Mason County District Library
The Mason County District Library (aka MCDL) is located in Mason County in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It is the district umbrella administration "board" under which the Ludington Public Library (city) and the Scottville Public Library (county) function. It consists of a seven-member board of trustees. The Ludington Public Library is in the city of Ludington in Mason County. The Scottville Public Library is in Scottville which is about 10 miles to the east of Ludington on the edge of the county. Mason County has a population of about 28,000 that the public library  administration system serves. History. When the library district administration board was created in 1994 with the merger of the Ludington City Library and the County Library in Scottville - the promise was made to maintain as much as possible 2 fully functioning libraries - that neither would be considered a 'branch' of the other. The Mason County District Library is the formal name of the "administration" for both libraries. Under the Mason County District Library system umbrella these libraries are referred to as the Ludington 'branch' or the Scottville 'branch.' The Mason County District Library administration system itself is not any independent  building. These libraries are each fully independent libraries maintaining the same open hours. The Mason County District Library is the formal name of the administration for both libraries but each library continues to be known as either the Ludington Public Library or the Scottville Public Library. The reason the board was established was to pool the resources of the city library (Ludington) with the county library (Scottville) and to eliminate duplication of services. The process was to develop a "board" of combining the resources of the city and county under one district library administration called the "Mason County District Library . It is designed to offer enhanced service" over the separate city and county library operations. There would be a .5 mill tax on property owners of Mason County and then no need for funding from the city or county. It would save the residents of the city and county over $100,000 per year starting in 1996. Divisions. The Ludington Public Library is a branch or division of the Mason County District Library administrative board. The collection of the Ludington Public Library contains 65,000 volumes. This library circulates over 170,000 items per year. The Scottville Public Library is a branch  or division of the Mason County District Library administrative board. The collection of the Scottville Public Library contains 35,000 volumes. This library circulates over 75,000 items per year. The Mason County District Library has over 95,000 volumes (Ludington library + Scottville library) and circulates nearly a quarter million items per year (Ludington library + Scottville library) to over 28,000 Mason County residents of which 10,000 are registered members. Current events. In July 2008, District Library Director Robert Dickson terminated the employment of Sally Stern-Hamilton for writing a pseudonymous book that "portrays these people (library patrons) in a very unflattering  manner" and whose cover includes a small picture of the Ludington Library. The author was fired for using work email to promote her book.