I'm here tonight to invite you to celebrate the library's 80th anniversary. The library was started in 1923. To commemorate the event, the library is planning many events starting the week of Oct. 19 through Oct. 25, and including a costume dinner dance to be held on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 7 to 11 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the library. Many people cannot believe that the library is 80 years old. But one only has to stop and think about the events taking place at the time that the library was started, to understand the magnitude of what 80 years represents.

The library was started in the 1920s. That was a time when silent movies were popular. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton were on the silver screen and Rudolph Valentino was the Brad Pitt of the day. People were singing, Yes We Have No Bananas. Fashion became fads. Flappers were the bee's knees, prohibition was the law, hip flasks were in pockets and Al Capone was in Chicago.

The 1920s was a time of great change. The library was established in the period after WWI and before the great depression. Sigmund Freud was published, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce were popular writers of the time. The new technology was the radio and the automobile!

But meanwhile, back in the small town of Farmingdale a few women from the Women's Club of Farmingdale had a vision of establishing a simple library for people to borrow books and get into the library habit. On September 20, 1923 the University of the State of New York granted a provisional charter incorporating nine residents as the first trustees of the Farmingdale Free Library.

The first location was in the Kolkebeck House from 1923 until it was demolished in 1929 to build the Main Street School, now the site of Waldbaum's. Then the library was moved into the school building and combined with the school library. In 1951 a group known as the Friends of the Library was organized and promoted the idea of separating the public library from the school library. In 1952 because it was physically impossible to house the library in the school, the taxpayers of school district No. 22 voted to establish a school district library. In 1953, the Farmingdale Free Library opened in a rented store at 195 Main Street. In 1958, a Bookmobile was added to bring service to outlying areas of Farmingdale. In 1959, the library moved to the bank building at Main and Conklin, now the Library Café and opened the South Farmingdale branch in 1961, now the site of CVS. Due to increased population and demand for library services, the two branches were combined and the new library on Merritts Road was opened in 1994.

The first library consisted of donated books. Today your library has 150,000 materials, including books, periodicals, CDs, DVD, videos and computers. Over 300,000 people pass through our doors each year and we have the eighth largest circulation in Nassau County.

Farmingdale should be proud of its long-standing tradition of library service that has lasted and grown over these 80 years. On behalf of the library's board of trustees, Larry Jorgensen, Laurie Rozakis, Laura Ulric, Tom Arangio and Rosemary Trudden, I invite you to celebrate with us. Come to the library's costume dinner dance on Saturday, Oct. 25. Tickets are $42 per person and are on sale at the library. Costumes are optional but the fun is guaranteed! Visit the library and enjoy your library and enjoy the rest of the concert.

Editors Note: Minute of Farmingdale History is a series of lectures about local history being presented at the Farmingdale Village Pops concert series on the Village Green, on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer. This installment was featured at the July 9 concert.