DISTINCTIVE ASPECTS OF THE COLLECTION
The North End Branch's adult fiction collection offers the latest best-sellers, romances, mysteries, classics, large-print fiction, and audiobook CDs. The reference collection includes encyclopedias, specialized dictionaries, atlases and foreign-language dictionaries. The branch maintains a popular non-fiction collection, with books on cooking, health, literature, personal finance and computers. A small Italian-language collection is also available. Also important is the extensive collection of DVDs and music CDs. The children's collection includes a variety of books and media for all ages including a robust picture book collection, first readers, mysteries, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, reference, and audio CDs and DVDs.

The North End Branch maintains a local history collection which is mainly comprised of published monographs. The branch recently acquired the archives of the North End Union as a supplement to this collection,which has been moved to the Rare Books Department. The branch also has a large selection of popular magazines for adults, children and Italian-language readers and maintains subscriptions to several daily newspapers.

RECURRING PROGRAMMING OFFERED
Preschool films are shown weekly throughout the year.  Regularly scheduled baby, toddler, and preschool story hours are offered from September to May. There is a monthly Lego Club and Book Discussion Group for school-aged children. Please call, stop by or checkthe calendar for dates and times. A Children's Summer Reading Program is offered every July and August. During the summer months, a weekly film festival is offered for adults.  Internet orientations are offered once a month, October through May.

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING OFFERED
Lecture programs are typically offered in the fall or spring; lectures focus on topics of local interest, including North End history. Summer reading, holiday, and school vacation week programs are offered for children. T he branch hosts the annual Mary U. Nichols Book Prize ceremony at which book prizes are presented to graduating eighth-graders from St. John's School. The Agrippina Fagone Scaduto Bender Fund sponsors an annual Chidren’s Reading Party. The North End Against Drugs Organization hosts an annual puppet show in August.

White marble bas-relief of Dante Alighieri		Summer Reading Program participants		The puppet theatre with the North End Puppeteers in the 1950s

HISTORY
Originally established at 3A North Bennett Street in 1913, the North End Branch was relocated to its present site in May 1965. The building was designed by Carl Koch and Associates and was constructed by Peabody Construction Company. The building is a simple, one-story structure modeled after a Roman "villa". A courtyard, located in the center of the building, is complemented with plants and a small pool. The building's exterior is of red brick. Thanks to a grant from the Browne Fund the entrance to the library was recently redesigned by landscape architect, Elena Saporta and artist Tom O’Connel to give the library entrance way a more open and inviting feeling. O ne of the outstanding features of the building is a scale model of the Ducal Palace in Venice. Largely constructed by Henrietta Macy before her death and completed by Louise Stimson of Concord, Massachusetts, the diorama was donated to the Boston Public Library by Nina C. Mitchell of Sheperdstown, West Virginia. The North End Branch also boasts a white marble bas-relief of Dante Alighieri, which was donated to the Central Library in 1913 and later moved to the branch.

Ted Kennedy visits the North End Branch June 1, 1967