• One-on-one Technology Assistance

    Come visit our technology intern, Chelsea Mondays and Tuesdays 11:30am-2:30pm for all your technology questions!

  • Summer. Simple. Starts June 1.

    On June 1, we are moving to new summer hours. The biggest change is that we will open at 10 AM daily. Monday & Wednesday, 10 AM to 9 PM; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10 AM to 5:30 PM; Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM. Closed Sunday.

  • Online Access to Historical Rutland High School Yearbooks

    The Rutland Historical Society and the library have partnered to make selected years of the Rutland High School Yearbook from 1930-1993 (more coming!) available. Check it out by clicking on the title!

  • Try TumbleBooks ebooks for Kids!

    Click on the Kids Space tab to access TumbleBooks! Find animated, talking picture books with fiction, non-fiction and foreign language titles, and Read-Alongs (chapter books with sentence highlighting and narration.)

  • Billings Farm and Museum Pass Now Available

    We now have a pass for 2 adults and 2 children for the Billings Farm and Museum! Call or swing by the library to borrow it.  

  • Check out the schedule for 2013′s Community Cinema

    Rutland Film Society and Rutland Free Library present a second year of outstanding films and panel discussion. Every 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7pm.

  • Library Elf

    Sign up for Library Elf, a new service we subscribe to, and you can receive emails or text messages for holds and due dates on your library account.

  • Reader’s Corner

    Reader’s Corner (which you can find in the left-hand menu, and the top menu) features all the resources you need about books in our library. There are links to InterLibrary Loan and a request form for new books and dvds. Check it out today!

First Wednesdays

From October through May, join us the First Wednesday of the month at 7PM for a humanities lecture series curated by the Vermont Humanities Council. The program is sponsored locally by the Friends of the Rutland Free Library and Rutland Regional Medical Center

Here are the details for this season:

October 3
Ethan Allen and Lake Champlain
Historian and author Willard Stern Randall shares the remarkable Revolution-era history of Ethan Allen on Lake Champlain – from his arrival as a big game hunter to his buying and selling thousands of acres of land, from his leading the Green Mountain Boys in attacking Fort Ticonderoga to two decades of confrontation over statehood. Sponsor: Lake Champlain Basin Program


November 7
The original Renaissance Man: Understanding Leonardo da Vinci
Famed for paintings such as The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci was also a dedicated observer and a prolific journal writer. Middlebury College professor Katy Smith Abbot considers what set him apart, then and now.


December 5
Building Monticello
Thomas Jefferson never knew the Monticello we visit today – in perfect condition, impeccably furnished. Jefferson died so deeply in debt that his surviving child was forced to auction off the house and contents. Dartmouth college senior lecturer Marlene Heck explains the lifelong project Jefferson called his ‘essay in architecture.’

January 2
Daily Life in Prewar nazi Germany
Focusing on the prewar experience of non-Jewish citizens, Keene State professor Paul Vincent examines how ideology and terror undermined human digmity, numbed self-awareness, and atomized German society.

February 6
McKibben on Climate Change
Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben explains how both the science and politics of climate change have unfolded and are unfolding, here and around the globe.


March 6
Chris Bohjalian: Fiction’s Getting to the Truth
Acclaimed novelist Chris Bohjalian talks about his mos recent novel. Sponsor: The Vermont Country Store

April 3
Literary Paris: the 1920s in the City of Light
Dartmouth professor Barbara Will considers how Paris, long a beacon to writers, artists, and musicians, became a global meeting ground for creative individuals in the 1920s and a crucible for the artistic movement known as modernism.

May 1
The Evolution of Sports Writing

Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff traces how journalism’s ‘toy department’ has responded to social movements, the rise of televised sport, and the digital revolution – from Grantland Rice to Bill Simmons