The Latest and Oldest News
We are closing our greatest fiscal year since our founding in November 2009, thanks to the July 2016 capital campaign. But before I get to the highlights, there is one critical fact I must assert: everything that we achieved at the end of our last fiscal year on June 30, was thanks to the support and generosity of each one of you.
The Friends of the Cape Charles Memorial Library recently made a generous donation to the ESPL Foundation.
ACCOMAC, VA. (Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016) – The Eastern Shore Public Library Foundation recently received a $20,000 grant from The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation to support the library’s new building in Parksley, Va. The Perdue Foundation grant will help fund, in part, interactive components in a new children’s room.
Libraries are as relevant today as ever. As Laura Bush said, “I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card”.
In a study called “How Americans Value Public Libraries in Their Communities”, the Pew Research Center found that Americans strongly value the role of public libraries in their communities, both for providing access to materials and resources and for promoting literacy and improving the overall quality of life.
Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. “If you want your children to be intelligent,” he said, “read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” He understood the value of reading, and of imagining.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said “Libraries are … essential to the functioning of a democratic society … libraries are the great symbols of the freedom of the mind”. In a time of great change, when the relevance of libraries is under fire, his words still ring true. We need to remember that the support of a free, democratic society is perhaps the primary purpose of a public library.
Libraries are very different today than they were when I was growing up or getting my education. I have entered my seventh decade and there is little to remind me of the libraries I used long ago. Libraries are different, but they have changed to meet the needs of the public. Libraries today are transforming communities.
