Coalgate, during the period of rapid city improvement in the early years of the century, tried to open a public library in 1908, at the instigation of Rev. E.H. Moseley of the Presbyterian Church.
            The library needed 100 subscribers at $1 each, which would entitle them to use the library for a year.  A quarter gave access to the library for three months.  Miss Emma McCleary, who owned the Post Office Book Store, was to have charge of the library.
            The needed subscribers never materialized and it was another sixty years before Coalgate got a public library.
            During those years, other attempts were made to give the town a library.  In 1915 the Young People’s Association established a Reading Room in the OBO Theatre building.
            Twenty years later another Reading Room opened.  A couple of years after that the WPA opened a library in the east room of the high school.  That summer the Fortnightly Club sponsored a reading program in the Levin building.  In the fall the library was next door to Rasmussen’s Jewelry.  Proceeds from a pie supper were used to buy books.
            After the WPA library, the high school library was open to the public.
            In 1967 a movement got underway to get Coal County a library.  Two years later the county received a $50.000 grant from the state to set up a demonstration library.  It opened in a house across the street from the high school.  Mrs. Rebecca Burns was the librarian and Mrs. Audra Betasso was assistant.  George B. Hill and Mrs. M.K. Deloach were the board members.
            During the first month the library was open, 1500 books were borrowed.
            The next year the county was asked to approve a two-mill levy to support the library.  This would be matched by federal and state funds.  It would also support a bookmobile.
            Voters agreed to the levy and the county became a part of the Chickasaw Library system.
            After years in the house, the library moved into the Welfare and Library building on Main Street in 1978.
            The library had hardly gotten settled in their new quarters when the voters turned down the levy to support the library and it withdrew from the Chickasaw System.
            After a campaign to reverse the decision, citizens gave $2000 to hold another election and this time the levy carried.  The library then joined the Choctaw Nation Multi-County Library System.
            On July 1, 1986, the name of the system was changed to Southeastern Public Library System of Oklahoma.
In February 1995 acting upon an inspiration of a local citizen plans began to
enlarge the library so the local Genealogical Society could be housed in the same building.  Through the efforts of Library Project Coordinator, Jimmye Watson, County Commissioner, Johnny Ward, the Coal County Genealogical Society and citizens of Coal County money was raised to renovate the former Garrett Book Company Warehouse building.  The new library opened its doors February 23, 1998 almost 3 years to the day Jimmye Watson’s dreams for a larger library began.
            Coal County voters narrowly turned down a 2-mill increase in February 1997 but passed it on August 25, 1998 raising it to a 4-mill limit.  The library provided Internet for public access that same year and was automated in 1999.
            The library maintains 20,000 books, visual and audio materials and provides programs for children, teens and adults.  Current head librarian is Margie Jump and assistant librarians are Rhoda Yokiel and Dianne Hogue.

[Submitted by Margie Jump 8/24/06]