Ferguson Municipal Public Library is an American

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

located in

Ferguson Ferguson may refer to: Places Canada * Ferguson Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario) * Ferguson, British Columbia * Mount Ferguson (Ontario), a mountain in Temagami, Ontario United States *Ferguson, a meteorite fall in North Carolina * Ferguson, Arkansas ...

, Missouri. It is a member of the

Municipal Library Consortium of St. Louis County The Municipal Library Consortium of St. Louis County (MLC) is a partnership of nine independent public libraries in St. Louis County, Missouri, US. It was formed in 1997 as a way for the libraries to share a patron and bibliographic database as wel ...

History

The Ferguson Municipal Public Library was founded in June 1930 as a volunteer community library. The Missouri Library Commission contacted Chapter FH of the

P.E.O. Sisterhood The P.E.O. Sisterhood (Philanthropic Educational Organization) is a U.S.-based international women's organization of about 230,000 members, with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide. The Sisterhood ...

about starting a public library in Ferguson and the

Kirkwood Public Library Kirkwood Public Library (KPL) primarily serves residents of the city of Kirkwood, Missouri, USA. The library is operated independently, and is a part of the Municipal Library Consortium of St. Louis County (MLC), which connects it to 8 other ind ...

provided guidance and gifted fifty books. The library opened on June 1, 1930 at the corner of Carson and Florissant Road with 575 books in its collection. Between 1930 and 1995, the library moved several times before securing a single-use building. In 1966, Ferguson Municipal Public Library joined the

(MLC). In 2015 the library was named by the ''Library Journal'' as the Gale Cengage/LJ Library of the Year.

Services

Ferguson Municipal Public Library (32427714262)

Ferguson Municipal Public Library serves a population of 21,538 people. It has a collection of 77,317 volumes and circulation of 70,421 transactions. In addition, library patrons have access to more than 700,000 volumes located at the eight other libraries in the MLC. The Online Public Access Catalog is

SirsiDynix SirsiDynix is a United States company which produces integrated library system (ILS) software and associated services for libraries. Origins The Sirsi Corporation was founded in Huntsville, Alabama in 1979 by Mike Murdock, Jacky Young, and Jim Yo ...

''Horizon''. The library's catalog includes periodicals, special print and digital collections, movies, digital publications, access to ebooks and periodicals on the Internet. Their services include: WiFi and computer workstations, Chromebooks, interlibrary loans, events for children and adults, tax assistance for low income residents, voter registration and public meeting rooms.

Support services after Michael Brown shooting

The library has often been used as a meeting place for community resources, leaders, and business owners. It received national attention beginning in August 2014 for its efforts to support the local community in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown. These efforts included helping teachers open an ad hoc school on library grounds in August and November 2014 when schools of the Ferguson-Florissant School District closed due to safety concerns. Other support services included hosting the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide emergency loans and the office of the U.S. Secretary of State to provide document recovery and preservation of vital documents that were destroyed. The library also hosted the Missouri Department of Insurance to help local businesses file for insurance and held community meetings led by ONUS, Inc., the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

and Teach for America. The Alliance of Black Art Galleries selected the library to feature an art display in response to Brown's death and the related unrest. The library offered healing kits for local children that contain books and activities related to coping with traumatic events as well as a stuffed animal for the child to keep. The library received over $350,000 in donations in the weeks following the grand jury decision not to indict the police officer involved in the shooting death of Michael Brown — approximately 85% of its annual budget.

Administration

The library is independent and has its own tax levy. It is governed by a Library Board of Trustees composed of volunteers appointed by the Mayor of Ferguson. In 2014, the director, Scott Bonner, was the only full-time staffperson.

Notes

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