Morgan County Public Library
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The Morgan County Public Library is located in Martinsville, Indiana, and has five branches in addition to the main library.
[edit] History
The Morgan County Public Library was founded in 1906 as the Martinsville Public Library. Andrew Carnegie donated $12,500 for the library's construction, which was just sufficient to build a brick building. However, Martinsville city officials wanted a limestone structure, and raised as additional $2,400 through the sale of bonds. The library was built of Bedford limestone and opened in in September of 1908, with a collection of 1,500 books.
The Martinsville Public Library continued to operate, serving the citizens of Martinsville and the surrounding Washington Township, until 1971. In that year, the library merged with the Bookmobile service to become the Morgan County Contractual Library and expanded its operations to server the entire county except Brown Township (Moorseville). In 1976, the library again changed names to the current Morgan County Public Library.
In 1990, the library underwent a $1.7 million expansion and renovation. The main library is now more than four times its larger than it wsas in 1908, and houses over 100,000 books. In addition, the library offers magazines, books on CD/cassette, DVD and VHS movies, and public computers (as well as wireless connection). The main library has an extensive genealogy collection including digitized records, microfilm, local histories, yearbooks and other records in paper form. In all, there are over 180,000 items in circulation throughout the library system.
Additional historic renovation began in 1996 and included roof repairs, tuckpointing, and lead paint removal. On the exterior, trim was repainted and leaded glass replaced. An extensive interior remodeling included ceramic tile in the basement, new carpeting in all public areas, wallpaper removal and repainting.
