Provo City Library

The Provo City Library, is now located where the Brigham Young Academy used to be. The Brigham Young Academy building was built in 1892. It was later remodeled and dedicated as the Provo City Library on September 8, 2001. It is a public library that serves residences of Provo and Orem, Utah.

History of Library

Provo City Library was founded in 1905. It first opened in the basement of the Provo City courthouse in October of that year and operated until 1908. During its operation in the courthouse, it acquired 1,425 books donated by individuals in the community. Soon after that, the collection doubled to 3000 volumes by April of 1908. On December 1, 1908, the Library moved into a new building provided by a grant of $17,500 from Andrew Carnegie. Over the years, the library grew in size, by obtaining approximately 65,000 volumes and 125 periodical subscriptions. ["Academy History." 6 Aug 2008 ] In 1989, the Library moved to another location, The City Center Building. Although it was bigger than before, it became inadequate within a couple of years.

In February 1997 a $16 million library bond passed which allowed the library to move to a bigger location. The bond helped preserve and renovate the historic Brigham Young Academy building, which the library then occupied. On July 9, 1999, city officials broke ground to initiate renovations for the new library [Hyde, Jesse. "Visitors are awed by new Academy Square library." Deseret News (2001): B05 ] and then on September 8, 2001 the library began full operations. ["Academy History." 6 Aug 2008 ]

History of Academy Square

The Brigham Young Academy was one of the largest school buildings in the western Rocky Mountain region. The Principal of the Academy, Karl G. Maeser, designed the building with the help of Don Carlos Young as the architect. The Academy was located in Northern Provo. The name of the building has changed many times. In 1898, it was known as the High School Building, and in 1922 it was known as the Education Building, and that named remained until 1968. For the next 20 years, it remained vacant and slowly began to deteriorate. In 1997, a bond was granted approval for renovation of the Academy building. Funds were raised by June of 1997 and the project succeeded to what is now known as the Provo City Library. ["Academy History." 6 Aug 2008 ]

Facts

Facts:As of 2008, there are almost 277,000 books, magazines, and media in circulation available to the public at the Provo City Library. There is no limit on the amount of books that may be checked out; however, there is a maximum of 10 videos, 2 entertainment DVD's, and 2 Non-fiction products that are all non-renewable, but books are allowed to be renewed one time as long as there is no one on the waiting list for that specific item. ["General Library Information." 6 Aug 2008 ]

There are four main events that take place at the Library.
*"Friday Night Movie"-Every Friday night a movie is played in the Library that is open for any current Library card holder to watch.
*"For the Love of Food"-There are free classes available in connection with the Utah State Extension Center about health, nutrition, and exercise.
*"Teen and Adult Summer Reading Program"-This is a reading program aimed to get more people to read by giving incentives.
*"Project Read"-Aimed to help residents of Utah county, this project is a volunteer based program to enable functionally non-literate adults to improve their reading and writing skills by providing one-on-one tutoring. ["About Project Read." 6 Aug 2008 ]

Location

Provo City Library is located in Southern Provo on University Avenue and 550 North.

See Also

Smoot, Douglas L. The miracle at Academy Square. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2003.

McKinnon, Gary F. "The Provo City Library."

References