User:Bibliomachus/Patchogue-Medford Library

The Patchogue-Medford Library is the Central Library for Suffolk County, located at 54-60 East Main Street in Patchogue, New York. The Library is a School District Public Library serving the residents of the Patchogue-Medford area.

History

The Patchogue Library Association (PLA) was formed in 1883 with the aim of establishing a library for Patchogue residents. Membership in the association was set at $5 and gave voting and borrowing privileges. On June 12, 1883 the association elected a board of trustees approved a constitution and by-laws, and made plans for establishing the library. Dr. John Joseph Craven was elected President, a position he would hold until his death a decade later.

A location for the library was found in July, in the back room of Overton’s Shoe Store, with Floyd Overton serving as de facto librarian. In August of 1883, the library was formally dedicated at the first congregational church of Patchogue. The library moved frequently over the next seventeen years, alternately being housed in a stationary store, music store, and the New Lyceum theatre along with other locations. For the remainder of its existence, the Patchogue Library Association worked at fundraising and finding the library a more permanent home.

Financial difficulties, infrequent board meetings, a lack of facilities, and a precipitous drop in subscribers lead the eventual close of the PLA. The Patchogue Library Association held its final meeting on October 28, 1899, where the proposal was made that an outside group should take charge of the library and shepherd its transition into a new organizational form was accepted.

Charter

In 1899, the Patchogue chapter of Sorosis, a women’s suffrage organization, took control of the library collection, and moved it to their club building. It was the aim of Sorosis to change the library from an association library to a public library, arrange a new system of library funding (from membership dues to local budget votes), and provide the library a permanent home. Under the care of the organization, a 1500-book demonstration public library was created, and opened for public use.

In August 1900, at a school district board meeting, a public vote officially established a new Patchogue Library, and elected its first Board of Trustees. When the board met the next day, officers were elected and Elizabeth Mott Smith became the first President.

Following an inspection by the State Library, the Board of Regents granted Patchogue Library a state charter of incorporation, in December 1900.

Carnegie Library

On its annual budget meeting on August 1, 1905, the School board unanimously agreed to fund the library at $1,000 a year. A lot at 10 Lake Street, a gift from Edwin Bailey Sr., was used as the building site.

Later that year, Carnegie granted the Library Board the funds for construction. In 1907, the construction contract was assigned to John V. Van Pelt of Manhattan. After under-budgeting the cost of construction, Van Pelt went to Carnegie for additional funds. Carnegie very reluctantly agreed to provide the funds, as long as the approved maintenance cost, to be paid by the village, could be raised as well.

On Tuesday, August 4, 1908, the school board approved an additional $500 in maintenance costs a year for the library, raising the total annual support provided the village to $1,500. Carnegie gave an additional five thousand dollars, which was used to reimburse Van Pelt and the village of Patchogue for expenditures.

On March 4, 1908 Patchogue's Carnegie Library was formally dedicated. H. Allen Tenney, Library Building and Committee Chairman, and George D. Gerard, Head of the Board of Education, along with a number of other guests spoke on the occasion.

Carnegie himself was invited to speak at the dedication, but declined. Instead David A. Boody, former mayor of Brooklyn and president of the Brooklyn Public Library Trustees, was sent as a Carnegie representative and gave the dedication address.

Modern Period

A population explosion and the continued growth of the library collection in the aftermath of World War II meant that the library facilities would soon need to expand. An edition was added to the Carnegie building for additional space, but would soon be outgrown.

In 1951 service was officially extended to Medford residents after the Patchogue and Medford School districts were combined. In 1973, the Patchogue Library officially changed its name to the Patchogue-Medford Library by state charter amendment.

After 73 years at the Carnegie building, the library moved to East Main Street in 1981 to accommodate growing collections and services. The nature and range of electronic resources and services have been steadily expanding and changing, ever since the computer revolution of the 1980's.

In 1993, the Neighborhood Center was opened at the Eagle Elementary School which provides a quiet study place and a large collection of collection of adult and children's fiction to service to the residents of Medford. In 2000, the Library celebrated its first 100 years under State Charter, a fact noted in a commemorative article in the New York Times

Central Library

In 1961, the Suffolk Cooperative Library System (SCLS) was created as one of twenty-three public library systems providing services to 740 public libraries throughout New York State. For the first 10 years of its existence, SCLS operated out of the basement of the Patchogue-Medford library.

In 1978, Patchogue-Medford Library became the New York State-designated Central Library for Suffolk County. In this capacity, the Patchogue-Medford library supplies system-wide reference and collection evaluation services, interlibrary loan, collection services, tours and visits, and workshops, along with access to databases.