The Logan County District Library is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

system that serves communities throughout

Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The system's central

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, which is also its oldest and largest branch, is the Knowlton Library, located along Main Street (

U.S. Route 68 U.S. Route 68 (US 68) is a United States highway that runs for from northwest Ohio to Western Kentucky. The highway's western terminus is at U.S. Route 62 in Kentucky, US 62 in Reidland, Kentucky. Its present eastern terminus is at Interstate 7 ...

) in downtown Bellefontaine. The Knowlton Library was named for

Austin Eldon Knowlton Austin Eldon "Dutch" Knowlton (July 23, 1909 – June 25, 2003) was a trained architect who spent most of his career in the construction industry. His company designed, financed, and built more than 160 college and university buildings on col ...

, for whom the school of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

is also named. Although the current structure was only completed in 1994, the library has occupied a location in downtown Bellefontaine since its founding in 1901. From 1905 until 1994, the library was housed in a Carnegie library building, funded by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. The Carnegie building was bought by Richwood Bank in 2020.

Other libraries

Branch libraries are also maintained in six

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

throughout the county: De Graff, Lakeview, Rushsylvania, West Liberty, and West Mansfield. Because of their smaller size, these branches offer fewer services and a smaller selection of books and media. An East Liberty branch was closed in 2012 due to decreased funding, with services being merged into the West Mansfield library. Two other public libraries exist in Logan County: the Sloan Library in Zanesfield and the Belle Center Public Library. These two libraries are not part of the Logan County District Library system.

References

External links

Logan County District Library
{{authority control Public libraries in Ohio Education in Logan County, Ohio Libraries established in 1901 1901 establishments in Ohio Library buildings completed in 1994 Andrew Carnegie Carnegie libraries in Ohio U.S. Route 68