1950 - The first Letcher County Library was housed in a frame house
behind the county
jail and shared space with a commodity store. Anne Caudill and Lonnie Hogg,
a teacher
were principal developers. At the same time Clara Shaw and members of the
Jenkins
Woman's Club organized Jenkins Library , Bethlehem mines provided free space
1962- Jenkins Library won a $5000.00 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award
for outstanding
small library in the US.
1960- Whitesburg Library moved to the old L&N Railroad Depot
1965- Whitesburg Library moved into the ground floor of the courthouse and occupied it until 1993. Whitesburg and Jenkins were made part of the state's regional library system 1967- Don Amburgey, Regional Librarian, organized a tax drive and a petition was approved by the people to tax themselves to support the system
1970's Bookmobile starts service
1971- Lillian Webb Memorial Library in Neon opened its doors
1986- Blackey Public Library was inaugurated
1991- Director Sybil Galer and the Board of Trustees Chaired by Laura Schuster, worked tirelessly to construct a new library. With CDBG, ARC, federal grants, Mr. Hobb’s building donation and private contributions worth 1 million dollars, the Board of Trustees purchased, reconstructed and remodeled the Hobbs Building at Main Street.