Newton County Library

In 1931, Ted Richmond homesteaded 160 acres near the Buffalo River on Mt. Sherman in Newton County, Arkansas, and started the Wilderness Library. The Wilderness Library existed from 1931 to 1956. Some of our patrons remember when the library was in the Newton County Courthouse on the square. That library probably started in the 60s. Former librarians were Opal Waggoner, Ava Keef, Cecile Phillips and Belinda Robertson. The library's next move was to City Hall in late 1976 or early 1977. Shirley Shelton was the Librarian from 1978 to 2000. In 1991 the Friends of the Library organized, and in 1994 the old county shop building was transformed into the new Newton County Library. Community volunteers cleaned and worked on the interior of the building with great care and enthusiasm. Book shelves were built, and beautiful oak furniture was crafted.
In 1997, a wildflower and native plant garden was landscaped in front of the building. In 1998, the Gould-Jones Reservoir, which is on the library grounds, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1998, we put circulation on computer and in 1999 we offered the first public internet access. In 2000, the meeting room changed into the Genealogy Room. In 2005, a 16x16 program room and 8x16 storage room were added to the back of the library. In 2006, two new public access computers and a WiFi system was added, along with new shelves. We also created a comfortable environment for our younger readers, by adding children's furniture.
Our programs were popular, and sometimes overcrowded. Staff had to move several book shelves in order to accommodate larger crowds and lug chairs back and forth from the storage room at the rear of the library. We had already outgrown our new program room, when in 2009, through a grant from the Arkansas State Legislature administered through the Arkansas State Library, and the fundraising efforts of the Friends of the Library, we expanded our program room and storage space, and we began using our new room right away.
Our library is very important to the community and we experience a high volume of patron traffic. We offer many new items (from books to DVD's) each month, and reach out to the community with surveys and suggestion slips to involve them in the process of maintaining a wonderful collection of reading and viewing materials. Children have their own area with furniture to sit quietly and read, and recently a larger Juvenile/Young Adult section has been established.