The BPL's main library in Copley Square currently has an exhibit (in the old, McKim wing) of memorials left by runners and visitors after the Marathon last year. At the end of your walk are several budding trees - and blank tags on which you can write a new message.

At the Old North Church in the North End, you'll find another collection of tags - representing the dog tags of soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. K.M. Peterson visited the memorial garden recently:

Evolving Critic closely examines a Lego model of the central library, on display through April 5 - inside the library itself (hmm, wonder if there could be a smaller model of the model library inside the model library ...)

The BPL says a deal with a streaming-media company will let people with library cards stream up to ten movies, TV series, albums or audio books a month.

To use the Hoopla service, you'll need to first download a client (for more modern browsers on iOS, PCs or Android devices), then have your library card and PIN ready to sign up for a free account.

The Boston Public Library says it now offers online versions of magazines to cardholders. You'll need to download some reader software and then set up two separate accounts (one at BPL, one at Zinio, the company that makes the reader you'll be using), but it's free and there are some 100 magazines available this way.

The BPL mobile app (available for iOS and Android devices) lets users search the catalog, put holds on books, rate them and then call a library. There's also a Web version for users of other mobile devices (hey there, BlackBerry) which offers much of the same functionality.

Via Mike the Mad Biologist.

We wandered around the BPL in Copley Square today, and the kidlet got her first ever look at an actual card catalog - and microfiche readers - in the shabbier, lesser known reading room, the one upstairs from the grand Bates Hall reading room, the one with the peeling paint and the, well, card catalog and microfiche readers. She also got her first look at one of the request slips you'd fill out after finding the book you wanted in the card catalog.

But even in the Bates Hall reading room, it seemed like half the people in the place were scanning laptop screens rather than actual printed material, so all those lamps were more for mood lighting than anything else.

Mayor Menino announced the new program - in which iPads will come "preloaded with bestselling books and apps to connect them with job searching, social media, and language-learning tools" - in a speech today before the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Menino also pledged to have 30,000 new housing units built in Boston by 2020 - and that not all of them would be luxury apartments in downtown high rises.

The Boston Public Library today announced a fine amnesty for three weeks to try to get people to return overdue books.

From Nov. 1 until Thanksgiving, you'll be able to return overdue books - and CDs and DVDs - to any BPL branch and you won't have to pay a cent in fines.

The Boston Business Journal reports city officials are considering leasing 150,000 square feet on three floors of the Johnson building (the newer one) to retailers - and that they are looking at changes to the building's exterior to make it more Apple Store-ish. Nordstrom at the BPL, anyone? Ooh, what about a Barnes and Noble?

In a tweet, BPL replies:

WBUR reports on the new branch, which will replace the current two branches - and be larger than both of them combined.