The Broward County Library was established in 1973 as the result of a campaign by the Friends of the Fort Lauderdale Library in Florida, the United States. The system began issuing borrower cards on June 17 of 1974 for 270,000 items in four branches. Over the following three decades, many of the municipalities in Broward County elected to join the county library system. These included Lauderdale Lakes, Coral Springs, Miramar, Lauderhill, Hallandale, Dania Beach, Margate, Sunrise, Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach.
Ongoing construction, including that funded by a $139.9 million bond issue approved by voters in 1999, has yielded the current total of 37 branch libraries and the eight-story Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The Main Library houses a Patent and Trademark Depository, the Florida Center for the Book, the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, and Gallery Six, and a public fine arts exhibition center.
In 2002, Broward County Library opened the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m2) facility with a 300-seat auditorium and Small Business Resource Center.
The Broward County Library was named "Library of the Year" in 1996 by Library Journal and Gale Research. The library now operates on a budget in excess of $60 million, holds more than three million items, and has over 10 million visitors a year.
On February 1, 2007, Broward County Library opened the first green building in Broward County -- the new South Regional/BC Library.
Read more about Broward County Library: Branches/Campuses
Famous quotes containing the words county and/or library:
“A horse, a buggy and several sets of harness, valued in all at about $250, were stolen last night from the stable of Howard Quinlan, near Kingsville. The county police are at work on the case, but so far no trace of either thieves or booty has been found.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“A man’s library is a sort of harem.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)