Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library , Boston Overview

The Boston public library was founded in 1848 and later on became the third largest public library in the United States. The library is currently run by 3 families who look after the growth and maintenance of the entire library. The Boston Public library is also known as the Library of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where all adult members borrow and renew anything of the 24 volumes of books present in the library.

Located on Boylston street, the Boston Public library is one of Boston's oldest as well as one of the most well-maintained libraries in the country. The library not only has ancient manuscripts but also works of Shakespeare and incunabula. The library has smaller sections like a personal section of 3,800 books of John Adams, a mathematical and astronomical section of Nathaniel Bowditch, Spanish literature, and a historical collection.

In addition to this, they also hold a collection of photographs, postcards, prints, and maps. With changing times the library has also evolved and now also has electronic devices for its visitors. The library proves to be ideal for learning, growth and gaining the topmost level of knowledge in all fields of life.

Current services provided by the Library

The library also offers several programs that engage the crowd and prove to be extremely fruitful to the public.

Here’s a list of the events that are offered by the library to the public.

Public programs: The library offers free public programs like author talks, local and family history lectures, Lowell lecture series, concerts, history and art exhibitions. In addition to this, there are programs for children, teenagers, and adults. There are also storytelling sessions and dog therapy sessions which are extremely helpful and unique.

Computer services: The library also offers a free computer service to all its visitors. They offer a pay print service too to all its members. These are a few ways in which the library helps the public.

Digital services: Boston Public library provides digital services to visitors like DVDs, CDs, e-books, and audiobooks. Library cards and ecard owners have this advantage to borrow books as well as digital services.

Branches of the Boston Public Library

With the aim of spreading the idea of gaining knowledge through books and papers the Boston Public library started its own franchise of libraries around the city. Here’s a list of the places where the library opened:

North-end Boston
South-end Boston
West-end Boston
Bighton
Allston
Dorchester
Charlestown
East Boston
Hyde park
Jamaica plain
Mattapan
Roslindale
Roxbury
East Boston
West Roxbury

How to reach the Public Library at Boston

Located on Boylston street the Boston Public Library is accessible by train, car and walking.

By train: To reach the Boston Public Library by train visitors should take the green line and get off at Copley square that would directly lead them into the majestic entrance of the Boston Public Library.
By car: The exact address of the library is 700 Boylston Street, putting this on an application like Google maps the directions to the library gets easy and gets convenient for the visitors to reach there.
Walking: If visitors live in and around Copley square or Boylston street the library is just a short walk from there.

Interesting genres of books at the library.

The Boston public library is known majorly for its collection of books, all genres of books desired by the people are available at the Public library. There is also a release of new books that keep getting issued by the library for the people. They offer a wide range of genres that interest different people making it a great attraction for all kinds of people.

Genres of Books at the Library:

Fiction
History
Cookbooks
Biographies
Non-fiction
Science fiction
Lifestyle
Science
Heath
Travel

History of the Boston Public Library

The Library was originally established by several people but most importantly a Harvard professor who initiated the beginning of this highly established library in one of the major cities of Boston. Initially, proposals were sent out to smaller libraries in Boston to collaborate and put together a larger library for the interest of the public. Unfortunately, most of these proposals were rejected and the trustees were left alone to build and establish the Public library in Boston.

Later, gifts of books were sent from Paris in order to help build this library. Later the library got a funding of $5,000 for the mayor of Boston and later when funding went along more people formed a huge fund to help build the library. With the amount of money, they collected they started the library in a former schoolhouse which was made as to the first reading room for the library. During the opening, the library had 16,000 volumes of books. In 1880, the Massachusetts legislature organized the building of a greater and bigger library on Back Bay near the Trinity Church and Museum of Fine Arts.

Recent Development

In 2006 the library had staffing and then went on to conserve and preserve the other books that were deteriorating. In 2011 the library completed a strategic plan and then later went on to unravel its collection of distinctions, during 2013-2015 the library went through a renovation process. In 2017 the library also received awards from the American Institute of Architects as well as the American Library Association. Through the years the library has shown progress and growth with respect to its visitors and volumes of books.