Converse Free Library

Libraries across New Hampshire will be celebrating National Library Week, April 14 – 20. This year’s theme, “Communities Matter @ Your Library,” highlights the important role New Hampshire’s libraries play in communities throughout the state.

New Hampshire libraries provide a wide variety of services to their patrons. Internet access, downloadable audio books and eBooks, genealogy information, newspaper and magazine databases, displays by local artists, lectures, children’s programs, discounted passed to museums and public meeting spaces are just some of the ways that New Hampshire’s libraries serve the needs of our communities.

“New Hampshire has known since its earliest days what important resources libraries are as centers of both knowledge and community,” said Michael York, state librarian. “Libraries continue to be vibrant – and vital – parts of our towns, cities and villages.”

Here are some interesting facts about New Hampshire libraries:

• The New Hampshire State Library was founded in 1717, making it the oldest state library in the United States
• Peterborough Town Library, founded in 1833, is the oldest tax-supported library in the world
• 29 New Hampshire libraries and former library buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places
• In 2011, New Hampshire had 780,318 registered library patrons
• Also in 2011, New Hampshire public libraries held 38,392 public programs; 644,229 people attended them
• Portsmouth’s new library was the first LEED-certified building in New Hampshire and one of the first LEED-certified municipal buildings in New England
• Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon is the first gold LEED-certified library in New Hampshire

A division of the New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources, the New Hampshire State Library promotes excellence in libraries and library services to all New Hampshire residents, by assisting libraries and the people of New Hampshire with rapid access to library and informational resources through the development and coordination of a statewide library/information system; by meeting the informational needs of New Hampshire’s state, county and municipal governments and its libraries; and by serving as a resource for New Hampshire. For more information, visit www.nh.gov/nhsl.