Sen. Lindsey M. Williams D-Allegheny, said the investment underscores how essential libraries are to communities. She often holds office hours in local branches and recently joined Northland Library\u2019s \u201cTea and Stitches<\/a>\u201d event, where neighbors craft and connect.<\/p>\n Williams argued libraries provide a much-needed \u201cthird space\u201d for people to gather and build community relationships.<\/p>\n “The library has so many more events and resources and things for the community, and there’s such gems, in my district, of services that they provide,” Williams explained. “I wanted to be able to both celebrate this increase and continue to show why it’s important that we keep doing that and keep investing in our public libraries.”<\/p>\n Pennsylvania\u2019s libraries range from large city systems in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to small rural branches which may be the only local resource for miles. They\u00a0provide<\/a>\u00a0Wi-Fi, early-learning programs, workforce help and device lending for residents without internet or technology at home.<\/p>\n Librarians nationwide are getting a boost this month as the Trump administration quietly restored\u00a0$160 million<\/a>\u00a0in federal library funding through the Institute of Museum and Library Services.<\/p>\n Williams pointed out when a library is within walking distance, it can connect a community to many other resources. She added it is a warm, safe, inviting place for everyone, and in underserved communities, it is important people have a safe place to ask questions.<\/p>\n “If you have a question, ask a librarian,” Williams urged. “You can go in and ask that librarian just about anything and they will help you figure it out, whether it’s you need help filing your taxes, whether you need help with your property tax, rent rebate, whether you need help finding a book.”<\/p>\n Williams noted in January, she plans to visit the\u00a0Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians<\/a>, a free resource offering Braille and other accessible media for people with low vision, blindness or physical disabilities. Many people with disabilities use library services. The visit is part of a larger effort to raise awareness about statewide services.<\/p>\n \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n Get Our Free Newsletters <\/p>\n Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters.<\/p>\n Sign Up Today!<\/p>\n Morning Headlines:\u00a0Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter?\u00a0<\/p>\n Afternoon Update:\u00a0What’s happening today? Here’s your update!<\/p>\n Daily Obits:\u00a0Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Keep your news local<\/p>\n Access to independent, local news is important, do you agree? <\/p>\n We work hard to deliver timely, relevant news, for free. 100% of your contribution to NorthcentralPa.com goes directly to helping us cover news and events in the region.<\/p>\n Thank you for saying that local news matters!<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania public libraries are receiving a long-awaited boost in state funding to expand programs, digital access, and resources.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4877,13437,13438,11546,10655,1681,105,13439,7202,139,3703,28,30,29,13440,3702,85,13441,13442,4500],"class_list":{"0":"post-74190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-bradford","10":"tag-centre","11":"tag-clinton","12":"tag-columbia","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-life","15":"tag-lycoming","16":"tag-montour","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-northumberland","19":"tag-pennsylvania","20":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","21":"tag-pennsylvania-news","22":"tag-potter","23":"tag-snyder","24":"tag-state","25":"tag-sullivan","26":"tag-tioga","27":"tag-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}