I hope everyone had a great 4th! This is the time of year where the 4th usually means we are at the midway point of the Summer. Last Monday June 30th, the Medford Public Library celebrated 150 years on High Street. The party was well attended as various luminaries showed up, of course the Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, State Rep Paul Donato to name a couple. The event was slated for two hours. The first hour was dedicated to talks around the origins of how the library came to be and the second hour was to allow folks to mix and talk about how the library has meant to themselves as well as the residents of the city of Medford.

While this was about celebration, there was a note of sadness as Barbara Kerr, long standing director of the library had announced that she was stepping down in April of 2026. She is the best of what Medford has to offer. Under her stewardship, she has done an outstanding job in guiding the library from its somewhat humble beginnings, to dealing with Covid, to overseeing what is now a world class library. Roughly 500+ visit the library in person each day! The calendar of events is only matched by the CACHE events calendar. There is literally something for everyone.

Overall this was a fun event and one that we hope will still be around when we hit the next milestone of 200 Years! As always, the library can still use your help, there is currently a fund raiser $150 for 150 years, if you have the ability to donate, please consider doing so. More information can be found here – https://www.medfordpubliclibraryfoundation.org/150years

Above are post cards showing the evolution of the public library.