From Bonnie Adams

Reflecting on the Last Thirty Years at the M.N. Spear Memorial Library

Do you remember the early 1980’s in Shutesbury? We were the fastest growing town in the state! It seemed every day that enormous trucks carrying prefab houses kept rolling down Wendell Road. Watching cranes unload the new houses became family entertainment in Shutesbury, plus meeting the new neighbors (many baby boomers and their children) was fun too. But with the new residents came the anxiety of how to keep providing services in town. What are we going to do with all these children in our tiny school, we asked ourselves? Keeping up with the road maintenance, trash removal, providing percolation tests, building permits and other services put a lot of stress on both the town departments and taxpayers.

With good planning, above-average creativity, hard work, and great perseverance Shutesbury has managed to thrive, including the library.

Can you remember when the Spear Library was a little-used facility with nothing but outdated materials? Or when Spear Library was famously known throughout the state as one of the few libraries with no bathroom? Imagine having to close the library in order to cross the street to use the facilities! It was not that long ago. The building itself was (still is) charming, but was in great need of upkeep. As you remember, Spear Library didn’t have much of a budget either. We did get the money from dog tags purchases though!

Along with the growth in Shutesbury, the M.N. Spear Library has continued to adapt and expand. It has not changed much in physical size, but has had ever increasing numbers of patrons, circulation, and programs. This has been possible to the very many Shutesbury residents who were willing to do an enormous amount of unpaid work to see that the library again became a vital part of our town. We have also been fortunate to have had some visionary directors and trustees, who by responding to the needs of a growing population have fine-tuned the services to reflect the needs of the library’s patrons. We have videos, DVD’s, music (largely donated by a patron), 35 magazine subscriptions (all paid for by the Friends), and museum passes (Friends), Movie Nights (Friends). We have computers, wi-fi, a circulation system, interlibrary loans, and CWMARS! The library’s beautiful garden was designed and planted by volunteers. They even designed a self-watering feature that uses collected rainwater-- necessary considering there is no running water at the library. Would you believe that loaning fishing rods (donated by a Belchertown merchant; the program set up by residents) would warrant a live interview on a radio station in Saint Cloud MN? In so many Shutesbury’s townspeople are creative and resourceful.

We are the phoenix—you are the phoenix. Together we have built a vital library community from the ashes. It has been twenty years of steady growth in a tiny facility that was suited size-wise to the Shutesbury’s population at its lowest ebb. We are grateful for all the trips to town we haven’t had to make, the great materials we have available to use, just by checking them out. We love meeting our neighbors and the camaraderie of volunteerism is great too. The programs are excellent. We all have to be proud of what has been done with so little. It has been both ingenious and proof of the Shutesbury work ethic, too. However, it has been twenty years since the first effort to build a new library facility. Though we’ve made the library work admirably well, this community has truly outgrown the beautiful little building donated by Mirick N. Spear. The library community requires a building large enough continue to meet the needs of Shutesbury. Like all of Shutesbury’s growth in the last twenty years, you have made it happen; we thank you for the effort required to grow gracefully. Part of the effort has been making do with less on the part of the library community. After twenty years of waiting our turn for the limited resources of our town, and demonstrating truly vital community, it is time for the library to make its own giant leap. We are counting on you again.

The cupboard was a creative idea coupled with and an honorable willingness to share--humble but noble. In the same noble and generous spirit, Mirick N. Spear donated a building. A little at a time, you have built a larger town and library community; together we will build a library that adequately houses that community.