A Century of Dedication

One hundred years ago today (January 27, 1916), Mooresville Public Library was dedicated. Click the images below to enlarge.

Front page of the Mooresville Times, Friday, January 28, 1916

Easier-to-read PDF version of newspaper article is available

Mooresville Public Library (the "Carnegie building") (1916)

(Photo by J. P. Calvert)

The 1916 library building was constructed thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation.  To give that some perspective, here's what the library purchased in 2011 with a $10,000 LSTA (Library Services & Technology Act) grant from the Indiana State Library.

ScanPro 2000 Digital Microfilm Scanner/Reader

That $10,000 grant almost covered the cost of the microfilm scanner (on the left in the above photo).  The library was required under the terms of the grant to put-up about $2,000 more to buy the unit; then the library had to purchase a computer and monitor separately (another $3,000 or so).  Clearly, ten grand doesn't go as far as it did a century ago.

Of course, inflation must be factored into the valuation of the U.S. dollar.  In 2016 dollars, the construction cost of the 1916 facility ($10,000) would be equivalent to $217,533.03 today.  So we can't really compare a digital scanner purchase five years ago with an entire new library building 100 years ago.  But it's amazing how much inflation there has been since Mooresville's Carnegie library was brand new.

Rather than recount MPL's entire history here, we can direct you to our online handouts that give all the details.

• MPL History
• PDF version of the Mooresville Times article (January 28, 1916)

It has been a century of dedicated public service at your library.  We hope to continue to serve our community for centuries to come.