Twin Lakes Library System
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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 of the Twin Lakes Library System
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.
The new millennium brought in a number of changes which included a change to a new automated catalog system, the creation of a statewide Library consortium called PINES and the addition of 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 Mary Vinson Memorial Library building is an 18,900 square foot, two-story structure located at 151 South Jefferson Street and across Greene Street from the north gates of Georgia Military College (formerly the State Capitol building). It can seat more than 200 people; it has a separate children's area, including an amphitheater complete with a built-in puppet stage; and a recently renovated genealogical and historical reading room and wireless public internet access.
The Lake Sinclair Library building is in a 2,500 square foot storefront unit of the Riverside Plaza shopping center located at 3061 North Columbia Street on Highway 441 North near Lake Sinclair. It has a children's area, including a theater complete with a built-in puppet stage; a wireless public Internet facility; and reading and study areas.
