By By BEN RAYMOND LODE / Niles Daily Star
NILES --If you haven't been to the Niles District Library lately, any day this week should be a good time to revisit.
You may even discover that these days, libraries are about much more than just taking out books.
This week is National Library Week and the time to rediscover and celebrate the things libraries and librarians have to offer.
National Library Week, first sponsored in 1958 by the American Library Association, was a direct result of researchers increasing concerns Americans were reading less and spending more money on radio, TVs and musical instruments.
Since then, National Library Week has taken place every year, based on the motive that once people are motivated to read and use services available at libraries, they will support and keep using them.
Jackson, however, said the library is about much more than that.
An important part of the week long celebration is an effort to make the public aware of the many activities and offers we have available to them, she said.
She referred to the library as an information center where internet classes for senior citizens and used book sales are only some of the activities many libraries have today.
But the library is also a place to have fun, and plenty of fun filled activities are planned for the people using it year round, she said.
The Niles District Library has around 130,000 books in shelves and in the basement, and Jackson said the library is like a living thing expanding and contracting with the needs of the community.
Most important to any library, though, is that people come in and use the available resources there, she said.
Niles District Library will celebrate this year's library week by organizing several library related workshops, as well as having presentations and performances from people in the area.
National Library week events:
Thousands of books for sale. Twenty five cents for paperbacks and 50 cents for hardbacks.