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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.
Community Reads is our Lexington-wide book group. Connect with your friends and neighbors by reading the selected book, joining in a book discussion or related program, and attending a book talk with this year's featured author.
Together, we’ll enrich our Lexington Public Library for the next 230 years.
Tracing its history back to 1795, the Lexington Public Library is a gateway to knowledge, a bridge to opportunity, and a hub for community connection. The name of the society honors that legacy — when a small group of citizens came together to create something lasting for their community - a library positioned to evolve to meet the ever changing needs of our community.
Members of the 1795 Society are philanthropic leaders and dedicated library champions. Supporters make a three-year pledge of at least $1,000 per year - whether you are an individual donor interested in making an annual or monthly gift, you are making your estate plans, or you are a corporate partner looking to connect your organization to community impact, we invite you to join this legacy of connection, learning, and leadership in support of the public library!
Join the 1795 Society, a community who enable the Library’s critical work and build a legacy of learning, access and opportunity for generations to come.
You can request a "Bag of Books" to access our materials when you're unable to browse in person. Complete this form, and we'll pull up to 10 items that match your specified interests. You can help us locate more items by keeping your requests general.
Please complete this form to request a Preschool Storytime Kit. Kits may be borrowed for 2 weeks. Each kit contains: 5-7 books, a binder with songs, action rhymes, and fingerplays, and several classroom manipulatives for activities.
Help us make digital archives searchable, from anywhere.
Black Community News
The Black Community News Collection compiles searchable newspaper articles and ads for local Black community events, schools, social gatherings, church events, obituaries, and wedding announcements in older local newspapers in the library’s collection. In addition to Lexington news, the articles contain information about people in many surrounding communities, as well.
In 1898, Lexington’s evening paper, the Leader* began publishing specific news columns about the local Black community and society events. Early columns were scattered and not consistently named; they were titled “Weldon” or “Welden” after the first Black columnist, “In Colored Circles,” “In Colored Society,” and later, became a more standard column titled, “Colored News” and “Colored Notes.” The other local paper, the morning Herald, began publishing a similar column in the 1920s. Lexington at that time had a weekly Black newspaper, the Lexington Standard, that ran from 1892-1912, when it briefly became the Lexington Weekly News before it folded.
The first reporter/columnist of Black social news in the Leader was John Weldon Jewett, a local educator later appointed to the IRS; he would often sign announcements with “Weldon” or “Welden” or “JW.” After his death in 1905, columns were contributed by William Henry Ballard, who opened the first Black pharmacy in Kentucky in 1893, and others. In 1925, the Herald appointed a separate department managed by Lucy J. Cochran, which was housed separately from the general newspaper office, and after multiple editors, D. I. Reid took over in 1934 and ran it until his death in 1950.
Community groups began to challenge the term “colored” and the “Colored Notes” being a separate news column in the 1950s, but Black community news was not integrated with the rest of the newspaper until 1969.
The only surviving issues of the Lexington Standard and the Lexington Weekly News can be found on Chronicling America.
Information about the Lexington newspapers and early Black editors was compiled from:
NKAA Database entry “Colored Circles, Colored News Notes, Colored News, General Colored News, and Colored Notes (Lexington Newspapers)”
Biographical sketches of prominent Negro men and women of Kentucky by W. D. Johnson, (1897)
*The Leader began as the Kentucky Leader in 1888, and several years later became the Daily Leader and the Sunday editions labeled as The Sunday Leader. It became the Lexington Leader in 1901, began sharing Sundays with the Lexington Herald in the 1950s, and eventually fully combined with the Herald to become the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1983.
Collection Content
Years Available:
The Leader: 1898, 1899
All Digital Archives Collections
Description coming soon.
Black Community News Collection
All Digital Archives Collections
The Lexington Public Library is pleased to offer teachers, childcare providers, and homeschooling families the "Bucket of Books" service. We can supplement your curriculum with specially-selected books on a particular topic or provide your classroom with specially-selected books for your students' pleasure reading.
Meet with a librarian for one-on-one consultation. Please submit the Book a Librarian Appointment Request Form or call 859-231-5500 during business hours to schedule an appointment. Appointments are scheduled Monday-Friday during Library business hours and typically last 30 to 45 minutes.
The Eastside Branch Makerspace, located at 3000 Blake James Drive, is a collaborative workspace for ages 13 and up to make, learn , explore, and share, free of charge. Staff are available during open studio hours to assist in projects of all kinds, or contact Makerspace staff to schedule one-on-one help. Not sure where to start? The Eastside Makerspace also offers regular workshops that introduce participants to new skills, technology, and equipment. Planning to bring a group of 10 or more? Please contact us by calling 859-231-5500 ext.2207 or using the link below.
Sample projects
Engrave a welcome sign, 3D print a business card holder, laminate a sign for your classroom, print a banner for your next event, make a personalized magnet for your refrigerator, sew a quilt block, or cut a vinyl design for your water bottle.
The William Stamps Farish, III Theater at the Central Library is available to the community for lectures, live music, community forums, film festivals, small theatrical productions, dance performances, literary readings, debates, and other creative uses.
All the Library Can Be
The library is essential to a thriving community, ensuring equitable access to information, education, and technology for all. We raise funds to support Lexington Public Library programs, services, and special projects that go beyond what public dollars alone can support.
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.
How can we help you? We've gathered a variety of resources for readers, students and educators, job seekers. entrepreneurs and nonprofits, and English language learners. Request items from other libraries through interlibrary loan.
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.
The Lexington Public Library welcomes your time and talents! There are a number of volunteer opportunities available, and we will accommodate your preferences for location and hours as much as possible based on what we have available. From After School programs, to ESOL programs, to Makerspace open studio help, and beyond—we have a variety of opportunities for you to connect with your community through volunteering.
The Lexington Public Library is home to four collaborative creative spaces for making, learning, exploring, and sharing. These spaces offer a variety of events, high-tech and low-tech equipment for patron use, and serve as a space to build community, explore your creativity, and develop personal interests.
Sample projects
Film a music video, 3D print a fidget toy, digitize old family photos, sew a costume or mend your favorite pair of pants, embroider a t-shirt, comb bind a book, start a podcast, record in the audio booth, create content with the green screen, make custom magnets or buttons, engrave a keychain, print a poster, make custom stickers, and more.
Junior League of Lexington Collection
The Junior League of Lexington (JLL) is a local nonprofit organization of women committed to improving community through volunteerism. The first Junior League was established in 1901 in New York, and Lexington followed in 1924. Lexington’s chapter began with ten women, whose numbers grew to build the foundation of community service for which today's League is known. Its first years established the Junior League as a founding contributor for Baby Health Services in 1938 and the Lexington Children's Theatre in 1939, nonprofits which both still exist today. In the 1960’s, the JLL also founded the Opportunity Workshop of Lexington (OWL) and the Living Arts and Science Center, which are also both still in operation serving the Lexington community. The also contributed support to many local organizations, with everything from community revitalization to crisis intervention.
The event most closely associated with the Junior League is the annual Junior League Horse Show each July, which began in 1937 and was the organization’s only fundraiser for 70 years. It is the first leg of the Saddlebred Triple Crown, and attracts international attention. The event is still volunteer run and generates enormous local impact. In 2007, the JLL began its annual Holly Day Market as well, which runs in November as another fundraiser.
JLL currently resides in the historic Bodley-Bullock House downtown, and continues its tradition of community support and engagement.
All Digital Archives Collections
The Lexington Public Library offers an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service which allows cardholders in good standing to borrow books and receive copies of articles we do not own and cannot purchase. Our borrowing network includes over 4,000 participating public and academic libraries.
The Undesign the Redline project unearths the deep and systemic history of structural racism and inequality in the United States. This interactive exhibit explores policies like Redlining, their implications for today, and what we can do to undesign them.
The exhibit was created by social impact design studio designing the WE and has been invited to dozens of cities across the country. A local advisory group has helped to produce local history and stories about Redlining in Lexington.