ABOUT US

OUR MISSION

The Mission of The Public Library of Catasauqua is to encourage reading for pleasure and knowledge, to promote life-long-learning through print and electronic resources and to offer services and programs that encourage personal growth, thereby contributing to the quality of life of the communities it serves.

OUR VISION

The Public Library of Catasauqua aspires to serve as a vital link in the chain of services available to all members of the communities it serves: Residents, businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations alike.

LOCAL HISTORIAN MARTHA CAPWELL FOX WRITES:

“The Library was a major planet in my childhood universe. The fact that it was on my block was part of it, as was the fact that my mother seems to have been on its board for my entire life (except for the few years when I filled her seat.)  At ten, I got my first paying job in the Library, shelving books for ten cents an hour for Mrs. Moat.”

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When I was twelve, I met Edwin Beitelman when he worked on his Catasauqua history files in the Library. It was there that I first learned about Catasauqua’s major role in our nation’s industrial history. Given that opportunity many years ago, it’s no coincidence that I now manage the archives for the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.

The entire Library was located in the basement then. It was warm and a little steamy in winter, wonderfully cool on even the hottest summer day. Sometimes it was quiet and a bit sleepy, but many evenings in the 50s and 60s found it crammed with high school kids, supposedly working on homework but actually seeing and being seen, while Mrs. Moat or Mrs. Parmet or whoever was at the desk by the door futilely tried to shush them. But people of all ages were always there—looking for the latest best seller, or a good mystery, or an Avalon Romance to take to the pool.

So the Library is a large  part of my life. I’ve researched my own books here. More importantly, it has been a large part of our community’s life for nearly a century, and I would argue that this part is more vital now than ever. Libraries in the 21st century are more than just places you borrow books for free, important as that is.  Now libraries are information and knowledge centers that allow everyone access to what they need to know and do to be successful in their personal, school, and work lives, and to be informed and engaged citizens.

The Library has been very good to me.  Come find out how good it can be for you, too.

-Martha Capwell Fox, author: Images of America, Catasauqua and North Catasauqua, 2001 and Images of America, Catasauqua and North Catasauqua Revisited,2011.

“I FEEL LIKE I AM HOME WHEN I VISIT THE CATASAUQUA LIBRARY”

-Virginia, Patron