

Lexington’s African American Heritage Walking Tour
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Explore topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) in this space for youth, grades 3-12.
Learn how the Lexington Public Library Foundation empowers change within our library system.
Learn or develop a personal or professional skill with LinkedIn Learning classes, available for free with your library card.
Did you know physical materials renew automatically if they don’t have a waiting list? Check your account online to see the status of your items.
The Lexington Public Library’s Digital Archives provide open access to researchers and students to learn more about the rich history of Lexington and Fayette County. It contains a fraction of the Library’s physical holdings, which are housed and available for reference in the Kentucky Room at the Central Library. New material is being digitized and added constantly, so there's always something new to find.
The archives have a simple keyword search, and it is possible to browse the collections by subject, area, or decade. The Lexington Public Library actively reviews and labels materials in our archives with statements that indicate how you may reuse the images, and what sort of permission, if any, you need to do so. Please check the information for each image to determine its legal status.
The Lexington Public Library has made an effort to ensure that all of our digital collections are public domain, or that we have gotten approval from the copyright holders to display their work. Most - but not all - of these collections, to the best of our knowledge, have no known US copyright restrictions. Some items in the collection are under copyright but qualify for online display by libraries under Section 108(h) of United States Copyright Law. Some of the collections provided in the Library's Digital Archives are made available under an assertion of fair use, which does not necessarily apply to an individual's use of them.
The materials in these collections are physically housed in the Kentucky Room at the Central Library and can be viewed during the Central Library's open hours.
For more information about a specific item, including any copyright restrictions on that item, please click on the information button:
The Digital Studio provides people of all skill levels the tools for filmmaking, photography and digital art, music making, and media preservation.
The Central Kentucky Cemeteries Maps are powered by Google Maps. Counties include: Fayette, Bourbon, Clark, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Lincoln, Madison, Mercer, Montgomery, Nicholas, Powell, Scott, and Woodford.
The Kentucky Progress Commission was formed in 1928 in order to draw tourism and business to Kentucky.
The Lexington Public Library offers an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service which allows cardholders to borrow books and magazine articles we do not own and cannot purchase. The Lexington Public Library also lends our books to libraries both inside and outside the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Read articles from magazines and journals, learn a new language, or locate a newspaper article. These resources can't be found with a search engine but are available for free with your library card.
The Kentucky Pioneer Genealogy and Records Magazine published various articles about early Kentucky history as a quar
Learn by doing. Get hands-on practice with cutting edge technology at our Digital Studio, Kloiber Foundation STEAM Lab, and Makerspace on your own or learn from our expert staff during structured programs.
Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Friends of the Lexington Public Library, Inc.
Wonderful podcasts and walking tours have been created by our staff. Please enjoy!
The Around the Town in Lexington, Kentucky magazine pamphlet contains advertisements for local attractions,
Old Kentucky Architecture is a comprehensive book by Rexford Newcomb that was published in 1940.
The Kentucky Rally Songs pamphlet contains 42 songs compiled and printed by the state chapter of the Woman’s Christia
The Kentucky Almanac was a regional almanac that began printing in 1788, at the office of John Bradford’s Kentuck
The Kentucky Reporter was published from October 1817-April 1832, by William W. Worsley and Thomas Smith.
Illustrated Lexington Kentucky contains photographs, demographics, commerce and financial information about Lexington
The Kentucky Chautauqua Assembly presented an annual event in Lexington’s Woodland Park with days of programming.
The Kentucky Gazette was the first paper established west of the Allegheny Mountains, founded by John and Fielding Br
The Kentucky Mountain Club was founded in 1929 as a social organization for residents of Lexington, Kentucky, who had
The collection contains non-Fayette County school yearbooks and images, dating from 1878-1968.
While the focus of content in the digital archive is Fayette County, many other counties are represented.
The library's collection contains many non-local information directories.