Editing Palm Beach County, Florida (section)

===Public libraries===
Palm Beach County is served by the [[Palm Beach County Library System]], established in 1967 through a Special Act of the [[Florida Legislature]], and operates as a department of county government. It is currently made up of 17&nbsp;library branches, as well as a bookmobile which travels to more than 40 stops each month. As Palm Beach County continues to see population growth, the library system will also need to plan for continued expansion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbclibrary.org/using-the-library/find/about-us|title=About Us &#124; Palm Beach County Library System|website=www.pbclibrary.org|access-date=November 1, 2021|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107114901/http://www.pbclibrary.org/using-the-library/find/about-us}}</ref> Presently, the county is building a new 33,000-square-foot branch in the Canyon Town Center, located in western [[Boynton Beach, Florida|Boynton Beach]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Canyon Branch Library |website=Under Development|url=https://cobwra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Canyon-Branch-Flyer.pdf|access-date=1 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Mike Diamond |date=Feb 17, 2023|title=West of Boynton, new library at Canyon Town Center is taking shape|website=Palm Beach Post |url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/boynton/2023/02/17/west-of-boynton-beach-canyon-library-branch-takes-shape/69792371007/}}</ref> This new branch is projected to be completed in 2024. The system's Main Library is located on Summit Boulevard in an unincorporated section of [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]]. It is the largest provider of library services in the county, serving an area that is comparable to the size of the state of Delaware, with holdings of over 1.88&nbsp;million items.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbclibrary.org/sites/all/documents/other/LRP.pdf|date=July 2020|title=Strategic and Long-Range Plan FY 2021-2023|website=www.pbclibrary.org |access-date=November 1, 2021|archive-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127194102/http://www.pbclibrary.org/sites/all/documents/other/LRP.pdf}}</ref>

Unlike many county library systems, including neighboring [[Broward County, Florida|Broward]] and [[Miami-Dade County, Florida|Miami-Dade]] counties, several municipalities continue to operate their own libraries. The county library systems works together in a cooperative system model which allows interoperation between the county system and the 13&nbsp;city libraries in [[Boca Raton Public Library|Boca Raton]], Boynton Beach, [[Delray Beach Public Library|Delray Beach]], Highland Beach, Lake Park, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Manalapan (J. Turner Moore Public Library), North Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Palm Beach ([[Society of the Four Arts]]), Riviera Beach, and West Palm Beach ([[Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbcla.org/libraries|title=Libraries|website=Palm Beach County Library Association|access-date=November 1, 2021}}</ref>

The county's first library began as a Free Reading Room in 1895 in West Palm Beach's first church, the Union Congregational Church, when Reverend Asbury Caldwell began collecting books for a reading club he hoped would keep construction workers out of the city's many drinking establishments located along First Street, or "Thirst Street" as it was known.<ref name="overdue">{{cite book |last1=DeVires |first1=Janet |last2=Brunk |first2=Graham |last3=Pedersen |first3=Ginger |last4=Labell |first4=Shellie |last5=Sophia |first5=Rosa |title=Overdue in Paradise |date=2017 |publisher=Palmango Press |location=West Palm Beach}}</ref>{{rp|53}} The reading club floundered when Caldwell left West Palm Beach, but in 1899, the West Palm Beach Public Library got its official start, housed in a two-story former Palm Beach Yacht Club building donated by Commodore Charles John Clarke, a Palm Beach yachtsman, with the collection of books from the Reading Room and a $100 donation from [[Henry Flagler]]. A permanent building was constructed in 1924 in Flagler Park along the [[Intracoastal Waterway]]. Two additional buildings have also housed the library – one at 100 Clematis Street, a state-of-art building complete with a 250-seat auditorium that opened to much fanfare in 1964. The second, located at 411 Clematis Street, is a four-story building in the West Palm Beach City Center complex, which houses both city hall and the library, is two and one-half times the size of the previous building. In 2012, the West Palm Beach Public Library Foundation formally changed its name to the Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach after receiving a $5&nbsp;million grant from the Mandel Foundation.<ref name="overdue"/>{{rp|62}}