Boston Athenaeum:
http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/
The New England Geneological sociwety also has a research library:
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/libraries/research/default.asp
You have to pay for either of these. Private libraries ain’t cheap.
My experience in MA, except via InterLibraryLoan, where you pick up and drop off the book at your local library, if you check a book out at a “foreign” branch, you need to return it there…
I’m sure that they’d make an exception in the case of an inadvertent drop off at a different location, as long as it didn’t become a habit.
You beat me to it.
My wife is at the Athenaeum right now on a one-month fellowship, doing research for her dissertation. She started yesterday, and absolutely loves the place. She says that the amount of stuff they have is amazing, and once you’re there as a fellow, they basically give you free rein. The building itself is also pretty amazing, apparently.
My experience in MA - Interlibrary loan or not - pick it up anywhere, drop it off anywhere. No objections noted from the librarians on duty.
I did leave out a detail - all the libraries used are within the Minuteman Library Network; I’m not talking about dropping off an MLN book at the Boston Public Library, for example.
The bookstore chain Waldenbooks began life as a private for-pay lending library during the Depression. I can’t remember exactly when they switched over but apparently it is more profitable to sell them.
In California, the general practice is that if you drop off your book at a “foreign” branch (say Los Angeles when you checked out it in Pomona), you are responsible for all the time until the book gets back to its rightful home. There are procedures in place to get the books back to the right place, but they aren’t quick and your book is likely to end up at the end of the line when stuff gets checked back in and processed at the end of the line.
If you use ILL, that’s a different matter because you’re checking it out at your own library through its circ system.
I really, really miss the MLN. The libraries in my part of New Jersey–which is very much like the part of Mass. I came from–are piss-poor in comparison. Aside from my town’s library, I can go to two other town’s libraries now; whereas in Mass. I could get to or get books via ILL from any of dozens of libraries in the system.