Rock Island Public Library - Association Library 1855-1857

Association Library 1855-1857

On June, 23, 1855 Joseph B. Danforth, the editor of the Rock Island Republican printed an editorial explaining four reasons why Rock Island needed a start a public library. Then the following week on June 27, 1855 an anonymous letter was published in the Rock Island Argus, formerly the Republican, offering to give $100 to build a book collection if nine other men would promise to give $100 and if they city promised to give the ten men lifelong membership and a building to store the books. However, nine other men did not pledge $100. Which the $1,000 needed to build a collection, Rock Island's citizens decided to have a meeting on September 15, 1855, to decide how a library could be created in Rock Island. The meeting created the Rock Island Library and Reading Room Association, a board of officers and a committee to draft a constitution. However, since Illinois law did not have a provision that allowed the city to tax the residents to fund a library, the board of officers decided have a library that was open to the "public" as long the man was a Rock Island resident and could pay the yearly members fee. By the end of the September 15 meeting, the men had raised $500 from their own personal funds, set up another committee designed to raise money for the library and a fee schedule. The library fees ranged from $3.00 for a yearly membership to $100 for a family lifetime membership as long as the children are under 21 years old However, for unexplained reasons by the end of 1857 the Association Library closed, forcing library members to store the books at their own homes for safekeeping until another library would be opened in 1865.