One wintry January day 150 years ago, just months after the horrific 1866 fire burned Portland’s core, city leaders founded the Portland Public Library as “one of the largest wants of our community … free to all.” At that time, the notion of a public library, a learning institution open to everyone, was a leading-edge idea. It still is.

Why do communities like ours value a great library? Certainly, a public library is a shared collection of books and materials for learning, entertainment and discovery that are freely accessible without judgment. It is also a “third place” – a safe, welcoming gathering spot away from both home and work/school. A library is a place to engage on your own terms, to write and create, to explore stories and ideas, to learn with and from neighbors, mentors and experts. Sometimes you enter with something specific in mind, and sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised by something delightfully unexpected.

All of this was true 150 years ago and remains true now. What makes public libraries so critical today are the opportunities for all ages to build literacies of all kinds. Certainly, reading literacy and the love of reading come to mind first, and we welcome all to our author talks, discussion groups, panels, film screenings and workshops. We love to hear what you’re reading and to suggest what you might explore next.

But the Portland Public Library does much more in service of all who live, work and learn in Portland.

• At the Portland Public Library, we promote early literacy, offering story times, family programs and a city-wide summer reading program that empowers our youngest to be curious, expressive and school-ready.

• We advance health literacy to help you develop tools to be an informed patient, hosting sessions with key local health partners and providing free, accessible online tools to support you.

• We teach digital literacy to assist you in using the internet and technology with confidence, and we provide access to the internet for job seekers and language learners.

• Entrepreneurs come to the the library to pursue economic literacy as they start or grow their businesses. For our most at-risk neighbors, the library is part of the safety net, providing skills and tools to pursue housing, jobs, citizenship and other needed supports for life transitions.

• At the Portland Public Library, you can check out telescopes, seeds for your garden and energy monitors to heighten STEM literacy applying science and math to your life. Our third annual Makers@PPL event this April will continue to celebrate craft, invention and making for all ages.

• Illustration exhibits, music and dance performances and world-class events such as a visit from Shakespeare’s First Folio enrich and heighten our collective cultural literacy with inspiration from new perspectives and artistic expression.

• At our core, we are deeply committed to providing opportunities to build civic literacy. We offer panel discussions and working sessions on the issues at the forefront of our common experience. We support you in your efforts to know your community, how your government works and ways you can be informed about and engaged in the issues of the day.

At the heart of it all, the Portland Public Library’s staff serve as committed, trusted, unbiased professionals ready to steer you toward quality, reliable sources for answers and context. We are committed to protecting your freedoms and privacy as you pursue your interests. In a 2016 statewide poll by the Portland Research Group, librarians were named the second-most trusted professionals. (A shout out to nurses, who consistently come in first!) It’s our honor to earn this trust, serving as your source for “education, philosophy, and fancy,” as Mayor Charles Chapman so presciently described in 1889.

The strongest tool in every person’s toolbox is to feel informed to make your own best decisions. The Portland Public Library is proud to build on its 150-year history, welcoming and supporting each and every person – up to 660,000 each year – who wishes to pursue essential literacies, to engage with the community, and to achieve your chosen potential.

The story of the library is a long one, and one we build with you each day. It is a privilege to be your library.

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