Talk:Twin Lakes Library System/Temp

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Mary Vinson Memorial Library, Headquarters

The Twin Lakes Library System provides the citizens of Milledgeville, Georgia with access to over 70,000 items, including books, movies, music, and periodicals. TLLS handles over 12,000 reference requests per year, and provides hundreds of fun and educational programs. In FY 2006, TLLS had over 100,000 visitors and had a total circulation of 145,699. To learn more about TLLS, drop by www.tllsga.org.

[edit] History

Planned to be a place of "recreation, inspiration, and information," then Mayor George S. Carpenter commented that "the time has come when Milledgeville must plan for the future if she expects to grow and remain a progressive city." It would be quite a number of years before the library as we know it would come to be. With a $25 monthly appropriation toward the establishment and maintenance of the library by the City, plans were earnestly made to provide Milledgeville with its first public library.

In 1938 Mr. Julian Stanley offered a vacant building that he owned located on Hancock Street, the Elks Building as the home for the new library and assisted in the renovation process. On January 18, 1938 the library opened its door to the public as The Baldwin County Library. Within the first year of operation, the Baldwin County Library had the largest circulation of books in its area with a total circulation of 1,388.

July of 1948 the Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a constitution and by-laws and the library purpose was made clear. The Library's purpose was established to be "the furnishing of complete library service to the people - adult and juvenile - of this county," and that "all services rendered by the library shall be free to the residents of Baldwin County."

Funded by cashing in bonds, in 1953 the library moved from its location on Hancock Street to the first floor of the Veterans' Building. As early as the 1950s the library sought to expand into a regional library. Needing larger space to house the facility a letter was drafted to Carl Vinson, chairman of the armed services committee, asking for assistance. Although the proposition appealed Mr. Vinson, the project of becoming a regional library did not come to fruition at that time. However, in 1958 the Baldwin County Library became a part of Middle Georgia Regional Library System. By 1961 Carl Vinson secured the county's old post office as a new building for the library. For his generosity, the Baldwin County Library was renamed in honor of his late wife, the Mary Vinson Memorial Library.

By the 1980s increased circulation and other library services forced the need for a larger space. After many proposals it was agreed that a new library had to be built. The new 18,900 square foot two-story building, the library's current location, opened in 1986. The new building featured many new improvements over that of previous locations. The library now had a separate children's area and genealogical area for its patrons. Not only did the library expand, but in keeping with the move into the computer age former library employee, Carter Nipper designed AUTOLIB, the library's first automated catalog. This was the first computerized library catalog available to library patrons. In 1996 patrons had checked out over 166,000 items. The new millennium brought in a number of changes which included a change to a new automated catalog as well as a new branch library, the Lake Sinclair Library. After 43 years under the Middle Georgia Library System a dream became a reality when the Mary Vinson Memorial Library became the headquarters for a new library system, the Twin Lakes Library System.

[edit] Branches

The Twin Lakes Library System is comprised of two libraries: the Mary Vinson Memorial Library (located at 151 S. Jefferson St. Milledgeville, GA 31061) and the Lake Sinclair Library (3061 N. Columbia St. Suite A Milledgeville, GA 31061).