Books, Reviews, Prints

National Library Week

April 11, 2019

National Library Week (April 7 – 13) is a great time to remind yourself of all your library has to offer. Whether you check out the library in person or online, you’ll be contributing to your community.

This year’s theme is “Libraries = Strong Communities.”

Melinda Gates is the honorary chair of National Library Week. In the last 20 years, Gates’ Global Libraries initiative has invested more than $1 billion in enhancing libraries and empowering communities.

Think of librarians as information navigators who are here to help patrons find the resources they need on their information journey. The new James Patterson? We can request it. Printing tax documents? Yes, we can, for twenty-five cents per page.

Here are some other library fun facts to impress your friends at trivia night:

  • There are more public libraries than Starbucks in the U.S. (That’s 16,568 libraries compared to 14,718 Starbucks.)
  • The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. With more than 167 million items, The LoC has 838 miles of bookshelves! (That’s nearly the distance from Asheville, North Carolina, to Dallas, Texas!)

By Melisa Pressley, Special to Black Mountain News

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