New Hampshire State Library

08/04/2026

The NH Center for the Book has announced its 2026 Great Reads Selections! "Last Night in Twisted River" by John Irving is this year's Adult Readers Selection and "Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor" by Emily Arnold McCully is this year's Young Readers Selection. Congratulations to this year's authors!
For more information about the Great Reads selections, follow this link: https://nhbookcenter.blogspot.com/2026/08/2026-national-book-festival-great-reads.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawTfCX1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe117OlF2j1FG_Yk6JvcFIzjaeLkBnllOCZF_3M87PXo94edfAX4xC8AHQCJc_aem_zmXyiEFTGB_6FBQMQQNhyw

06/09/2026

Check out this interesting article from The Library of Congress about the history of obituaries in U.S. newspapers. The first example given is an obituary from The New Hampshire Gazette in Portsmouth, N.H from March 20, 1761!
Thousands of reels of NH newspapers on microfilm are available at the NH State Library to research this very topic. Contact us for any NH newspaper research needs!

: Obituaries as we know them today are rich records of a person’s life. But did you know that this information-rich article is a very recent development? Learn more about what newspapers published from the very earliest death notices to today’s modern obituaries.

06/04/2026

Glad to see our NH bird loving librarians enjoyed the Flight Path Program at New Hampshire Audubon in Concord! 🐦🦆🦉🐦‍⬛👀

06/04/2026

Mark your calendars! Join us in celebrating America's 250th with our first speaker program of the year, "Redcoats & Rebels: New Hampshire and the American Revolution"

Presented by Mary Adams, staff member at New Hampshire Historical Society, "Redcoats and Rebels" brings to light the role the Granite State played in the American Revolution:

"New Hampshire often gets overlooked in the narrative of the American Revolution, overshadowed by its noisy neighbor to the south. Nowadays, few people know about Paul Revere’s first ride, which was to Portsmouth in December 1774 to warn the patriots that the British were coming to reinforce Fort William and Mary, five months before the Redcoats marched on Concord and Lexington. Nor do they know that two-thirds of the troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill were from New Hampshire. Most people are also unaware that New Hampshire’s Provincial Congress adopted the first state constitution in January 1776, making no mention of royal authority and essentially declaring independence from Great Britain six months before anyone else. And this is just the beginning of New Hampshire’s revolutionary story."-- program blurb

This program was made possible in part by the Center for the Book at the NH State Library, New Hampshire Humanities & National Endowment for the Humanities.

Click here for the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECMpXTYd5/

05/07/2026

05/04/2026

New Hampshire Talking Books welcomed the staff from Moultonborough Public Library (NH) on Friday. They toured the facility, had questions answered about what is offered at Talking Books, and how they can help connect more of their community members with the services of Talking Books. Thanks so much for the visit!

Contact Deb Dutcher, Accessible Services Consultant at:
603-271-2865 or [email protected] to set up your own tour of the facility. Open hours are: Mon-Fri 8-4 pm.