Smith Hill Library

The Smith Hill Library was established as a branch of the Providence Public Library in 1932. Since that time it has become a central part of the Smith Hill neighborhood, serving as the unofficial hub of community activities. The library has one of the oldest Friends of Library groups in the entire city. Established in 1978, the Friends of Smith Hill Library has served to integrate the library into the community and has been the major bulwark against the library’s closing. In 1991 they actually took PPL to court to prevent the branch’s closure. But notwithstanding the protests of the Smith Hill Friends and other library advocates across the city, the Smith Hill Library, along with 4 other neighborhood libraries, was facing closure on July 1, 2009.

The library was saved when it was taken over by Providence Community Library on July 1, 2009. For our first four months, statistics show that 14,395 people have patronized the library; 164 youth have attended youth programs; 70 pre-school children have attended story times at the library with their teachers; 106 youth participated in the Homework Health program with students from the Feinstein Institute of Public Service at Providence College; 226 preschool children listened to stories by librarians and Ready to Learn Providence AmeriCorp workers visiting their classrooms and home daycares; and 174 people have attended the many meetings held at the library. And just between July 1st and September 21st 2,465 people of all ages used one of the library’s free public computers.