OLEAN — National Library Week is coming up and there will be a lot to celebrate at the Olean Public Library. Starting Monday and running through April 29, the library will host a variety of events and activities to celebrate this year’s theme, “There’s More to the Story.”

National Library Week is an annual celebration of libraries, librarians, and library workers, highlighting the value they bring to individual lives and to the communities they serve. It is recognized across the country by libraries of all types, including public, school, and academic libraries.

The first National Library Week was celebrated in 1958, with the theme “Wake Up and Read.” There were important reasons for the creation of this weeklong event — a Gallup poll conducted in 1955 found that a majority of adults in the United States had not read a book, with the exception of the Bible, in the previous year. A survey in 1957 found that only a small minority of Americans were currently reading a book. Additionally, spending on books had been steadily decreasing over the years, as people were spending more money on televisions and radios.

The American Library Association in partnership with the American Book Publishers Council sought to push back against this trend by creating a celebration of reading and libraries. With over 5,000 communities participating, “Wake Up and Read” was a big success, receiving coverage in over 11,000 newspaper and magazine articles, in addition to 1,500 local and 14 national tv and radio stories. The US Postal Service also included the theme on its postage that year.

One of the positive outcomes of the weeklong celebration was the approval by the New York State legislature of a $700,000 increase to state aid to libraries. Additionally, Friends of the Library groups were formed in cities around the country that year, and “library queens” were elected in Arizona and Arkansas!

This year’s “There’s More to the Story” theme seeks to tell the story of the multi-faceted offerings of libraries. While libraries are full of “stories” such as picture books, books on CD, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, e-books and e-audiobooks, there truly is so much more to the story.

The Olean Public Library provides access to downloadable movies via Kanopy, museum passes for check-out, kids Launchpads, educational kits,…