PA Forward Gold Star Library

Emmaus Public Library is proud to be a part of PA Forward | Pennsylvania Libraries, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Library Association. It was created to give voice to what the library community already knows, and what other states throughout the nation are also recognizing: With the right support, libraries are ideally positioned to become the community centers of information, technology, and learning that will fuel educational and economic opportunity for all citizens.

Libraries are no longer just buildings that house books. Today’s libraries are agile institutions serving real-life needs. They hold the key to powering progress and elevating the quality of life in Pennsylvania by fueling the types of knowledge essential to success: Basic Literacy, Information Literacy, Civic and Social Literacy, Health Literacy, and Financial Literacy.

PA Forward will make library services available for all Pennsylvania citizens; strengthen state-supported library services and leverage greater local and private support; have an integrated library system that will not only lower local costs, but improve resource-sharing for citizens; provide more databases at a lower cost and through a better statewide delivery system; bolster the recognized link between library service and workforce development; and raise the profile and importance of libraries and librarians.

For public libraries, PA Forward will position them as essential to a growing customer base of private and municipal organizations and individuals and as high-quality early learning providers that ultimately save taxpayer dollars otherwise needed for remedial programs.