The next Carterville Chamber of Commerce Business Spotlight of the Week is Anne West Lindsey Public Library. 

The Anne West Lindsey District Library, formerly the Carterville Public Library, was the vision of Anne West Lindsey.  It was Anne’s desire to have a library built on her property.  Through her bequest, the library received 1.5 million dollars and 5.4 acres of land for the purpose of building a library for the community.  Over the years, Anne had many offers to purchase this land, but she always said no.  She told the prospective buyers that one day there would be a library on her property — that was her dream, which became a reality in May, 2010.  

And my how it's grown since then! Did you know they had more than 40,000 visits this past year? The library just celebrated its most successful summer reading program to date, with more than 700 hours completed by our 1st through 8th grade readers (A big well done for our community!). The library is currently in the middle of a construction project to add 80 additional spaces to its parking lot — which are much needed with a majority of library programs maxed out with significant waiting lists. In fact, Director Mary Stoner is working hard with the Library Board to make dreams of a bigger library happen sooner rather than later! Our library is certainly a pillar of this community and opens its doors six days a week with the intention of  providing educational, informational, cultural and recreational resources, opportunities and services to all residents in the library district. Be sure to stop by for a visit, check out a book, and sign up for one (or more!) of the fall programs.