| Allen County Public Library | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1895 |
| Location | 900 Library Plaza Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802 United States |
| Branches | 14 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 3,445,808 |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 6 million + |
| Population served | 349,488 |
| Other information | |
| Budget | $11,084,786 |
| Director | Jeff Krull |
| Staff | 309 |
| Website | Allen County Public Library Website |
Allen County Public Library (ACPL) has been part of the social and cultural fabric of Fort Wayne, Indiana and surrounding communities in Allen County since 1895. Then known as the Fort Wayne Public Library, it served residents with 3,606 volumes out of a room in City Hall. Since its founding, ACPL has grown to consist of the 367,000 square feet (34,100 m2) Main Library in downtown Fort Wayne and 13 other branches in the city and outlying communities.
The Fort Wayne Metropolitan Statistical Area was acknowledged by Places Rated Almanac in 1998 as holding the highest "reading quotient" of any city in the nation.[1]
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1895 – Library opened in City Hall on January 28 with 3,606 volumes.
1898 – Library Board purchased the Brackenridge Home at Wayne Street and Webster Street for $14,000.
1904 – Carnegie-funded library building opened.
1923 – Service to county residents began. Fort Wayne Public Library became Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
1944 – Main Library expansion began with purchase of Hollywood Building on Washington Boulevard to house administrative offices.
1952 – Young Adult Department opened in basement of main library, the first such department in the country.
1968 – 173,500-square-foot (16,120 m2) building at Wayne and Webster Streets was dedicated August 21, 1968.
1977 – Construction of the new addition to the Main Library began.
1980 – Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County officially became Allen County Public Library by act of the state legislature on January 1.
1985 – Estimated 5,500 people ate 2,731 pizzas during system's 90th birthday celebration.
1997 – Library Board and staff began system-wide space needs analysis for all library facilities.
2001 – Allen County taxpayers approved bond financing of the $84 million library expansion project.
2007 – Renovation and expansion of main library nears completion. Grand opening held on January 27, 2007, with Randall T. Shepard, Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, among the speakers.
The Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Department, located in the Main Library Branch, is the second-largest genealogy department in North America, home to more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items of microfilm and microfiche.[2][3] Only the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, a private institution, is larger.[4] They also support and host a collaborative online genealogy database, WeRelate, which as of mid-2010 includes roughly two million records.
The Main Library has five public meeting rooms that accommodate from six to 500 people. These rooms are available for use by the community for meetings and events. In addition, the building has six small group study rooms, a computer training room, and a theater which seats 230. Library branches also have meeting rooms and study rooms.
Access Fort Wayne (AFW) is a Public-access television cable TV station which provides a variety of unique services for the library. AFW originates three Public-access television channels from the Main Library. Access 1 is channel 25 on Verizon and 55 on Comcast. Access 2 is channel 27 on Verizon and 57 on Comcast. Government-access television (GATV), City TV is channel 28 on Verizon and 58 on Comcast. The channels can only be viewed on Comcast and Verizon inside of Allen County. AFW is a full production facility with two TV studios and editing facilities.[5]
In 2004, NEIRRS joined the library, under the supervision of AFW. The Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service (NEIRRS) is a free radio reading service for people who are blind or have a visual or reading impairment. NEIRRS volunteers read local news and features from a dozen area newspapers, plus magazines, books, grocery ads, obituaries and more. NEIRRS broadcasts in a fifty-mile radius from Fort Wayne over a sub-channel frequency provided by WBCL-FM. The special receiver needed to hear NEIRRS is loaned to listeners at no charge.[6]
Allen County Public Library is a partner of WeRelate, the largest genealogy wiki in the world. Currently providing access to over one million records and two million person pages. The website also provides the largest documented place wiki available.