Kenosha Public Library

Kenosha Public Library
Gilbert M. Simmons Library, formerly the main library and currently a branch library of the KPL.
Type	Public library
Established	March 19, 1900 (1900-03-19)
Service area	Kenosha, Wisconsin
Branches	5
Access and use
Population served	137,750 (2022)
Other information
Director	Brandi Cummings (Interim)
Employees	70 (2022)
Parent organization	Kenosha County Library System (KCLS)
Affiliation	SHARE Consortium
Public transit access	Kenosha Area Transit
Website	mykpl.info

The Kenosha Public Library (KPL) is the public library serving the city of Kenosha, and is the resource library for the Kenosha County Library System (KCLS), of which it is a member.

Governance

The KPL is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the Mayor of Kenosha and approved by the City Council. The board is composed of nine citizen members: eight City of Kenosha residents and one representative of the Kenosha Unified School District. KPL is a member of the SHARE Consortium.

Organization and services

The library has an Outreach department and five branches:

• Simmons Neighborhood Library (1900)
• Uptown Neighborhood Library (1925)
• Southwest Neighborhood Library (1981, rebuilt 2004). The KCLS main resource library.
• Northside Neighborhood Library (1993)
• Kids@Uptown Lofts (2024)

The library offers audiobook, e-book, and eMagazine services, including OverDrive eBooks & eAudiobooks, TeachingBooks Library, Ebsco eBooks, and Online tutoring, delivered via the library's website.

History

Uptown Neighborhood Library

Early efforts

In November 1841, less than a year after the village of Southport (Kenosha from 1850) was incorporated, an editor of the village newspaper, the South Port American, published a proposal for establishing a free public library "open to all". Private circulating libraries were established by June 1842. On November 25, 1843, a group of prominent residents attempted to establish a public library, forming the Southport Library Association. The association's members included William Bullen, one of the founders of Southport, and Frederick Winslow Hatch, the Episcopal rector of St. Matthew's Church and former Chaplain of the United States Senate. Despite electing directors and adopting bylaws, the association, chaired by Hatch, made no further progress.

In February 1871, local businessman and future Kenosha mayor Zalmon Gilbert Simmons purchased several hundred books and established a free library for Kenosha County residents; as Simmons was a member of the local Unitarian church, he established the library there. Books could be checked out one at a time for two weeks, with a single renewal allowed. In June 1873, Simmons proposed a library building be erected in what would become Library Park, "to surpass any other in the state." On May 22, 1883, a special election was held to determine whether Kenosha should accept a bequest of approximately $3,500 from the estate of a Caroline Field to establish a public library named the "Cahoon Library." Despite the vote being in favor, subsequent legal difficulties delayed the city in moving forward; though a court ruling in March 1890 gave the city permission to accept the bequest, the project failed to advance.

Beginnings and the first Kenosha Public Library

Upon arriving in Kenosha in 1894, George W. Johnston, the recently appointed editor of the Kenosha Evening News, soon recognized local demand for a public library, and used his paper to promote the cause, publishing several articles on the subject. He also canvassed local community leaders. With their support assured, on the evening of November 14, 1895, 40 prominent local residents assembled in the parlor of the Hotel Grant to begin the process of establishing a public library board. At the meeting, a five-member organizing committee was nominated and elected, comprising Johnston and businessmen Colonel William W. Strong, James Cavanagh, George A. Yule, and John O'Donnell. On December 20, 1895, the committee formally incorporated the Kenosha Public Library, with a constitution and bylaws providing for election of officers, a board of directors, and a provision that any county resident "of good repute," be eligible to join the library association upon agreeing to the terms of membership and payment of annual dues of $2.00; the fee was intended for purchasing books and covering other expenses.

On January 6, 1896, the library board was chosen, from which officers were elected on January 10. On January 17, Johnston, the secretary of the library board, recommended the library be located in a room over the Redeker and English store, in a building owned by Zalmon Simmons at 171 Main Street. The suggestion was accepted and the room leased from Simmons for $5.00 a month. On January 27, Clara Parkinson Barnes (1854–1932), a sister-in-law of board member Cavanagh, was elected librarian by the board. The library was largely ready by March 2, when the Unitarian Church public library donated its collection of approximately 800 volumes, encouraged by wide community support and a donation of $1,000 to the new library by George Yule.

The first Kenosha Public Library opened on March 14, 1896, with Clara Barnes as librarian and an initial collection of approximately 1,200 volumes, 400 of which were fiction. All Kenosha County residents were eligible to borrow books, but were requested while browsing the collection to not remove them from their shelves "unless absolutely necessary." At the end of the library's first year, its collection numbered over 2,500 volumes, with a circulation of 20,962.

Recognition

KPL was named the Power of Libraries Award Winner in 2018, Wisconsin Library Association's 2020 Library of the Year, and a finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2021.