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 Kentucky History collection contains Kentucky-related documents not specifically related to Fayette County.
The Publications Collection contains runs of historical Kentucky newspapers, almanacs, and magazines.
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.
Fayette County, Kentucky, has changed enormously since it was created in 1792. This collection contains government documents for the city of Lexington, for Fayette County, and for the merged Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, as well as funeral notices, club directories, scrapbooks, image collections and a history of Lexington Public Library.
The Kentucky Images collection contains postcards, photographs and slides of people, architecture, and locations in Kentucky and Appalachia.
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.
Throughout the fall of 2023 and into the winter for 2023, the Lexington Public Library will be embarking on a strategic visioning process that will guide library programs and services for the next three years.
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.
Fayette County churches contain some of the earliest records and information preserved about central Kentucky history. The digital archive contents include church ledgers, minutes, directories, and informational brochures.
Tina Belle Green Winters Simpler Young (1880-1930), was born in Elmville, Kentucky. Known as Tiny, she was believed to be a sex worker in the 1920s and 30s, and sent $5.00 a week home to support her sister. For a time she worked in the Crawl section of Frankfort, then she moved to Lexington, and finally lived the rest of her life in Cincinnati. The queerness of sex work, a marginalized woman using sex to support family, provides context both to this collection bearing her name and to the LGBTQ+ community that has historically formed families on the sexual margins.
Lexington, Kentucky (January 17, 2024) – Lexington Public Library is proud to announce the Grand Opening of the Marksbury Family Branch of the Lexington Public Library.
Festivities include a Media Day event on Friday, March 8 from 8:30-10am and a Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, March 9 (more details coming soon). The current Village Branch will remain open through 6pm on Friday, February 23.
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.
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. Prior to working at the Chamber, she worked in several membership organizations including the National Tour Association, Association Management Resources and the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors and for Hyatt Regency Hotels in Lexington, Memphis, TN, San Antonio, TX and Kansas City, MO. She currently serves on board of Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass. Lynda is a native of Lexington and an alumna of the University of Kentucky.
Yajaira Aich West is a Vice President at PNC Bank and serves as the Director of Client and Community Relations for central and southeast Kentucky. In this role she manages the philanthropic investments in the thirteen counties where PNC has a presence, coordinates the client events produced by the bank and leads employee initiatives around health and wellness. Yajaira graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Transylvania University in 2004 and earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics in 2011. Yajaira is an active member of the community via volunteerism and board service. She is currently is a Lexington Public Library Trustee, an Executive Committee member of the board of directors for the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County and LexArts, on the Policy Council for Bluegrass Community Action Partnership, the Kentucky Chamber Foundation’s Leadership Institute for School Principals advisory committee and the Fayette County Public School's First 5 Lex Committee. She is a graduate of the Commerce Lexington’s Leadership Lexington and Leadership Central Kentucky and the Leadership Kentucky programs.
A born-and-raised Lexingtonian, Hunter attended Lexington Catholic High School and graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics in 2015. He is currently a Senior Associate at BC Wood Properties, a commercial real estate investment company, where he manages 1.8 million square feet of commercial space throughout six states. Hunter has a passion for community involvement, serving on various boards for the Explorium of Lexington, United Way of the Bluegrass, University of Kentucky DanceBlue Marathon, and Make-A-Wish Kentucky. In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball and golf, reading, and attending UK sporting events.
New to the U.S. and Lexington community? Check out these programs for English language learners.
The Morton School Number 1, Lexington’s first public city school in 1834, was originally built on the corner of Walnut (later Martin Luther King Dr.) and Short Street. William Morton, who died in 1836, established a trust to be invested and used to maintain a free public school in Lexington, and the first public school was named in his honor. It became the Morton High School in 1904 and the Morton Junior High School in 1917. The school was relocated to Tates Creek Road as a middle school in 1938.
Everyone deserves a place to discover something new. The Lexington Public Library stands for free and open access to information. We’re a safe, welcoming space for neighbors to come together — opening the door so all Lexingtonians can find what they’re looking for.