Free Library of Philadelphia Tours & Events

The Free Library of Philadelphia welcomes you to our city and hopes you’ll be able to get to know us while you’re here. We have three libraries located in Center City:

Parkway Central Library Tours & Events

In addition to weekday tours of the library for the general public daily (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday at 2:00 PM; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 10:00 AM), there will be several free tours and opportunities for PLA attendees:

• Full-Building Tour │ Meet in the Main Lobby
  Tuesday–Friday 2:00 PM–3:30 PM
  Tour includes departments, special collections, and special areas. Sign up at https://flpcentour.eventbrite.com.

• Rare Book Department Tour │ 3rd floor
  Tuesday–Friday 3:00 PM
  This department is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

• Way-too-Big Wednesday │ 3rd floor PUBLIC EVENT
  Wednesday 5:00 PM–7:00 PM
  This special event in the Rare Book Department is connected to its current exhibition Big and Small: Books for All.

• Culinary Literacy Center Tour │ 4th floor
  Thursday 10:00 AM
  The Culinary Literacy Center will also be presenting a program at the conference on Friday afternoon.

• Family Cooking Class: Street Food Remix │ 4th floor PUBLIC EVENT
  Registration is required for this Culinary Literacy Center program. For more information, visit https://freelibrarycook.eventbrite.com.

The Parkway Central Library also has a social worker on duty Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and a nurse who available Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Both specialists will be happy to talk with conference attendees about their duties and relationship with the Free Library.

Neighborhood Library Tours

The Free Library of Philadelphia recently completed extensive renovation and modernization of five of our 54 locations—part of the ambitious Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries Initiative, which was made possible in large part by a historic $25 million gift from the William Penn Foundation, the largest private gift ever received by the Free Library. The Lillian Marrero, Logan, Lovett Memorial, and Tacony libraries all had grand reopening celebrations in November and December.

The South Philadelphia Library reopened in June 2016 in the brand-new South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center, which brings together the services of a library, a recreation center, a city health center, and a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) pediatricians’ office in one location to better serve the community.

We welcome conference attendees to sign up for tours of these beautiful new spaces, to learn more about the design of these 21st-century library spaces, and to talk with librarians and community organizers about the Free Library’s approach to community engagement.

• Tour of Tacony and Lillian Marrero Libraries │ CANCELLED
  Tuesday, March 20
  1:30 PM – Bus pickup at Convention Center
  5:00 PM – Bus drop off at Convention Center
  

• Tour of Logan and Lovett Libraries │ CANCELLED
  Wednesday, March 21
  10:00 AM – Bus pickup at Convention Center
  1:45 PM – Bus drop off at Convention Center
  

• Tour of South Philadelphia Library │ FREE (excluding SEPTA fare)
  Thursday, March 22 │ 1:30 PM–3:30 PM
  Tour participants will meet at 1:30 PM at the Convention Center. Free Library staff will escort the group via subway to and from the South Philadelphia Library.
  Register for this tour at https://branchtourspla3.eventbrite.com.

The Free Library of Philadelphia welcomes all participants in the PLA 2018 Conference!