Celebrate National Library Week at the Port Jefferson Free Library

      April 13th through 19th marks the celebration of National Library Week. The creation of the American Library system can find its beginnings with the founding of a public libraries.One of the earliest was organized by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia.

Across the country libraries are found in a variety of locales. Large university libraries provide resources for academic study. Libraries, like those found in museums, house collections dedicated to specific subject matter. Once private libraries offer access to the treasures collected by wealthy bibliophiles. In New York we are fortunate to have access to each of these types of library. The collections in Low Library at Columbia University and that of the Melville Library at SUNY Stony Brook are among a number of fine academic libraries. The Watson Library in Metropolitan Museum of Art has an enormous collection dedicated to art. The Morgan Library displays the bibliophile J.P. Morgan’s dedication to acquire first editions, prints, and other valuable pieces of art including paintings and sculpture.

The bedrock of the library system rests on its public libraries. The Main branch of the New York City public library on Fifth Avenue is an amazing edifice in its size and scale not only of the building itself, but its collections. Local libraries in towns and villages like Port Jefferson mirror, on a smaller scale, the same functions as sources for research and education.

Please join us in celebrating National Library Week to recognize the positive force of libraries. Each of our three reference departments is hosting a raffle for patrons to enter to win some great prizes. For details please see the Library newsletter: http://portjefflibrary.org/yeoman.pdf