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[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of] articles on the City- ! County Public Library , system in Hancock Coun- J ty.l	<y|
by Prima Wusnack
Very soon, the dedica- . c tion of a new headquarters building for Hancock ‘ County’s Public Library ' System will be held. This r building represents a : dream come true for many people who have believed that anything is possible.
Although it took approximately seven months to construct, it is the . product of f forty-two years of faith, dedication, and hard work by people too numerous to name. j
Our present library | system’s history began in j 1934 as a Works Progress j Administration Project, 'j Miss Louise Crawford was the first librarian. The library consited of two hundred books in a ■ room donated by the Hancock Bank. The city of Bay St. Louis provided^ the library with a stove -and fuel, and Hancock i County offered lumber and workmen to build shelves. Undaunted by hard times and the j unbelieveably bad road , conditions, Miss Louise ■ soon set up many < branches in all parts of the County. She even used her car as the firstjai* “bookmobile”, so that as < many people as possible^ would have library ser- ► vice.	--“j
By 1948 Miss Louise’s . : collection had grown to ^
9,000	books and was, 'i moved to the ground floor of the Knights of £ Columbus building on j Main Street. It was 5 obvious that the library would continue to grow ‘ and require more ade^lj quate space in the future." j