Thanks for visiting our "Did You Know?" page. Here you will find insider information about the library. Each month we will feature a quick explanation about a service or program that will help you learn more about the library and all that it has to offer. Please keep checking back!
In the past year alone Forbes has added over forty new periodicals to its collection. Naturally, we recognize the importance of maintaining a core of the most popular, enduring, and respected publications. But our patrons' needs and interests are changing all the time, so we are continually on the lookout for appealing and distinctive magazines that are new to us. These may be published by small presses or just starting up or offbeat or directed toward special audiences - or simply familiar ones we've overlooked.
We read reviews. We search online. We check out other libraries' shelves. We watch for the yearly awards that Utne magazine bestows on outstanding independent periodicals. We browse the magazine sections at Barnes & Noble and the supermarket (we also get a kick out of scanning the fare at the check-out counter). And, of course, we listen with particular attention to the suggestions and recommendations of our patrons and staff, along with those of assorted family members, friends, and complete strangers.
The most recent additions to the array in the Main Floor Reading Room include: Earth Island Journal (in-depth coverage of international environmental news); Cook's Illustrated, Food & Wine, and Saveur (joining six other food-related publications - we'll never have enough of them!); Cat Fancy; The London Review of Books; Women's Health; Skeptic (exploring a wide variety of social, scientific, and paranormal controversies); Yoga & Joyful Living; Mental Floss (presenting facts and trivia in a humorous way - "where knowledge junkies get their fix"); ELDR (sic!) (inspiring those over 60 to celebrate the joys and navigate the challenges of aging); The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide (the "journal of record" for the discussion of gay and lesbian history, art, literature, and the struggle for equality); Organize (helping people tackle all their organizational needs); Tricycle (along with Shambhala Sun, another fine independent voice of Buddhism); The Believer (a Paris Review for today); Make (the first magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology projects); Seed (tracking science's fast-changing place in our culture); La Prensa (Northampton's own bilingual monthly); Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (a highly acclaimed, locally published literary magazine); and both In These Times (award-winning investigative journalism) and Funny Times (the best of the best political cartoons and columns, plus jokes and stories by Dave Barry, Garrison Keillor, David Sederis, and the whole gang).
Among the latest discoveries (some wonderful titles here) up in Arts & Music are: Juxtapoz (exploring the low-brow art movement); Stop Smiling (a Chicago-based arts and culture magazine); Paste (spotlighting new music across a broad stylistic spectrum); Tape Op (creative home recording); Dwell (fresh, intelligent coverage of modern residential architecture and design); Cottage Living; Creative Knitting (joining Interweave Knits and Knit Simple - a serious knitting contingent among our patrons!); Rug Hooking; Interweave Crochet; Quilting Arts (along with two other magazines on this subject - some more real fanatics); Popular Woodworking (two more here, too - ditto); and Cloth Paper Scissors (fiber arts and collage).
And the Children's Department now has, in addition to its terrific spread of periodicals for kids, a separate selection of parenting magazines, such as Adoptive Families, Wondertime, and Family Fun.
A surprising number of our periodicals, especially among this new crop, can be found at no other library in Western Massachusetts, and many of them circulate widely through interlibrary loan. But we're pleased the most by the enthusiastic response of our own patrons.
So come on in and see for yourself. The new magazines described here, of course, just skim the surface of what is available to read at the library or take home. (For a complete list, click here.) And please give us a hand in this ongoing effort. We welcome and are grateful for any input and feedback from you. In fact, we depend on it!
added 3/21/08
There is a cozy, tranquil, light-filled hideaway here at the library, a place that many of our patrons (and not just newcomers) don’t even know exists. This is the Arts and Music Reading Room, located on the second floor just beyond the Hosmer Gallery. It is furnished with four big comfy leather chairs, assembled around a handsome low table. There are two walls of near-ceiling-high windows, an expanse unique in the library, which look out at tree-branch level (making it a very exciting place to be during a sudden downpour or snowstorm).
Here you can read, have a quiet talk with a friend, or settle in with your laptop and go to work. Or you can look around: for this is home to an especially fine selection of arts and music periodicals, one which complements the rest of this department’s renowned collection. There are a number of magazines here which no other library in the area subscribes to, and we’re pleased that they travel back and forth briskly as part of the interlibrary loan system.
The collection embraces not only a plethora of arts and music magazines, but publications on architecture and interior design, crafts, dance, film, gardening, photography, and more. These range from the expected— Architectural Digest, Art in America, Rolling Stone, Horticulture—to the browse-worthy—Cottage Living, American Photo, Natural Home, Art Calendar—to the highly focused—Cinéaste, Knit Simple, Guitar Player, Fine Woodworking—to the cutting-edge—Dwell, No Depression, Juxtapoz, Paste. So come visit the Reading Room soon. We think that, even as more and more patrons discover it, it will still feel like a place that’s your own special secret.
added 12-4-07
The library offers hundreds of interesting programs each year on a variety of topics from estate planning to poetry readings. All of our programs are free of charge and open to everyone. You can find a complete listing of programs on our event calendar. We also have a paper version of the calendar which is available in the library. The best way to stay up to date with what’s going on is to sign-up for our email list. When you sign up, we will email you announcements about upcoming events at the library.
added 10-16-07
... that the library circulates museum passes that allow you to visit local museums for free.
Some of the museums included are the Smith College Museum of Art, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, MassMoCA and Historic Deerfield.
The passes circulate for 2 days and are valid for 1 family.
The museum passes were donated by the Friends of Forbes Library.
For more information, click here.
added 7-25-07
In 2006 Forbes Library received a grant from Highland Valley Elder Services to provide training, equipment and resources to create oral histories. Individuals can interview friends and family or organizations can create institutional histories or teachers can bring oral history to the classroom. Forbes Library has a digital video camera, tripod and 2 digital audio recorders that can be borrowed. There is also a computer with editing software in the reference room.
Contact Julie at 413-587-1014 or to learn more.
added 6-21-07
... that the Children's Department has a collection of over 30 board games?
These games are available to use in the library whenever the library is open.
Besides the classic board games like Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, Life and Scrabble we have Taboo, Risk, Clue, Twister, Jumanji and those favorites of childhood, Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.
Bring your friends, family and spend an afternoon of fun in the air conditioned Children's Department this summer exploring our great board game collection.
These games were generously donated by the Friends of Forbes Library.
added 5-22-07
The Forbes Library is one of over 140+ public, academic and school libraries in the Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing, Inc. as a full member. To be a full member, the Forbes Library must pay a substantial annual fee to CWMARS for online services for our patrons and staff, including online catalogs, patron accessibility to ones own check-out information, and library technical services-related software.
What this means for you, the patron, is that either inside the library or from home via the library's web site, you may gain access with your library card number and a self-selected pin in monitoring your own account. This includes providing you a list of currently charged items, a list of your fines, and the ability to monitor your current requests. You may also retrieve audio files downloaded to your home computer, search the online catalog, request items through the combined Regional catalogs, and get automatic notifications of requested items delivered. Please note at this time email notifications do not work with Verizon customers.
Also, because we are part of a library consortium, you now need only one card throughout this system. You no longer need duplicate cards throughout the Region as most libraries in Western Massachusetts are also on this same system. Students registered at any of the local academic institutions may not use their college library cards in the public library system, hence they must register for a separate public library card.
We ask that when requesting a library card that you bring in identification with your name and current address. If you can provide that information, we will have you complete a registration form and your own library card will soon be presented to you! Library cards are not transferable, therefore if you have family members or friends, they are required to get their own cards; you may not loan your card to any other person. The Main Circulation Desk registers all adults, including young adults, 6th grade and above. 5th grade and below are registered in our Children's Dept., 413-587-1010.
Please contact the library at any time if you have any questions about your account. Our main telephone number is 413-587-1011.
added 4-20-07
The Library website is a great starting place whenever you are looking for information whether for personal, school, or professional needs. Check out our latest collection of guides to online information! http://www.forbeslibrary.org/research/
We've collected and reviewed the best websites on every subject from Agriculture to Voting, Health to Homework, and everything in between.
Need to find a tax form, scholarship, or book review? Go to "Research" on our main menu, then click "Subject Guides." There are over 80 guides listed by topic, and each one leads to reliable web sites, community organizations, or other information relevant to the topic.
Need community services, events calendars, or job listings? For local area information, there are a dozen more guides under the heading "Northampton".
Looking for a good book? Click "Books" or "Reader's Advisory" to get recommendations on books in series, book awards, genre fiction, used books and more.
If you don't see the subject you're looking for, try clicking "Search" in the navigation bar at the left.
The Information Services Team is always updating and adding to the online Subject Guides so if there is a topic you'd like to see added, click the Website Feedback link to let us know. The guides are available 24/7 so even if you're planning on asking the Reference Librarian (please do!) if it's late, don't wait--start your search from our website.
added 4-4-07