Lexington Public Library

Search Our Website

Search Website
Displaying results 36 - 70 of 177

Located on the second floor of the Eastside Branch, the Makerspace is a collaborative workspace for making, learning, exploring, and sharing. Through the intersections of technology, science, art, and culture, the space encourages entrepreneurship, personal growth, and artistic expression.

Our commitment to listening, learning and changing is ongoing and our work is never complete. We affirm that we achieve more together because of our differences, not despite them. When all voices are heard, we are stronger. 

The Materials Selection Policy was initially adopted February 25, 1987 by the Lexington Public Library Board of Trustees and was revised March 24, 1993. The Materials Selection Policy was updated and renamed the Collection Development Policy which was approved by the Board on January 14, 2009. The Board of Trustees assumes full responsibility for all legal actions which may result from the implementation of any policies stated herein.

The Lexington Public Library offers an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service which allows cardholders in good standing 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.

Digital Archives - Collection - Group
Kentucky Progress magazine

The Publications Collection contains runs of historical Kentucky newspapers, almanacs, and magazines. 

Board Member
Board of Trustees
Secretary

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.

E-mail Yajaira West

Primary Page

Meet the Lexington Public Library's Board, Administrative Team, and Leadership Team.  Apply to work or volunteer at the library.

Whether you're just starting out, changing careers, or returning to the workforce, finding a job can be tough.  We can help you land the right position and answer your questions along the way.

Primary Page

All databases are available from this page.

Digital Archives - Collection
Founded in 1982 by Gigi Galore (Greg Butler) and Blanche Pink (Marlon Austin), the Imperial Court of Kentucky, Inc., is a nonprofit charity that supports the LGBTQ+ community of Kentucky “one dollar at a time” through drag shows, social programs, and fundraisers. The Court uses the modus of English peerage to establish male and female lines of descent, with the female line comprising of drag queens (i.e. performers in drag), with each year an empress and emperor being elected. These “royals” represent the court throughout the upcoming year. The Court is a charter member of the International Court System with kingdoms in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Member courts are autonomous organizations bound together in a shared structure, policies, and goals, fundraising for HIV/AIDS services, human rights advocacy, and other LBGTQ+ stakeholders.
 
 
 
Primary Page

Wonderful podcasts and walking tours have been created by our staff. Please enjoy!

Board Member
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.

Craig is a recipient of the Michael Thompson Community Service Award, Henry Faulkner Community Service Award, Jose Julio Sarria Equality Award, Ernesto Scorsone Political Leadership Award and induction into the Fairness Hall of Fame from Lexington Fairness.

He and his husband, Joseph, served as state foster parents, beginning in 2012, and adopted their two sons, Gabriel and Conner in 2014. Craig served as Legislative Aide to Councilmember Susan Lamb and is currently Community Outreach Liaison and Deputy Director of Communications in the office of Mayor Linda Gorton. He is the city government’s point person for LGBTQ initiatives, veterans affairs, school outreach, and neighborhood associations.

E-mail Craig Cammack

Digital Archives - Collection

St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church was formally created in the Covington Diocese in 1868, by Father John Bekkers. Still an active parish, the church has celebrated its 150th anniversary and is still in its original building in downtown Lexington.

 

 

Digital Archives - Collection
The Bath County Memorial Library was founded in 1949 by the Owingsville Women’s Club, and opened in January, 1950. It expanded into a bookmobile in 1953, and in 1963 moved into the old Farmer’s Bank Building at 24 W. Main St. Community response was high; a 1965 survey showed resident usage at 70%, and the library expanded again in 1996. 
 
Both of those collections are owned by the Bath County Memorial Library, and held in their local history collection.

Lexington, Kentucky (April 12, 2023) – The Lexington Public Library will be Fine Free for all materials, effective immediately, following a vote at today’s regularly scheduled monthly board meeting. Lexington Public Library customers will no longer incur fines for late, damaged, or lost library materials. Additionally, the Library has forgiven all current, outstanding fines

Thanks for your interest in joining the Lexington Public Library!  Your library card is the key to checking out books, downloading audiobooks, taking online classes, and much more.  Please check here to find out if you qualify for a library card and how to apply.

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.

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.

Digital Archives - Collection

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department had its earliest form almost as long as the city itself has existed, when the newly formed city of Lexington would appoint a local physician to investigate reports of certain diseases for quarantine. As early as 1794, Lexington's citizens were getting smallpox inoculations. The city created a Board of Health possibly as early as the 1820s, as a young Lexington experienced cholera outbreaks, typhus, smallpox, and the various growing pains created by more people living and working closer together. In 1938, the Lexington city Board of Health merged with the county’s Board to become the Fayette County Health Department.  

The board minutes for January 1904 – April 1922 provided by the Health Department show the broad range of topics impacting local citizens, and the Health Department’s role in keeping its citizens healthier. Through the decades, the Health Department has tested the local milk supply for tuberculosis, led education and vaccination programs, inspected restaurants, set quarantines to prevent the spread of disease, improved sanitation, and at one point ran the local crematory and eruptive hospital.

Digital Archives - Collection - Group
Fayette County History

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.

 

Digital Archives - Collection
St. Paul Catholic Church is one of the oldest existing churches in Lexington. The records for the parish go back to 1854. The ledgers are part of the church's historical archive, and contain unique records for Lexington's history. Bishop Stowe, the bishop of the Lexington diocese, has given permission for ledger records 100+ years old to be made public.
Highlight

Have a question?  Ask us!  You can contact us via email, phone, chat, or text.  Book a librarian for one-on-one help.  Suggest a purchase to help us improve our collection.

Digital Archives - Collection
Johnston Albert Young III, was born on May 25, 1924, to Johnston and Lillian Shrout Young. Johnston Young’s father died on November 30, 1938, when he was 14. He served in the US Army from April 1943 to January 1946. During that time, he was deployed to the Pacific Ocean theater. He married Carolyn M. Cameron in 1949. Johnston Young died on September 26, 1986, and is buried in Owingsville at the Owingsville Cemetery, along with his wife and parents.
 
This letter collection is a part of the Bath County Memorial Library Community Collection, and was donated to the library by Tatonya Brock for their local history collection. 
Digital Archives - Collection

The Kentucky Gazette was the first paper established west of the Allegheny Mountains, founded by John and Fielding Bradford. The frontier paper focused on East Coast and International news, though some local announcements can be found. Later, the paper focused on disseminating opinions on politics and issues of concern on the frontier. When political parties emerged, the paper developed a Democratic (conservative at the time) bent. John Bradford handed the reins of the paper over to his son, Daniel Bradford, in 1802.

While still owned and occasionally edited by the Bradford family, the paper had several editors and publishers through the mid-1830s, when Daniel Bradford returned to the paper’s byline as editor. Daniel Bradford edited the paper until 1840, when he sold it to Jim Cunningham. The paper shuttered in 1848, due to Cunningham’s failing health, but was revived in 1866 and published until 1910 by different publishers.

The years 1841-1910 are not digitized as of January 2020, but are viewable on microfilm and in print in the Kentucky Room at Central Library. Selected articles are indexed in the Library’s Local History Index.
 

 

Digital Archives - Collection
Etta Evans Gilmore was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, on February 4, 1885, to Robert Evans and Matilda Fawns. She married Henry Steele Gilmore, a Bath County physician, around 1906. Their son Robert was born in 1906 and daughter Lorena in 1910. She died on December 2, 1959, in Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, and was buried in the Hillsboro Cemetery in Fleming County.
 
She lived in Bath County for the last 51 years of her life, and was active in her churches and in her role as a doctor’s wife. The diaries that she wrote touched on the many people and activities in her life. After her death in 1959 and her husband’s death in 1973, the family donated the diaries to the Bath County Memorial Library’s local history collection.