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The history of the Wood County District Public
Library can be traced back to a group of men who
organized the Bowling Green Library Association
on January 21, 1875. To belong to this subscription
library, shares needed to be purchased at $5.00
each. Each shareholder was permitted one vote
in the Association and permission to borrow one
book at a time from the library. This organization
continued from 1876 - 1886 with a total of 76
library subscribers.
Records for the following years are unclear,
but in 1911, the library movement was revived
by a group of women who were members of the
Shakespeare Roundtable in Bowling Green. A committee
was organized to raise money to fund the public
library. In March, 1914, the new library opened
in two small rooms at the rear of the Exchange
Bank Building with a total of 300 volumes of
books. This library was also a subscription
library with a membership fee of $1.00.
The library moved several times, once to an
upstairs location at the corner of West Court
and North Main streets. It was staffed by volunteers
from the Shakespeare Club and other public volunteers.
In 1928, the library moved into the new high
school building (currently the Junior High)
on West Wooster Street. It served as both a
school and public library. New services were
added when the Bradner Branch Library opened
in 1949, and the first bookmobile service became
available to the county in 1951.
In 1956, the library moved again. This time
the move was to the remodeled Church Street
School (currently the City Administration Building).
Shut-in service was established in 1961. Space
was limited in the Church Street building, and
the floors had not been designed to hold the
weight of full bookshelves. In August 1974,
the Wood County District Public Library opened
its doors at 251 North Main Street, a brand
new building designed to meet the functions
of a public library.
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