Penn Area Library

"The purpose of the Penn Area Library is to select, make available, and maintain resources in a variety of formats, meeting the educational, informational, and recreational needs of our community. The Penn Area Library offers this service to all persons and exists to stimulate ideas and learning, and to enhance the quality of life for those we serve."

The library provides free services and programs for residents of Penn Township and Penn Borough, as well as people from neighboring communities. In addition to print materials, patrons can borrow books on CD, movies, TV series, and documentaries. For those who enjoy using eReaders, smartphones or tablets, the library offers more than 7,000 FREE downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks through our OverDrive platform. The library has 15 public access computers with free Internet, as well as free WiFi.

Our annual summer reading program for children, teens, and adults is the highlight of the year! The program runs from June through July, and features events like the family hike at Bushy Run Battlefield - with Dolly, the miniature horse; the Steel City Expo Live Reptiles; Stage Right! performances; Junior Lego League; Chess Club; and special Storytimes.

This year, 1,033 children (On Your Mark, Get Set...READ!) and teens (Get in the Game) participated in our summer reading program. "Read to Me" preschoolers read 16,410 books; elementary kids read for 4,665 hours; and teens read 464 books. A total of 51 programs were attended by 2,740 children, teens, and adults. The Exercise Your Mind-READ! adult program was very successful, with 317 participants.

Each day, both long-time patrons and newcomers visit the library to use the computers to create a resume, apply for jobs, conduct research, type reports for school or college, and access our Ancestry database - all free of charge. In 2015, 3,602 patrons used our public computers. In addition to readers advisory service, our staff helps patrons learn to use their eReaders to download OverDrive books. Our community depends on the library for the latest books and DVDs, because in 2015, there were 53,694 visits to the library, and a total of 110,667 items were borrowed.

The Penn Area Library is truly that "Third Space" - a gathering place for our community, where people come together to share local news and enjoy a lively exchange of ideas. And, yes, borrow books!

Testimonials

"Penn Area Library is awesome. The children's area is very inviting and displays a variety of books for all the different interests of kids. They have all the books my kids are looking for, and my kids are big-time readers, ages 4, 8, and 11."

"Miss Pat and Miss Barb are awesome storytime leaders who are kind, friendly, and express their own love of books for all the kids to see, and therefore get excited about reading too!"