Swansea Free Public Library has again been certified through the Commonwealth's State Aid program. Massachusetts libraries participate in the state aid program, administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC).
State Aid has been awarded to municipalities and their public libraries since 1890 when The Acts of 1890, chapter 347, ‘An Act to Promote the Establishment and Efficiency of Free Public Libraries,’ established the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts.
What we get when we qualify for state aid:
- We were eligible for the MBLC Construction grant, which helped fund our beautiful new library.
- We receive additional funding from the MBLC.
- We are able to share our library materials with other libraries across the Commonwealth. You get your holds from other libraries, you can walk into another Massachusetts library and borrow one of their items.
What we do to qualify for state aid:
- The town of Swansea meets a funding requirement that is based upon a formula. It shows the MBLC that Swansea is supporting its library.
- The library meets certain minimum standards of library service. These include being open to all residents of the Commonwealth, open a minimum number of hours (based on community size), spend a certain amount of the budget on library materials, and filing annual required paperwork, among other things.
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