That was one of the slogans the education committee of the Women’s Civic Club used in 1911 to rally support for the establishment of a free public library in Pottsville. Although there had been several libraries in the City since its founding in 1806, the institutions had either charged fees or restricted their services to certain segments of society.

The Women’s Civic Club members opened their drive for a library that would be both free and public by enlisting the cooperation of the Pottsville School Board and various interested citizens. During a two-week whirlwind campaign that consisted mostly of door-to-door canvassing, the energetic library organizers succeeded in raising $10,775.25. The money made possible the rental of a building and the purchase of furniture and books.

The Pottsville Free Public Library opened its door for the first time November 9, 1911, in a three-story building at 208 West Market Street. On the upper floors were eight small “dormitories” the fledgling library planned to sublet for $1.50 to $3.50 a week, depending on room size, and a meeting hall to be used free by townspeople. The Library was located in a first-floor area, 14 by 41 feet, formerly the site of a saloon.

By 1914, the book collection had tripled. Books were everywhere. The space problem was so acute that some volumes were stored in a cast-iron oven left over from the building’s saloon days.

Pottsville’s present public library is partly a private triumph. Arthur, Henry W., and Louise Sheafer, members of a wealthy Pottsville family whose fortune had been made in coal and iron, bought the land in 1914 at a cost of $23,500. The following year, a grant of $45,000 for the construction of a building was obtained from the Carnegie Foundation. But World War I delayed the project’s start.

By 1921, when the Library was once again ready to implement its building plans, post-war prices had made the Carnegie grant inadequate. Henry and Arthur Sheafer came to the rescue with a gift of $55,000 made in memory of Louise Sheafer, who had died in 1919.

The new Pottsville Library opened its doors to the public on May 1, 1922. The hundreds of first-day visitors who streamed through the white marble entryway saw a huge main room, 40 by 114 feet, with 20-foot high ceilings, white Corinthian columns, and walls lined with mahogany bookcases.

In April 1999, the Library grew by more than 22,000 square feet with the completion of the expansion project. Chains of volunteers helped to shift the 120,000 books and other materials into the new space in one weekend. The original main room was renovated but still retains the old bookcases along the walls and the high, bright windows.

The Library’s main function is still to store and distribute books (more than one-quarter mile of bookshelves bear witness to 50 centuries of mankind’s follies and wisdom). But now the Library also offers public computers, magazines, DVDs, music CDs, books on CD, eBooks, and audio-eBooks, video games, hot spots and Kindles, materials for the physically and visually handicapped, an online reference network, and federal documents. Information or items not available in the Library are borrowed from other libraries through an interlibrary loan network.

Since 1962, the Pottsville Library has also headed a cooperative network of independent libraries in Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties. As a district center, the Pottsville Library, with funding from the State, provides services and materials to 16 member libraries.

The word “public” in the Pottsville Library’s title doesn’t mean that it’s totally supported by taxes. The City of Pottsville, Schuylkill County, and the State of Pennsylvania contribute to its funding. However, in order to provide a full range of services, the Library must depend on donations, interest from investments, and special grants.

In 2019, the Pottsville Library’s 4,833 registered borrowers took out 32,180 books, everything from current bestsellers and picture books to cookbooks and biographies. 19,005 audio-visual items were borrowed, including DVDs, books on CD, and video games. 8,637 adults and kids used the public computers to access school assignments and email messages or to print out bus tickets and resumes.

In 1911, when the Library opened, Pottsville had a music academy, hatmakers, livery stables, a steamship agent, saddle shops, and mine supply stores. The music academy burned down shortly afterward and the hatmakers, stables, steamship agent, mining stores, and saddle shops have long since disappeared, victims of technological advancements and changing lifestyles and tastes.

But the Pottsville Library remains. Since 1911, it has not merely survived: it has grown from a one-room storehouse of books to a full-fledged, diversified cultural information center with services for people of all ages, incomes, interests and occupations.