A Short History of the Nampa Public Library

1900 The Woman’s Century Club organized in Nampa with a goal of establishing a library. Club members arranged for a reading room location and a traveling collection from the Idaho State Library.

1904 Nampa City Council voted to budget tax funds to help support a public library. Club members continued to staff the fledgling library and to gather donations of books and furnishings.

1907 City support was sufficient to fund library services. The first paid librarian was Ennis McGee at $25 per month.

 

1908 Nampa’s Carnegie building opened in March of 1908. The Woman’s Century Club had secured funding for the building from the Carnegie Foundation. The address of Nampa’s first dedicated library building was 1417 2nd Street South. [After the library moved, the building housed a YWCA. The site is now a parking lot.]

 

 

 

1966 First Security Bank deeded the building at the corner of 11th Avenue South and 1st Street South to the City of Nampa, for use as a library.

Constructed in 1919 as the Farmers and Merchants Bank by Idaho architects Tourtellotte and Hummel, it is an example of classical revival architecture.
Smith and Keys architects of Nampa received an award for the remodel of the bank building to serve as a library.

 

 

The Skylight in the building was repaired and restored in 1978.

 

 

 

1980 The first library service to be computerized at the library was the checkout process, when Nampa joined Boise in their CLSI computer system. Soon after, Caldwell and Twin Falls Public Libraries also joined. This was the beginning of the Lynx! Consortium.

1985/1986 Expansion of the library was part of the Centennial celebration of Nampa. The library expanded into the historic E. H. Dewey Stores, an early storefront next to the former bank building, doubling the size of the library. The main entrance to the library was moved to 1st Street South.

1989 A small parking lot was created next to the library, including 16 parking spaces and book drop access.

1995 The Friends of Nampa Public Library established an endowment fund with the Idaho Community foundation.

1996 Internet access was first made available to the public in October with one dedicated computer.

1996 A new integrated library system for the consortium included a computerized catalog at Nampa.

1996 Courier service began between valley locations of the Lynx! Consortium.

 

 

1999 Friends of the Nampa Public Library helped furnish a new Youth Attic area for teens.

 

 

 

2000 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $21,163 for equipment and $23,392 in software to enable the library to increase public access to computing resources and the Internet.

2001 The library obtained a new logo, and sponsored the first of two “Nampa Reads!” community reading projects.

2003 Consultant Anders Dahlgren presented the library Strategic Facilities Plan to the city. The report clearly stated the need for a new central library building.

2004 Annual library check-outs were over 500,000 for the first time.

2005 The Nampa City Council voted to proceed with the Nampa Development Plan, providing a funding stream for a new library. Hubble Homes and the Friends of Nampa Library gave $50,000 and $10,000 towards special features in a new library. Self Check-out machines pleased customers.

2007 Community forums and a contest were held to encourage public input on what Nampans want in a new library, a new teen group was formed and chose the name T.A.L.K., WiFi came to the library, and the Harry Potter Extravaganza got rave reviews.

2008 The Nampa City Council voted to purchase one city block for a new library building, parking garage and mixed use development (the block is located between 11th Avenue South and 10th Avenue South, 3rd Street South and 4th Street South).

 

 

To see our future visit the New Building Blog

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