Osceola Library System
In 1914 a group of ladies in Kissimmee donated $52 each and collected additional funds from citizens to build the Hart Memorial Public Library.
Meanwhile, the wife of Colonel McElroy, president of the land company, donated a supply of books for the reading room The bank where the Club had deposited the building fund failed in 1918, in the aftermath of World War 1.
Meanwhile, the Public Library of Kissimmee moved from the original Hart Memorial location to a new 4,000-square-foot space at the corner of Broadway and Kain in 1968; in the early 1970's, the Veterans Memorial Library moved from its Massachusetts Avenue location to the old downtown Sunbank building at 10th street and New York Avenue in St.
The Poinciana Branch Library, opened in 1988, was housed in a modular building-the first of its kind in the state-with movable circular bookshelves.
The Osceola Library began with three small branches and a total book collection of approximately 70,000 volumes, explosive growth was experienced over the ensuing years.
A new headquarters location was opened in January 1994 with a new 43,000-square-foot building on the site that formerly housed the Mickler & Sons Orange Crate Company.
Three back-to-back hurricanes pummeled Osceola County, causing more than a million dollars worth of structural damage to the Hart Memorial Central Library.
During reconstruction of the Hart Memorial Central Library, customers could call ahead, and then pick up resources through the back door during limited hours.
Located in the heart of one of the world's favorite tourist destinations, it has seen library visits increase to almost 500,000 a year with a circulation of over 625,000 resources.
The Library was recognized for the implementation of a new customer friendly service model that removed desks and the stereotypical image of the librarian, and replaced them with smaller checkout pods, approachable staff, and more interactive areas for children, families, and teens.
[4] Each full-service library has reference librarians, public internet access computers, wireless printing, a wide range of in-library online databases, fiction and non-fiction books, magazines and newspapers, audio-visual resources featuring DVDs, books on CD and music, as well as adult, teen, and children's programming.
The library often hosts community events and the reference department participates in Ask-a-Librarian and offers a wide range of computer classes.
The Library website incorporates blogs, rss feeds and e-notification features, Facebook with a Calendar of Events,[5] Flickr photo albums, and other forms of social networking.
