The Crafton Public Library was founded in 1936 by the Crafton Women's Club. Book and money donations were solicited and the library opened its doors in a room at the 1st Ward School on January 25, 1937. In February, 1937, in an article praising the library, a call was made for a community center for Crafton. Some time later, needing more room, the library was moved to a room in the Borough Building. In 1947, Miss Margaret Riley was the librarian. From 1949-1950, the library registered over 4500 people for cards and had a circulation of approximately 15,000. From 1951-1952, Margaret Wood was the librarian. Mrs. Margaret Broglie came on board in 1953 as Assistant and was appointed Librarian in 1955. On February 21, 1959, she oversaw a move to quarters at 49 Station Street, and in 1961 successfully applied for State Aided Status for the library.
On July 21 of 1971, the library moved to 70 East Crafton Avenue and
remained there until 1996. Mrs. Broglie retired in 1991 and Nancy
Eardley was hired for the position. In April of 1993, Borough Council
bought the Hultman Building adjacent to the Borough Building and with
the help of a Keystone Grant from the State Library began renovating it
for a library and Community Center. The library moved into its new
quarters in 1996. Jayme Gardner, Denise Brna and April Karbowsky all
had short sojourns as librarian between 1998 and January of 2003 when
Kathy Robinson was appointed librarian. The library is a full member of
the Allegheny County Library Association, a federated library system
and fully participates in the EINetwork, which provides an Integrated
Library System shared by all public libraries in ACLA, and public
access computers. As a member of ACLA and a State-Aided Library, the
Crafton Public Library is eligible for Allegheny Regional Asset
District funds distributed by ACLA. With the additional financial
support and the impetus of new quarters, the library has experienced
steadily rising circulation and usage. A children's librarian has been
added to the staff and runs the very successful summer reading programs
and provides story times for the community's young.
