Letter from Board of Trustees
Please Support Our Annual Fund Drive!
Your contributions help us
buy more than 9,000
new books, videos, CD's,
DVDs and tapes each year.
Our Mission: The Jones Library strives to stimulate and support the civic and cultural life of all people of our region by
- Providing free access to materials
- Assisting people in their quest for information
- Preserving the history of our community, and
- Serving as a meeting place for the community's educational and cultural pursuits.
Your libraries meet your needs by offering:
- Wireless Internet access
- Community meeting rooms
- Three library locations
- Handicapped accessible building
- Evening and Sunday hours
- 24/7 online access to books, magazines, and newspapers for research
- Interlibrary loan service
- Reading advice
- Computer classes
- Children's activities
- Genealogy software
- Burnett Art Gallery Exhibitions
- Special Collections
- English as a Second Language Center
- A great place to be
November 1, 2007
Dear Patrons and Neighbors,
You can count on the Library! When I was a child, I went to the library every day after school. When I was a senior in high school, I used the library to research colleges. When I needed a job, I used the library's job resources and wrote my first resume. And when I needed to do research for my job, I did it at the library. Whenever I went, I found dozens of other people who were also using the library. All kinds of people from all walks of life.
The library has a direct impact on my life and probably on your life, too. Even with the advent of Internet research methods and digital books, people use our library in record numbers. For almost ninety years, our libraries have been open and free for everyone. For school children, our public libraries are open after school, on weekends and during the school vacations. This free access to books helps children learn to read and love to read. It is priceless. For adults, libraries give the gift of lifelong learning. This too is priceless.
Our Amherst libraries depend on private funding to a greater extent than most of the 370 public libraries in Massachusetts. Only 70% of our annual operating budget comes from the town of Amherst. Amherst's libraries must make up the remaining 30% in its budget with 5% from state aid and 25% from private fundraising.
Can we count on you? Private funds from our Annual Fund Drive and Planned Giving Program keep our libraries active, busy community centers. Last year hundreds of donors gave $45,015 to our Annual Fund Drive to renew our collections, and the Amherst Town Libraries avoided cutting the English as a Second Language Center, Special Collections or other major services of the Jones Library System. Investments through our Planned Giving Program keep our libraries strong for future generations. In fact, were it not for Samuel Minot Jones' bequest, the Jones Library would not exist.
We need $55,000 from this year's Annual Fund Drive to maintain and renew our collections. Giving a gift to the Library means more books for you to enjoy. Gifts of any amount are welcome -- your support at all levels is urgently needed and deeply appreciated.
Thank you for your support!
The Trustees of the Jones Library
Kathleen WangPresident
Louis Greenbaum
Anne Grose
Patricia Holland
Anita Page
Merrylees Turner
"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future."
-- Ray Bradbury
Thank you for Supporting the Jones, Munson and North Amherst Libraries through the Friends of the Jones Library System and the Annual Fund Drive.
If you would like to make a contribution, please use this form.
 The Jones Library |
 The North Amherst Library |
 The Munson Library |