Monroe County Public Library

Monroe County Public Library

Established	1820
Location	303 E Kirkwood Ave Bloomington, Indiana 47408
Access and use
Circulation	2.7 million
Population served	138,000
Other information
Budget	$7,345,690
Director	Sara Laughlin
Staff	153
Website	http://www.mcpl.info

Monroe County Public Library (MCPL) serves the 138,000 citizens of Monroe County, Indiana, through the Main Library in downtown Bloomington, the Ellettsville Branch, and the Bookmobile. The library’s special services include the Learn and Play Space, a preschool discovery center; VITAL, an adult literacy program; CATS, a five-channel community access television network; the Indiana Room, a local history and genealogy collection and grants center (part of the Foundation Center’s Cooperating Collections National Network); and service to inmates at the Monroe County Correctional Center.

History

Monroe County Public Library.

The first library in Monroe County was established in 1820 in the courthouse. A Carnegie Library was dedicated in 1918. In 1965, the Bloomington Public Library merged with the Monroe County Public Library system. Library service continued in the Carnegie building until 1970 when the current building was completed. Expanded to a full city block in 1997 and renovated in 2010, the Main Library is a 135,000-square-foot limestone building located in downtown Bloomington near Indiana University. Library services started in Ellettsville in 1968 when a storefront branch opened. The current building was dedicated in 1990 and expanded and renovated in 2009. Bookmobile service to rural Monroe County began in 1929 with the purchase of a Model A Ford “booktruck.” This service continues with a state-of-the-art bookmobile purchased in 2011.

In 2011 the library experienced its fifteenth year of increases in circulation and library visits. That same year, circulation topped 2.7 million. The library uses the Polaris Integrated Library System and has implemented an RFID-based circulation, materials handling and inventory control system.

Awards

• In the 2010 HAPLR Rankings, MCPL was ranked 3rd in its class. MCPL has been ranked in the top ten of libraries serving 100k populations, every year since 2005. ^[1]

• CATS won several awards in The 2011 National Hometown Video Awards of the Alliance for Community Media.^[2]

• The Indiana Library Federation recognized MCPL with its Danny Gunnells Intellectual Freedom Award in 2004.^[3]

• The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce has honored MCPL with its Workforce Development Award in 2007 and Trailblazer through Technology Award in 2011.

• MCPL has received a “Best of Show” award for best promotional video from the American Library Association's "PR Xchange" for its 2009 Children’s Summer Reading video, “Be Creative @ your library.”^[4]

• The library’s adult literacy program (VITAL) has received a Volunteer Program Award from Ivy Tech’s Center for Civic Engagement in 2005, the Indiana Library Federation's Tom Zupancic Award for the support of literacy and libraries in 2008, and a Be More Knowledgeable Award from the City of Bloomington in 2011.

References

External links

• Monroe County Public Library website
• Friends of Monroe County Public Library
• MCPL Children's Services Facebook page

Coordinates: 39°10′0″N 86°31′50″W / 39.16667°N 86.53056°W / 39.16667; -86.53056