The first community-wide read, WestportREADS, is announced. The book selected is The Giver by Lois Lowry. The Library’s high speed T-1 Internet connection goes live in May. Playwright Wendy Wasserstein is honored with the 4th annual Westport Library Award at the “Booked for the Evening” event. Margaret Barnett receives the Friends of the Library Special Friend Award. The Committee for the Future of the Library is organized in September to guide the library’s long-range planning process. The first Malloy Lecture in the Arts features speaker Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A wireless network becomes active in December and makes the Internet accessible from virtually all locations in the Library for laptop users with wireless cards.