CONWAY — As the Field Memorial Library makes one of its biggest transitions in its 121-year history, residents are invited to visit Saturday afternoon to learn more about the digital transition and celebrate the library’s birthday.
Since opening on July 13, 1901, the Field Memorial Library has documented book loans through handwritten records. That will soon change, however, as Library Director David Whittier and his staff are barcoding every book and record in their collection as the library officially joins the Central and Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing (CW MARS) network. Whittier said the change will greatly enhance the library’s ability to share and receive books and information from other libraries around the state.
“Conway does have a lot of unique resources … that are reflective of our community,” Whittier said of what will also be available to other libraries through the network. “It just adds wealth to the collective of all libraries.”
Saturday’s event, titled the “121 (plus 10 days) Anniversary,” invites people to stop by the Field Memorial Library from 2 to 3:30 p.m. to learn about the history of the library, view a documentary created by Frontier Community Access Television (FCAT) General Manager Jonathan Boschen and learn about the library’s digital transition.
“We’re late to the party,” Whittier said of the digital transition, “so why not take a moment to reflect on what that means?”
Attendees can talk to Whittier, Boschen and other community members about the Field Memorial Library and the ever-changing roles of libraries as misinformation and disinformation spread in the digital age.
“The library has a key role to play. … We’re open to all comers except misinformation,” Whittier said. “The three tenets of librarianship are accuracy; authority, meaning people who say things have credentials for what they’re saying; and then objectivity.”
The Field Memorial Library opened in 1901 when Marshall Field, a Conway native who built a billion-dollar department store in the 1800s, used his wealth to build the library to honor his hometown and parents. From there, according to Whittier, the library has not seen too much change in its operation or structure, making the transition to CW MARS something particularly important to celebrate.
“The pandemic sort of pushed that along because we were really quite isolated and could appreciate the networking involved,” he said. “It’s quite a sustained march.”
The process of barcoding is simple — Whittier and library volunteers scan the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) into the CW MARS system to see if there is a record available. If one is found, then that barcode is placed onto the book. The difficulty for the Field Memorial Library is that many local history and archival books and records do not have ISBN numbers, which means they have to submit their title and author to CW MARS and wait for a barcode to be issued.
Cataloging and putting barcodes on all the books in the collection began at the end of March and Whittier expects to be finished around Halloween.
Attendees of the “121 (plus 10 days) Anniversary” event are required to wear masks. Light refreshments will be available.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.