Upcoming Events
4 PM - 6 PM
Libraries are more than reading: lifelong learning is also making and doing! Join fellow yarn enthusiasts once a month on the first Wednesday of the month from 4-6 pm at the State Library, located at the Forum Building, Main Reading Room, 607 South Drive, Harrisburg for a maker time of stitching, knitting, crocheting, felting, and camaraderie! Show off your new project and share inspiration with one another.
State Employee Fiber Arts Club Registration. Questions? Email ra-makerspace@pa.gov or call 717-783-5993.
First Wednesday of each month – beginning April 1st, 12 Noon – 1 PM
Join your fellow bird enthusiasts once a month for a midday adventure! Trade your desk chair for fresh air and your inbox for birds! Whether you’re a seasoned birder or someone who once saw a pigeon and said “wow, nature…” Binoculars? Optional. Bring them if you want to feel official, but your eyeballs work just fine.
What to Bring / Wear - comfortable walking shoes, binoculars, guidebooks, weather-appropriate clothing – if the skies really open up, we’ll migrate indoors to the State Library’s STEMlab, right inside the Forum Building lobby!
Where We Roam - Meet at the entrance to the State Library/Forum Building at 607 South Drive Harrisburg, PA 17120
When - From 12 Noon -1 PM on the first Wednesday of every month
Why Join? Fresh air. Feathered friends. A legitimate reason to escape your cubicle. Occasional bragging rights: “I saw a falcon today. What did you do?”
Please register for Birding Club to participate.
Employees must use their lunch period or use annual or personal leave if this event is within their scheduled working hours.
In 2018-2020, the Commonwealth Monument Project launched a "Look Up, Look Out" campaign to reimagine Harrisburg's Old Eighth Ward, the multi-ethnic neighborhood demolished from the 1910s to install the buildings and green space of the State Capitol Complex. The campaign was designed to draw attention to a once-thriving neighborhood that now teems with government workers and those associated with the everyday business of the capital city. Using a combination of historical research and digital tools, a group of local historians, change agents, technologists, and faculty and students of area universities identified 12 sites throughout the various buildings of the Capitol Complex to place posters that told the varied stories of the vanished neighborhood. These posters are now on display at the State Library Main Reading Room, in the heart of the Old Eighth Ward.
Visitors to Pennsylvania’s capitol district are invited to stop, look up, look out, and imagine a thriving neighborhood that once existed before the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appropriated the grounds a century ago for state use. View the exhibit and download a walking tour map at the State Library reading room on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 AM – 6 PM.
Date: November 10 - November 12, 2026
Time: 10am - 6pm
About: Inspired by Lego's Day of Play, the State Library is offering a variety of Legos in the Main Reading Room for you to come in and build whatever your imagination desires. These Legos will be available to use on Tuesday, November 10th and Thursday, November 12th during the library's regular hours of 10AM to 6PM. Grab a coworker or two and come to the library on your lunch break or after work to build together!
If you have any questions, please reach out to the STEMlab directly at RA-EDMAKERSPACE@pa.gov.
Date: Thursday, November 12.
Time: 12 Noon - 1PM
About: STEMlab lead instructor Bill Fee continues the music programming series in partnership with Carol Buck, State Museum curator. Queer in Punk, Industrial and Goth - Queer folk have a long history in the Punk, Industrial and Goth scenes. Learn the history of queer people listening to, contributing to, and reacting to these genres.
Please register for "Queer in Punk, Industrial, and Goth" to participate.
Date: Thursday, November 19
Time: 12 Noon - 1 PM
About: Pennsylvania is the home of many classic mass-produced American toys. Learn some history of the toys, the manufacturers, and the stores that made it possible!
Register for Pennsylvania Toys to participate.
Title: From Court Records to County Maps: Tracing an Early Kentucky Family
Date: Monday, December 7
Time: 12 Noon - 1PM
Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt will share how she used county‑level court records, deeds, and court‑supervised dispute settlements to trace how her fifth great‑grandfather accumulated land in early‑1800s Clark County, Kentucky. After discovering a 150‑page, multi‑year entry in the county order books, she worked with the Clark County GIS Office to locate the properties described in the proceedings. Her talk highlights both the research process and the historical insights gained, showing how detailed court records can illuminate land ownership and family life from 1787–1839.
Please register for the From Court Records to County Maps event with this link.
Book Club
Date: Monday, November 2, 2026
Time: 12 Noon to 1PM
Book: Is a River Alive? by Robert MacFarlane
About the Book Club: The State Library of Pennsylvania hosts a quarterly lunchtime book club open to state employees as well as to the public. The book club meets in the format of a virtual meeting. Attendees take part in conversations about the book moderated by staff at the State Library of Pennsylvania. Share thoughts about the characters, plot, setting, and impact of the book with others who have read the book or any part of it.
About the book: Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.
Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada―imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, a stream who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers―and always has. (from Amazon.com)
This book may be borrowed from many Pennsylvania public libraries.
- State employees may borrow from the State Library through EZBorrow.
- Please register for this virtual Book Club to participate.
Lunch and Learn Programs
The State Library of Pennsylvania offers Lunch and Learn programs. These programs are typically free, open to the public, and held virtually via on online platform between noon and 1 p.m.
If you missed a program or want to experience it again, see below for recordings from recent programs.
If you have a question about the Lunch and Learn program contact Ellen Shenk at ellshenk@pa.gov.
Recent Programs
Visit our Lunch and Learn YouTube playlist to explore recordings of more than 40 Lunch and Learn sessions.
Date: October 22, 2026
Time: 12 Noon - 1 PM
About: Birding as a hobby is seeing a resurgence in recent years, with many people taking up binoculars in search of beautiful avians in their own backyard and around the world. While many might be new to birdwatching, Pennsylvanians have been looking to the skies for over 150 years to observe and report on birds of all shapes and sizes, both for enjoyment and conservation purposes. Now more than ever, birdwatching is as fun and important as it ever was.
Join Jordan Sanford and Stefan Karkuff of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, in collaboration with Patrick Frownfelter of the State Library, as we discuss the history, importance, and best practices of birdwatching and bird conservation in this Lunch and Learn. You might find yourself looking skyward after!
Birding in Pennsylvania (YouTube)
Date: September 29, 2026
Time: 12 Noon – 1 PM
About the book: Anna Freeman never expected a routine errand to change everything. But when the ambitious law student and environmental activist retrieves a harmless videotape on energy policy, she unknowingly steps into the heart of a ruthless conspiracy. Powerful lobbyists, corrupt politicians, and billion-dollar interests will do whatever it takes to keep their secrets buried -- and now, Anna is in their crosshairs. Before she realizes it, she’s pulled deep into the very system she once despised, embraced and seduced by those orchestrating the cover-up. They think she’s one of them. But Anna has other plans. Working undercover for The New York Times, she’s determined to expose the truth—no matter the cost. The only problem -- she falls in love with the industry’s most trusted lobbyist.
About the author: Joel Burcat is an author and retired environmental lawyer. He has won awards from Kindle Book Awards, PennWriters, Next Gen. Indie Book Awards, New York Festival of Books, Readers' Favorite, ScreenCraft, and others. He has written dozens of short stories (from the best beer he ever had, to horror, to murder for hire). He was selected as the 2019 Lawyer of the Year in Environmental Litigation (for Central PA) by Best Lawyers in America. He has been designated by both “Super Lawyers” and “Best Lawyers” for environmental and oil and gas law. In addition to his law practice, he edited two non-fiction books on environmental and energy law and has written numerous professional articles on environmental law. Burcat lives in Harrisburg, Pa. with his wife, Gail.
"Whiz Kid" by Joel Burcat" (YouTube)
Date: Tuesday, June 16
Time: 12 Noon - 1PM
Since its inception in 2012, the Central Pennsylvania LGBTQ+ History Project has worked tirelessly to document the vibrant, complex, and often overlooked legacy of our local community. In partnership with the LGBT Center of Central PA and the Dickinson College Archives, this project has grown from a simple collection into a definitive resource of oral histories and historical artifacts available to the public virtually and through multiple exhibits.
We are honored to host Barry Loveland, the project’s chair and co-founder, for a virtual presentation. Barry—a retired Chief of the Division of Architecture and Preservation at the PHMC and co-author of Out in Central Pennsylvania—will walk us through the inception of this work and its goals for the future.
Date: April 7, 2026
Time: 12 Noon - 1PM
About: Looking at State documents in the library collection, learn about the Eastern State Penitentiary, the first prison of its kind, and its impact on corrections in the United States and the World. Did you sign up for the Eastern State Penitentiary lecture in January? If so, we have your registration information. New registrations link below!
Eastern State Penitentiary (YouTube)
Date: March 16, 2026
Time: 12 Noon - 1 PM
About: Curious about the digitization process? The State Library of Pennsylvania has a state-of-the art digitization lab to provide greater access to old or fragile materials. Come join us as we show off our lab via a collaborative project with the Manheim Historical Society. You’ll also learn how to make an empanada. One with a very different kind of filling.
"How to Make an Empanada" (YouTube)
Date: February 5, 2026
Time: 12 Noon - 1 PM
About: Join special guest speaker Dr. William Roulston to learn about the Scots Irish in Pennsylvania and genealogy research! Dr William Roulston is the author of several published genealogy books and is the Research Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation in County Down, Ireland.
"Researching the Ulster Roots" (YouTube)
Date: November 12, 2025
Time: 12 Noon - 1PM
About: James M. Beidler came by his German genealogy expertise honestly – it took him more than 20 years of searching to find any ancestry that wasn’t from Germany! Beidler is a columnist for German Life magazine and is considered a "go-to" person for German genealogy articles and lectures. He has written several books on researching the genealogy of German-speaking peoples. He also has expertise in the genealogy of the people of his native Pennsylvania, newspapers, and land records. Learn some genealogy research tips from an expert and check out his website.