Events

If you’ve been waiting to come back to the library, wait no longer!

The Reverend David Lewis Yale came to Newport in 1918 during the influenza epidemic. Because there was only one other minister in town, he also served the neighboring communities of Goshen and Croydon. Rev. Yale remained in Newport until 1923 but returned in 1937 with a valuable gift: the photographs he took while a resident.

At that time, he presented two wooden boxes of these glass lantern slides to the Richards Free Library. Our thanks go to Jim Perkins of New London for digitizing the glass slides and to the New Hampshire State Library for not only funding but providing one-on-one instruction (Thank you, Bobbi Slossar!) on how to create this digital collection.

This collection is available for viewing on our website here.

Join us for the Richards Free Library First Annual Read-A-Thon! Full details can be found on our website under Remote Services.

The Richards Free Library has a brand new way to search for new books and authors you might like. Next time you visit our catalog, search for a book you have read and enjoyed. Click on the result you want read-alikes for (the physical book, or the audio book) and scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a list of similar titles. Click on one to see why it’s recommended! Next you’ll see a list of similar authors. You can click on these too. If the book you searched for is part of a series, you’ll also see a list of similar series as well as all of the books in the series listed in order.

These read-alike features from NoveList are available for adult and kids for books and audio books!

If you find a read-alike you’d love that we don’t own, email us and we’ll request it through Inter-Library Loan.

Its like having a librarian in our catalog!

We’re very excited about this new tool! If you have any questions or need any assistance, please give us a call at 603-863-3430 or email us at rfl@newport.lib.nh.us We can’t wait to help you find your next favorite book!

Due to a significant rise in COVID-19 transmission in our area and across the state of New Hampshire, the library will be suspending walkthrough services after November 25th until further notice. The library will be closed November 26th, 27th and 28th for the Thanksgiving holiday and will reopen on Monday November 30th with curbside service and virtual services only. 

At the governor’s press conference on Thursday, very high numbers of hospitalizations, community transmission, shortages of hospital staff, towns that have active cases, and active cases in Newport made us reevaluate our service levels at the library. Until cases begin to decline, we will offer curbside and virtual services only. This decision was not made lightly, and we know this will affect and disappoint many of our patrons, but community and staff safety are our top priority. 

We encourage patrons to reserve materials online, by email, or by phone and reserve a pickup time. We also have a form you can fill out for some new book recommendations. Inter-Library Loan remains available. Don’t forget you can browse our new books right on our website too! Staff will continue to be in the library from 10am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday and 10am to 12pm on Saturdays to answer emails and phone calls. 

Our virtual services including Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy, The New York Times, Universal Class, and more are available 24/7 from our website. If you need help with any of our virtual services, please give us a call or send us an email. We’re always happy to help!