The Niobrara County Library has been serving Niobrara County since 1913. The first library was known as the “Stillman Public Library of Niobrara County;” named in honor of Lusk's only centenarian, Mrs. Sarah M. Stillman, mother of the late Cornelia M. Lusk who was the mother of the late Frank S. Lusk, co-founder of the town of Lusk. While the library was in a downtown location members of the Civic Improvement Club became interested in taking advantage of the Carnegie Corporation Plan and were the sponsor of a subscription drive where interested people gave money for the purpose of purchasing a suitable site for the erection of a building. The lots where the library currently stands (the corner of 5th and Main Streets), were purchased June 29, 1917 from Mrs. Lena Henry at a cost of $550. The Carnegie Corporation of New York agreed to donate a sum for building a free library as early as June 1914. It was not until July 3, 1918 that a resolution was acted upon and $11,000 was furnished to build the building. The library opened in its current location in September of 1919.
In the spring of 1999 a much needed addition with handicapped access was built to the east of the original building. Funds for this project came from federal, state, local and private donations.
The library is a busy place offering a wide range of services, programming and materials for circulation. A variety of reading material is available locally including periodicals and newspapers as well as Books on Tape and CD, music CD's, Videos and DVD's (educational and recreational). The online catalog offers literally thousands of full-text magazine, journal, newspaper and reference articles that can be read online or printed for future use. Downloadable eAudiobooks are also available. Patrons have over 30,000 items to choose from locally and over 1 billion titles through interlibrary loan.
