it will take off as more and more kids learn about it,” Sweeney said.

John Soltis – Community Librarian

click here: Gallery

Take a look at City Historian Mary Witkowski’s local history blog, the

Curious Historian.

Mary is also head of the Bridgeport Public Library’s Bridgeport History Center.
.

Click here to enter blog:

Curious Historian

Happy 200th Birthday P.T. Barnum.

Let all of us connected with Bridgeport in some way, stop and remember fondly the great P.T. Barnum. As we celebrate his 200th Birthday, let us remember his wit, his ingenuity, his drive and his showmanship.
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He is perhaps the greatest personalty ever to have called our fair city his home. All throughout the city we have streets, statues, schools, and institutions that remind us of him. And so on July 5, hats off to P. T. Barnum.

Working together as a team, under the guidance of Branch manager Mike Bielawa and Youth Services Team leader Nancy Sweeney, the teens filmed, edited and even produced their own original music to create a video about personal space. Submitted in May the teens learned in June that they had won! The video will be highlighted this summer on the Teen Health and Wellness site and because of their efforts the teens have provided the library with a year’s free subscription to the teen health and wellness database.

Check out the health and wellness site.

Teen Health and Wellness

Here is a sneak peek to their winning video!

New caregivers are invited to learn about the legal and procedural issues that are likely to occur in taking care of elderly and/or disabled loved ones at a seminar presented by Julia Merkt.  Attorney Merkt is nationally recognized in the field of elder law and received the highest competency and ethics rating through Martindale-Hubble’s peer review process.

Julia Merkt will explore

· Advocacy in residential, long term care and medical settings

· Arranging for and monitoring home care services

· Assisting with relocation and evaluation of benefits available

· Coordination of medical care

· Transportation and concierge services

· Financial matters, including Medicare and Medicaid

· Conservatorship and Power of Attorney

A member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) since 1992, Attorney Merkt is also affiliated with the Connecticut Bar Association’s Elder Law Section.  She is a member of the East Rock Village Association, an organization which is committed to the concept of supporting residents in aging at home. She is also involved in efforts to help the disabled achieve maximum independence in life.

Teen Advisory Board Meeting

Join us for our next meeting.
Share your thoughts on the new Teen Space.
Find out what we have planned!

Burroughs and Saden Teen Cafe
925 Broad Street
Bridgeport, CT 06604
203 576-7408

Light refreshments witll be served.