Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System
Encyclopedia
The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System is a network of public libraries
serving the City of Atlanta
and Fulton County
, both in the U.S. state of Georgia
. The system is currently administered by Fulton County. The system is composed of the Central Library, the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, and 32 branch libraries.
, and the City of Atlanta, started to work out the details of a new public library in Atlanta.
to higher education in Atlanta.
, opened in 1912, and in 1913 the Uncle Remus Branch opened in the West End home of Joel Chandler Harris
. Over the next century the library system has expanded from four branches in 1913 to the 34 branches operating today. By 1924 the library system had eight branches throughout the city, and by 1967 the system had 19 branches.
and city funds, the City of Atlanta and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners signed a contract in 1935 to provide library coverage throughout the county. In 1982, however, Georgia passed a constitutional amendment that allowed the city to transfer control of the system to the county, and in 1983 the system was turned over the county control. To reflect the change in control the system was renamed the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.
requested a library card for the central library. After days of public furor, the library board voted to allow blacks full access to the library on 19 May 1959. Between 1966 and 1973 the library staff was desegregated.
-movement architect Marcel Breuer
. The building, designed in the brutalist architectural style, is considered a masterpiece by architectural experts, such as Barry Bergdoll
, the Chief Architectural Curator of the Museum of Modern Art
, and is closely related to the Whitney Museum of Art building. Breuer was unable to attend the dedication ceremonies on May 25, 1980, and he died a year later on July 1, 1981 at the age of 81.
The concept for the design dates back to 1970, but the contract was not awarded to Breuer until 1976 because of disputes between the library administration and city government over the bond referendum needed to raise the $18.9 million for construction of the library. Construction began in 1977, and when the structure was completed in 1980 it featured a 300-seat theater, six stories of library space, and a restaurant. The building was built for a capacity of 1,000 users and 1 million volumes. The structures consists of a steel frame and concrete slabs, and the exterior is composed of precast concrete panels bush-hammered for texture. Concrete was chosen as the material because concrete allowed for the most economical implementation of the special shapes required for the recessed windows and splayed reveals. The second, third, and fourth stories are connected by a monumental concrete staircase.
Since 1980, however, the state-of-the-art facilities have deteriorated. The theater was closed during the mid-1990s after water from a leaking concrete planter above the theater collapsed parts of the ceiling, but has since been renovated due to recent interest in the building. Although the restaurant was busy and successful during the early years it was closed during the late 1990s. Furthermore, the brutalist architectural style of the library is not fully appreciated in Atlanta. In an effort to mute the harshness of the style, the system spent $5 million to renovate the building in 2002. The money was spent on a new carpet with colorful highlights and more colorful walls. A full renovation would have cost an estimated $34 million. Nonetheless, it still remains unclear as to what will happen to the Breuer building. In the Fall of 2009, the library was listed on the 2010 World Monuments Watch List of Most Endangered Sites
.
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
serving the City of Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
and Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, both in the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. The system is currently administered by Fulton County. The system is composed of the Central Library, the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, and 32 branch libraries.
The Young Men's Library Association
The origins of the public library system lie in the Young Men's Library Association (YMLA), a subscription library system established in 1867. The YMLA was open to the public, but only paying members could check out books. Membership was restricted to white men until 1873 when white women were allowed to join. The YMLA system remained the defacto library system of the city for the rest of the century. During the 1890s, however, the YMLA, Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, and the City of Atlanta, started to work out the details of a new public library in Atlanta.
The Carnegie Library
On March 4, 1902, the first public library, the Carnegie Library, opened on the site of the current Central Library. When the library opened, only the basement, the stacks, and the children's room were completed. The Carnegie Library remained the main library of the system for most of the century. The library was renovated in 1950 and 1966 through city bond funding. Before 1950 the system was referred to as the Carnegie Library, but to commemorate the renovation of the central Carnegie Library the system was renamed the Atlanta Public Library in 1950. In 1977 the Carnegie Library was torn down to make way for the current Central Library. However, the building's architectural bays were preserved, and used to create a monumentCarnegie Education Pavilion
The Carnegie Education Pavilion, more often known as the Carnegie Monument, is a marble beaux-arts monument located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The pavilion was constructed in 1996 from the exterior facade of the Carnegie Library, named after Andrew Carnegie...
to higher education in Atlanta.
Expansion of the Library System
The Carnegie Library was so successful that within a year after the opening of the library, Carnegie suggested he would give more money to open branch libraries. In 1906 Carnegie formally offered $30,000 for the construction of two branch libraries, as long as the city provided a site and arranged financial support for the library. The Anne Wallace Library, named in honor of the first Carnegie Library librarian, opened in 1909 on the corner of Luckie Street and Merritts Avenue in Northwest Atlanta. Many new branch libraries followed in the years to come. The Ragsdale branch, located in Oakland CityOakland City (Atlanta)
Oakland City is a neighborhood in southwestern Atlanta, Georgia, just southwest across the BeltLine from West End and Adair Park.Oakland City was incorporated as a city in 1894 and annexed to Atlanta in 1910....
, opened in 1912, and in 1913 the Uncle Remus Branch opened in the West End home of Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years...
. Over the next century the library system has expanded from four branches in 1913 to the 34 branches operating today. By 1924 the library system had eight branches throughout the city, and by 1967 the system had 19 branches.
City-County Relationship
In the first decades of the library system service was maintained for Atlanta residents only, and as a result Fulton County was left without library service. Using Works Progress AdministrationWorks Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
and city funds, the City of Atlanta and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners signed a contract in 1935 to provide library coverage throughout the county. In 1982, however, Georgia passed a constitutional amendment that allowed the city to transfer control of the system to the county, and in 1983 the system was turned over the county control. To reflect the change in control the system was renamed the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.
Black Atlantans and the Public Library
When the Carnegie Library opened in 1902, blacks were excluded from the library. Activist W. E. B. DuBois led an unsuccessful campaign for black representation and equal use of the library, or at the very least a branch library for blacks, but the library board rebuffed his efforts. Carnegie had offered funds for a black branch library, but the library system did not use the money until 1921 when the system opened the Auburn Avenue Branch Library, the first branch library for blacks. During segregation two other libraries were opened for the use of blacks. In 1959, Irene Dobbs Jackson, the mother of future Atlanta mayor Maynard JacksonMaynard Jackson
Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. was an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the first African American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He served three terms, two consecutive terms from 1974 until 1982 and a third term from 1990 to 1994...
requested a library card for the central library. After days of public furor, the library board voted to allow blacks full access to the library on 19 May 1959. Between 1966 and 1973 the library staff was desegregated.
2008 Bond Referendum
In 2008 Fulton County voters approved a $275 million library bond referendum, which provides money for renovation and construction of library facilities in Fulton County. The plan includes money for eight new libraries, a new central library, expansions of two libraries, and renovations of 23 branch libraries. Five 25000 square feet (2,322.6 m²) libraries will be built in Alpharetta, Milton, Northwest Atlanta, Wolf Creek, and Stewart-Lakewood. The Alpharetta and Stewart-Lakewood libraries will replace existing 10000 square feet (929 m²) libraries, the Northwest Atlanta library will replace three small branch libraries, and the Milton and Wolf Creek libraries will be completely new. A new 10000 square feet (929 m²) library will be built in Palmetto/Chattahoochee Hill County, and two new 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) libraries will be built in Southeast Atlanta and East Roswell. The Southeast Atlanta library will replace three small branch libraries. In the original Library Facility Master Plan $34 million was allocated to fully restore and upgrade the site. In the final referendum, however, $84 million was provided for the construction of a new 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) central library. Finally, the Auburn Avenue Research Library and the South Fulton branch library will be expanded.Central Library
The Central Library, completed in 1980, was the last building to be designed by BauhausBauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
-movement architect Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
. The building, designed in the brutalist architectural style, is considered a masterpiece by architectural experts, such as Barry Bergdoll
Barry Bergdoll
Barry Bergdoll is a Professor of architectural history in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.-Education:...
, the Chief Architectural Curator of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, and is closely related to the Whitney Museum of Art building. Breuer was unable to attend the dedication ceremonies on May 25, 1980, and he died a year later on July 1, 1981 at the age of 81.
The concept for the design dates back to 1970, but the contract was not awarded to Breuer until 1976 because of disputes between the library administration and city government over the bond referendum needed to raise the $18.9 million for construction of the library. Construction began in 1977, and when the structure was completed in 1980 it featured a 300-seat theater, six stories of library space, and a restaurant. The building was built for a capacity of 1,000 users and 1 million volumes. The structures consists of a steel frame and concrete slabs, and the exterior is composed of precast concrete panels bush-hammered for texture. Concrete was chosen as the material because concrete allowed for the most economical implementation of the special shapes required for the recessed windows and splayed reveals. The second, third, and fourth stories are connected by a monumental concrete staircase.
Since 1980, however, the state-of-the-art facilities have deteriorated. The theater was closed during the mid-1990s after water from a leaking concrete planter above the theater collapsed parts of the ceiling, but has since been renovated due to recent interest in the building. Although the restaurant was busy and successful during the early years it was closed during the late 1990s. Furthermore, the brutalist architectural style of the library is not fully appreciated in Atlanta. In an effort to mute the harshness of the style, the system spent $5 million to renovate the building in 2002. The money was spent on a new carpet with colorful highlights and more colorful walls. A full renovation would have cost an estimated $34 million. Nonetheless, it still remains unclear as to what will happen to the Breuer building. In the Fall of 2009, the library was listed on the 2010 World Monuments Watch List of Most Endangered Sites
2010 World Monuments Watch List of Most Endangered Sites
The World Monuments Watch is a flagship advocacy program of the New York-based private non-profit organization World Monuments Fund that calls international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict, or disaster.-Selection process:Every two...
.
Branches
- Adams Park Branch
- Adamsville-Collier Heights Branch
- Alpharetta Branch
- Bankhead Courts Branch
- Bowen Homes Branch
- Buckhead Branch
- Carver Homes Branch
- Cleveland Avenue Branch
- College Park Branch
- Dogwood Branch
- East Atlanta Branch
- East Point Branch
- Fairburn Branch
- Georgia Hill Branch
- Hapeville Branch
- Kirkwood Branch
- Martin Luther King Jr., Branch
- Mechanicsville Branch
- Northeast/Spruill Oaks Branch
- Northside Branch
- Ocee Branch
- Peachtree Branch
- Perry Homes Branch
- Ponce de Leon Branch
- Roswell Branch
- Sandy Springs Branch
- South Fulton Branch
- Southwest Branch
- Stewart-Lakewood Branch
- Thomasville Heights Branch
- Washington Park Branch
- West End Branch
External links
- Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System website
- "One of Finest Libraries in South", Atlanta Georgian and News, December 24, 1909 from the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive in the Digital Library of Georgia.