El Paso Public Library

El Paso Public Library is the municipal public library system of El Paso, Texas.

The El Paso Public Library serves the needs the public in El Paso, Texas, Chaparral, New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It consists of 13 branches and one Bookmobile service. Multiple outreach services are also available including a Homebound service.

The main collection consists of 902,521 items in multiple formats including books, reference, downloadble eBooks, audio books, music and movies, DVDs, CDs, large-print books, magazines and newspapers. Special Collections include a Government Documents Collection, Border Heritage Collection and RAZA Collection.

The El Paso Public Library is the oldest public library in Texas. It was founded by Mary Irene Stanton, an El Paso area teacher. Stanton "single-handedly becomes founder of the El Paso Public Library" when in 1894, she donated her personal collection of 1,000 books for a boy's Reading Club which was housed in a room in the Sheldon Building. On June 1, 1895, women were also allowed to access this collection. In 1895, the El Paso Library Association was formed, with Mary Stanton as the president, to support further library efforts. On December 4, 1899, 4,000 books that were collectively owned by both Mary I. Stanton and Fannie J. Clark were moved from their location in the Sheldon Hotel to El Paso City Hall. Mary I. Stanton was the original librarian. She began cataloging the books in 1899. In 1900, Belle F. Read takes over as librarian.

Citizens wanted to have a separate library. Petitions were formed and circulated for the library to have its own location. Finally, assistance from Andrew Carnegie came in 1902. The Carnegie Foundation provided the El Paso Library Association a grant totaling $37,500 to build a separate library building to house the growing collection. In agreement with the "Carnegie Formula" which stipulates that a municipality must also provide support for the public library, the City Council agreed to vote in a tax to support the building efforts. The new library would be built on an old cemetery site, Buckler Square. The Library opened on April 25, 1904 in the newly named "Carnegie Square."

The new Carnegie library needed repair by 1919 and the collection had outgrown the building. In fact, many books were housed by operating "branches" in four different drug and grocery stores throughout El Paso starting in 1915. A second story needed to be added to the original Carnegie building. In 1920, the library's book collection is moved temporarily to the courthouse so that construction could take place. In 1945, a second official branch library is opened at the Tays Housing Project. In 1950, the Memorial Park Branch was opened. The Lower Valley Branch opened in 1960. In 1961, two branches: Richard Burges Branch and the Josephine Clardy Fox Branch were opened. In 1957, a Bookmobile was in operation with a second to serve underprivileged communities in El Paso to start operations in 1972.

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