page_title: Santa Clara County Library District
section_title: 1914–1958
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Clara County Library District / History / 1914–1958
caption_attribution_description: English: Miss Stella Huntington (standing at left), Miss Ora Regnart (standing right), and Miss Elizabeth Stevens (seated at typewriter) in 1916. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_Library
context_page_description: The Santa Clara County Library District is a public library system headquartered in Campbell, California. The library serves the communities and cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, and all unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County. San Jose, the county seat, is served by its own municipal library system. In addition to these libraries, the library provides mobile library service with bookmobiles visiting preschools, retirement communities, migrant farmworker camps, and rural communities without easy access to library services. In 2020 SCCLD also launched a new website featuring its 24/7 Online Library at sccld.org/.
  The Santa Clara County Library District has been repeatedly recognized as a four-star library by Library Journal. As of 2019, the Santa Clara County Library had a combined collection totaling 2.1 million items and served a combined population of 444,567.
context_section_description: In July 1914, Santa Clara County began operating a county library. Stella Huntington was appointed the first County Librarian and to begin operations, she purchased a typewriter, dictionary, and a desk with two chairs. In the first year of service the collection consisted of "6,127 books and reached a circulation of 49,048." Two years earlier, a one-cent tax had been levied for the purpose of supporting a county library. It provided $3,700 for the first year of operation. Seventeen branches were opened; the population of Santa Clara County at that time was approximately 90,000.
  Miss Elizabeth Stevens, later Mrs. Elizabeth Singletary, was appointed as the second County Librarian (1925-1959). By 1932, the Library operated on a budget of $25,000 and had a total of 30 branch libraries. In December 1932, the County Library assumed responsibility for library service to all County schools except those in San Jose, Palo Alto, and Santa Clara City.
  During the 1950s, Santa Clara County experienced tremendous growth and urbanization. By 1955, the County Library collection numbered 404,426 with a total circulation of 1,037,257. A staff of 45 provided service at 13 rural branches, 2 bookmobiles, and up to 116 elementary schools. In 1958, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a study conducted by Emerson Greenaway, then President of the American Library Association, that recommended a shift from a rural library system to an urban system. The study recommended hiring professional staff, developing larger book collections, and moving from storefront to appropriate library facilities.
caption: Miss Stella Huntington at left, Miss Ora Regnart at right, and Miss Elizabeth Stevens center, in 1916.
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