413-625-0306 
Building Access & Curbside Pickup Hours
- Monday 10:30 am–5:30 pm
- Wednesday 11 am–7 pm
- Saturday 10 am–3 pm
- Sunday 12–3 pm
Latest News
Psst! If you are thinking ahead about gifts to exchange for the holidays... How about sharing a book about Franklin County that highlights details that are often overlooked?
"Flights of Fancy, Souls of Grace" is the third book in a reporter’s trilogy of journalistic portraits of extraordinary lives, published originally in The Recorder newspaper.
At the Arms Library on 10/19, hear stories from former reporter Richie Davis, who, for the better part of four decades, wrote stories highlighting the unique people of our county. He will share stories of "who we have been," and "who we are" at 6:30 p.m. at Arms Library in Shelburne Falls on 10/19.
Books will be available for purchase. The author has graciously agreed to sign copies after the reading. The Arms Library is accessible via the lower level back entrance.
July 29th, 6:30 p.m. at the Arms Library
Leapfrog Press' Global Fiction Prize winner, D.K. McCutchen, reads from gender-bender-post-apocalyptic-speculative-fiction, JELLYFISH DREAMING, at the ARMS Library, Sat. July 29th at 6:30pm. (Jellyfish will be served & books signed)
In a post-apocalyptic, gender-bender, coming-of-age story contemplating the tenacity of life and capacity of hope, the last port Town beside the Great Garbage Ocean draws Fisherfolk from a dozen races and places to the Trash Café. On the cliffs above, in an aging University, Jack floats in a tank of poisonous Jellyfish, drifting through fragmented memories. Like the immortal jellyfish Turitopsis, the lonely, 200-year-old teenager resets under stress, never making it to adulthood.
But two Uni researchers believe the Town’s tough, ageless "warehouse kids" are humanity's last hope. Even Jack barely remembers the environmental catastrophes that caused mass extinctions and changed the town’s seemingly youngest survivors into something new and strange. Then Jack falls for his best friend Joon, a tsunami of trash lands on the Town, and old bigotries erupt into violence. Jack surprises himself by racing to protect those he loves from a madman trying to destroy the fledgling inheritors of a dying world -- but at a cost.
The Arms Library is handicapped accessible via the lower level entrance in back of the library. Our author's talk will be in the lower level.
Words are music to our ears!
July 9, 1 - 4 p.m. in the Children's Room
While wandering about on the Shelburne Falls July 9th Art Walk, and Porch Fest, stop by and listen to a story or two at the Arms Library, in the downstairs Children's Room.
One of our wonderful staff people will be at the ready during the afternoon to read stories to you and your littles. (Parents need to be with their children, please.)
Different readers will begin at 1 p.m., and be there until 4 p.m.
Led by Dr. Bill Strader, who writes,
“I'm a lifelong kite flyer! I love watching, supporting and flying kites and things that fly! So How about coming to see a Veritable Plethora of kites and things that fly! We will see a wide variety of kites, assemble some...and even make your own Scottish Sled Kite!”
All ages. Meet behind the Arms Library, on the grass.
Dr. Bill Strader is Professor, Early Childhood Education, Coordinator, New England Symposium on Play, Member of Men in Early Childhood Education, a past president of the Montachusetts Area Association for the Education of Young Children, the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, and Montachusetts Area Association for the Education of Young Children. "Dr. Bill" has been the librarian for the Newton School (Greenfield), and Substitute Teacher at Rowe School over the past several years!
Carrie and Michael Kline, of Talking Across the Lines podcast fame....
1 p.m. in back of the Arms Library during our Shelburne Falls June Art Walk, and Shelburne Falls 4th Annual Porchfest
Sunday, July 9th
Michael and Carrie Kline perform country harmony duets from coal mining songs to gospel, family songs and front porch music. Listeners may find themselves dancing a waltz to “Fiddler Jones,” the song that celebrates the role of music and old-time fiddlers in our lives and our communities, those who play for family and friends or local dances, or those who play for no one at all.
Carrie and Michael Kline's lives circle around one another and are inspired by Appalachian music and culture. Their voices carry the songs with truth and authenticity, and their guitar accompaniments and haunting harmonies get you where you live. With their lifelong focus on West Virginia history and tradition, the Klines' performances celebrate the old-time singers as well as the songs.
Michael and Carrie perform in Europe and across the United States. As folklorist-musicians they weave songs and stories, evoking the times that really matter, time with family and friends, spiritual times, wrapped in a patchwork quilt of vivid imagery. Kitchen songs. You can smell the biscuits baking.
Leapfrog Press' Global Fiction Prize winner reads from gender-bender-post-apocalyptic-speculative-fiction, JELLYFISH DREAMING, at the ARMS Library, Sat. July 29th at 6:30pm. (Jellyfish will be served & books signed)
"In the JELLYFISH DREAMING, beside the Atlantic-Coast-that-was, near an aging University, hard Fisher people from a dozen races and places fetch up in the Trash Cafe, last stop before the Great Garbage Ocean. The ocean coughs up jellyfish and plastic rubbish these days. But Jack remembers things no one else does, like birds and frogs. The lonely, 200-year-old teenager never quite makes it to adulthood before resetting, like the immortal jellyfish Turitopsis. Then Jack falls for Joon, one of the tough street kids who can choose their own gender. Even Jack barely remembers the environmental catastrophes that caused mass extinctions and changed the town’s youngest survivors. But when old bigotries erupt into violence, Jack surprises himself by racing to outwit a madman trying to destroy the fledgling inheritors of a dying world—even if the cost is his not-quite-immortal life."n Prize winner reads from gender-bender-post-apocalyptic-speculative-fiction, JELLYFISH DREAMING, at the ARMS Library, Sat. July 29th at 6:30pm. (Jellyfish will be served & books signed)
You can also read an interview with the author at The Mossy Skull