Time was, borrowing at Princeton Public Library was about one thing: books. And by books, I mean printed and bound books with due-date cards that were stamped and put into a paper envelope inside to let you know when to bring it back.
Eventually, you could borrow books and music on an ever-evolving array of physical devices (vinyl albums, cassettes, CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs). But if you wanted to read a magazine or do research, you had to remain in the building; those items could not be borrowed. In fact, many libraries, like the previous Princeton Public Library building at 65 Witherspoon St., were designed mostly for borrowing, with very little space for study, research or events.
Nowadays, most everything at the library can be brought home to enjoy — books, music, movies, video games in a variety of languages and formats, both physical and digital. You can even borrow back issues of paper magazines to take home and read if you prefer those to the thousands of magazines and newspapers you can borrow for free to read on a digital device. Research no longer requires leafing through bound volumes that remain in the Reference Section; just about all of the library’s 100 research databases can be accessed from home.
The latest development in borrowing from Princeton Public Library is the Library of Things, a collection of nontraditional items you can take home. These include the wildly popular pre-literacy-building Tonie Boxes; computer supplies like laptops, Wi-Fi hotspots, projectors and media-creation packages; backpacks for adults and kids loaded with gear to explore the outdoors; and emergency-preparedness equipment.
So while the act of borrowing for free from Princeton Public Library hasn’t changed since we opened in 1909, what you can borrow has drastically changed and continues to evolve as the library continues to fulfill its mission: “(to connect) everyone in our dynamic and growing community by advancing knowledge, encouraging dialogue and providing opportunities for discovery and joy.”
BORROWING NOW
This is a busy time for borrowing at Princeton Public Library because summer at the library means Summer Reading, a tradition that in Princeton dates back decades. It’s also a time when printed books become the focus of borrowing.
Summer Reading is more than about the joys of reading for pleasure around a theme, though that’s a big part of it. This year’s theme is Adventure Begins at Your Library and details of programs for kids and adults can be found here.
The original inspiration for Summer Reading was actually quite a bit more serious.
Concerned that students would stop reading once school let out for summer, a librarian decided to work with the local schools to share a list of recommended books; together, they encouraged students to read as many of the titles as they could before school started. That was 128 years ago in Cleveland, long before “learning loss” and “the summer slide” entered the lexicon and were studied by academics.
Reading logs, themes and rewards came later, but the concerns of a century ago are still with us today and one librarian’s hunch turned out to be correct: kids who keep reading in summer do better when school restarts, particularly when they can choose what to read and when their families are involved.
In that spirit, summer is a perfect time for families to get to the library to join in the adventure of Summer Reading together.
Tim Quinn is founding director of the Office of Marketing and Communications at Princeton Public Library, where he has worked since 2000.
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