Mount Carroll Township Public Library

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Library is to provide a gateway to knowledge and provide opportunities for lifelong learning.

History:

The Mount Carroll Township Public Library is located at the corner of Main and Rapp Streets. The structure is of brick and stone under a tile roof.

The library is one of the many libraries in the country built by Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie gave ten thousand dollars to build the library, but he doubted if a two story library could be built for ten thousand dollars. The Mount Carroll committee of citizens assured him they had secured a site for the library. The library was started in 1907 and was completed in May 1908, within the ten thousand dollar budget. Mr. Carnegie was so pleased that he sent an additional thousand dollars for the purchase of desks, chairs, tables, and book stacks. And it was reported that Mr. Carnegie said “It is one of the few libraries I have given in which there was no graft in building.”

After the completion of the library, Miss Hass of Savanna and Mrs. Luverta Emmert classified and catalogued the one thousand two hundred and fifty books with which the library stated operating. The cataloguing and classifying was finished in August 1908, and it was during this month that that the library was opened to the public.

The library is a member of the Prairie Area Library System. This system, PALS, provides Interlibrary Loan Service and many other services at no cost to our library patrons. The library has an outreach program that delivers books, DVDs, videos, and magazines to patrons who cannot access the library. Collections of videos, DVDs, and music CDs have been added. Novelist, a computer readers advisory service, is available to patrons on the computers in the library. A small business resource collection is being developed to assist anyone interested in starting a business.

A Friends of the Mt. Carroll Public Library is being organized. The group has a list of several projects to benefit the library and its patrons. Among them are plans for redecorating the library prior to the library centennial celebration in August, 2008. The Friends of the Mt. Carroll Public Library currently holds book sales during Rummage Thru Mt. Carroll during April and again during Brick Street Day in September.

The Friends of the Mt. Carroll Public Library welcomes new members. For more information see the Friends of the Mt. Carroll Public Library page on this website.