Webster Parish Library
Islandora advanced search
The Louisiana Library commission began operations in 1925, a time at which there were no libraries in the state offering parish-wide service. There were only five free public libraries operating under the law in Louisiana, and fifty-nine parishes had no public library of any kind. The passage of the library law, Act 36 of the1926 legislature, which provided for the establishment of financing of parish libraries by local police juries, stimulated interest in libraries over the state.
The Webster Parish Library system, the fourth to be established in Louisiana, began in 1929 and owes its start largely to the Women's Department Club. In 1925 Dr. Mary Mims arranged a meeting between club president, Mrs. Robert Baker, and the newly appointed Executive Secretary of Louisiana Library Commission, Miss Essae M. Culver. From that meeting the club's first library committee was appointed for the purpose of obtaining signatures to petition the Webster Parish Police Jury to establish a parish library.
In August 1963, Webster Parish was given property and money for a new library facility. The "Old Ferguson Home" was given as a gift from Miss F. Dell Brown. The property was deeded to the parish under terms of the will of the late Mrs. Edmond L. Stewart, sister of Miss Brown. In 1980, the home received approval as a national historic site from the Louisiana State Review committee for the National Register of Historic Places.
The Webster Parish Library has continued to thrive and the new library was built in 1996. The new building has 16,387 square feet of heated space. Including the branches in Springhill, Sarepta, Cotton Valley, Doyline, Heflin and Sibley, the library has about fifty-two employees and a collection size of over 107,000 items consisting of books, magazines, newspapers, microfilm, books on tape and CD, videos and DVDs, audio visual equipment and audio CDs.
Islandora Collection Search
Contact the Louisiana Digital Library
Permissions/rights/reproduction and information requests:
The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is composed of collections from many different institutions. Permission to publish and acquire images or requests for more information about materials that you find in the LDL should be directed to the institution that contributed the item to the LDL. To find the contact who can help you, find the field called "Contact Information" next to the image of interest to you. The Louisiana Digital Library is a service provider only and has no authority to grant permission to publish or supply high-resolution images.
- Louisiana State Museum: lsm@crt.state.la.us
- Louisiana State University: diglib@lsu.edu
- Louisiana State University Shreveport: libarchives@lsus.edu
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center: digitalarchives@lsuhsc.edu
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport: http://lib.sh.lsuhsc.edu/
- Louisiana Tech University: specialcollections@latech.edu
- Loyola University New Orleans: archives@loyno.edu
- McNeese State University: archivesdept@mcneese.edu
- Nicholls State University: http://nicholls.libguides.com/archives
- Northwestern State University of Louisiana: wernet@nsula.edu
- Southern University: archives@subr.edu
- State Library of Louisiana: lacoll@state.lib.la.us
- The Historic New Orleans Collection: louisquery@hnoc.org
- Tulane University: digitallibrary@tulane.edu
- University of Louisiana Lafayette: archives@louisiana.edu
- University of Louisiana Monroe: http://ulm.edu/library/archives/
- University of New Orleans: libspec@uno.edu
- Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park: curator@bayouvermiliondistrict.org
Technical assistant/site support
The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. It runs on the Islandora open-source digital repository software.
LSU Libraries' Technology Initiatives: lsudiglib@lsu.edu.
Thanks for your interest in the Louisiana Digital Library.
About the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL)
The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is the front door to Louisiana's digital cultural heritage. Members include public libraries, academic libraries, museums, and archives from arcross the state.
Currently, there are 25 participating institutions in the LDL. Each institution contributes the digital items and the descriptive text for their collections.
- Calcasieu Parish Public Library
- Delgado Community College
- East Baton Rouge Parish Library
- Law Library of Louisiana
- Louisiana State Archives
- Louisiana State Museum
- Louisiana State University
- Louisiana State University at Alexandria
- Louisiana State University at Shreveport
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
- Louisiana Tech University
- Loyola University New Orleans
- McNeese State University
- Nicholls State University
- Northwestern State University
- Southern University
- State Library Of Louisiana
- The Historic New Orleans Collection
- Tulane University
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- University of Louisiana at Monroe
- University of New Orleans
- Vermilionville Living History Museum & Folklife Park
- Webster Parish Library
The LDL is built with Islandora, an open source digital library system based on Fedora, Drupal, and Solr.
Information about the Louisiana Digital Consortium can be found here: http://louisianadigitalconsortium.org