Hartford Public Library Service Updates
As of June 1, come browse the stacks at the Downtown Library! Seating will also now be permitted in the Peter's Reading Room. We will also be opening our Children's Department by the end of June.

In addition, we are excited to announce the Albany and Dwight Libraries will be open to the public the week of July 5.

  • Albany will open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 6 pm
  • Dwight on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 am to 6 pm

Masks are required for all customers and staff.
The American Place's English Club Celebrates Another Successful Year
This past week’s English Club year-end celebrations, held on May 18 and 20, were even sweeter than in the past because of the road it took to get there.

Twenty-two students successfully completed the program, designed by educators with The American Place to help immigrant students improve their English language skills. Prior to spread of the coronavirus in March 2020, the program was held at the Downtown Library after school. When the pandemic hit, the program moved online with students meeting virtually through the past summer and the current academic year. The students (working alongside their mentors from The American Place) worked hard to complete the program.

Hartford Public Library celebrates their accomplishments! 
Join the HPL team! We are looking for passionate and skilled people to join us.
Positions Available:
• Communications Manager
• YouMedia Manager
• Facilities Manager
• Youth and Family Services Librarian
• Boundless Librarian
• Teen Services Librarian
• Outreach Assistant
• Supervising Library Assistant
• Senior Library Assistant
• Floating Library Assistant
• Maintainer lll
• HR Generalist
• Security Guard
• YouMedia Mentor
HPL Summer Rainbow Party!
Saturday, June 5th: 1:00-3:00pm
Downtown Library Front Terrace
 
We’re back! Hartford Public Library is kicking off outdoor programming with a Summer Rainbow Party! Join the fun as we celebrate the book The Boy and the Bindi by Vivak Shraya for LGBTQ Pride month. Featuring drag queen storytime, entertainment, crafts, henna, ice cream, and free LGBTQ books while supplies last.

All ages are welcome.
Dial-a-Story with Hartford Public Library!
Imagine picking up your phone anytime and dialing in to hear an engaging children’s story – a swashbuckling adventure or something charming or funny.

The children’s department at HPL has you covered! Join your favorite librarians over the phone 247 to hear new recorded stories every week.

‪ Call 860-695-6288 ‬and follow the instructions to hear a story in the language of your choice:
•For English, press #1
•For Spanish, press #2
•For Urdu/Hindi, press #3
•For English songs and rhymes, press #4
•For comments and suggestions, press #0

It’s a fun and easy way to help introduce little ones to the joy of storytelling!
National Mental Health Awareness Month Book Suggestions
Over the course of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ll be sharing suggestions from the HPL leadership team of books and podcasts that have inspired them, given them peace, and offered a new perspective on how to be in the world.

This week Gilda Roncari, HPL's director of donor relations, shares her suggestions. "Escaping in books has always been my default," she said.
I Know This Much is True
by Wally Lamb
Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his subdued life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. "I Know This Much Is True" is a masterfully told story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal—an unforgettable masterpiece.  
Circe
By Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, "Circe" is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Book Recommendations
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
Gold Diggers
By Sanjetha Sathian
A magical realist coming-of-age story, Gold Diggers skewers the model minority myth to tell a hilarious and moving story about immigrant identity, community, and the underside of ambition. Sanjena Sathian’s astonishing debut offers a fine-grained, profoundly intelligent, and bitingly funny investigation into what's required to make it in America.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
By Kawai Strong Washburn
In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends. When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai’i they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.
We've added a Vaccine Information page to our comprehensive collection of Covid-19 related materials. Learn the facts about the virus and how to protect yourself and your family. There is also information available about housing assistance, financial help and the latest from the Hartford Public Schools.
June Program Calendars
A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead.
—Caitlin Moran