And these days, that means you can do a lot more than just take out books.
The library's gone digital -- whether you're looking for books, music or DVDs.
Reardon explains, "You can download all of that to your tablet, to your iPod, to your Kindle... and it doesn't cost you anything."
You can reserve MP3s and eBooks in advance, and choose to have them stay on your device for up to three weeks.
And forget about having to rent movies for your DVD player.
"We have a vast collection of DVDs and if you are in our Roxborough branch, and the DVD is here at Central and you put a hold on it, then we'll transer it to Roxborugh, if that's where you choose to have it," Reardon explains.
And if you don't have an computer, or access to a network, you can use one of the 1000 public access desktops throughout the system. The librarians can even set you up with a free email account.
"Every one of our 54 locations are WiFi-enabled," Reardon says.
In addition, the library offers free after-school tutoring, children's story hours and 100 free evening programs including the Authors Series.
All you need to access all these freebies is a free Philadelphia Library card. And if you live outside the city and have a card for your local library, you can get a Philadelphia card as well. Just click here to sign up.
To find out more about the Library's services, click here to explore their website.
