The Hopkinton Library Society was formed in 1820. All who wished to become members could have that privilege if they were approved by the Directors, subscribed to the Constitution, paid $2.00 entrance fee and twenty-five cents annually for six years.
Each member could take out two books at a time, to be returned in three months on penalty of twenty-five cents fine for each book. No book could be loaned to any person not a member of the society. If this rule were broken, the fine was equal to the value of the book.
The Library contained no fiction, as very little was published at that time. Plutarch, Paley's Philosophy, Goldsmith's Rome, Hume, The Spectator, Watts on the Mind, Life of Bonaparte, Josephus Young Night Thoughts were among the volumes on the library's shelves. The scarcity of American writers is noticeable as there were few at this date.
About 1840 the State had a series of books prepared under the supervision of the Board of Education, which was furnished, upon payment, to those towns that desired to introduce them. These books treated upon scientific and historical subjects and were bound in uniform style. Fifty or more volumes were placed in each of the schoolrooms and were issued to the households in the districts. Much interest was manifested and the books were eagerly read, but as no new books were added, the interest declined and the books became scattered and lost.
The Young Men's Christian Association gathered a library in 1867, which served the public long after the organization ceased to be operative, and its 2000 volumes became the nucleus of the Hopkinton Public Library incorporated in 1890.
