Search Our Website
Search Website
Displaying results 1 - 35 of 92
Mariam gives a brief history of the public schools in Lexington and Fayette County.
In this episode, Jenny, Alexa, and Becca talk favorites: fiction, nonfiction, YA, picture books, and TV shows.
The Kentucky Room's collections contain Lexington's residential directories going back over 200 years, and are some of the most useful resources for researchers looking for family information, neighborhood histories, and house histories.
Mariam and Wayne discuss the history of Lexington & Fayette County’s merged governments, one of only fifteen merged city-county governments in the United States.
The city reports and ordinances for Lexington contain a wide variety of information about the people, infrastructure, and businesses.
The Lexington ordinances contain the laws and procedures for local government and departments, as well as local elections. The charter covers the incorporation of the city of Lexington.
The reports for the various city departments vary from year to year, but in general contain the mayor and city officers, and reports for the city clerk, auditor, treasurer, jailer, solicitor, attorney, assessor, license officer, health officer, city physician, fire and police departments, public works, parks, and sometimes special projects, like a temporary smallpox ward or the orphan home. Often the reports include specifics on city streets, and businesses with accounts with Lexington for goods and services.
Description coming soon.
Digital Archives - Collection
In the summer of 2019, the Lexington History Museum exhibited a 20th anniversary timeline and historical materials exhibit titled, Our Fair City: the 1999 Lexington Fairness Ordinance. The ordinance, Local Ordinance 201-99, passed on July 8th, 1999, and added sexual orientation and gender identity as explicitly protected classes against discrimination in Fayette County employment, housing and public accommodations.
From June 17 - July 19, 2019, the Lexington Public Library hosted the exhibit and several community events surrounding the anniversary. The exhibit also featured a community response section titled, "What Does Fairness Mean To You?" with an opportunity for attendees to give their own response. After the exhibit, the notes were collected and digitized, and are now available for viewing.
To view the 3D interactive exhibit, click here.
Until 1974, Lexington and Fayette County had two separate governing bodies. Lexington itself was founded in 1775 and chartered in 1782 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, since Kentucky itself did not achieve statehood until 1792. Fayette County was formed in 1780, and spanned what is currently about a third of the state, before achieving its current boundary lines in 1799.
The Lexington Fayette Urban County Government became a consolidated government in 1974. The digitized items in this collection are primarily Lexington city documents or merged city-county documents. The earliest digitized item is Lexington’s 1858 city charter and ordinances.
Destination Kindergarten is the library’s program aimed at preschoolers and their caregivers- trying to help them practice the skills they need to be ready for Kindergarten. During each Destination Kindergarten event, preschoolers and their caregivers can find a specalized area in the library with fun books, take-home activities, and information about development milestones and school readiness.
See below for more information on upcoming events and take-home packets and activities.
The William Stamps Farish Fund Theater is a state-of-the-art facility in one of Main Street’s busiest places.
Fully renovated and updated, the theater on the Central Library’s first floor is home to theater, dance, live music, film, community events, and meetings. The Lexington Public Library makes the facility available at some of the city’s best prices, with affordable business, nonprofit, and government rates.
741.5 is written and designed by Lexington Public Library staff member Bill Widener. The inaugural issue came out in January 2017. Sub-titled The Comics & Graphic Novel Bulletin of the Lexington Public Library, its intent is to promote new arrivals to the Library's comics collections. 741.5 takes its name from the numeral designation within the Dewey Decimal System that covers comics and cartooning.
New facility will remain at previous location with a larger footprint and expanded offerings
Lexington, Kentucky (August 18, 2022) – The Lexington Public Library broke ground on a new, significantly larger facility in the former Village Branch location on Versailles Road to better provide for the needs of the neighborhoods it serves. The new branch will reflect the community’s vision for a state-of-the-art community hub, one that offers robust resources and a myriad of program and service offerings. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Tuesday at a media event featuring Library and City officials.
Library meeting rooms are available for individuals, non-profit, for profit, study groups, and community organizations seeking to hold meetings, trainings, and workshops. Meeting rooms are free of charge. Sterno and other tools/equipment that have an open flame are prohibited.
Starting your own business or nonprofit is hard work, but we can help you locate the tools you need to get your ideas off the ground.
Description coming soon.
The Community Collections consist of objects shared from local community residents and organizations. Individuals have lent items of local significance to the library to give the larger community awareness and access. The original objects are not owned by the Lexington Public Library.
Submissions for the Community Collections are open. If you are an individual or organization interested in possibly lending items to be digitized by the library, please contact elibrarian@lexpublib.org. We consider item age, location, content, relevance, privacy considerations, and item condition when determining items to add. Content donors must be the legal copyright holders if the item is not in the public domain.
Join Alexa and Jenny as they discuss Alexandra Horowitz's fascinating book, Inside of a Dog, talk about their own dogs, and interview Ashley with the Lexington Humane Society about everything you could want to know about adopting a pet.
Advisory Board
DeLaine Bender, CAE, is the Vice President of AMR Management Services, a Lexington-based association management company serving national and international associations and professional societies. Her responsibilities include marketing and business development, support for new clients, and management of association staff. A career nonprofit executive, she served as Executive Director of several associations before joining the AMR executive team in 2017.
In this episode, Jenny, Alexa, and creator of Pig and Pepper, Rian, discuss their favorite cookbooks, the food scene in Lexington, and family holiday cookie traditions.
On this special episode of Checked Out, join Alexa, Jenny, and special guest Brian, as they discuss their favorite scary books, graphic novels, and movies, just in time for Halloween.
Join Jenny and Alexa as that chat with Jamie Ford, author of Love and Other Consolation Prizes, about Seattle's forgotten World's Fair, diversity in books, and selling beds to brothels.
Join Alexa and Jenny as they interview Gwenda Bond, author of Fallout, the first book in a YA series focusing on Lois Lane's high school years. They discuss Lois as a character, her relationship with Superman, cyber bullying, and what it was like working
The library has a variety of directories and yearbooks with local information. In the library's current digital collection, there is a selection of residential and street directories, yearbooks, school directories, and organizational directories. These are all fully word-searchable.
JP Johnson gives a biography of William “King” Solomon, hero of the 1833 Cholera epidemic. He also talks about later efforts to memorialize him by the city. This is the first episode in a four part series. Interlude music is “Life’s Ups and Downs” by José
Advisory Board
Elizabeth has been a member of the Lexington Police Department since 1998. After retiring from sworn duty in 2019, she returned to the department as a polygraph examiner and background investigator. In her current position, she coordinates with multiple divisions in the Urban County Government to ensure the fair hiring of qualified applicants.
Advisory Board
Craig Cammack is a graduate of Hanover College, where he studied political science and social movements. He has been a vocal advocate for legislation promoting equality and fairness. Craig was Chairman of Lexington Fairness in 2010, 2011, and 2012. While Craig served on the board, Lexington Fairness grew dramatically with a focus on outreach to Ally support groups, organizations and businesses.
Board of Trustees
Chair
Lynda has been a member of the Commerce Lexington senior management team since 2000. In her current position she leads the Membership & Engagement division that is responsible for membership recruitment and retention, non-dues revenue development, and programs and events.
Discover unique resources in our Digital Archives that tell the story of Fayette County. Visit cemeteries throughout Central Kentucky using our cemetery maps. Contact our resident experts in the Central Library's Kentucky Room with questions.
In this week's episode Alexa, Jenny, and special guest librarian Mariam, talk about Hisham Martar's memoir The Return. Matar chronicles his return to Libya in a quest to find out what happened to his father, who disappeared in 1990.
The collection contains non-Fayette County school yearbooks and images, dating from 1878-1968.
Alexa and Jenny are joined this week by our middle school expert, Ellie, as we discuss the very popular book Wonder by RJ Palacio. Wonder tells the story of a very special kid named Auggie, as he navigates his first year of middle school, takes on bullies
If books are your thing, this is your place. Browse the newest titles in our collection, take a deep dive into comics and graphic novels with the 741.5 bulletin, request a personalized "bag of books," and more.
