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Photo by Mark Romine
Mission
| Hours
Open & Days Closed | Administration
& Department Heads | Board
of Trustees | By-Laws
| Minutes
| History
The Danville Public Library, recognizing
the diverse needs of the community it serves, shall
actively provide access to informational, educational,
cultural, and recreational materials and programs in
order to promote an informed citizenship, enrich
personal lives, and improve the quality of leisure time.
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We are open Monday-Thursday from 9
a.m. to 8 p.m and Friday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30
p.m. We're closed
Sundays and the following holidays:
- New Year's Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Day before Thanksgiving -- close 5 p.m.
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- Thanksgiving
- December 23 -- close 5 p.m.
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas
- New Year's Eve -- close 5 p.m.
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In addition, the library is closed
for all-day staff workshops twice a year, in April and
November. These days will be posted on the
library's home page and events
calendar.
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- Bill Satterwhite, President
- Sybil Mervis, Vice
President
- Dick Wallace, Treasurer
- George Vrentas, Secretary
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- Mary
Chambers
- Louise Free
- Jim Kouzmanoff
- Louis Morris
- Joan Richards
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(minutes will stay posted
for 60 days)
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The first library in Danville was
probably the Vermilion County Library, described in the
Danville Enquirer, on November 4, 1837. It was open to
all who would pay $1.50 to subscribe. It had a
collection of approximately 118 volumes at the time of
the news article. "The library is kept upstairs in
the room immediately contiguous to the Printing Office
and directly opposite the United States Hotel."
(This location has not been located on any existing map
of Danville).
The next impetus for a public library as
we now know it for the citizens of Danville came in 1864
when James Culbertson of the First Presbyterian Church
bequeathed his collection of books to form a nucleus for
a public library. 
Three other collections were ultimately
consolidated to form the Danville Public Library in
1883. After renting library space in three downtown
locations over twenty years, the Board of Trustees
applied to Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist, for funds
to build a home for the library. Carnegie granted the
city $40,000 and construction began in 1903.
On November 7, 1904, the public was
welcomed into the new building. The library was so
popular that, by 1911, the Library had outgrown the
space in the new building. A second request for
construction funds from Mr. Carnegie was denied, thus
beginning the re-arranging of services and books that
was to continue for 80 years.
The only major addition to the Carnegie
building in 90 years was made possible by a $5000
bequest from longtime library trustee Augustus Webster,
who died in 1923. As a result of his generosity, the
fiction stack room behind the circulation desk was built
in 1929. In 1977, a referendum to build a new library
failed. In 1980 a new east entrance was constructed in
order to comply with handicapped accessibility laws.
When property located on the same block
as the present library became available in 1993, the
Board of Trustees began planning for a new, modern,
efficient library building. In order to achieve this
goal, a unique partnership was forged. The City Council
committed $2.5 million, and the "Bring the Dream
Alive in '95" committee of the Library Foundation
worked to raise $1.5 million in private gifts from
nearly 1,300 citizens. Success was achieved on May 26,
1994. This time, instead of one man paying for the new
library building, the entire community was involved.
The Secretary of State/State Librarian,
George Ryan, provided $400,000 to the project in the
form of a library construction grant which allowed the
purchase of new shelving and furnishings for the new
2-story 39,800 square foot building.
Actual construction began in mid-August,
1994. On September 29, 1995, the general contractor,
English Brothers of Champaign, turned over the keys to
the library's Assistant Director, Phill Cohee.
The Carnegie Building was closed
September 30, after a Great Radio Flyer Wagon Train of
550 children initiated the moving of the books by moving
part of the children's collection to the new building in
their wagons.
The grand opening for the new Danville
Public Library was held at 4:30pm on Tuesday, November
7, 1995, exactly 91 years to the day the Carnegie
building opened to Danville residents.
Thus began a significant new chapter in
the life of the Danville Public Library. "Dreams
Come True."
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