PPL offers an ambitious annual exhibition schedule with accompanying public programming encompassing history, culture, and the fine arts. It has hosted a number of NEH-funded programs: America’s Music: A Film History of Our Music From Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway and Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, among them. More recently, it has hosted annual exhibitions, with accompanying programs exploring music, food, and the way people in the past have imagined the future.

In addition to its public programming, PPL possesses a historic building and an extensive archive, both of which have been supported with NEH funding. A 1985 challenge grant, which it used to raise an additional $1.26 million, helped the library renovate its building and make it more accessible. The building, which opened in 1900, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Additional funding has helped the library assess its special collections and preserve its collection of historic children’s books, which includes a first edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and a book about games that was owned by Marie Antoinette. The special collections are open to the public—visitors are welcome to explore them—and they are frequently used by students from local high schools and universities. And NEH funding is continuing to support the collections’ sustainability and accessibility. Another challenge grant, awarded in 2018, is building the library’s capacity to store the collections safely and create educational programming based on them.