Broward County Library

The Broward County Library was established in 1973 as the result of a campaign by the Friends of the Fort Lauderdale Library in Florida, the United States. The system began issuing borrower cards on June 17 of 1974 for 270,000 items in four branches. Over the following three decades, many of the municipalities in Broward County elected to join the county library system. These included Lauderdale Lakes, Coral Springs, Miramar, Lauderhill, Hallandale, Dania Beach, Margate, Sunrise, Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach.

Ongoing construction, including that funded by a $139.9 million bond issue approved by voters in 1999, has yielded the current total of 37 branch libraries and the eight-story Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The Main Library houses a Patent and Trademark Depository, the Florida Center for the Book, the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, and Gallery Six, and a public fine arts exhibition center.

In 2002, Broward County Library opened the "African-American Research Library and Cultural Center", a convert|60000|sqft|m2|sing=on facility with a 300-seat auditorium and Small Business Resource Center.

The Broward County Library was named "Library of the Year" in 1996 by Library Journal and Gale Research. The library now operates on a budget in excess of $60 million, holds more than three million items, and has over 10 million visitors a year.

Branches/Campuses

*African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (unincorporated Broward County/Ft. Lauderdale)
*Beach (Pompano Beach, Florida)
*Tyrone Bryant (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*Carver Ranches (West Park, Florida)
*Century Plaza (Deerfield Beach, Florida)
*Jan Moran-Collier City (Pompano Beach, Florida)
*Dania Beach-Paul DeMaio (Dania Beach, Florida)
*Davie/Cooper City (Davie, Florida)
*Deerfield Beach-Percy White (Deerfield Beach, Florida)
*Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*Galt Ocean Mile (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*Hallandale Beach (Hallandale Beach, Florida)
*Hollywood (Hollywood, Florida)
*Hollywood Beach-Bernice P. Oster (Hollywood, Florida)
*Imperial Point (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*Lauderdale Lakes (Lauderdale Lakes, Florida)
*Lauderhill Towne Centre (Lauderhill, Florida)
*Lauderhill Mall (Lauderhill, Florida)
*Main (Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*Margate-Catherine Young (Margate, Florida)
*North Lauderdale (North Lauderdale, Florida)
*North Regional (Coconut Creek, Florida)
*Northwest (Pompano Beach, Florida)
*Northwest Regional Library (Coral Springs, Florida)
*Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center at Nova Southeastern University (Davie, Florida)
*Pembroke Pines/Walter C. Young (Pembroke Pines, Florida)
*Pompano Beach (Pompano Beach, Florida)
*Riverland (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
*South Regional/BCC (Broward Community College South Campus, Pembroke Pines, Florida)
*Southwest Regional (Pembroke Pines, Florida)
*Stirling Road (Hollywood, Florida)
*Sunrise-Dan Pearl (Sunrise, Florida)
*Sunset Strip (Sunrise, Florida)
*Tamarac (Tamarac, Florida)
*West Regional (Plantation, Florida)
*Weston (Weston, Florida)

*The new Miramar Library and Education Center is under construction and is expected to open in mid-2008.

External links

* [http://www.broward.org/library/] Broward County Libraries
* [http://www.broward.org/library/findyourlibrary.htm] Broward County Branches
* [http://www.browardlibrary.org/remote.html] Broward County Catalog Search