Get in Your Element this September—sign up for a library card! From borrowing books, ebooks, and museum passes to getting research help, learning new skills, or attending story time, a library card helps you do more of what you enjoy.

Get a library card and dive into a new hobby. Use your library card to spark your creativity. A library card is your most important school supply—it's elemental, really—and everyone should have one!

Sign up for a new library card or renew an expired card during the month of September and receive a coupon for a FREE cookie from our friends at Bakin Bakery!

How Do You Library? Tell the American Library Association for the Chance to Win!

The American Library Association wants to celebrate the value of libraries with all of you! Show some love to your local library on social media by sharing how you make the most of your library card.

Do you love our summer reading program, storytime, or book club? Checking out DVDs, magazines, or ukuleles? Do you simply enjoy getting lost in the magic of a good book? We want to know how YOU library!

Participating is easy:

- Snap a pic or shoot a video showcasing what you love about your library or choose a library element that best applies to you.

- Post to Instagram, X, or on the I Love Libraries Facebook page with the hashtag #HowILibrary.

- Tag your library and your friends to help spread the word!

What's in it for you? In addition to the gratification of supporting libraries, there’s also a chance to win great prizes. One randomly selected winner will receive a $150 gift card, and three second-place winners will receive a poster of their choice from the ALA Store.

So, let's see those book stacks, creative reading spots, and all the adventures that libraries take you on! If you don’t have a photo to share, check out the Library Elements graphics at ilovelibraries.org.

Join the #HowILibrary movement, and let's make this the best Library Card Sign-up Month ever!

The featured artist for the month of September at Bushnell-Sage Library is Eric Schumann. Eric is an active member of CATA and his paintings will be on exhibition September 3 to September 30.

There will be an opening reception of Eric's show on Sunday, September 3 from 2:30 to 4 p.m.  His exhibition may also be viewed during the library's regularly scheduled open hours.

Interested in helping enhance the library experience? The Friends of Bushnell-Sage Library is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose purpose is to encourage and promote the enrichment and use of Bushnell-Sage Library and to foster support for the Library in the community. 

The next meeting of the Friends will take place Friday, September 15 at 9 a.m. in the library’s program room. For more information, contact the Friends at [email protected].

Join us in the Bushnell-Sage Library Program Room as we discuss Beaverland:

How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip Tuesday, September 26 at 4 p.m.!

"Lyrically written, meticulously observed, and exhaustively researched, Beaverland is going to break your heart--and then heal it with compassion, beauty, and wonder."

-- Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

The BSL Book Club meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month from 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Please contact 413-229-7004 with any questions.

Pick up your copy at the circulation desk today!

Square Pegs, Round Tables: Four Early Arthurian Romances

 A Literary Seminar by Mark Scarbrough

September 27, 2023, through November 15, 2023
10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Register here.

Stories of Arthur’s round table arose at a time of great change across France and England: as Celtic myths become the gold standard of storytelling, as the landscape was increasingly war-torn, as the crowns of England and France battled for supremacy, as Eleanor of Aquitaine brokered her infamous dowry, and as the Middle Ages gave way to the modern world. We’ll look at four of the earliest Arthurian legends: two tales written by a French court poet who single-handedly invented the stories as we now know them and two tales found as solitary manuscripts in estate collections long after their composition. Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the other knights show us distinct fractures in personal expression and political power as the medieval became the modern, rifts that still trip us up today.

Thank you to the Friends of Bushnell-Sage Library for sponsoring this seminar!

Join us weekly on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. for a session of gentle Kripalu yoga, accessible to any level of experience or fitness. Focus on flexibility, stress reduction, balance and gentle strengthening. Please bring a yoga mat and blanket and any props you like.

Donation based, $10 suggested with 20% of any proceeds donated to the library to support future programming.

Join facilitator Margo Davis, MSW, LICSW on Fridays from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. for Friday Reset: Insight Meditation Practice & Course in Miracles Study. All are welcome to this free program - no experience needed!

For the health and safety of facilitators and participants, it is important that everyone come fragrance-free to this workshop.

On Wednesday, September 27 at 6:30 p.m., join a virtual talk with Tory Stephens of Grist Magazine, an independent non-profit media organization focused on the climate crisis, and learn how he created Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. Imagine is a storytelling initiative that calls for fiction writers to envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress, imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope. The initiative also seeks narratives that center solutions from the communities most impacted by the climate crisis, and stories that are rooted in cultural authenticity (a deep sense of place, customs, cuisine, and more) and rich subcultures that uplift traditions not often seen in mainstream literature. Over the course of three years the project has encouraged 3,000 plus writers from 91 countries to submit stories, and of which 700,000 people have read. Writers and readers alike will enjoy this climate justice romp.

Join the Zoom presentation at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 27.

About the Speaker: Tory Stephens creates opportunities that transform organizations and shift culture. He is a resource generator and community builder for social justice issues, people, and movements. He currently works at Grist Magazine as their climate fiction creative manager, and uses storytelling to champion climate justice, and imagine green, clean, and just futures. In another life he owned a kick-**** streetwear company, and he would have gotten away with eating the last cookie too, if it weren't for his three meddling kids.

How NASA Is Combating Climate Change (virtual)

Friday, September 29, 2023, 2 - 3 p.m.

The missions of NASA’s Earth Science Division help us to understand our planet’s interconnected systems, from a global scale down to minute processes. The division delivers the technology, expertise, global observations, and applications that help us map the myriad connections between our planet’s vital processes and the climate effects of ongoing natural and human-caused changes. Learn about the efforts of teams of NASA researches who are currently examining Earth to understand climate change, storms, fires, and where people fit in to all of it, including an active mission studying climate change in northern regions of the world (e.g., Alaska and Canada).

Led by Dr. Elizabeth Hoy, PhD, who has been a NASA scientist for over 10 years with the NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Studying Arctic systems since 2005, her research interests are in geography and disturbance mapping within the high northern latitude regions of North America where she utilizes GIS and remote sensing to understand aspects of environmental change. 

Register directly on Zoom HERE.

Summer Reading is officially over! Our readers worked so hard completing VOICE sheets and coming to the library to do Weekly Challenges.

Let’s give all our summer readers a pat on the back for staying curious and engaged this summer!

We wrapped up our Summer Reading with our End of Summer Celebration last Friday. Cyndee McInnis and Nile, the life-sized inflatable whale, came to visit us and we watched a whale come to life in our Program Room! Cyndee led four groups through a presentation on whales, and challenged participants to clean up plastic in their environment! Did you pledge to pick up 100 pieces of plastic?

Thanks again to all our readers for their participation! You all made this year’s Summer Reading a huge success, and we were so happy to see how engaged everyone was in helping their community.

Finally, a huge thanks goes to the Friends of Bushnell-Sage Library for their continued support of Summer Reading. If you are curious about the Friends, or want to join, their next public meeting is September 15 at 9 a.m. here at the library.

It’s back to school time! Massachusetts residents have free access to PebbleGo. PebbleGo is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-2 students. Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities, it boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in core subject areas. Find it on our Digital Resources page.

Our StoryWalk® for September is Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, story by Eric Litwin and art by James Dean, on a new pathway around our playground! Stop by the Children’s Desk to fill out an entry for a Pete the Cat activity bag.

The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Storywalk® is a registered service mark owned by Ms. Ferguson.

StoryWalk® made possible by our partnership with South Berkshire Kids.

Click Here for more information about Bushnell-Sage Library Programs And Events - September 2023