SIRS unveiled a fine print featuring the Peterborough Town Library, Peterborough, N.H., at a luncheon sponsored by SIRS Mandarin, Inc. and the Freedom to Read Foundation at the American Library Association Conference in San Francisco on June 17, 2001.

SIRS Mandarin raffled off the signed, framed print of the Peterborough Town Library. The winner, Dr. Phyllis D. Fisher, is the Coordinator of Online Services for the New York City School Library located in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In keeping with the belief that free public libraries and schools are cornerstones of America's democracy, SIRS Mandarin initiated a series of fine prints in Celebrating America's Libraries.

The first library in the series, the Library Company of Philadelphia was unveiled last year at the Pennsylvania Library Association conference. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and friends, it was chosen for the series because it was the first lending library in America and is now one of the country' oldest cultural institutions.

SIRS selected the Peterborough Town Library to feature as the second print in the series because it was the first tax-supported free public library not only in the United States but the world. The library was established in 1833 by a vote of the town led by Dr. Abiel Abbot, a minister who stirred the community's intellectual life with respect to books and reading. Originally housed in a storefront, the library moved to its final location in 1893, where it remains today. The principle upon which it was founded continues to spread across the civilized globe.

Michael L. Price, the library's director spoke about the library and its history at the unveiling. For more than 20 years, Price has served as librarian for numerous libraries and as the director of the Providence Athenaeum in Rhode Island and Bennington Free Public Library in Vermont prior to his position at the Peterborough Town Library. During the luncheon, Price said, "The significance of the foundation of the Peterborough Town Library rests upon two essential elements, never before jointly called to existence maintenance by public taxation, and control and management by vote of the town."

-reprinted with permission