The mission of the St. Ignace Public Library is to provide materials, resources, and services to foster the evolving educational, informational, cultural, and recreational enrichment of all the people of the communities served by the library.
The St. Ignace Public Library began as the Civic League Library in 1924. It started with about 100 books donated by Civic League members and was housed in the old city hall. Then for a time, the Civic League Library was housed with the LaSalle High School Library.
When the current Municipal Building was dedicated in 1940, the Civic League Library found a new home for its 1,000 volumes. In 1944, the Civic League stated the library was their most important project and formed a Library Board comprised of six Civic League members.
By 1954, the Civic League Library had 4,000 volumes and an annual circulation of 10,000. In 1969, when the Civic League disbanded, the library was turned over to the City of St. Ignace. It is now operated with a seven-member library board. In 1983, the library moved its 10,000 volume collection from the Municipal Building to Spring Street. The library’s annual circulation was nearly 12,000.
In 1993, the library received its first computer and began providing Internet access to the public the next year.
In 1995, the library was renovated, maximizing its space to capacity for its expanding collection and public-use computers.
By the year 2000, the St. Ignace Public Library had an annual circulation of almost 28,000.
In April 2005, the St. Ignace Public Library moved into its brand new $1.3 million building located at 110 W. Spruce St. The new facility was funded solely by grants and donations. At 7,000 square feet, the new building more than doubled its capacity from the old facility. The new library has a community room for library programs and public use. At present, there are eight high-speed public-use computers with plenty of room for expansion and high-speed connection capability for laptop computer users. The new facility has eight high-speed public-use computers and high-speed connection capability for laptop and tablet computer users. Our facility contains over 28,000 circulating materials, including regular print and large print books, magazines, music CDs, DVDs, eBooks, and audiobooks.