Huntsville-Madison County Public Library facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Huntsville-Madison County Public Library |
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| The main branch in Huntsville in December 2010 | |
| Established | 1818 |
| Location | Huntsville & Madison County, Alabama |
| Coordinates | 34°43′22″N 86°35′22″W / 34.7227°N 86.5895°W |
| Branches | 12 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 530,000 |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 1,915,548 (2007) |
| Website | http://hmcpl.org/ |
The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library is a public library located in Huntsville, Alabama. It is a Carnegie library, which means it received money from businessman Andrew Carnegie to help build it.
This library is very old! It started in 1818, when Alabama was still part of the Mississippi Territory. This makes it the oldest library in Alabama that has been open continuously since it began.
Contents
A Long History of Learning
The library first opened in the office of a lawyer named John Nelson Spotswood Jones. This building is now part of Constitution Hall Park. Later, from 1821, the library moved to the Green Academy.
Sadly, during the American Civil War, Union soldiers burned the Green Academy. The library then had to move to different borrowed places for many years.
The Carnegie Library Opens
Finally, in 1916, a special building called the Carnegie Library opened. This was a big step for the library!
As the city and county grew, the library needed even more space. A new main building was built and opened in 1966. Many government workers moved to the area because of the growing space program, including people from the United States Army and NASA. This meant even more people needed the library.
The "Fort Book" Headquarters
By 1969, the library needed more room again. Planning for a new, bigger building started in 1983. The current main library building opened in April 1987. It is sometimes called "Fort Book" because it looks strong and fortress-like. This building is the main office for the entire Huntsville Madison County Public Library System.
The main library building is very large, covering about 123,000 square feet. It has enough seats for 930 people. Inside, you can find over 530,000 books and other items. The library's main offices are on the third floor. In 2007, people borrowed items from this library almost 2 million times! This made it the busiest library in Alabama that year.
In 2004, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library received a special grant. This money helped them turn old photographs from their archives into digital files. These digital photos were then added to the Alabama Mosaic Project, making them available online for everyone to see.
Library Locations
The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library system has a main building in Downtown Huntsville. It also has 12 other branch libraries located throughout Madison County.
| Branch | Location |
|---|---|
| Bailey Cove Public Library | Huntsville |
| Bessie K. Russell Library | Huntsville |
| Cavalry Hill Public Library | Huntsville |
| Eleanor E. Murphy Library | Huntsville |
| Elizabeth Carpenter Library of New Hope | New Hope |
| Gurley Public Library | Gurley |
| Madison Public Library | Madison |
| Monrovia Public Library | Monrovia |
| Oscar Masion Branch Library | Huntsville |
| Showers Center Library | Huntsville |
| Tillman Hill Public Library | Hazel Green |
| Triana Youth Center Library | Triana |
The Triana branch library had a fire in late 2009 that destroyed its original building. A brand new building for the Triana branch opened in the spring of 2014, right next to where the old one used to be. Soon, the Bailey Cove branch will join with other branches in south Huntsville to create a new, larger South Huntsville Branch.
