I decided to do a little research into the history of libraries over the weekend and found some interesting facts thanks to Google.
The first library to become permanent was the Harvard Library in 1638.
Benjamin Franklin began a library in 1731. Thomas Je◊erson was a lover of books and collected thousands of volumes during his lifetime. In 1815, Congress purchased his vast collection for $23,950 as a replacement for the books that were destroyed when the British burned the nation’s Capitol and the Library of Congress in the War of 1812.
The first tax-funded public libraries began in New England in the 1840s and the first recorded woman to work in a library was in 1856 at the Boston Athenaeum library.
In 1876, the American Library Association was founded and Melvil Dewey published his Dewey decimal classifi cation system.
The year 1884 marked the year of the first public library funded by Andrew Carnegie. The fi rst Ph.D.
in Library Science was awarded at the University of Chicago in 1928.
Franklin D. Roosevelt conceived the idea and built the fi rst Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Presidential libraries are located in the presidents’ home states - Texas has three for Bush, father and son, and Lyndon B. Johnson. California has two, Richard M. Nixon in Yorba and Linda and Ronald W.
Reagan in Simi Valley.
There are three in the Midwest: Herbert Hoover in West Branch, Iowa; Dwight D. Eisenhower in Abilene, Kansas; and Harry S. Truman in Independence, Mo.
Other presidential libraries are the John F. KennedyLibrary in Boston, Mass.;
the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the Museum is in Grand Rapids, Mich.; the Jimmy Carter Library is in Atlanta, Ga.; and the William J. Clinton Library is, of course, in Little Rock. Most, if not all of these, can be visited on-line.
While we are tiny in comparison to the presidential libraries, we have a long history in the community. The Pea Ridge Community Library began in the basement of the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in 1974 and soon moved into the old Bank of Pea Ridge Building on West Pickens in downtown Pea Ridge where it remained until March 2013. On April 9, 2013, the library opened the doors of its new home at 801 N. Curtis Ave. in the former home of Mercy Clinic. This much larger space has made it possible for us to add to our collection of fiction and non-fi ction books for readers of allages as well as a small but growing number of DVDs.
We o◊er six public use computers, a wonderful children’s area and a quiet room that is available for small meetings, tutoring sessions, etc. Library cards are free to area residents at least 18 years of age. We issue one card per family.
If you don’t have a library card, come by and complete an application. Applicants need to show their driver’s license and a piece of mail delivered to their current address.
We look forward to seeing you at the library!
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Editor’s note: Peggy Maddox is the librarian of the Pea Ridge Community Library. She can be reached at the library at 451-8442 or by mail at P.O. Box 9, Pea Ridge, AR 72751. Library hours are 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m.
Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday. The library web site is www.pearigecommunitylibrary.org.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/20/2013