While our drive from Virginia Beach to Gettysburg, PA was dreary, our visit to the Gettysburg branch of Adams County Public Library (ACPL) was anything but. When you approach the massive building, you may think it is some sort of courthouse, but the book-drops outside quickly reveal its true identity. Nearby, the statue of Abraham Lincoln invites you into the building with open arms. The foyer of the building has a rather beautiful marble staircase that adds to the historic and classic feel of the building.
The building itself is three stories. The bottom floor currently holds their adult, teen, and children's fiction collection, as well as their Friends Book Shop. The children and teen non-fiction is shelved near their fiction counterparts and each have their own separate sections. The children's area in particular is both very large and very cozy.
The first floor has their adult nonfiction, reference, and audio/visual collection. They have about ten public computers and their computers have different privileges available depending on whether you have an adult card or a juvenile (youth) card. There is one computer dedicated to Genealogy which, as you can imagine, is heavily used in such a historical town.
Their top floor is dedicated to Library Administration and their meeting rooms. Their largest meeting room is called the Eisenhower room and then nearby are two smaller study rooms. Remembering that the library was formerly used as a secondary White House during the Eisenhower Administration really allows you to think about who may have been in these rooms years ago. Eisenhower used one of the rooms as an office for a brief time.
Despite the chilling and rainy weather, the library was still busy. The staff was very helpful and gave us a great tour. We even got to look at their storage area in the back which held the older periodicals and Civil War letters. We also got to take a look at their Book Mobile which was parked near their donation area waiting to go out on some more outreach missions.
The library was a very welcoming place with a wonderful staff. They were very excited to be able to show off their wonderful library and it was so interesting to see how different but how similar our libraries are from each other. If you ever happen to be in Gettysburg, we recommend stopping by the library for a very friendly and great historical experience.
Check out their brand new website www.adamslibrary.org and make sure you say hello to our great tour guide Lori Yarwood. We would also like to thank Susan Bunch and Sara Edmiston (Community Relations Librarian) for helping arrange our visit.
Also, after a visit to the ACPL Gettysburg Library, make sure you have lunch or dinner the Dobbin's House Spring Tavern and keep a weather eye out for ghosts!
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