National Library Week 2025: Why We're Drawn to the Library

What draws you to the library? From April 7-13, people across the U.S. are celebrating the many reasons that millions of people visit libraries every week: from young families stopping in for play and storytime, to students sketching out their next creative project in a makerspace, to seniors seeking tech help, and everything in between. Here at Penn, students, faculty, and staff come to our library online and in person to get specialized research help, test out cutting-edge technology, read the latest publications from celebrated scholars, study with friends, and so much more. The Penn community is further enriched by the many other libraries in our lives, including the Free Library of Philadelphia and thousands of other public libraries across the world, libraries at other universities, and independent research libraries and archives, all of which offer something unique to their patrons.

In celebration of National Library Week, we asked Penn Libraries staff to tell us about some of the ways that libraries have impacted their lives. Here's what they had to say.

Amanda Alexander, Associate Editor-Writer

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE libraries, and that I was absolutely thrilled when I was hired by the Penn Libraries. The library that is most special to me personally is the Parkway Central Library in Philly because I married my husband there! But right now, my absolute favorite — which EVERYONE should know about — is the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians, or LAMP. My grandmother, from whom I learned to be an avid reader, recently lost her vision, and through LAMP my family was able to set her up with an easy-to-use audiobook player and regular mailings of audiobooks from her favorite authors and genres, all at no cost to her. I am so grateful that she can continue to enjoy an activity that she loves!

Aman Kaur, Health Literacy Librarian

After graduating from college, I joined the Literacy AmeriCorps of Palm Beach County. During my AmeriCorps service year, I actively coordinated Adult Literacy Services at the Boynton Beach City Library. I also had the opportunity to assist with science and math homework and shadow the library's archivist.  

I originally envisioned myself working as a middle or high school teacher and joined AmeriCorps while I was waiting for my teaching licenses to be approved. But my AmeriCorps experience taught me that public libraries are community hubs where people can learn what they want when they want without judgment. I think that is a more genuine approach to education. Following my AmeriCorps year, I enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University to become a librarian.

John Campbell, Assistant Director of Development, Operations

My public library was the first place I was allowed to visit by myself. Libraries have always given me both a sense of freedom and a place of refuge. They connect me to the wider world and are pillars of the communities I’ve lived in.

Rebecca Ortenberg, Digital Content Manager

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve visiting the public library in my hometown in Oxnard, California. Almost every Sunday, my mom would take me with her to the library so that she could return the audio books—or books on tape, as we called them back then! — she had finished and pick out new ones. While she browsed, I was given free rein to explore and choose what I wanted to read next. I got to decide what I wanted to read, and when I was ready to move from picture books to middle reader books, and from middle reader books to young adult books. So many stories that continue to impact me to this day are ones that I first found for myself at the library, and that process of self-discovery makes them even more special to me.

Sylvie Larsen, Head of Resource Sharing Services

Libraries are important because they exist as places free from expectations. You can come to study, you can get books for leisure reading, or to use a computer, you can come and just sit. No need to buy anything. Just sit in the quiet. There aren’t too many spaces like that in our world anymore.  

Want to show off your love of libraries? Stop by the circulation desk in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center to pick up a special-edition sticker!