Books
Movies, Audio Tapes
Computers
Interlibrary Loan

^ Books

The Becket Athenaeum has a permanent collection of nearly 16,000 fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children. In addition to these books the Western Massachusetts Bookmobile brings materials from their extensive collection every eleven weeks and around 250 books which are exchanged to provide a variety of fiction and non-fiction for all ages that otherwise couldn't afford.

The staff also purchases some new books be about every six weeks keeping in mind patron interest and collection needs. The library receives many donations of new books from generous patrons that add to the permanent collection.In the summer of 2001 the Athenaeum was awarded a grant from the Libri Foundation that enabled them to purchase many award winning books for children.
 
^ Movies, Audio Tapes
The Athenaeum owns nearly 200 videos and about 100 audio tapes for patrons to check out for home use. Videos can be kept for one week. Audios are loaned for two weeks as are books. When the Bookmobile comes every eleven weeks around 200 videos and 100 audios of their materials are exchanged that provides patrons with a variety of choices. A generous donation from the Stephen Huberdeau Family will allow the staff to build on an audio collection for both adults and children.
 
^ Computers
The library has two Internet accessible computers for patrons. They can be used for 30 minutes per day and sign-ups are required. Parental permission is required for children's use. There is another computer in the Paul Pharmer Homework Center that is not Internet accessible but does provide word processing and CD-ROMS of learning and reference materials to students. In addition to this the library has a computer for staff that has the entire collection nearly entered. When this is finished the Athenaeum's cataloguing and circulation will be up to date and enable staff and patrons to access information and materials more efficiently. At that time patron library cards will be issued creating an even faster check-out and check-in and provide more accurate record keeping.
 
^ Interlibrary Loan
As members of the Western Massachusetts Library System the staff can order all library materials requested by patrons through Interlibrary Loan. Last year the staff obtained nearly 500 items from libraries all over the United States for our patrons. This is a very popular and invaluable service for patrons providing items requested usually within a week.