"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."
-Albert Einstein
It's National Library Week!
National Library Week kicks off today! While it's true that this year's original theme, "Find Your Place at the Library" didn't age particularly well, we love its core message: that the library is a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive environment for everyone and anyone .

And the updated theme ("Find The Library at Your Place") resonates, too: we've moved from a building at 53 Croton Avenue to a limitless virtual library. You can still always find us--on our website , our Facebook , our Instagram , in these email newsletters, by email, and by phone.

We've worked hard to keep our principle mission of inclusion in mind as we virtualize our library, and our goal with our digital programming, resources, and collections, is to continue to offer something for everyone while we're all at home . We're excited to continue to expand our virtual programs and resources, to enrich our collections of eBooks and databases, and bring everything you love about OPL to a new virtual format.

We couldn't do any of this without your support, feedback, and guidance. Thank you all for your grace and flexibility as we navigate this new territory, for making excellent programming and collection suggestions, and for reaching out just to say hello! We can't wait to be able to tell you all of this in person, but for now, email will have to do: thank you for all you do for us and for finding your place in our new library world .
Did you know...these people once worked in a library?
Because an essential part of any celebration is trivia that you can use to impress someone! From authors to political leaders to superheroes, a surprising number of bold-faced names have spent some time in the library stacks.

Mao Zedong spent six months as a library assistant at Peking University, meeting two of the figures prominent in establishing the Communist Party of China.

J. Edgar Hoover worked at the Library of Congress while attending night school at George Washington University Law School. He moved from messenger to cataloger to clerk, and his knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System helped perfect the FBI Central Records System.

The great Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was a sub-Librarian at Christ Church, Oxford University .

Literary icon Jorge Luis Borges was a librarian and ultimately director of the National Public Library in Argentina; to him, "paradise is a library, not a garden".


The great Beverly Cleary worked as a children's librarian after receiving her degree from the University of Washington.

Barbara Gordon: superhero AND librarian!

Joanna Cole , author of The Magic School Bus, was a school librarian in Brooklyn.
Need a new book? Try a book about librarians!
 "A band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of  Ocean's Eleven"-- we're sold!
A children's librarian is thrown for a loop when her neighbor runs away.
About a civil rights and feminist legend who became a director at New York Public Library.
Click the book cover to get the eBook through OverDrive!
Insert dreamy sigh here: take a look at these amazing libraries!
Trinity College Old Library, Dublin
Admont Abbey Library, Austria
Vancouver Pubic Library, Vancouver
Handelingkamer, The Netherlands
Jay Walker's private library, Ridgefield CT
Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro
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