National Library Week, Part 1
Monday, April 13th, 2015 -- 10:42 AM
-This week is National Library Week.Jo Ann Gustavson, the Neillsville Public Library Director, explained National Library Week.
She said, "National Library Week is April 12th through the 18th this year. It benefits the libraries in that it makes people aware of what our libraries do and time to do interviews like this one. And it just lets people know what the libraries offer and how much we've grown and expanded our services and programs."
Jo Ann then gave a brief, but interesting history about Neillsville's Public Library.
"It was formed in 1893 by a group of lawyers and it was in one of their offices up at the courthouse," she said. "It consisted of one bookcase and you could pay a dollar per year to belong to the library and check the books out. It was located in C.S. Stockwell's office."
"It was there until approximately 1896 when it moved to the second story of City Hall and became operational under the city. Between 1910 and 1918, the library was moved to the high school. I believe in the 1930s it moved to where it is now at its present location. Then in 1996, they, of course, added the addition on to it so everything is on one level, which is nice because you don't need as much staffing that way."
"There have been 19 directors since the library started. That was kind of interesting to read."
Coming up on Tuesday, Jo Ann will tell us more about the Neillsville Public Library.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.