Join WVIA and the Scranton Public Library for an evening celebrating the life and works of Benjamin Franklin. There will be a preview screening of the new Ken Burns documentary of Franklin’s life followed by a discussion of Franklin’s influence on civic engagement and the establishment of the public library.

Registration is free and required.

Benjamin Franklin, age 24 in 1730, on founding the first public library: “We had left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room to hold our club in. I propos’d that we should all of us bring our books to that room, where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wish’d to read at home. This was accordingly done, and for some time contented us.”

-Text provided by Libraries in a Democracy by Daniel Verdick