Pleasant Valley Library Director Daniela Pulice and Barbara Shapley, president of the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library, discuss their local library, the Mid-Hudson Library System, of which it is a part, and the status of community libraries today. The Pleasant Valley Free Library is situated in a Dutchess County town of about 10,000 and is one of 21 libraries in the Mid-Hudson System. The Friends of the Library do fundraising, notably a giant book sale once or twice a year, to support such added library benefits as free tickets to the Children’s Museum, movie night, educational programs, signs, and computers. Today’s libraries are not quiet places, but instead are the central place in the community where people meet as well as where they borrow books, audio books, movies, e-book readers, and other materials and use computers, the library’s or free Wi-Fi. Circulation of all items has continued to increase in the 21st century.
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