The Allen County Public Library (ACPL) is a public library system located in

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 United S ...

, Allen County,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Founded in 1895 as the Fort Wayne Public Library, the library served residents with 3,606 books out of a single room in

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. Today the library system includes a main library and 13 branch libraries in Fort Wayne and throughout the county. The Main Library Branch in downtown Fort Wayne is home to the Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Department which holds the largest public

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

collection in the United States.

Timeline

1895 – Library opened in City Hall on January 28 with 3,606 volumes.
1898 – Library Board purchased the Brackenridge Home at Wayne Street and Webster Street for $14,000.
1904 – Carnegie-funded library building opened.
1923 – Service to county residents began. Fort Wayne Public Library became Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
1944 – Main Library expansion began with purchase of Hollywood Building on Washington Boulevard to house administrative offices.
1952 – Young Adult Department opened in basement of main library, the first such department in the country.
1968 – building at Wayne and Webster Streets was dedicated August 21, 1968.
1977 – Construction of the new addition to the Main Library began.
1980 – Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County officially became Allen County Public Library by an act of the state legislature on January 1.
1985 – Estimated 5,500 people ate 2,731 pizzas during the system's 90th birthday celebration.
1997 – Library Board and staff began system-wide space needs analysis for all library facilities.
2001 – Allen County taxpayers approved bond financing of the $84 million library expansion project.
2007 – Renovation and expansion of Main Library nears completion. Grand opening was held on January 27, 2007, with Randall T. Shepard, Chief Justice of the

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana Statehouse. In Dec ...

, among the speakers.
2022 - The library eliminates fines for children 17 and younger.

Genealogy

The Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Department, located in the Main Library, is the largest public

department in North America, home to more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items of

microfilm A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

and

microfiche A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

. Only the Family History Library in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, a private institution, is larger. Many books in the genealogy collection are also available for borrowing through the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. Allen County Public Library is also a partner of WeRelate, a collaborative online genealogy database currently providing access to over one million records and two million person pages. The website also provides the largest documented place wiki available.

Branches

The Main Library and nine of the Allen County Public Library's 13 branches are located in Fort Wayne. Four branches are located in municipalities within Allen County (the name of the communities these four branches are located in is indicated next to each library's name). * Aboite Branch * Dupont Branch * Georgetown Branch * Grabill Branch ( Grabill) * Hessen Cassel Branch * Little Turtle Branch * Monroeville Branch ( Monroeville) * New Haven Branch (

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

) * Pontiac Branch * Shawnee Branch * Tecumseh Branch * Waynedale Branch * Woodburn Branch ( Woodburn)

Facilities

The Main Library has five public meeting rooms that accommodate from six to 500 people. These rooms are available for use by the community for meetings and events. In addition, the building has six small group study rooms, a computer training room, and a theater that seats 230. Library branches also have meeting rooms and study rooms. The Main Library and the Georgetown branch have Maker Labs.

Access Fort Wayne

Access Fort Wayne (AFW) is a

Public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable TV station which provides a variety of unique services for the library. AFW originates three Public-access television channels from the Main Library. Access 1 is channel 25 on

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

and 55 on

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

. Access 2 is channel 27 on Verizon and 57 on Comcast.

Government-access television In the United States, government-access television (GATV) is a type of specialty television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast t ...

(GATV), City TV is channel 28 on Verizon and 58 on Comcast. The channels can only be viewed on Comcast and Verizon inside of Allen County. AFW is a full production facility with two TV studios and editing facilities.

Audio Reading Service

Founded in 1979 as the Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service (NEIRRS), the Audio Reading Service is a

radio reading service A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-imp ...

for people who have visual, physical, learning, or language challenges to reading standard printed materials because of blindness, low-vision, a literacy issue, language barrier, or a physical condition. The service is for people with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, arthritis, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and other conditions that affect reading traditional print. Under the leadership of library staff, volunteers read local news, grocery ads, cultural events, obituaries, and other features from area newspapers, plus nearly 80 magazines and other publications. Previously transmitted on an SCA broadcast, the Audio Reading Service can be heard on the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

station 89.1 FM HD2, broadcast from Fort Wayne. HD Radios are loaned out at no cost by the library. In addition, the service is available via Alexa, podcast, live web streaming, the Sero mobile app, and

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service providing news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the privately held company TuneIn Inc. based in San Francisco, California. The comp ...

; as a secondary audio program (SAP-French) on PBS 39.4; and system-wide at select area healthcare facilities. The Audio Reading Service broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and reaches an estimated 80,000 individuals. It became a part of the Allen County Public Library in 2004 and changed its name to Audio Reading Service in 2015. It is a member of the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS).

WELT 95.7 FM

WELT-LP is a non-commercial radio station, produced and delivered by members of the Fort Wayne community. From the studios at the downtown branch of the Allen County Public Library, WELT-LP's volunteers and staff promote programs with news about politics and community issues, plus music and entertainment performed by local, regional, and national artists in Fort Wayne venues.

Notes

References

External links

*
The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library

Allen County Public Library
at FamilySearch Research Wiki for genealogists {{authority control Government agencies established in 1895 Education in Allen County, Indiana Library buildings completed in 1904 Carnegie libraries in Indiana Genealogical libraries in the United States Education in Fort Wayne, Indiana Tourist attractions in Fort Wayne, Indiana 1895 establishments in Indiana County library systems in Indiana