About The Association

What Is The Association:

The Watertown Library Association is a nonprofit organization which has served the reading and research needs of the community since 1865 when it was incorporated by a special act of the state legislature.

The first library was opened in The Academy on The Green, the library later moved to rented quarters above a store on Deforest Street, then across the street to a gray granite building which is now Walker Hall. Seventy-five years later in 1958, the library opened for business in a contemporary masonry and glass structure at its present site at 470 Main Street.

In 1968 the Watertown Library Association merged with the Oakville Library Association and a branch was opened on Davis Street.

The operating budget of the Association is supported primarily by a town grant, which is supplemented by income from the Association's endowment, state aid, contributions, membership dues, and special fundraising events. Funds for building and capital improvements have been raised by the Association.

The Association is governed by a board of eleven trustees. Ten are elected by the membership and one is appointed by the Town Council.

Association Membership:

A person is eligible for membership in the Watertown Library Association if they are a resident or taxpayer in the Town of Watertown who is at least eighteen years old, is a valid card holder of the Watertown Library and who pays the annual membership fee. Membership entitles them to vote at meetings of the Association, including the annual meeting in September and to be eligible for service on the board of trustees.

Annual membership runs from the beginning of the Association's fiscal year to the end of that year or from the time the contribution is received by the Association to the end of the fiscal year.

At any meeting of the members of the Association each member who has been a member for at least sixty days is entitled to one vote.