Pennsylvania Library Association Celebrates National Library Week by Highligting Libraries Reaching for the Stars

The Pennsylvania Library Association recognizes libraries for PA Forward® Star achievements earned between January 1, 2024 and December 31,2024

Mechanicsburg, PA (April 4, 2025) April 6-12, 2025 is National Library Week, a time to highlight the essential role libraries, librarians and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening communities. In honor of this week, the Pennsylvania Library Association is announcing the 2024 PA Forward® Star Library awardees showcasing libraries who are committed to providing quality literacy programming to their communities.

The theme for this year's National Library Week is "Drawn to the Library!" and Pennsylvania's libraries encourage everyone in the community to visit their local library to take part in the festivities and explore all the library has to offer.

Libraries give us a green light to experience something truly special: a place to connect with others, learn new skills, and pursue our passions through book clubs, Storytimes, movie nights, crafting classes, lectures, and more. Pennsylvania's Libraries offer a wide array of programs, classes, and resources, including The POWER Library a collection of tools which library users can access from home with a card from their local library.

And libraries play a pivotal role in economic development by providing resources and support for job seekers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Libraries help families to save money by providing materials and collections available to them that they would never be able to afford on their own. Remember that getting your library card is a financially literate action.

No matter where you find yourself on the roadmap through life's journey, preparing for a new career, launching a business, raising a family, or settling into retirement Pennsylvania's libraries offer the resources and support you need and an inclusive and supportive community where you will feel welcome.

This National Library Week take time to rediscover the library and see how it draws us together as a community. Whether you're visiting for books, resources, or a place to connect, Pennsylvania's libraries are here for you.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries of all types across the country each April.

"Yes, you can go to your local library and check out books, but these agile institutions demonstrate day in and day out they offer more than books," Buker added. "Libraries offer the world to those who enter their doors. It is an honor during this year's National Library Week to highlight those efforts with the PA Forward® Star Library designation. Congratulations to all our participating Star Libraries."

PA Forward®, which launched statewide in 2012, works through five key literacies Basic, Information, Civic & Social, Health and Financial to assist individuals in enhancing their overall quality of life. To continue helping libraries use PA Forward® to demonstrate all their libraries offer, in January 2017, the Association kicked off the Star Library program statewide. The Star Library recognition offers support to libraries who participate and integrate PA Forward®'s literacies in their programming activities. Program topics can include information such as retirement planning (financial literacy) to more physically active programs such as walking book club discussions (civic and social literacy and health literacy).

Libraries are recognized by their peers for meeting benchmarks within the bronze, silver, and gold star levels of the program. While one star is awarded for both the bronze and gold levels, a total of five stars are awarded in the silver category one silver star for each of the five literacies of PA Forward®. For each silver star award, a number appears denoting the number of silver stars obtained to date.

Stars are awarded on a quarterly basis in the calendar year and the recognition is for the highest level attained in the program at the time of the award. The libraries noted below are those that earned a first-time star or a new star level between January 1, 2024, and December 31,2024. For more information about the Star Library Program, visit https://paforward.org/pa-forward-star-program/.

The next round of awards will be announced after July 6, 2025.

The list of awardees, by county, follows:

Adams County

Allegheny County

Armstrong County

Berks County

Blair County

Bradford County

Bucks County

Butler County

Cambria County

Centre County

Chester County

Clarion County

Clinton County

Crawford County

Cumberland County

Dauphin County

Delaware County

Erie County

Fayette County

Franklin County

Fulton County

Indiana County

Jefferson County

Lackawanna County

Lancaster County

Lawrence County

Lebanon County

Lehigh County

Luzerne County

Lycoming County

James V. Brown Library Gold, Maintenance

Mercer County

Monroe County

Montgomery County

Northampton County

Northumberland County

Potter County

Pike County

Somerset County

Tioga County

Washington County

Wyoming County

Tunkhannock Public Library Gold, Maintenance

York County

This project is made possible, in part, by Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, Governor.

About This Article

PA Forward Literacy

Pennsylvania Library Association

Other Pennsylvania Library Association Articles

Pennsylvania Library Association is more than a professional association. We're a community. Our members work in various types of libraries of different sizes, and are employed in a variety of positions. We are all united by a common goal to strengthen the voice of libraries in PA. The Pennsylvania Library Association will actively and intentionally pursue, promote and champion equity, diversity, and inclusion within the organization and within the profession so that our association, libraries, librarians, and library staff will all thrive.
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May, 2025

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