Darby Library Accessibility & Renovation Project

Like schools, libraries depend on local funding, meaning that poor communities have poor libraries. We believe these communities should have the BEST libraries to provide resources for those who truly need them.

The Darby Library yearly budget is about 100K. That includes staff, books, utilities, and other operating costs. This is not much more than the median income of ONE household in the US. The Library's small endowment only covers emergency repairs, with no capacity to support major capital expenses.

The Darby Free Library is the oldest public library in the country in continuous operation. We are a private company serving the public, with little public funding. We serve a vulnerable population for whom the library is a lifeline - providing computer access, literacy, books, and a much needed communal public space.

The library was founded by Darby Quaker Meeting members, including the famous botanist John Bartram, in 1743. It was Bartram who imported many of the original books on return voyages from his plant-specimen shipments to England. This library is older than our country!

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Please help us by giving what you can so we can:

    o Open the doors for everyone with our new elevator

    o Increase our floor space and facilities to better serve the community

    o Future-proof with energy-efficient standards & save operating costs

    o Create spaces for increased programming

Help us ensure that Darby citizens have a “clean well-lighted place” to learn, study, access computers, do homework after school, and find community for a long time to come.  

Please join us with your support and we THANK YOU!

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This local resident says it best:

"Every town has a culture around which it is built-that tangible or intangible something that drives ideals, fosters hope for better for its community and strives to promote a vision of what could be. From the forethought of those long-gone residents of Darby who rallied around the importance of literacy long ago, we fast forward to the 21st Century and this same library continues to be a major artery for the community.

Libraries have had to evolve to meet the changing needs of its communities. Darby Free Library keeps pace--not just with books, not just computers, not just meeting space. There is a ¬genuine desire and heart to serve the needs of the community-regardless of obstacles and limitations.

These days, society tends to take on a "throw away'' culture to those things which become old--instead of appreciating its longevity, character and strength. Darby Free Library deserves that appreciation and support and help to rise again better and stronger.

I support the Darby Free Library. Let us not diminish nor dismiss its value to its community. Rather, please see it as a cornerstone of the foundation of this town around which a culture of possibilities is promoted now, for a stronger future.

Thank you"