Put this on that new calendar you're hanging up tomorrow!

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Hey all you Last Minute Larrys!

Need a holiday gift idea? A little something for a New Year's Eve party host? Forget that tired old bottle of wine! Dump the fruitcake! THIS is the gift you need to give:

Pick one up at the Jones for just $10.

Our end of year appeal to you, dear Friends.

December 15, 2018

Dear Jones Library Supporter,

The end of 2018 is fast approaching. As you contemplate your year-end charitable giving, we hope you will consider the Friends of the Jones Library. The Jones Library is one of the best investments that you can make to sustain what makes Amherst a vibrant and wonderful place to live and work.

Few other institutions more vividly represent the heart and soul of our Town; our library helps define who we are. Amherst’s library should be one of the premier public libraries of western Massachusetts – and it is.

Did you know that each year:

• almost 500,000 items are borrowed;
• 300,000 people enter the library buildings;
• our computer workstations are used 29,000 times;
• 4,800 adults, 6,500 youths, and 2,800 teens attend programs;
• 3,200 people attend ESL tutoring sessions; (25% of the children in Amherst’s schools come from families whose first language is not English).

The Jones Library can play this role because, from its inception, it has thrived with private support above and beyond Town funding. Samuel Minot Jones’ original bequest ($16 million in today’s dollars) allowed its unique building, and an endowment, to create a town library that is not just a place to borrow books, but to serve as the core of our community as well.

In consolidating the financial appeals of both the Friends of the Jones Library and the Jones Library, Inc., we’re seeking to revive that private support. Tax revenue alone doesn’t provide the support to maintain the quality of services the library provides each year. We want every resident of Amherst to continue to be able to benefit from a library that is so much more than what tax revenue delivers. We need your help.

We hope you will remember the Friends as we say goodbye to 2018. We look forward to providing the community with more programming, books, and materials in 2019. The Friends cannot do it without you and we are so grateful for your support. Thank you.

                                                

Elaine Donoghue                                

Co-Chair, Friends of the Jones Library

Lucy McMurrer          

Co-Chair, Friends of the Jones Library

Sharon Sharry                         

Director, Jones Library 

The Great Pretenders

Perhaps you know a few phonies in your world? Feel free to call them on it. And call them using a lot of different choices.

WWSC?

What WOULD Sherlock cook? 

Click here to find out...

40 Clever Words That Begin With the Letter C

Oh ho ho. The Friends have known a "climb-tack" or two in our day. Read on to discover the true meaning of "catch-fart." Just make sure you don't "cachinnate" too loudly.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The folks over at NPR have done it again. 

Here's your Best Books of 2018 brought to you by 

your very own book concierge. 

Happy reading, Friends!

Free Saturday movie

Swing by the Jones on Saturday the 22nd at 2:30 and get yourself in the holiday spirit. It's a ridiculous, funny, silly movie. 

Come laugh at the library.

Attention all witches and wizards!

Come and strum

Dismantling racism, one community discussion at a time.

Reading a Book Takes Time — Deal With It

Go pick up a book, maybe even a heavy one -- read a few pages now, get lost in it for the day, or read it over the course of the next six months. Go back and reread the stuff that didn't make sense the first time around. It's okay to take your time.