To the Editor:

During National Library Week (April 7-13), we’re pleased to acknowledge the Princeton Public Library. Library Journal magazine has consistently awarded our library its highest rating, Five Stars.

This recognition is significant for three reasons: 1) our library is the only one in N.J. to receive this rating; 2) we achieved this rating six years in a row; and 3) PPL was ranked No. 1 nationally in its budget category.

Many people contribute to such excellence. We thank our municipal officials for their ongoing financial support and for recognizing that many residents consider the library our community’s living room and their favorite place in Princeton.

We thank our patrons. Their respect for, embrace of, and participation in all that our library offers — print and online resources; a range of programs; a peaceful, vital oasis in a bustling downtown; a locale that enhances opportunities to build community — confirm why our library is the second most-popular destination (after Princeton University) of folks who visit Princeton. In addition, our library welcomes, on average, 1,700 people in person per day; that number doesn’t include our online guests.

We thank our Friends & Foundation and our donors. Their support allows us to provide materials that engage our diverse population and to sponsor events that enrich, celebrate, and challenge our patron’s lives and intellect.

And, most of all, we thank our extraordinary, incomparable, and peerless staff. Their welcoming demeanor, their responsiveness to patrons, and their dedication to helping our library users — all these qualities make our library a very special place. From our youngest attendees at our story times to our oldest guests who need help navigating devices, from our students who need assistance with a school assignment to our non-English speakers pursuing resources for leisure reading, from those seeking a respite from the ongoing stressors of daily life to others desperate for a secure environment during emergencies like Superstorm Sandy and heatwaves (we’re an official cooling station!), our staff provides extraordinary service to all.

In addition to our library’s daily, ongoing services, our library sponsors signature events. These include our Princeton Environmental Film Festival, our Children’s Book Festival, and programs, such as Pride Week celebrations, that we co-sponsor with our community partners.

Our staff is the soul of our library. Every day, but certainly on Tuesday, April 16, National Librarians Day, we invite library patrons to let our colleagues know how much we appreciate them. Our library’s board of trustees surely do.

Our library is Princeton’s great equalizer. We provide unfettered access to all our residents and invite and welcome everyone to participate in our programs and to take advantage of our services for which there are no fees. Patrons who don’t have computers at home can use ours. We lend hotspots to those who can’t afford internet service at home and, through grant funding, items (such as nature backpacks and binoculars) so that everyone can take part in activities that they might otherwise not be able to experience.

For the Princeton Public Library Board,

Robert A. Ginsberg
President

Christopher Van Buren
Vice President

Sebnem Tuzun
Secretary

Jeffrey Liao
Treasurer

Witherspoon Street