MOUNT VERNON — After nearly a century of sharing its resources with Mount Vernon residents, Cornell College’s library is ready to celebrate its new status as the official Mount Vernon Public Library, thanks to an ordinance passed May 7 by the City Council.
First Lady of Iowa Christie Vilsack will be the featured guest at a party at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, on the third floor of Russell D. Cole Library. The theme is “Not an Ordinary Ordinance.”
The ordinance formalizes the gentleman’s agreement that has existed between Cornell and Mount Vernon since 1905, when the Carnegie Library opened on campus. Cole Library, named for Cornell’s ninth president, opened in 1957. It has been the nation’s only private college library that also serves as its community’s public library. Resources include three consulting librarians serving Cornell’s faculty and approximately 1,000 students, the library’s collections, several online databases and events planned by a public program coordinator. Even before the ordinance passed, Mount Vernon residents had access to these resources. The city, which passed a library levy in 1990, contributes $30,000 annually toward library expenses including additions to the collections and the part-time public program coordinator.
Cole Library will become eligible for state and county funding for public libraries, an estimated $10,000 per year, says librarian Jean Donham. Funding is based on several factors including circulation to county residents, city contribution to the library budget, community population and meeting state standards for public libraries. In addition, Cole Library can compete for state grants to public libraries. The library plans to use the county and state money to increase materials — including acquisitions in video, CD and books-on-tape collections — and public programs such as musical performances or lectures and readings by authors.
“Because the entire library is open to both the Cornell and Mount Vernon community of library users, any increase in resources benefits both,” Donham says.
As an official public library, Cole Library will now have a five-member board of trustees, with four members appointed by the city and one by the college. The library will be required to periodically survey the community for input on library programming and services.