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The legacy OverDrive app will be fully discontinued in early 2023, but Libby offers the same Kentucky Libraries Unbound titles you love with new features and an improved user experience!
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The new Central Library officially opened to the public, with a ribbon cutting and opening remarks at 2:00 PM. This was followed with tours of the space, Maker Lab demonstrations, games and giveaways, live music, and more.
Featured guests included The Jake Reber Threeber Trio, County Judge-Executive Jerry Summers, and new Bullitt County Public Library Director Tara O’Hagan.
Following the previous director’s retirement in April and an extended period with an interim director, Tara O’Hagin took over as BCPL Director on September 17, 2022.
A reception was held on Sunday, August 25, 2013 at Ridgway Memorial Library in honor of Randy Matlow, who retired after 24 years as Director at Bullitt County Public Library. He served from April 1989 to September 2013.
During his tenure, three new libraries were built and the Ridgway Memorial Library was expanded. This is also the period when BCPL moved online! We fully transitioned from card catalogs to an online catalog in 1993, added internet access in July 1995, and launched our first website in 1998. In addition, Randy lead the Library through several flood threats, spearheaded the expansion of teen programming to include multiple anime-themed events, and introduced several new resources to the system including e-books and Blu-rays in 2010.
Randy’s Farewell Letter
The new website is finally here! After nearly two years of hard work on behalf of our Marketing team and web designer, the new site is live.
On Saturday, September 9th, our new Mt. Washington Branch Library was dedicated to our Library staff and the board of trustees—past, present, and future. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!
Bullitt County Public Library purchased 5.42 acres near the Lowes in Shepherdsville to build a new main library.
“…In an action firmly rooted in our Master Facilities Plan that was released in September of 2016, the Library purchased a large lot on Conestoga Parkway in Shepherdsville for a future building project. The lot is in a busy area with far more traffic and visibility than in our current location, and we feel that we negotiated a good cost per acre based on comparable sales in Shepherdsville on lots that are not within the floodplain. This decision was difficult and was not made lightly. Ridgway Memorial Library, as much as we love it, has many shortcomings: parking spots can be hard to find; the building is not large enough to house all of the most important departments centrally; the structure itself is in need of some major repairs that would require months of work and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix; the lot is landlocked; and the Library does not own the lot. In the end, the Library made the decision that would provide the most future flexibility, enhancing our ability to grow with Bullitt County and doing so with the utilization of existing reserve funds.”
— Joe Schweiss,
Library Director
We surprised you and opened with little fanfare at the new Mt. Washington Branch Library, located at 214 N. Bardstown Road.
Following the previous director’s retirement, Joe Schweiss took over as BCPL Director on January 2, 2014.
In the October 2013 issue of The Library Bulletin, we announced this cute, cuddly raccoon as our new Children’s mascot! But he needed a name, so we held a contest to let our patrons vote! His name was announced in the December 2013 bulletin as “Reed.”
Plans were announced at the March 8, 2011 board meeting for the brand new Hillview Branch Library.
The Library announced plans to build a new facility three times the size of the old.
Library branch receives new ramp, new room
By George Gabehart, News Editor
Some residents of Mount Washington will find it a little easier to use the local branch library and everyone entering its door may find a little more information available within its walls soon.
According to librarian Austine Jasper, the library has expanded to include an additional room where books and materials can be displayed, and it has added a ramp which allows those persons in wheelchairs easier access.
The Mount Washington branch is housed in a small building at the corner of Snapp and Water streets just off the main street in the city.
Until recently, the library shared the facility with a hair cutting salon and a church, leaving it cramped in terms of shelf space and display area.
The additional room made possible with the relocation of the barber shop should allow the library to broaden its selection of permanent books, and also permit a permanent rotating display for the Mount Washington Historical Society.
According to Historical Society member Anna Joyce Hall, the library board has given the organization the go-ahead to place a display case in the new addition.
She said the display will be changed periodically and profile pieces of significance to the area’s past. Much of the society’s collection has been housed at the library in the past with no place for it to be prominently displayed.
According to Jasper, she has hopes the branch can expand its reference materials and its nonfiction collection.
(Photo Caption: Mike Laswell tests the ramp.)
She said these two areas receive the most notice among patrons, and the additional room could allow for expansion of both collections.
While the future is looking brighter for the library in the area of expansion, the same holds true for at least some of the facility’s patrons.
When expansion work was being done for the addition, the OK was also given to install the wheelchair ramp.
Hall said this will provide at least two regular patrons with easier access to the library, and it could allow others to use the facility.
According the Mike Laswell, a 15-year-old sophomore at Bullitt East High School, the ramp will enable him now to use the library with less difficulty.
Before the ramp was installed, Laswell said he had to use a walker in the building, a situation that brought about some difficulty because of the friction on the carpeted floor.
The ramp allows him to bring his motorized wheelchair into the library and he said there is more than enough room inside to maneuver about.
He said the ramp will allow him to more than “make do” as he has in the past, and aid his studies when he needs to use the library in his school work.
Both Hall and Jasper said they hope to know something in the next few months as to what materials and additional books may become available to add to the library’s standing collection.
In October 2012, BCPL’s Technical Services and Outreach & Programs departments moved into the old Dorothea Stottman Branch Library that once housed the Hillview Branch Library. This allowed for not only more space for these departments to work, but also for them to grow! We added more positions within Outreach & Programs to help BCPL in the community.
Mt. Washington’s bookmobile in the news, celebrating National Library Week. Article text below.
Mt. Washington Star, Mt. Washington, KY, Thursday, April 25, 1974 –
Plan a visit to the Library
National Library Week – April 22-26
Mrs. Sterling Ball, Librarian at the Mt. Washington Branch Library is shown checking out books in the Bookmobile that serves as a branch of the Ridgway Memorial Library. It is located on Water Street across the street from the Mt. Washington School. The hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 – 6 p.m.
Books and records for all ages are available.
(Bottom photo caption) Mt. Washington’s Bookmobile
On Friday, March 17, 2017, the Library purchased four residential properties in Nichols, Kentucky, to combine into a 1.3 acre parcel for the site of a new library branch. This fifth location will expand library services and access into the west end of the county, currently more than ten miles away from the nearest BCPL branch. The new building is expected to be approximately 5,000 square feet in size and will be designed to be functional for decades to come.
On November 8th, 1987, we celebrated the grand opening of the first Lebanon Junction branch library building.
After multiple delays to the project, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Mt. Washington Branch Library was held on December 4th, 2015.
Ground broken in Mount Washington for new library (Dec. 9, 2015, The Pioneer News)
In 2014, the existing church and parish on the Mt. Washington lot were removed to make way for construction of a 13,000 square foot library.
In 2013, land was purchased for a new Mt. Washington Branch Library across the street from the 2002 building.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for Hillview Branch Library was held April 15th, 2012. The new 8,000 square-foot facility replaced the Dorothea Stottman Branch Library, which was renovated to house the Technical Services and Outreach & Programs departments for the Library system.
