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The Hartford Public Library was founded on August 25, 1904 through the efforts of the Hartford Free Library Association and was housed in two upstairs rooms in the old City Hall.
From 1914 to 1930, the Library was in the "new" Hartford High School - operating jointly as a public and educational library. On March 3, 1925, the City of Hartford assumed control of the operations and funding at the request of the Free Library Association.
In 1931, with the construction of the current City Hall completed, the Library relocated there and has remained there ever since. When City Hall was remodeled in 1985, the Library moved to its current 14,500 square foot location with the understanding that this was not a long-term solution. On opening day, the Library's collection consisted of 51,000 books and other materials, serving the 7,500 residents of the City of Hartford and the surrounding rural areas.
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Today
The Library services almost 25,000 people. This increase occurred when county-wide service began in 1987. Current population trends indicate that Hartford's population could rise to 23,000 by 2030, with the total service population exceeding 40,500.
Our collections now include over 130,000 printed volumes, audio-books, compact discs, videos, DVDs, reading and travel kits, and CD-Rom software for computers. The Library participates in a statewide Interlibrary Loan (ILL) network, and as a member of a forty-four library on-line consortium provides direct access to over three million items.
The Hartford History Room consists of an extensive collection of local business records, house and family histories as well as church and cemetery records.
Six internet work stations are available to the public and were used by 6,482 people in 2000. We expect to exceed 13,000 users by 2010.
The number of Library cardholders was 3,134 in 1985 and has jumped to 20,560. |
