Pima County Public Library


The Pima County Public Library system serves Pima County, Arizona with a main library and 26 branch libraries as well as bookmobile service. The system has its headquarters in Tucson. The service area includes the city of Tucson and the surrounding communities of Arivaca, Green Valley, Sahuarita, South Tucson, Ajo, Vail, Marana, Casas Adobes, and Catalina. The town of Oro Valley's library joined the Pima County Public Library system in July 2012.

Early History

On July 8, 2014, in the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, historian David Leighton published news of his rediscovery of the first known public library in Tucson. The 1867 Territorial Library, created by the territorial government for the 10 years that Tucson was the capital of the Arizona Territory, 1867-1877. How large was it? In January 1877, the Territorial Library had 1,900 legal books and 300 non-legal volumes, which could be checked out by the public during regular hours.
In 1879, a group of women in Tucson began the Tucson Library Association, which was a private organization where members paid a subscription fee to help buy the books that they could borrow. Subscription libraries were popular in the west during this time, but excluded people who could not pay the fees. In March 1883, The women of the Tucson Library Association offered to give their whole private collection to the City of Tucson, if the city council would provide a room and other needed items for a free library.
On June 5, 1883, the city council dedicated the second floor of the new city hall for the purpose of a library, but didn't set aside any money to buy things like book shelves and furniture. It was not until July 6, 1886, after money was raised for the needed items, that the Tucson Public Library first opened its doors. The public library was in the original City Hall. It was designed by Henry C. Trost. Carnegie committed to paying up to $25,000 to build a new library on the condition that the City of Tucson supplied a building site and provided $2,000 per year to maintain the library. The Tucson Common Council made good on this deal by passing Resolution Number 20. This resolution earmarked $2,000 per year for library maintenance, and designated a site for the library. The site used constituted a portion of Military Plaza.
Today, the building is the Children's Museum Tucson.

Public library name changes

1883-1901: Library Hall
1901-1957: Carnegie Free Library
1957-1990: Tucson Public Library, a change made by Tucson City Council.
1990-2006: Tucson-Pima Public Library, reflecting a new funding structure, the result of an agreement between the City of Tucson and Pima County to share library expenses 50-50.
2006-present: Pima County Public Library. As of July 1, 2006, the library system is wholly and governed by the Pima County and its Board of Supervisors. It is still headquartered in Tucson, AZ.

Services

The PCPL system offers a variety of services for both children and adults. For children, are offered, including at some library locations. Children can improve their reading skills through our program. Assistance with is also available online, by phone, and at specific library locations. Additional children's activities include El Dia de los Ninos/El Dia de los Libros, and the summer reading program.
PCPL also provides information on clubs, events, and opportunities available to teens. At PCPL, teens can serve as library advocates, participate on an advisory board, and volunteer. Teen programs include "MegaMania!!," an annual fandom con, programming classes, gaming, and drawing and poetry contests.
For adults, a wide range of services are available. Libraries host , , author visits, , , and assistance looking and applying for .
PCPL provides a wide range of services for the community. Their events are posted on the . Further information is also available on their .
In 2012 PCPL became the first library in the nation to employ a public health nurse on site. from the Pima County Health Department offers on-site expert medical help to assist library customers who turn to the library for help and safety and directs them to social services when appropriate.

Controversies

In 2012, the Tucson Unit of the National Writers Union publicly raised objections to the library's collection development policy. In an op-ed piece published in the Tucson Weekly's July 5 edition, the NWU pointed out that PCPL ranks 28th, next to last, in the number of printed materials per resident in public libraries serving comparable populations, despite that in the same Institute of Museum and Library Services survey the library ranked sixteenth in the amount of money it spent on printed materials per resident. Because it discards books so aggressively, the op-ed piece continued, the library has a sub-par collection of books even though it spends enough money to have a much better quality collection.
In its reply to the piece, the PCPL stated that its collection development policy is geared toward "making room on the shelves for high-demand and popular books and materials in other formats" and pointed out that library circulation had increased from 6.2 million items in 2006 to more than 7.5 million items in 2010. It also stated that readers have the possibility of getting books they want via inter-library loan services or by requesting that the library order the book.
In 2014, KVOA News did two special reports on the library. The first of these highlighted how the library was forced to supplement its standard security service with off-duty officers from the Tucson Police Department. This was done to provide additional security at three of the library branches in which an unusually high number of incidents, ranging from fights to domestic disputes, had taken place.
The second KVOA News report focused on how "hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory is going missing from the libraries and nobody seems to know why," and how the library, though spending 750,000 dollars a year on security, is not particularly focused on securing or protecting the books, DVDs and CDs in its collection.

Timeline

Library Directors

Libraries