The Wood County District Public Library is planning events throughout 2025 to celebrate its 150th birthday.
Marnie Pratt, local history librarian, attended Monday’s board of trustees meeting to explain what the birthday committee was planning.
She said the celebration will last the entire year, systemwide, and include birthday parties, history talks, walking tours, crafts and book club discussions.
“We’re adapting things we already do to include the library’s history,” she said.
The castle in the Children’s Place, donated by the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club 25 years ago, will have its own birthday party in July.
Pratt said there will be a historic photo display in Bowling Green and its branch location in Walbridge and a request for birthday cards.
Bowling Green will hold its birthday party in September while Walbridge, which opened in 1987, celebrates in April. Cake will be included.
The marketing department will revamp the library’s history page on its website by adding photos and making it more interactive.
Library Director Michael Penrod said a library association was started by civic-minded men in 1875 and operated in numerous locations around town before it folded 11 years later.
From 1886-1911, articles appeared in local papers urging citizens to “agitate” for a public library, Pratt said.
The Y.M.C.A., which was located near the former armory on East Wooster, the Lady Maccabees, the Shakespeare Round Table and the Bowling Green Literacy Society each attempted to organize a library during these 25 years, she said.
It was briefly discussed putting a library in what is now the police station “but obviously that never came to fruition,” she said.
The Shakespeare Round Table began meeting in the spring of 1911 to discuss launching a fundraising campaign to start a public library.
Those meetings were held in what is now known as the Carter House in what has been named the Shakespeare Room, Penrod said.
From 1914-1928, the library was located first in the building at the northwest corner of Main and Wooster streets, then the second floor of what is now Pisanello’s and then in the high school building on West Wooster Street.
The library moved to the former Church Street School in 1956 and added home delivery via a station wagon in 1957.
The dedication of the library’s current location was held on Oct. 13, 1974.
Swag with a birthday logo has been created, including a sweatshirt and T-shirt, sticker and tote bag.
“Our end goal was that everyone in the district should know it’s our birthday next year and have an opportunity to celebrate,” Pratt said.
Other announcements at the meeting included:
• The library’s foundation will welcome British actor and author Paterson Joseph on April 10 in the atrium and “This Old House” host Kevin O’Conner on Oct. 9 in the Performing Arts Center. Private donor receptions will be held for both speakers, whose fees are paid for by the foundation.
• The updated landscaping around the Carter House parking lot has started with the removal of the Callery pear trees.
• Enrollment for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Wood County was at 4,280, or 63%.
• The number of new library cards issued in September was 388, up from 169 issued last September. Contributing factors included the new card design, faculty members at Bowling Green State University requiring their students to get a card, and that Rally BG attracted more than 500 people to the library’s ice cream booth.
