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Booking your own private library
For a modest annual fee, book lovers can enjoy memberships at such venerable sanctums as the Boston Athenaeum.
from the April 6, 2007 edition
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For sheer magnitude, no library in this city could dream of topping the Boston Public Library. The country's first public library, founded in 1848, it houses a collection of 6.1 million books. More than 2.2 million patrons pass through each year. It is subsidized by taxpayers and free to all.
By contrast, a regular Athenaeum family membership is $275. In an effort to draw new, younger members into the fold, associate members – those under the age of 41 – join for $110. But the benefits are ample: access to books, lectures, teas, and ambiance in abundance.
And the personal attention at these libraries can be nothing short of doting. On the way to the children's library overlooking the Granary Burying Ground, a cemetery behind the building, Mr. Wendorf, wearing French cuffs, pauses to shake hands with a member. For the cost of postage, the Athenaeum will mail books to members anywhere in the world.
At the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, R.I., ($70 per year), the country's oldest lending library, founded in 1747, it's not unusual for a librarian to call a member and offer to hold a new book that might be of interest. "We make a point to smile and greet people when they come in, to know what their preferences are," says executive director Cheryl Helms.
In describing the Redwood – a stunning example of Palladian architecture and historic landmark where a clock from 1728 chimes the hour and quarter-hour – Ms. Helms likes to say, "If you want to see a 1488 first edition Euclid's Geometry, it's in our collection. If you want to read Jacqueline Susann ["Valley of the Dolls"], that's in our collection, too."
The Boston Athenaeum also offers a wide range of reading material. Fanned over two long mahogany tables in the reading room, where light floods through tall windows and green-shaded table lamps cast a warm glow over the selections, are copies of The Wall Street Journal; one of the city's alternative weeklies, the Boston Phoenix; Fortune; and Vogue.
Of course with any library it's mainly about the books. But readers tend to frequent membership libraries for their other qualities. Robert Holzbach, a financial planner in Winthrop, Mass., who has been an associate member for five years, relishes the Boston Athenaeum's aesthetic.
"I can get quantity elsewhere," he says, reflecting on the children's library, where he likes to bring his daughters. "The quality is a bit better. The big difference, though, is it's just amazingly beautiful looking over the graveyard there. I was with my little girls over Christmas, and it started to snow."
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