ABOUT US

The mission of the Kearny County Library is to provide patrons with resources that allow for educational and informational material, cultural awareness, and programs to users of all ages.

History

Shortly after the organization and federation of the Lakin Woman’s Club in 1923, an appeal was made in the club for books to start a library.  Interested friends also responded, and as there seemed to be but few children’s books turned in, a number of these were purchased from the club treasury.   In time (by 1929), nearly three hundred books were collected.  Beatrice Darr was elected librarian and the books were put in her office in the old courthouse.

Other officers, in succession, cared for and checked out the books.  Arrangements were made to have a traveling library, and it came regularly for a number of years, thus giving readers a more varied selection.  The membership card was ten cents.  Fromtime to time , more books were donated, the Rardaon family topping the list with over five hundered volumes.

When the new courthouse was built, a room was made available and the county took over, hiring a librarian and adding many more books.  From a recent check about 3,000 books comprised that list.

The First library for Kearny County was in the post office, in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s.  It was operated by Ida L. Carson, who was also the postmistress.  The  first official county library was established in approximately 1939.  The library occupied one of the rooms in the newly constructed courthouse and was run by Rose Hefner.

In 1965 the library moved out of the courthouse to the Nash-Davis building on Main Street.  The librarian during this time was Gladys L. Hoyt.  The Current library was constructed in 1973,  with Johanna Schibbelhut as the librarian.  In 1998 director  Richard Brookman began running the library.   In August 2018 Tammy Dickey became the librarian.   We now have approximatley  33,000 books in our current collection.

Library Hours

Staff

Tammy Dickey, Director

Cesilia Enriquez, Assistant Director

Board Members