WELCOME TO THE BECKET ATHENAEUM


In 1887 a small group of people from Becket met "to maintain a library, reading room, and to promote education, temperance, morality, good citizenship and the general welfare". The incorporation papers were signed by the secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on March 8, 1888, establishing the Becket Athenaeum, Inc. A board of trustees has governed the Athenaeum since that time.
About this time Miss Blanche Perkins purchased a building used in Becket as a saloon and gave it to the library, "to remove from the community a source of evil and to substitute a fountain of good". However, on November 4, 1927 a tragic flood destroyed a portion of Becket Village and the records of the library from 1888 to 1927 were lost. After this tragedy, Miss Cerelia Snow donated her Pleasant Street home to the library and it remained there until 1965. This building was somewhat isolated from the rest of the town so when the trustees were offered the Becket Grange, formerly the First Congregational Church built in 1849, they hired an architect to redesign the interior so it could be functional as a library. The library remains in this building today and serves the people of both Becket and Washington.

SERVICES

BOOKS

The Becket Athenaeum has a permanent collection of nearly 17,000 fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children. In addition to these books the Western Massachusetts Bookmobile brings materials from their extensive collection every eleven weeks. At this time around 300 books are exchanged providing a variety of fiction and non-fiction for all ages that otherwise the library could not afford to purchase. Books may be checked out for two weeks.

VIDEOS AND AUDIOS

The Athenaeum now owns over 1200 video and DVD’s and has increased purchase of books on tape as well, bringing that total to about 300 items for patrons’ home use. In addition to this when the regional Bookmobile comes the library exchanges around 200 videos and audios from their extensive collection.

INTER-LIBRARY LOAN

A fine feature of the Massachusetts Library System is the Inter Library Loan service. Staff can order patron requests for items the library does not own according to title, author or subject through CWMARS and Western Massachusetts Regional Library System. These items usually take a week or two to arrive through the weekly van delivery from WMRLS and come from numerous libraries throughout the country. Patrons can borrow them for two weeks.

NEW MATERIALS
The staff purchases new books, DVD’s, and audio books every four weeks keeping in mind patron interest and collection needs. The library receives many donations of new books from generous patrons that add to the permanent collection. In 2006 the Athenaeum was awarded memorial funds from various patrons for specific items. There were also two large memorial grants from The Beatty Family and the Elizabeth Wilson Family for children’s books, that helped the library update and enrich a much out dated part of the library’s children’s section.



Monday, June 16, 2008

June Newsletter

Becket Athenaeum Newsletter

June 2008

Better late than never--the June newsletter at last! We have some exciting programming still to come this month, including Community Volunteer Day, and Family Movie Night, so don't forget to check the calendar at the end of the newsletter.

"How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence."

--Benjamin Disraeli

This month's theme is Gardening and Home Improvement. We have books for proven green thumbs as well as perfect beginners, whether you're interested in growing medicinal herbs, flowers, or good old-fashioned food. If you partake in the official Becket pastime (Working-On-My-House) we have books and videos to help with everything from minor repairs to building a house.

When you're ready to take a break from your gardening and repairs, curl up in the shade with a new book. If you're feeling reflective, try Memo to the President Elect by Madeleine Albright, or The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Or if what you really want is a nice escape, we have plenty of new fiction including Careless in Red by Elizabeth George, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult, and The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurie Graham.

SUMMER HOURS

Tuesday 1:00-7:00

Thursday 1:00-7:00

Saturday 9:30-3:30

"Tomatoes and squash never fail to reach maturity. You can spray them with acid, beat them with sticks and burn them; they love it."

--S.J. Perelman, Acres and Pains, 1951

DOWNLOAD BOOKS, AUDIOS, AND VIDEOS

CWMARS offers e-books, audios and videos online, many of which can be downloaded and burned to CDs. For more information go to: http://digitalbooks.cwmars.org/ or ask your friendly librarian.

"A garden was the primitive prison, till man with Promethean felicity and boldness, luckily sinned himself out of it."

--Charles Lamb, 1830

RURAL LIVING TIP

Make your own laundry soap. It's easy and costs pennies!

· Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil.

· Grate into it one bar of Felsnaptha--an old fashioned bar soap found at the grocery store. (I use my Kitchenaid to grate it, but it can easily be done with a hand grater or food processor.)

· Add 1 cup washing soda (not baking soda) and 1 cup Borax.

· Boil until Felsnaptha is completely melted.

· Pour into a 5 gallon bucket, add cold water to fill bucket.

· Transfer into containers and cap.

The consistency will be slimy, but it works well. This is a gentle, natural laundry soap and costs less than $1/gallon to make.

"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden."

--Orson Scott Card

NEW COMPUTER

Thanks to a WMRLS grant, we have a brand new patron computer, and have put the last of our outdated PCs out to pasture. The new machine is fully equipped with useful software and a large widescreen monitor. It's a real treat!

"What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it." ~Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871

PROGRAMMING SUGGESTIONS WELCOME

We are very pleased to be developing so many new programs at the Athenaeum! While we are encouraged by the success of most of our programs, we recognize that it is something of a trial and error process, and we welcome your input. Would you like to initiate a new-mothers group, a baseball card swap, a storytelling workshop, a healthy-eating support group? Let us know how we can help!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

"Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance."

--Ruth E. Renkel

Jimmy Pearsol on changing a diaper:

Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then, fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Tuesday, June 17th 4:00 p.m. ALL AGES STITCHING CIRCLE

Knit, cross-stitch, hand sew, crochet, and chat!

Tuesday, June 24th 1:00 p.m. BOOKMOBILE

Out with the old, in with the new. Volunteers invited to help!

3:00 p.m. BOOKCLUB

The bookclub will be discussing the third section of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Wednesday, June 25th 7:00 POETRY WRITERS GROUP

Bring your poems, sip tea, talk poetry, gain feedback and inspiration. All styles welcome.

Thursday, June 26th 7:00 p.m. FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT

This month our feature movie will be preceded by a short public service ad made by Community S.O.L. 4-H! We will be showing Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. This movie is rated G, and is 94 minutes long. As always, juice and popcorn will be served.

Saturday, June 28th 11:00 COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER DAY

Help us put our collection in order, label shelves, build a dollhouse, prepare library cards, and other exciting jobs. Refreshments provided!

"A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season."

-- Unknown

WEB SITES OF INTEREST

http://becketathenaeum.blogspot.com/ Check out the Athenaeum's blog, beautifully maintained by Nancy!

http://www.renegadegardener.com/ "Renegade Gardener is the Web's best site for gardeners seeking truth, hope, and one lousy sign that someone unfettered by industry prejudice is interested in helping you become a better gardener."

www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/ Ideas, how-to, tool reviews, what more do you need!




Posted by Becket at 10:20 AM

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