The North Palm Beach Public Library is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

North Palm Beach, Florida North Palm Beach is an incorporated village in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami Metropolitan Area. The population was 13,162 at the 2020 census. The village won an award from the National Association of Home Buil ...

. The library is an independent library in

Palm Beach County Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous county ...

and is not a part of library system. The library circulates approximately 48,000 items per year. The library services 12,177 residents.

History

The library first began inside the women's locker room of the village's old Country Club in 1963, before it was relocated to the club's dining room. The North Palm Beach Branch of the

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(AAUW) helped establish the village's public library, including Patricia Atwater, past president of the North Palm Beach Library Society and mother of former Florida Senate President

Jeff Atwater Jeffrey Hardee Atwater (born April 8, 1958) is an American financier who served as the 3rd Chief Financial Officer of Florida from 2011 to 2017, and currently serves as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Financial Officer at Flo ...

. The North Palm Beach Library Society threw annual masquerades since the year the library was established, to fundraise for the library; attendees were encouraged to dress up as book characters, while the best costumed couples won prizes. The North Palm Beach Public Library relocated to its own building on October 4, 1969. When the library opened at 303 Anchorage Drive, only the upper level was finished. The main reading room was carpeted in gold; office and librarian space with automatic recording machines; a workshop with a fully equipped kitchen; a children’s reading area; a Florida book collection; a genealogy section; a record room; a financial news and information section; and about 11,000 volumes, which included books that were donated by the Lake Park,

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, and Riviera Beach libraries. The lower level remained a basement until the early 1970s. For many years, the lower level of the library was an adult computer lab and the children's section was upstairs along with the adult section. After a partnership with The Conservancy School as an after-school program location attendance soared from 2,441 in 2013 to 14,191 in 2017, creating a need for a larger children's section. The library hosted a grand reopening of a revamped Children's library in May 2018. The library celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2019.

Facilities

The library is a 24,893 square feet two-story building. The upper level of the library houses adult materials, computers, the Florida collection, a circulation desk, and the Director's office. The children's and young-adult materials and multi-purpose room, called the Obert room, are on the main floor. "The local history and archives collection is located on the second floor of the North Palm Beach Library and available digitally."

Collections

Formats include print books, large print, DVDS, CDs, audiobooks on CD, books on MP3, e-books, e-audiobooks, magazines and newspapers. The library offers

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...

Language Learning Software in 30 Languages. In January 2017, the library introduced vox books to its children's collection, which enabled kids to read along with pre-recorded audio narration via a portable device on the inside cover of each book. The library has both a Florida collection and genealogy collection. Their collection on genealogy is available for the community via partnerships with other organizations, including

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

MyHeritage MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, introduced by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse through photos, and sear ...

: Library Edition, and the Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County.

Services

The library provides programs throughout the year. Public computers with Internet access are available. The library also offers fax, copy/scanner, meeting room, test proctoring, voter registration and wifi throughout the building. One of their major services is enabling users to learn languages without paying a fee, through a partnership with

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(in addition to Rossetta Stone); this program provides lessons that inclusively engage with auditory,

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ...

, and

kinesthetic Proprioception ( ), also referred to as kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia), is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense". Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, mechanosensory neurons ...

learning styles. Community-building services that are sponsored by the library, such as the Veterans Day and Heritage Day Parades, as well as the Library Out-of-School Program, are also partially funded through a partnership with

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. The library also empowers community members to participate in preserving historical records and storytelling by asking current and former residents to share their accounts about the village's history with them. The library accepts donations in good condition. Books, magazines, DVDS, puzzles and other materials are sold throughout the year, as well as during the Friends of the library's annual book sale. The Friends of the library also host an annual bake sale.

References

External links