There’s a new library in Philadelphia – and it’s in the airport.
The Free Library of Philadelphia recently opened an outpost in the Philadelphia International Airport in the form of a book-themed lounge with free Wi-Fi access to the library’s digital catalog.
Passengers are encouraged to relax in the reading room, in the concourse between the D and E terminals, and download books or author podcasts from the library’s collection of nearly 30,000 titles.
“We brought our high-speed line out to the airport in that little area. That Internet connectivity is extraordinarily robust, it matches what we have in the library,” said Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library.
The idea was inspired in part by an especially snowy winter, she said.
“We were having extensive blizzards here in Philadelphia, and we knew that there were thousands of people camping in the airport,” Ms. Reardon said. “We thought, ‘What if we put a library in?’ ”
