Hartshorne Public Library - 1949

Hartshorne is a small town in Southeastern Oklahoma.  We owe the beginnings of our library to Mr. and Mrs. Thrower in 1948.  They were the publishers of our local paper the “Hartshorne Sun”.   Hartshorne Public Library was organized by the Business and Professional Women’s Club in 1949.  The Library was compiled of donated materials and was manned by volunteers.  Mrs. Jewell Surry was hired by the city as librarian in 1957.  The Library has been located in several downtown locations before 1998 it was moved to its current location.
The Choctaw Nation Multi-County Library system, (later changed the name to Southeastern Public Library System of Oklahoma) comprised of 15 libraries in Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore and Pittsburg counties, was created by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries in the fall of 1967. 
The first computer with CD drive was purchased with a LSCA funds in September of 1993, but we were not on the internet until September 2, 1997.
Meanwhile, in 1995 spearheaded by Frances Schiller the Hartshorne Building Fund for the Future Committee was organized, their first project was the construction of a new library building.  They applied for and were approved for a building grant from ODL in 1996.  They reached their goal of over $400,000.   The City of Hartshorne had a groundbreaking for the new library on September 18. 1997.
The Library opened its doors to the new library on July 30, 1998.  Retha Roberts was the librarian at the time.  On October 16th of the same year Governor Keating and his wife Kathy visited our library.  We felt honored. 
In 1999 our library went online with SIRSI.  This allowed librarians and patrons to search a database for all the libraries in the system.  System library cards were issued.
Since then we have published a website that offers databases that are funded by several means.