Value of the Library
Outlined below are the many positive ways in which the Beals Memorial Library is a valuable and an integral part of the town. Since 1913, the library has been, and continues to be, a thriving, nationally recognized full-service library that is a free and welcoming community center where all residents can gather, find reliable, fact-based information, engage in open civic conversations and participate in all of our programs and services that enhance the town’s quality of life.
The services we provide:
-
Winchendon residents have access to the newest books, DVDs, audiobooks, music CDs, magazines, and video games, as well as the online library app, Libby, which provides free access to thousands of additional digital e-books, audiobooks, and more.
-
Winchendon residents have access to our free public computers and Wi-Fi, a resource that many turn to when the don’t have a computer or internet connection at home, are looking for a new job, or simply a space to work or study away from the distractions of a busy home.
-
The library also provides free databases and other online resources. Resources they can access from home.
-
The library offers affordable printing, copying, and faxing that many community members depend on.
-
Also provided is free one-on-one tech help, as well as research assistance into local genealogy and history through our collection, both physical and digital, of the Winchendon Courier, as well as town reports, street lists, and vital statistics dating back to the mid-19th Century.
-
Library card holders have the ability to borrow free hotspots and other “Library of Things” items.
-
Teachers in Winchendon schools can access the variety of services we offer to support their curriculum needs, including class visits, and delivery and pick up of curated library materials to their classroom. These resources are also available to homeschooling parents who rely on the library for much of their learning material.
-
The library offers a free delivery service of books and other items for homebound individual.
-
The library provides free civic meeting space that many organizations and individuals depend on.
Cultural and Educational Programming
-
We bring free, year-round cultural and educational programming to the community, including, for example, concerts in opera, jazz, classical, folk, even sea-shanties, as well as puppet and magic shows for kids, theater and improv classes for teens and pre-teens; and movies on the library lawn for families.
-
We provide learning experiences like Animal Adventures, hands-on science experiments with Kosmic Kelly, and programs on the Night Sky with the Aldrich Astronomical Society, plus many more.
-
We offer our annual Summer Reading Club that combines reading challenges with weekly fun events and activities that 671 of our community members participated in last year.
-
Through grant funding we have put in place our nationally recognized sensory-friendly programming and inclusion efforts that support autistic, neurodivergent, and special needs individuals and their families. In October 2024, the library received its Autism Welcoming Certification, the first library in the state to have such designation.
-
On top of the special programming we also provide on-going activities like the LEGO Club for kids, the D&D Club for teens, the Junior Adventurer’s Club for pre-teens, Preschool Playgroup and Storytime for small children, and two different book clubs, and a Yoga class for adults.
Community Investment
The Beals Library is of architectural and historic significance, and is on the National Register of Historic Places, and since 2017 the town’s registered voters, the Robinson-Broadhurst Foundation and the Library itself (using nearly all of its available trust funds) have invested over two million dollars in bringing the library into the 21st Century by updating the building’s infrastructure and making the building fully accessible for the first time in its 112 year history. It is a jewel we should all be proud of and work to protect.
State Certification and what it means:
-
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners has certified the Beals in its State Aid to Public Libraries program. That means the library is eligible to receive State Aid that in Fiscal Year 2025 amounted to over $37,000. Monies critical to the overall operation of the library.
-
Certification means:
-
Winchendon residents who hold a library card have the ability to borrow items from not only the Beals, but from collections of hundreds of other libraries in Central and Western Massachusetts through our inter-library loan network, CWMARS.
-
Winchendon library card holders can also borrow from the Commonwealth Catalog, the Boston Public Library and CLIO, all of which provide access to items outside the CWMARS consortium to other Massachusetts and out-of-state libraries.
-
The library is eligible to apply for state and federal grants which provide the funding to grow our collection, purchase new equipment, and bring additional cultural and educational programming and services to the community.
-
Putting it into perspective:
-
To put it in perspective, the Beals Memorial Library currently represents less than three quarters of one percent of the total town budget. That averages out to an annual cost of $38.07 to the average Winchendon homeowner, or the retail price of one new book if purchased at a book store.
-
It’s been said that “Nobody uses the library anymore”, but in 2024 the Beals had 21,864 patron visits, 2,682 people came to our programs, we circulated 23,268 items, and 33% of Winchendon residents hold a Beals library card.
-
A healthy Beals Memorial Library contributes to community’s social infrastructure and quality of life which can have a positive effect on the value of your home.
-
The value the Library holds as a resource to the taxpayers of Winchendon is enormous, and a tremendous bang for the buck.