At times the City Council showed it little sympathy. The early years of this fledging library were not easy for Miss Geer and her collection of books. As the Library grew more popular, the collection expanded into other rooms on the second floor of this same building. The rent for the room and the salary of Miss Geer were each $12 per month. Around 1912, a room above the newly constructed Columbus Candy Kitchen building on the northeast corner of 13th Street and 26th Avenue was rented and Miss Fanny Geer was hired as the librarian. The library continued to be housed in the City Council chambers which, at that time, was on the second floor of the Gray Building at the southwest corner of 13th Street and 25th Avenue. By ordinance the City Council established a Public Library and created a board of nine members to oversee it. In 1900, the Library had proved itself and became a regular city department. Rather than establish the library as a funded department of city government, the City Council agreed to allow the Woman's Club to install a few bookcases in the City Council chambers and use that room as a public library. On a cold and rainy night, all the members of the Woman's Club sloshed through the muddy streets and over the slippery wooden sidewalks to attend the City Council meeting. Realizing that a library needed tax support to provide the materials and the services required, the club petitioned the City Council to form a public library. The club secured pledges of support and donations of books from members and other concerned townspeople. In the late 1890's, the recently formed Columbus Woman's Club took up the library challenge. For a time it was well received, but when the YMCA closed, the library was disbanded. Other books were solicited from the local residents and a new public library was opened. The Lamb and Stires Book Store, recently closed, had offered its remaining books and Bibles to the YMCA without charge. LaBock's Apparel Shop, decided to sponsor a library. Sometime in the late 1880's, the Young Men's Christian Association, which maintained rooms over Mrs. In just a few years, however, this grand experiment failed and the library was forced to close its doors. Anyone could become a member by contributing a few books to the collection and by paying the fee of $1 per year to purchase new materials for the collection. In the late 1870's, some residents of Columbus formed a "library association" to establish a lending library like those in the other towns springing up across the nation.
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