BECKET ATHENAEUM

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.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

June Book Club Meeting

The Becket Athenaeum Book Club will be reading part 3 of The Omnivore's Dilemma for June. The meeting will be held on TUESDAY, June 24th at 3 pm. Please join us!

Friday, May 9, 2008

May Newsletter

Becket Athenaeum Newsletter
May 2008

Happy Spring!

Along with daffodils, we have a couple of wonderful new items blossoming on our lawn this month. A lovely reading bench has been built by Don Hauser in memory of his wife, a cherished library friend, Nancy Hauser. We are so grateful for Don’s beautiful work and know that for many years to come Nancy’s generous spirit will be enjoyed through this tribute. We hope everyone will join us for the bench dedication on May 10th at 11:00 a.m.

We are also fortunate to have Jake DeFoe improving our outdoor area through his Eagle Scout project. Thanks to Jake, we will soon have a refurbished drop box, some pleasant new landscaping, and a picnic table! We are so appreciative of Jake’s efforts and the efforts of the many Boyscouts who volunteer at the Athenaeum with individual projects and doing lawn work each spring and fall.

We are in a whirlwind of indoor spring-cleaning this month as well. All bookmobile items—books, audios, and movies—have been moved to the front shelves. Also on the front shelves are all new books, audios and movies. Materials are considered new for 6 months and then will be placed into regular circulation. We are also rearranging movies and audios, organizing fiction, and more. Come on in and see the changes—once finished we are confident that the library will be easier to use and even more pleasant. A big thank you to those who have volunteered their time to help with this project!

My mother had a slender, small body, but a large heart—a heart so large that everybody’s joys found welcome in it, and hospitable accommodation.
--Mark Twain

Our theme this month is Mothers. This is a broad theme, ranging from Mary Cassat to Mommy Dearest, but we would like to take the opportunity to honor the majority of mothers who fall somewhere in-between, for the glorious, hard, gratifying, heartbreaking, heart mending, enduring, proud and profound work involved in raising children.

We hope you will enjoy the selection of mother-related materials we have on display, and we enthusiastically invite any and all mothers to a special Mother’s Night Out movie at the Athenaeum, May 13th at 8:00 p.m.

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”
--Henry Ward Beecher

Our display this month offers something for everyone—fiction, biography, humor, videos, audios, and even a cookbook. Check out First Mothers:The Women Who Shaped the Presidents, by Bonnie Angelo--these days we know every detail of a president’s personal life, but it is fascinating to learn about the women who in so many ways formed those lives. For a good, funny story try Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. Or for a delicious combination of memoir and recipes, dive into My Mother’s Bolivian Kitchen, by Jose Sanchez.

Mothers and daughters might like to read The Mother-Daughter Book Club, by Heather Vogel Frederick, written for 9-12 year olds. Perhaps it will inspire you to join the Athenaeum’s MAD Bookworms, a new mother-daughter bookclub.

If you like audios, our display includes Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark, a Mother’s Day mystery. Also newly acquired is Mother-Daughter Wisdom, by Christiane Northrop, M.D., which explores the health implications of the mother-daughter relationship.

“I looked on child-rearing not only as a work of love and duty, but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world, and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.”
--Rose Kennedy

We also have a number of new non-mother related (if there is such a thing) books, audios, and videos! Bhenazir Bhuttos’ Reconciliation, finished shortly before her assassination; Zapped, a new Regan Reilly mystery by Carol Higgins Clark; Barbara Walters’ memoir, Audition. For the movie fans, we have several new videos, including No Country for Old Men, Three Kings, Seven, Why Did I Get Married and more.

CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK
May 11th-17th is Children’s Book Week. Be sure to check the calendar below for fun book week events!

“If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.”
--Lord Langdale

WISH LIST
We would appreciate any of the following!
--Refreshments for our youth programming, such as chips, juice, cookies, and other packaged snacks.
--Brown grocery bags, sturdy boxes (especially ones with handles), and/or plastic storage bins.
Also, we have set up a wish list at Amazon.com. Any of our patrons who are inspired to donate a book, can find our wish list by clicking on “Gifts and Wishlists” and typing in “Becket Athenaeum.”

One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands—bare hands—and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon. Bare hands—a kind of mad courage!
--Robert Fulghum

NEW HOURS
Beginning on May 15th, our hours will be as follows:
Tuesday 1:00-7:00
Thursday 1:00-7:00
Saturday 9:30-3:30

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Saturday, May 10th 11:00 a.m. NANCY HAUSER BENCH DEDICATION
Performance by the Praise Team, refreshments, speakers.

Tuesday, May 13th 8:00 p.m. MOTHER’S MOVIE NIGHT
All mothers welcome--nursing babies also welcome! We
will be showing Mother with Albert Brooks and Debbie
Reynolds. Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, May 15th 4:00 p.m. I SPY AT THE LIBRARY
Children of all ages are invited to join Rosemary Stark in reading Walter Wick’s wonderful I Spy books, and constructing I Spy boxes to display at the library!

Saturday, May 17th 11:00 a.m. CRAFT AND STORY HOUR
Continue to celebrate Children’s Book week by enjoying favorite children’s books with Purr McEwen, and make bookmarks with Robyn Cheney!

Tuesday, May 20th 4:00 p.m. ALL AGES STITCHING CIRCLE
Apologies for last month’s scheduling of this, as it was during school hours. This month we hope to have a lively group of knitters, cross-stitchers, and others!

7:00 p.m. FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT
Join us for A Wrinkle in Time! As always, popcorn and juice will be served.

Thursday, May 22nd 6:00 p.m. MAD BOOKWORMS
This is the new name for the Mother-Daughter Bookclub! The group will be finishing A Wrinkle in Time, which is also our family movie this month.

Saturday, May 24th 11:00 a.m. YOUTH CHESS DAY
Children and young adults are invited to come in for a day of playing, or learning to play, chess. All levels welcome!

Wednesday, May 28th 7:00 p.m. POETRY WRITER’S GROUP
Bring your poems, sip tea, talk poetry, gain feedback and inspiration.

Saturday, May 31st 2:30 p.m. YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Young adults age 12-18 who would like to join the Becket Athenaeum, please join us to plan youth programming, including our first video project. We will also discuss development of our young adult resources.

BOOKCLUB—The date and time of the monthly bookclub meeting will be announced shortly. The bookclub is reading the second section of Omnivore’s Dilemma this month.

Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart, it don’t mean a thing.”
--Toni Morrison, in Beloved.