Current
The long-held goal of having a branch library serving eastern Marathon County was realized in June 2005 when a branch library was built in Hatley. Due to the increase in branch libraries, the bookmobiles, which had been so vital in providing library service countywide, were retired that year as well.
In 2005 almost 74,000 Marathon County residents had library cards. Library programs drew in 36,000 people of all ages. Over 550,000 people visited the Wausau library or one of the branches. Library customers checked out over 810,000 items.
The Wausau Public Library received the Library of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Library Association in 1965, and again in 1997 as the Marathon County Public Library. Three Wausau/Marathon County librarians received Librarian of the Year awards: Dorothea Krause 1957, Florence Hensey 1973, and Wayne Bassett in 1979.
Tremendous progress in public library service has been seen in the past 100 years in Marathon County. The concept of a public library has evolved from small, privately funded collections maintained by local women’s clubs to an integrated, countywide system linked by computers offering service at nine different locations.
As of December 15, 2009, as part of its "March to a Million" initiative, the Marathon County Public Library surpassed its goal to lend 1,000,000 items within a single calendar year. It was the first time the seven-figure threshold has been breached by MCPL.
The Marathon County Public Library is open seven days a week and serves a population of 126,031. Free Internet access is available, including wireless internet at all locations, accessible anywhere within the library buildings.
Read more about this topic: Marathon County Public Library
Famous quotes containing the word current:
“You are the current of the frozen stream,
Shadow invisible, ambushed and vigilant flame.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“A man is a little thing whilst he works by and for himself, but, when he gives voice to the rules of love and justice, is godlike, his word is current in all countries; and all men, though his enemies are made his friends and obey it as their own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I perceived that to express those impressions, to write that essential book, which is the only true one, a great writer does not, in the current meaning of the word, invent it, but, since it exists already in each one of us, interprets it. The duty and the task of a writer are those of an interpreter.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)