NEW! Art Hive

Join the Newburyport Public Library Art Hive! The NPL Art Hive is held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month in the Program Room.

What is an Art Hive? Art Hives are community art spaces where participants bring in their own arts and crafts projects to meet, exchange ideas, and socialize with fellow artists in an inclusive and respectful environment. They are often held at an art studio, a local venue, or a public library.

All skill levels are welcome. Please bring in your own supplies and projects to work on. The Library will also provide coloring pages, color pencils, and origami. Suggested art hive projects include knitting and crocheting, collaging, small-scale watercolors and/or drawings.

Adults only. See our calendar for dates. Please call 978-465-4428 x2 with any questions. 

The Great Old Book Sale is almost here!

Book Sale Donations

Saturday, October 19: 9:30 am-4:30 pm

Monday, October 21: 9:30 am-7:30 pm

Tuesday, October 22: 9:30 am-2:30 pm

All donations must be brought in through the front door.

Hardcover, paperback and audio books only; no other media, textbooks or magazines will be accepted. Please, 8 box limit.

Friends of the Library Members’ Sale

Wednesday, October 23: 2 pm-8 pm
FOL Members Only. Membership can be purchased at the library.
Entry numbers are available in the lobby starting at 12:00 pm Wednesday.

General Sale

Thursday, October 24: 9:30 am-7:30 pm

Friday, October 25: 9:30 am-4:30 pm

Saturday, October 26: 9:30 am-2:30 pm

Volunteers are always welcome. A volunteer sign-up book can be found in the library lobby next to the Book Sale poster or you can sign up online using Signup Genius HERE.

This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Newburyport Public Library. Proceeds will benefit the Newburyport Public Library collections and programs.

NEW! Classics Book Group (In-Person)

Join NPL’s newly formed Classics Book Group! This group meets in-person 3-4 PM the third Thursday of every month in the Director’s Room. Please call 978-465-4428 x2 if you have any questions or would like to have a librarian put the book on hold for you. Registration is highly requests as space is limited. Click HERE to register.

October 17 we will be discussing Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

“When young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by a wealthy gentleman, he quickly forms a close bond with his benefactor’s daughter, Cathy. But over the years, their childhood friendship morphs into a desperate, twisted, possessive love, as they wrestle with the violent and tyrannical rule of Cathy’s brother and the confines of social class that keep them apart. What follows is an ingenious and darkly captivating narrative of frustrated passion and tortured heartbreak reverberating through the generations, wrought with all the brutality, power, and wildness of the Yorkshire moors.

With striking force, Emily Brontë’s mesmerizing prose claws at the nature of human folly, defying the gender, religious, and social mores of its day. Wuthering Heights is a transcendent, mystifying masterpiece that examines the cruelty of love, and the ways in which the past, scratching at a windowpane with ghostly fingers, never lets us go.”

— Penguin Random House 

Council on Aging Outreach Services Drop-In Hours

Starting on Thursday, September 12 (12:30-1:30 PM), Outreach Specialist from the Council on Aging, Ann Freeman, will be available at the Newburyport Public Library twice a month to Newburyport residents.

Stop by to get connected to services and information, including information on housing, home care, food, transportation, finance, health, and family issues. Residents will be helped on a first-come first-served basis. See Reference staff for directions. Consultations and referrals are confidential and free to all. 

Please see the Events calendar for exact dates or call us at 978-465-4428.

Teen Book Subscription Bags

Do you have a tween or teen at home who devours books? Are they looking to branch out of their comfort zone and do not know where to start? Consider a Bookup Subscription Bag!

The Bookup Subscription Bag is your hookup for everything young adult books! Each bag will be filled with snacks, goodies, a craft, and books. Tweens and teens need to register and fill out a form. This form allows us to curate a personalized bag tailored to their preferences.

For information about the Bookup Subscription Bag, including June’s theme and important dates for sign up and pick up, click here.

Spots for the subscription bags are limited. Register today to reserve your bag!

Newburyport Literary Festival

Join the Newburyport Literary Festival as it celebrates its 19th year! Events will be hosted in various locations around Newburyport. To view the schedule of events, please click here.

The Newburyport Public Library will host the following events on Saturday, April 27th:

9:30 AM: Celebrations of the Season: A Conversation with Nina MacLaughlin

Nina MacLaughlin’s Winter Solstice: An Essay “takes your breath away with lyrical leaps across time and space.” MacLaughlin (Wake Siren: Ovid Resung; Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter and the companion to Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice) looks at the season through every lens, from hot chocolate to waiting until just the right moment to light a candle so a passing stranger might see it go on. In conversation with Josh Bodwell.

Presenter: Nina MacLaughlin
Moderator: Josh Bodwell

11:00 AM: Colonialism, Racism, and the Cosmos: A Conversation with Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s award-winning novel Digging Stars blends drama and satire in the story of a young graduate student who is poised to attain her dream of researching the cosmos but is plagued by anxiety attacks she calls “The Terrors” and forced to grapple with questions about the life and death of her late astronomer father. Tshuma will be in conversation with author Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (Drinking from Graveyard Wells).

Presenter: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Moderator: Yvette Lisa Ndlovu

1:00 PM: Enlightened Transsexual Comix with Sam Szabo and Nikole Beckwith

In Enlightened Transsexual Comix, artist and Newburyport native Sam Szabo has created a world where a “raw, uncut heroine roams the wasteland in defense of trans rights and trans wrongs.” This subversive collection of work is “a psychedelic stew of social satire and gonzo gender theory.” In conversation with director, screenwriter, and playwright Nikole Beckwith.

Presenter: Sam Szabo
Moderator: Nikole Beckwith

3:00 PM: Perfect Murders and Twisted Trails

Join two contemporary mystery writers at the top of their game as they discuss their newest novels with local crime writer Connie Hambley. In Blood Sisters, Vanessa Lillie introduces us to a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women—one of whom is her sister. In The Kind Worth Saving, Peter Swanson brings us a private eye who starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him. How do the authors’ visions of the perfect murder inform each mystery they write?

Presenters: Vanessa Lillie and Peter Swanson
Moderator: Connie Hambley

To request any titles featured in the Newburyport Literary Festival, please call 978-465-4428.

National Library Week 2024: Apr 7-13

(Adapted from the American Library Association (ALA) website)

The theme for National Library Week 2024 is Ready, Set, Library! National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and Newbery and Pura Belpré-award winning author Meg Medina is the 2024 Honorary Chair.

Ways to Celebrate

1. Visit your library.

National Library Week is the perfect time to visit your library. Bring the kids or invite your friends. Meet the librarians. Check out books or other great items in your library’s collection or attend a program. Take time to learn all your library has to offer!

2. Tell ALA how YOU library for a chance to win

The American Library Association needs your help spreading some library love by sharing what you appreciate most about the services and resources your library provides.

Do you love getting lost in the stories of the library’s summer reading program, storytime, or book club? When you walk through the library’s doors, are you looking for a quiet nook to study? Do you attend programs to enrich your mind, meet local authors, or find support from your community? What’s your favorite thing to check out—books, movies, outdoor games?

ALA wants to know how YOU library!

Participating is easy:

  • Snap a pic or shoot a video showcasing your favorite thing about your library.
  • Post to Instagram, X, Threads, or on the I Love Libraries Facebook page with the hashtag #HowILibrary.
  • And don’t forget to tag your library to let them know how much they are appreciated!

If you don’t have a photo to share, check out the Library Elements graphics at ilovelibraries.org.

What’s in it for you?
In addition to the gratification of supporting libraries, there’s also a chance to win great prizes from ALA. The promotion starts Sunday, April 7, at noon CT and ends Friday, April 12, at noon CT.

Join the #HowILibrary movement, and let’s make this the best National Library Week ever! Official Rules (PDF)

3. Follow your library, ALA, and I Love Libraries on social media.

Be sure to follow your library on social media so you don’t miss out on all they have to offer.

Help spread the word about #NationalLibraryWeek and the #HowILibrary promotion by sharing these graphics on social media:
Twitter/Facebook | Instagram

ALA accounts: Twitter: @ALALibrary | Facebook: @AmericanLibraryAssociation | Instagram: @americanlibraryassociation

I Love Libraries: Twitter: @IloveLibraries | Facebook @ILoveLibraries

The Research Never Has to Stop

Whether we’re ready or not, winter is finally here.

Find yourself in a research bind? Can’t get to the library because of special holiday closures or, do we dare say it, snow?!

Just because the library is closed doesn’t mean you have to take a break from research. Patrons anywhere in the world can access old Daily News newspapers from 1773-1963 online through our Online Resources page. It’s keyword searchable and can be filtered by day, month and/or year. Best part? You don’t even need to have a library card to access this incredible resource!

Get started by clicking here.

Learning a new language is easy and fun!

We may have been closed recently in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, but our online resources are open 24/7!

Curious about learning a new language? Look no further than Mango Languages.

Mango Languages is your go-to resource for learning and practicing a variety of different languages free from the comforts of your home. With your Newburyport Public Library card, you have access to Mango Languages from the moment you set up a free account with your device.

Now is the time to start working on your Italian phrases for your upcoming trip to Italy in the summer! Buon viaggio!

City Preliminary Election Voting Location

The library will be a polling place for residents of Ward 2 on Tuesday, September 19th. Residents can cast their vote from 7am to 8pm in the Program Room. Staff will be here to direct residents to the Program Room during the early morning hours the library is closed.

We are excited to offer residents of Ward 2 a place to vote this year and ask that our regular library patrons excuse the increased foot traffic coming in and out of the building throughout the day.