| Choctaw
County Library, Hugo |
| Contributed
by Sharon Swift and Wendy Taylor |
| Indian
Territory |
Women’s
Federated Clubs began to support the building of
public libraries. |
| 1912 |
Pierian
Club responded to the Women’s Federated movement and began
a library. They hosted a tea and asked guests to donate used
books for the club’s new project. Contributions of books
came from Holland’s magazine in Dallas, as a reward for
subscriptions earned by the Pierian Club. The Library was initially
in someone’s home and the collection moved every few months
to someone else’s home. |
| 1914 |
Mother’s
Inter-Se and Twentieth Century Club joined the Pierian’s
in
supporting the library. They held silver-teas, book showers,
tag days and book reviews to earn money to buy volumes for the
library. |
| 1918 |
The City
of Hugo donated $200 to the library. |
| 1924 |
Lot was
donated by C.G. Shull. Groups had accumulated $600 to build
a 12 x 12 one-room building on the corner of North 2nd Street
and East Jackson. |
| 1932 |
WPA building
was constructed at library’s present site. The building
was used for social services, and the library occupied two rooms
of the WPA building. (Source: Nell Rountree, first system librarian). |
| 1937 |
Oklahoma
Library Manual records 2,800 with an annual circulation of
8,280. |
| 1938 |
The library
board voted to reduce the cost of borrowing a library book from
5 cents to 2 cents per book. (Source: Hugo Daily News). Library
loaned 522 books. 106 new books were added to collection, of
these 35 were donated. |
| 1959 |
Library
was presented with an exact reproduction of the original of
the
Constitution of the United States. In December the library sponsored
Radio Christmas with stories read by members of the Pierian
Club. |
| 1963 |
Library
remains the focal point of community interest with newspaper
articles calling for regrowth. |
| 1968 |
Women’s
Federated clubs, local civic clubs such as Lion’s and
Rotary
Clubs donated time, money and labor toward remodeling the library. |
| 1971 |
Hugo Public
Library changes its name to Choctaw County Library. A two-mill
levy was voted on by the people of Choctaw County and ad valorem
taxes were set aside for the support of the public library. |
| 1972 |
City-wide
support of the clubs in Hugo, the mayo, the city council and
the county commissioners made the library an even greater success.
An intensive drive was made to join a multi-county library system
to serve the people of Choctaw County. Library joined the Southeastern
Public Library System of Oklahoma on a one year trial basis
and took over the entire building after occupying two rooms
for years. Nell Rountree was appointed by the library system
to be the librarian. |
| 1982 |
On November
16th a time capsule was buried on Oklahoma Statehood
Day. In the time capsule was one of the best sellers of that
time. It is to be opened on November 16, 2057. |
| 1988 |
United
States Department of Interior places Choctaw County Library
on the National Register of Historic Places, one of 12 nationally
recognized historic locations in the county. |
| 1989 |
Mrs. Rountree
retired in June after 29 years of service. |
| 1990 |
Library
received its first computer. Librarian Sharon Swift held
organizational meeting for literacy council. Literacy council
later moved into an office in the library, establishing reading
classes to help alleviate illiteracy problem. |
| 1994 |
Library
received its first fax machine from a grant from the Oklahoma
Department of Libraries. |
| 1995 |
Libraries
polled online services at night to improve interlibrary loan
capabilities. This year the librarian noted heavy weeding because
of
limited shelf room. A committee was formed to look for new building
sites. |
| 1996 |
Eight building
sites rejected by library building consultant. |
| 1997 |
Millage
election passed by a 3 to 1 margin to collect an additional
two mills for the library. Library board voted to start planning
to purchase land and build a new library. Library placed two
internet public access lines. |
| 1998 |
Two city
lots purchased for a new library building. With new millage
funds, one new part-time staff position was created. One full
time librarian, a 30 hour assistant and two 20 hour assistants
make up the staff. The library shelves now house 22,014 books
and have an annual circulation of 59,000. |
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