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.



Friday, July 4, 2008

Becket Athenaeum Newsletter July 2008

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better"

~Albert Camus

Happy Summer and Happy Independence Day! Our theme for July is Summer Reading. We are very excited about our children's summer reading program, which kicks off July 5th. We agree with author Anna Quindlen, who said, "I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." We hope to inspire many future bookshelf builders! The theme for this year's state-wide summer reading program is Wild Reads and we have lots of fun animal activities planned as well as a new Reader Leaders club. We hope to see wild kids of all ages gracing the Athenaeum, this summer. Come in on July 5 th to sign up, and see the calendar at the end of the newsletter for details on our events for July!

"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken." ~James Dent

Summer reading is for grown-ups, too. Our display this month features good summer reads including The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, Stalin's Ghosts by Martin Cruz Smith, Last Post by Robert Barnard, A Theory of Relativity by Jaquelyn Mitchard, several books by Jodi Picoult, Patrick O'Brian, and much more.

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought. "

~Wallace Stevens

BOOK SALE—DEBBIE O'CARROL

Our annual book sale will be on Saturday, July 19th. Also on the 19th, Debbie O'Carrol will be performing her magic show, Amazing American Animals at 11:00. The show will be followed by a children's wild mask parade.

"In summer, the song sings itself."

~William Carlos Williams

HELP NEEDED

We count on volunteers to help with setting up and staffing the book sale and we are short-handed this year. Please come in and sign up to help out!

YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD

Our youth advisory board is recruiting members to help us produce our first local history video. This is a great opportunity for young adults age 12-18 to get involved in the community and have fun making a video. Join us July 10th at 5 p.m. for snacks and planning!

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world." ~Ada Louise Huxtable

QUILT OF QUOTES

We have had several lovely quotes given for our quilt project. Our most enthusiastic contributors have been young adults, so we would like to remind the fully-grown to roll up their sleeves, pick up a fabric pen, and write a few lines! You will find fabric and laundry markers near the tea station—share with us a favorite line from a book or movie, or something overheard at the Athenaeum, read online, or in any way connected to the library. Once the quotes have been collected they will be sewn into a Becket Athenaeum Quilt of Quotes for all to enjoy.

MAGAZINES

We are in the process of reviewing our magazine subscriptions and welcome your suggestions and comments. What do we have that you love? What do you wish we subscribed to? Or if magazines are of no interest to you, we would like to know that, too.

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

~Henry James

A GENTLE REMINDER

As a courtesy to other patrons and staff, please step outside when speaking on your cell phone. Thank you!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Saturday, July 5th 11:00 ORIGAMI

Fold some wild animals at the library! Children and adults welcome.

Tuesday, July 10th 5:00 YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD

Young adults age 12-18 are invited! This month we will be working on our local history video project.

Saturday, July 12th 11:00 ANIMAL MASKS

Children of all ages are invited to make wild masks for our wild mask parade on July 19th!

Saturday, July 19th 9:00 BOOK SALE

11:00 DEBBIE O'CARROL

12:00 WILD MASK PARADE

Tuesday, July 22nd 3:00 BOOK CLUB

The selection for this month is My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain

Wednesday, July 23rd 5:00-7:00 READER LEADERS PARTY

Children who have earned 10 Reader Leader points are invited to enjoy an evening of pizza and board games at the library.

7:00-8:30 POETRY WRITER'S GROUP

Bring poems you've written, poems in progress, favorite poems by others, for conversation and inspiration. All styles welcome!

Saturday, July 26th 11:00 ANIMAL ART

Join us in making wild animal art to display in our children's art exhibit. Collage, colored pencil, crayon, etc. All supplies provided.

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.

~Simone de Beauvoir
Posted by Becket at 9:19 PM

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