National Library Week 

By: Julia Johnson 

National Library week is between April 23-29 where libraries, librarians, and library workers are celebrated to promote libraries and support them. National Library week has been celebrated since 1958.  

There are around 9,000 libraries and over 125,000 librarian workers across the US. These libraries serve a wide range of resources and services to the communities they are built in. There are libraries dated back to 2600 BC in the temple rooms of Sumer. After the revolutionary war, libraries were known as literary salons where women could talk about art, politics, and literature. First being “empowering” for women who had been stopped from entering formal learning spaces, now turned into places they can exchange ideas, read the writing and debate. Subscription libraries popped up in the 1700s with the first being formed in Philadelphia, under the direction of Benjamin Franklin and known to be the Library Company.  

Libraries are placed in schools, hospitals, colleges and universities, and many other places all serving many purposes. To let people such as kindergarteners learn to read and write, allowing kids in school to study a certain subject. Also, books can be read as just entertainment to pass the time. Lenape Tech has an awesome librarian who cares about students and engages with them every day, Mrs. Wensel!  

Mrs. Wensel was asked “Is there a reason that you chose to be a librarian and why?” She replied with “I became a librarian because I have always loved to read, and I wanted to pursue a career that allowed me to keep books and reading as a primary focus. As a librarian, I get to have these wonderful conversations with students about what books they love and sometimes they even give me great recommendations. Every year, I give a Fiction Addiction Award and a $25 Amazon gift card to the graduating senior who has read the most the library books during their time at Lenape.”  

Mrs. Wensel was asked, did you have a student who had read the most books and how many books did they read in total? She then replied with “A few years ago, I had a student that had read 116 books in his junior and senior year!”  

Our library’s are important to the community because so many people use them to research, read for fun, or just to find a quiet place to work. This is why our library’s are important because for so many reasons it gets used and the workers and librarians are very appreciated by so many people!