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Donations and Gifts

Donations help us expand the collections, enrich programs, and remember or honor friends. Checks for gifts to the libraries should be made out to “The Great Barrington Libraries.” To arrange for other types of gifts, please see the library director.

The Great Barrington Libraries are made up of Mason Library in Great Barrington and Ramsdell Library in Housatonic.  The libraries share staff and resources.

Friends of the GB Libraries

Our Friends group takes your generous used book donations and sells them at our ongoing book sale area in Mason and at our July and December sales. We also have very popular book giveaways that generate donations.

Those revenues help support our projects including a monthly documentary series, free museum passes, seasonal decor, equipment purchases, and refreshments at various library events. We raise funds, provide help with projects, underwrite programs, and do outreach to the community.

We do not charge a membership fee and consider everyone on our mailing list a Friend.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list, donate, or volunteer, please go to our Facebook page or email us at FriendsGBL@gmail.com.

 

Mason Library

Mason Library was was designed by Blanchard & Barnes of New York. Mary A. Mason, widow of Captain Henry Hobart Mason, left $50,000 to build and furnish a new library, to replace one in a clapboard house previously on the site. Mrs. Mason summered in Great Barrington and is buried there. Dedicated July 24, 1913, the library was rededicated April 2007 after extensive renovations that doubled its size and made it handicapped accessible.

Ramsdell Library

Ramsdell Library, located in northeast corner of Great Barrington, in the village of Housatonic, was given to the town in the will of Theodore G. Ramsdell, owner of Monument Mountain Mills. The library, just over 100 years old, was opened to the public in 1908. The building is located on the site of the first house built in Housatonic in 1804.