Our History

The Cabell County Public Library is located in Huntington, West Virginia, at 455 9th Street Plaza. In addition to the Main Library, there are seven branches located throughout the county. Cabell County's facilities also serve neighboring libraries located in Logan, Mingo, Putnam, and Wayne Counties. Computer and cataloging services are provided for libraries in Lincoln County.

Plans to establish a library in the city of Huntington were begun in late 1897 and a resolution by the Ministers Association was adopted in 1898 to open a public library. In 1899, books were collected for the establishment of a library and in late 1901, a room was leased for the library in the Florentine Annex.

On March 1, 1902, the library was opened to the public. That same year, Andrew Carnegie donated $25,000 for a new building. On July 27, 1904, the new library was opened on the corner of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue.
In the late 40's, the scope of the local library was increased to include the entire county, branches were established in Milton and Barboursville, and bookmobile service began.

Recent History
The current building, located directly across Ninth Street from the old building, was dedicated on November 30, 1980. In 1997, an expansion project into unused space on the fourth floor increased the usable space in the building to over 60,000 sq. ft. During this time, branches were built and remodeled and new branches were established to bring the total number of branches to seven. With eight locations in the county, bookmobile service was no longer needed.

Automation
In 1982, the Cabell County Public Library was the first public library in the state to be automated with a computerized circulation system and online catalog. In 1996, the library was also one of the first public libraries in the state to offer Internet access to the public and to have a library web page. In 1999, Cabell County Public Library became the first public library in the state to upgrade to a third-generation library automation system based on client-server architecture.