Library Stories · August 3, 2022 · C.B. Greenberg

What Is a Service Area?

The whole of the Commonwealth, including serving those communities lacking their own public Libraries.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson again, for why literacy matters: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.” After I mentioned in passing in a much earlier article of this series (Penn-Franklin News 2/17/21; archive #28 at https://www.murrysvillelibrary.org) that Murrysville Community Library’s (MCL) service area includes Export and Washington Township, I had a fair question directed to me from a reader. Why are they too being served by the local Murrysville Community Library? Public Libraries in Pennsylvania function under various governing and funding bodies, including, very importantly, statewide governance and funding under the Department of Education, O…