Greene County Public Library

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The Greene County Public Library serves the communities of Greene County, Ohio from its administrative offices in Xenia, Ohio including Beavercreek, Cedarville, Fairborn, Jamestown, Bellbrook, and Yellow Springs. Greene county is located east of Dayton, Ohio.

In 2005, the library loaned more than 2.3 million items to its 73,000 cardholders, making it the 9th busiest library in Ohio.^[1] Total holding are over 5 million volumes with over 500 periodical subscriptions.^[2]

Greene County Library is a member of the Miami Valley Libraries, one of eleven regional library cooperatives in Ohio.

Greene County’s District Library System was named one of the "Great American Public Library Systems" by HAPLR (Hennen's American Public Library Ratings). It was ranked in the top ten in the nation for libraries of its size and population served (100,000-250,000) in 2002 (6th), 2003 (9th) and 2004 (8th).[1]

[edit] History

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The first library in Greene County, Ohio, was founded in 1878 when the Young Women's Library Association (YWLA) was organized. They operated a small library in a room donated by Eli Millen,, located on Greene Street in Xenia - funding came from subscriptions from YWLA members. In 1881, the YWLA incorporated under the name "Xenia Library Association". In 1885 they hired their first librarian, Clara Martin, for $6.25 per month.

For many years the library was housed in a Carnegie library, opened in 1906, and was officially the Greene County District Library. The 1974 tornado (pictured) hit Xenia hard and opened land adjacent to the Xenia City Building. A new library was built there and opened in March 1978.

In the 1990’s the library system’s name was legally changed to the Greene County Public Library. The main library in Xenia is one out of six in the system. The Social Culture Club started a library in 1899 in Yellow Springs. In 1901 it became the Yellow Springs Library Association. In 1926 it became part of the Greene County Public Library. In 1881 a Bellbrook physician, J. Turnbull, had the town library in his home. After his death the Winters family donated a bank building to house the library in 1906. Bellbrook became part of the Greene County District Library in 1945. In 1928 the first Jamestown library was housed in the high school under an agreement between the Greene County Public Library and the board of Education. Fairborn, which came from the merging of two towns, Osborn and Fairfield, had its first library in 1929, called the Osborn (or Bath Township) Library. It was housed in the local barbershop, the barber serving a librarian. The Cedarville library, originally a joint enterprise with Cedarville College, began in 1937. It was separated from the college and moved into the Opera House in 1960. It acquired a new building in 2005. Beavercreek saw its share of bookmobile stops and book stations in the early years but finally got its own library in 1959. A new building was dedicated in 1979.

The Greene County Room, housing local history and genealogy material, was established in 1971. From its corner in the Carnegie Building, it later relocated to the second floor of the new Xenia library in 1978, where it remains today.