for the past and an awareness of the importance of accurately
preserving Middletown Thrall Library's history.
I have enjoyed discovering my library's past and look
forward to celebrating its one hundredth birthday. Hopefully any planned celebration will serve to remind the public as to the importance of this institution in Middletown's 11fe. Andrew
Carnegie once said, "the very best gift that could be given to a
community" was a public library.106 This sentiment, coming at
the beginning of the twentieth century, seems equally true as we
approach the beginning of the twenty-first century.