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First Night revelers can count down to the new year at the Boston Public Library.

As part of Boston's First Night celebration, the BPL is offering festive tours of one of the city's most important historical landmarks - the BPL's beautiful building in Copley Square.

Art and Architecture Tours, led by the BPL's First Night guides, will be offered for free from 1 to 4 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

The McKim Building in Copley Square is a treasure trove that holds millions of books, manuscripts, music scores and prints. Treasures that visitors will see on First Night include renowned works by American sculptors Louis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, French muralist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and American artists John Singer Sargent and Edwin Austin Abbey.

Tours start in the lobby of the McKim Building on Dartmouth Street. First Night buttons are not needed for BPL events. For information, call 617-859-2216.

The Boston Public Library, established in 1848, was the first publicly supported municipal library in America, and the first library to allow people to borrow books and materials, a truly revolutionary concept at the time. In 1870, the BPL opened the East Boston branch, the first branch library in the country. In 1895, it opened a children's room, making it the first library in the country to establish a space specifically designed for children. Today, the BPL has more than 6 million books and serves more than 2 million people annually in its central library in Copley Square and in its 27 branch libraries around the city. The BPL is also one of only two public libraries in the country that are members of the Association of Research Libraries. All of its events are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning!

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Prepared by the Boston Public Library's Communications Office. For more information about news, programs and events at the BPL, call 617-859-2212 or send a message to the Communications Office.