National Library Week
Communities matter @ your library: celebrate National Library Week April 14-20
This week, the Norton Public Library joins libraries in schools, campuses and communities nationwide in celebrating National Library Week, a time to highlight the value of libraries, librarians and library workers.
Libraries today are more than repositories for books and other resources. We have been called the heartbeat of Norton. Libraries are deeply committed to the places where their patrons live, work and study. Libraries are trusted places where everyone in the community can gather to reconnect and reengage with each other to enrich and shape the community and address local issues. Here in Norton, people of all backgrounds come together for community meetings, lectures and programs, to do research with the assistance of a trained professional, to connect and socialize, to get help writing a resume or finding a job. The Norton Public Library serves Norton by providing all of these services and programs and more and we are re-certified!
Librarians work with elected officials, small business owners, students and the public at large to discover what their communities needs are and meet them. Whether through offering e-books and technology classes, materials for English-language learners, programs for job seekers or those to support early literacy, librarians listen to the community they serve, and they respond.
Here in Norton, we have already surpassed goals set forth in our 2011-2015 long-range plan developed with a committee of 45 community leaders, patrons, library staff, and library board members.
“Service to the community has always been the focus of the library,” said Lee Parker, Director of the Norton Public Library. “While this aspect has never changed, libraries have grown and evolved in how they provide for the needs of every member of their community.”
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.