Monday Morning Brief | American Philatelic Research Library

Watch as Linn’s Stamp News associate editor Michael Baadke reports on the grand opening of the American Philatelic Research Library at the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pa

Full video transcript:

This is your Monday Morning Brief for November 7, 2016.

The last weekend in October was a time of celebration at the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

The event was the grand opening of the American Philatelic Research Library, one of the largest philatelic libraries in the world.

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The library shares a home with the headquarters of the American Philatelic Society in the large campus that was a bustling match factory a century ago. Today the structure has been refurbished inside and out, and the successful completion of the library facility is the latest milestone in the process of renovating the match factory complex.

PHOTOS: Doors open to new American Philatelic Research Library: The facility — one of the largest philatelic libraries in the world — recently moved from temporary quarters to its handsome new home within the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pa.,

The weekend’s events kicked off with a Friday night dinner at Sundman Hall featuring guest speaker David Beech, the former head of philatelic collections at the British Library.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday morning officially opened the two-story library. APS Executive Director Scott English was master of ceremonies, and the ribbon — actually a strip of preprinted postage labels — was cut by APS President Mick Zais, and Roger Brody, the president of the library’s board of trustees.

Speakers included local and national dignitaries, as well as former APS Executive Director Robert Lamb, who played a key role in renovating the match factory property and turning the dream of a new and accessible library into a reality.

The two-story library contains more than 23,000 book titles and 5,700 journal titles, all readily available in a quiet and comfortable environment that includes structural elements of the century-old brick factory mingling with the advanced research tools of the 21st century.

A scanning center makes it possible to copy and store information digitally, and study carrels and desks are found throughout, providing a place to read, research and even relax.

Access to the second floor is provided by stairs or an elevator.

You can find out more about the library and its many services by visiting online at www.stamplibrary.org. Or head up to picturesque Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to see the new library and the entire American Philatelic Center campus.

For Linn’s Stamp News and the Scott catalogs, I’m Michael Baadke.