On Dec. 12, 2007, the Echigawa Public Library 愛知川図書館 won the “Library of the Year” Award from among 5,000 libraries in Japan. The date was also the library’s 7th anniversary. The library staff was praised for having field-specific expertise (museum curation, education, etc.) and being active in promoting and vitalizing the town. The library opened on Dec. 12, 2000. It has 165,000 books and lent out over 230,000 books during 2006. For a town of 20,000 people, these are very high figures. Google Map