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Join us for Kentucky Legends: a series of programs exploring Kentucky culture, history, and lore. Programs include author visits, Chautauqua performances, live music, activities and crafts, and more.
Description coming soon.
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.
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.
When you log into many of our services, you'll be asked to provide a PIN (Personal Identification Number) in addition to your library card number. Your default PIN is typically the last 4 digits of the phone number on file for your account.
description coming soon.
Stories of Lexington's history told through the Kentucky Room archives.
Throughout June, join us as we celebrate Pride Month with programs, books, podcasts, and more.
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.
Celebrate Lexington, Kentucky’s 250th anniversary all year long. Join us for programs, galleries, podcasts, and more highlighting our city’s history, heritage, and legacy.
Find out what's happening at our locations. Browse upcoming events and discover our dedicated learning spaces. Reserve a meeting room. Explore our galleries and special collections.

The Reporter was published from March 1808-September 1817, by William W. Worsley. It was a Republican paper (Jeffersonian Democratic Republican - liberal at the time).

The True American was an anti-slavery newspaper started by Cassius Marcellus Clay in June 1845.

The Kentucky Pioneer Genealogy and Records Magazine published various articles about early Kentucky history as a quarterly publication from 1979-1985, then annually 1986-1988.

The Kentucky Reporter was published from October 1817-April 1832, by William W. Worsley and Thomas Smith. It is the direct continuation of the The Reporter.

The Daily Lexington Atlas ran from December 11, 1847 through November 20, 1848 and was Lexington’s first daily paper, and the first to publish information from the telegraph lines.

The Cochran Chronicle appears to be a neighborhood leaflet created by two school children, Philip Borries and Laurence Kraehe, living on Cochran Road in the Chevy Chase area of Lexington, KY in 1960.

The Daily Argonaut began in 1895 and seems to have ceased publication in 1899. This collection includes scattered issues from 1896, 1897 and 1898.

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.


The Kentucky Almanac was a regional almanac that began printing in 1788, at the office of John Bradford’s Kentucky Gazette in Lexington.

The Kentucky Progress Commission was formed in 1928 in order to draw tourism and business to Kentucky. It was formed by the Kentucky Legislature, and was a 12 person board.

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 librar

The Council of Defense books contain records for Fayette County’s Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Marines, and Army nurses in World War I, and include information regarding the person’s residence, birth place and date, specific units and en

The Kentucky Images collection contains postcards, photographs and slides of people, architecture, and locations in Kentucky and Appalachia.