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THE BIXBY BULLETIN
May 2025
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There is a wise saying, just right for early spring: if you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. How apt for the month of May at the Bixby!
This spring, the Bixby is blossoming with students, teachers, school librarians, and parent chaperones visiting the library on field trips. Shelby, our new Children’s Librarian, and I joyfully hosted first and fourth grade elementary student buddies from VUES this morning. We shared a story time and building tour, corresponding with what they are learning in the classroom. At the same time, a seventh grade volunteer team planted flowers to grace our ADA entrance and cleaned up the blooming daffodil-tulip beds. This beautification comes just in time for the VUHS Junior Prom at the Bixby, along with our Secret Garden Gala Fundraiser on Friday, May 16th!
As the date of the Gala grows near, there is still time to be a part of our sensational spring fundraiser. We invite you to:
Finally, I want to give a big shout-out to the more than two dozen valiant protesters who turned out on a rainy Saturday to voice support for their Bixby Library. We were touched and inspired by your strength, civic activism, and words of encouragement. Thank you!
| | What's New at the Library? | | Welcome Children & Youth Librarian Shelby Gagne! | | |
We are thrilled to welcome Shelby Gagne to the Bixby Family as our Children and Youth Librarian. Shelby earned her master's degree in library science from the University of Kentucky in 2024, with a focus in children programming and public libraries. She grew up in the Burlington area, and spent most of her youth in local libraries. She completed an internship at the Library of Congress in their Informal Learning Office, where she had hands-on experience working with authors, schools, and children’s literature. Shelby completed her BA in Sociology and Anthropology at Pace University in 2021.
Shelby is passionate about libraries as a third space and the impact of early literature exposure for kids. When Shelby is not working she is usually reading, catching up on television shows, spoiling her cat, trying new recipes, and hanging out with family. You can connect with Shelby by emailing shelby.gagne@bixbylibrary.org.
| | Awash in Spring: Vermont Watercolor Society Benefit Exhibit | | |
Celebrate the season of renewal with the Vermont Watercolor Society’s latest benefit exhibit, Awash in Spring. The collection captures the tender beauty of the season—petals unfolding, landscapes stirring to life, and the soft light of longer days. Each painting offers a fresh breath of spring, rendered in luminous watercolor by local artists.
You can view Awash in Spring in the Bixby Library’s Community Room, during open hours. A portion of the proceeds from artwork sales will benefit the Bixby Library. When you fall in love with a painting, inquire at the Circulation Desk.
| | Community, Connection, & Correspondence Exhibit | | Travel back in time to when letter writing was the primary form of communication with our historical collections exhibit: Community, Connection, & Correspondence. Dig deep into our five-town area and the lives of local families, in their own words, through the Tucker Family Papers, the John Devotion Smith Papers, and our Postal Collection. The exhibit can be enjoyed in the Bixby's Half Round Room. | | With the coming of warmer and longer days, museums and state parks are gearing up to welcome back visitors this season. The Bixby is proud to offer our patron's access to free and discounted attraction passes to the American Precision Museum, Birds of Vermont, Echo Science Center and Aquarium, Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Sheldon Museum, Rokeby Museum, Shelburne Farms, Shelburne Museum, Vermont History Museum, and Vermont State Parks & Historic Sites. Check out our website to learn more. | |
Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
| | Want to make a little art? Artists of all ages and skill levels are invited to participate in the Bixby’s Tiny Art Show. Art kits will be available at the circulation desk through May while supplies last. Each kit contains a tiny canvas (4"x4"), assorted paint colors, and brushes. Return your completed mini-artwork by May 31st to see it on display in the library lobby through June! Pick up your artwork to bring home anytime after June 30th. All ages welcome, recommended for artists age 8+. | | |
I am honored to present at this year's Vermont Library Association’s Annual Conference, Rooted in Community, on Monday, May 19. This statewide gathering brings together library professionals from across Vermont to share ideas, challenges, and strategies for strengthening the role of libraries in civic life.
My presentation, "Bring the Community Into Your Library and Your Library Into the Community", highlights how thoughtful engagement tools—like interest lists, feedback forms, and community conversations—can deepen connections, inspire participation, and build lasting support. These approaches have helped guide our work at the Bixby and are relevant to any library seeking to become more integrated into the fabric of its community.
A special thank-you to Bixby patron Carol Spencer, whose words inspired the title of this presentation. Thank you to everyone who continues to shape the Bixby as a place where people come together.
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A new PBS film, Free for All: The Public Library, examines the value of libraries in the past and makes a compelling case for the importance of the American public library system in the present. Those who came before us overcame tremendous challenges in the name of making books, reading, and knowledge freely available for all. The documentary highlights that the first libraries were started by women’s organizations, as was the case here in Vergennes. It hints at what might have influenced William Gove Bixby at the turn of the last century to create this grand “temple of knowledge.” Free for everyone, regardless of background or ability to pay, public libraries are an institution worth fighting to this day.
Catharine Hays, Library Director
| | | | Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy | |
Atmospheric, haunting, and deeply human, this beautifully written novel blends ecological urgency with raw emotional depth. Set on a remote island near Antarctica, we are introduced to the Salt family, caretakers responsible for packing up a seed bank before the effects of climate change claim the land. When a mysterious woman washes ashore during an intense storm, family secrets begin to unravel amid rising tides and growing trust. With lyrical prose and a plot that keeps you turning pages, this novel is a tender reminder of the fragile ecosystems we protect and the even more delicate relationships we forge.
Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
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Late last year, as the clock strode towards midnight, I decided that 2025 would be the year I finally learn to do a pullup. One beautiful, clean, unassisted pullup. While on this quest, I picked up Vermont-based cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel The Secret to Superhuman Strength (2021). In this memoir, Bechdel (author of the acclaimed Fun Home and Are You My Mother) turns her focus inward to explore concepts of self-improvement and physical vitality through the lens of transcendentalist writing and decades of fitness fads. Bechdel’s sharp insight, quick wit, and rich illustration (with color collaboration by Holly Rae Taylor) provides an engaging narrative that will take readers on a journey from the poetic heights of the alps to the pulsing rooms of the local spin class. Consider adding this title to your pre-workout routine.
Kelly Bartlett, Historical Collections Associate
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For fans of Sally Rooney, comes an inspiring and realistic vision of collective action by debut author Sarah Thankam Mathews. The novel follows Sneha, a twentysomething immigrant from India, as she navigates friendship, love, race, and wealth in the working world of Milwaukee. All This Could Be Different is a celebration of friendship and community, trust and forgiveness, and offers us ideas on how to build a world we want to live in. You will be entranced by these imperfect characters leading imperfect lives, in this refreshing read that gets better with every page turned.
Cedar Winslow, Community Engagement Manager
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Questions or comments on this month's newsletter?
Contact Bixby Bulletin Editor-in-Chief, Cedar Winslow.
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Library Hours:
Tuesday–Thursday: 10 AM–7 PM
Friday–Saturday: 10 AM–3 PM
(802) 877-2211
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