By Charlie Deitz
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-876746.mp3
Sheffield, MA – A 75-year tradition in Western Massachusetts comes to an end this month. The bookmobile service is being cut due to massive reductions in state funding.
The bookmobile serves as an intra-library swapping station working with 59 libraries in the four western counties of the commonwealth.
The service allows member libraries to stock their shelves with new and niche titles that they couldn't afford to buy outright.
A 28 percent cut to the Western Massachusetts Regional Library Association meant that something had to be cut.
The bookmobile made its last stop in the Berkshires friday at the Bushnell-Sage Library in Sheffield where library trustee Kathy Ness wonders how to fill the void.
"We're level funded - we can't just say we're going to increase our book budget to accommodate those things," said Ness. "That's not going to happen so we're going to have to find other ways of getting them through the regional system and that's going to be cumbersome."
The Western Massachusetts Regional Library System might be the next one on the block as the state tries to decide if all of the services can be run out of one office, most likely in Boston.