The Monroe County Public Library system aims to "serve the educational, recreational and informational needs and interests"[1] of the communities of the Florida Keys.
In September of 1892, the library opened in a room on the 2nd floor of Masonic Hall on Simonton Street with 1200 volumes.
In November of 1966, The Islamorada Library branch opened in a Red Cross building constructed after the 1935 hurricane.
There is a remarkably coincidental connection between Ernest Hemingway and the Monroe County Public Library System.
In WWI, Hemingway was injured in Italy, and he was tended to by a nurse named Agnes Von Kurowsky.
The Islamorada library is a full-service library that is open to residents and visitors and offers a variety of books, newspapers and articles, audio-visual resources, in-library online databases, and resources to Florida Keys history, including a large photo collection available online.