The Athens County Public Libraries are a consortium of seven

public libraries ''Public Libraries'' is the official publication of the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is devoted exclusively to public libraries. The print edition is published six times a year and i ...

located in

Athens County, Ohio Athens County is a county in southeastern Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,431. Its county seat and largest city is Athens. The county was formed in 1805 from Washington County. Because Ohio's first state university, Ohio ...

. The library system was originally known as the Nelsonville Public Library. The original facility in Nelsonville was created in 1935 as an outgrowth of the Nelsonville school system. The library system has an inventory of about 300,000 items. In recent years, it has provided computers with

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

connections at its libraries, and this service has been shown to be very popular. Recently, the library system has begun a landscaping program at its libraries to introduce a wider variety of plantings, especially including native trees and shrubs.

History

Before the establishment of the county library the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

maintained twenty library stations throughout the county. These libraries usually consisted of small collections and untrained staff, but demonstrated a need in the county for a dedicated public library. On June 1, 1935 the idea for a public library was conceived under the name The Public Library for the City of Nelsonville and Athens County. Staff from the WPA were the first librarians and various organizations and townspeople donated books to first fill the shelves. In September 1935 around a thousand books were borrowed from the State

Traveling library A traveling library is a collection of books lent for stated periods by a central library to a branch library, club, or other organization or, in some instances, to an individual. The chief characteristics from which it derives its name are its temp ...

and in December $200 donated from the State Aid for Libraries fund. Still spread across multiple WPA libraries, the entire collection moved to Washington street in 1936 allowing the hiring of a trained librarian, and the cataloging of the books under one roof. By 1939 the library moved again and began converting the old library stations (now unused) into branch libraries. By the end of 1939 the system consisted of one library with two branches and five deposit stations. A bookmobile was also started with county budget funds which visited the county schools. In 1940 the Athens branch opened in a part of the city previously serviced by the University system. During the 1970s through 1990s an addition three library branches were opened throughout Athens. These were the Wells library, the Coolville library, and The Plains library. With their inclusion the size of the system grew to its current seven branches. Starting in 2013 the library system successfully received $17,400 in funding to begin offering bikes for student use. The program, "Book-a-Bike" allows students with a library card an alternative to taking the bus or walking to school.

Branches

Today, the library system consists of these seven branches: * Nelsonville (main branch) *

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

* Chauncey * Coolville * Glouster * The Plains * Wells Public Library (Albany)

References

External links

Library websiteBook-a-Bike program
{{authority control Education in Athens County, Ohio Public libraries in Ohio Buildings and structures in Athens County, Ohio