Our Mission

The mission of Beulah Public Library is to provide the residents of the city of Beulah and surrounding areas with a timely, comprehensive, reliable, and easily accessible collection of library materials. This collection will offer useful or potentially useful materials to as many residents as possible.

 

Our History

The library has close historical ties to the Beulah Woman’s Club, which was organized in 1930. As a club project, the library was opened on February 1, 1931, in the east foyer of the Roxy Theater. Over the next 57 years, the library was moved eight different times from homes, stores, and other out-of-the-way places until its collections and community use grew to need a more permanent location. The Woman’s Club began campaigning in 1957 for a new city hall building that would include a designated library room, and the library began receiving some city funding in addition to the volunteer work and fundraising contributions by the club.

In the fall of 1958, the Beulah library affiliated with the McLean-Mercer Regional Library in Riverdale. This association provides local patrons with additional books, bookmobile services, and a greater range of interlibrary loan offerings.

In February 1985, a municipal library board formed to work toward the transition to a public library. Through the work of this board and the Woman’s Club, the library made its final move in May 1987 from a small room in city hall to a larger one specifically designed for it during the renovation and expansion of city hall.

As the culmination of its first five-year improvement plan, the library board of trustees hired its first full-time librarian in 1995, bringing new continuity to a position long held by faithful workers, both volunteer and paid part-timers.

To this day, the library staff and board members work toward making the Beulah Public Library a regional resource, offering computerized internet services, long-distance research capabilities, and maintaining a broad range of reading material at its patrons’ fingertips.

 

Our Partnerships

Patrons of Beulah Public Library have access to a consortium of libraries in our area of western North Dakota. Along with our partnership with McLean-Mercer Regional Library, we are also part of the Central Dakota Library Network. Through this consortium, patrons are able to request and return books and media from the 16+ different libraries in our area. For a list of participating libraries, ask one of our librarians!

Furthermore, if a patron is unable to find a title in our network of libraries, a staff member may be able to request it from a library in another state.