Friends of the Belfast Free Library

I recently attended a meeting of the Friends of the Belfast Free Library and thought you might like to know a little about these local people who do so much to help us serve you. This group of dedicated volunteeers was founded in 1992 for the following purposes:

• To assist the library in developing and maintaining its services and usefulness in our community through financial support.


• To encourage the community to support the library through gifts of gently used book, volunteer services, financial gifts, and other resources.


• To promote the use of the library in the intellectual and cultural enrichment of life in Belfast by sponsorship of programs, concerts, and other public events.

The Friends meet in the Abbott Room the third Monday of each month from September through May at 11:00, and are always looking for new members to help with the great work they do.

To become a member of the Friends of the Belfast Free Library, please ask for a membership application at the Circulation Desk. The annual membership fee is $10.00/individual, or $15.00/family.


President Pat Aldrich conducts a recent meeting of the Friends. Topics of discussion included the upcoming annual book sale (in June - look for more information soon), a recap of the recent card party fundraiser, the need for a new microfilm reader/printer for the Special Collections area, and this blog.

Thank You, Beac

One day a couple of weeks ago, I got the news that my friend Seward Beacom, a resident of Penobscot Shores, but a man of the world, had passed away. He was 95, and lived a long and very full life, making major contributions along the way, and I knew in the back of my mind that it would happen eventually, but I was totally unprepared. He was a great friend of the library and particularly of the Special Collections area, and I'm happy to say, a personal friend as well. He took on many projects here in the library, for me and for my predecessor, and he always completed them with great enthusiasm and went above and beyond expectations. One of the projects he was working on recently was capturing obituaries from local newspapers and adding them into a database that genealogists and other library patrons will find useful in the future. He often commented to me that he didn't want any flowery retelling of his life, in fact he didn't want any obituary at all. His family has complied with his wishes, and so I will too, except to say that I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to know and work with Beac for the past 6 years and I miss his Friday afternoon phone calls telling me he was "caught up with the obits" and to "be careful driving home."