MassCat: Unusual, Unique and Unexpected!

Meet some MassCat member libraries:

National Fire Protection Association, Charles S. Morgan Library:

Have you ever had a "burning" question that you can't answer? Perhaps the Charles S. Morgan Library at the National Fire Protection Association might be able to help. A member of the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Library System whose holdings are listed in the MassCat catalog, the Charles S. Morgan library houses the NFPA archives and resources on fire research, prevention and suppression and the promotion of life and building safety. Resource materials collected from national and international sources include more than 15,000 books and reports, 200 periodical titles and educational media such as curricula, videos, games and brochures. They have an extensive collection of past and present building and fire safety codes. The collection can be used on-site by the public.

Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, Instructional Media Center:

How would you interpret a request for "trench rescue"? Is it an environmental question? Gardening? In fact, a request for trench rescue came from an Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School student studying in the school's EMT program. Located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the Instructional Media Center focuses on supporting the school's 19 shops. The shops train students, two-thirds of whom go on to college, in everything from cosmetology and culinary arts to digital multimedia and precision machining. Unlike an academic high school, the vocational school concentrates on helping students make the connection between their studies and the world outside. The collection is rich in materials on topics as diverse as designing business plans, digital animation, and household surfaces. Assabet Library Teacher Ann Marie Speicher relies on the resources of public libraries to help her meet student needs and welcomes requests from other libraries.

American Textile History Museum, Osborne Library:

The Osborne Library at the American Textile History Museum has a vast collection of materials covering textile making in New England as well as the rest of the world. The library's collection includes printed material, images, and manuscripts. The printed material collection includes items such as pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, government documents, broadsides, trade catalogs, and advertising ephemera. The library's very large collection of images ranges from the 18th to the 20th century, with the greatest concentration of images from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The library's image collection also spans a variety of formats, including paintings, prints, photographs, maps, insurance surveys, blueprints and engineering drawings, postcards, stereographs, labels and advertisements. The library's manuscript collection includes business records from manufacturers, trade groups, and labor organizations as well as personal papers of individuals associated with the textile industry such as workers, educators, weavers and managers. The Osborne Library is open by appointment only, Monday-Friday from 9-5.

Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library:

The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library collections represent to an extraordinary degree the life and thought of one small town from the close of the 17th century to the 20th. The reading matter of generations of Deerfield inhabitants contained in the library constitutes a unique social and cultural record. The library's 24,000 books embody nearly three centuries of reading fare, much of which exists in rare imprints - literature, sermons, history, travel, biography, periodicals, and works on agriculture, animal husbandry, and domestic economy. The library also has an extensive manuscript collection, rich in material on family and local history. The library is open to the public, subject to regulations regarding access to and use of materials. Circulation of library materials is restricted. Permission to publish items in the libraries' collections requires written application to the librarian.