Along with the town itself, the Osage City Library has a very historic past. The Sorosis Club, a women’s literary group, established the library in 1922. They developed a collection by pushing baby buggies around town to gather books. In the mid 1920’s, Edward Lieber donated money to build the first library located at 214 South 6 th Street. The Sorosis Club consisted of 26 members; each member volunteered two weeks of their time to operate the library up until 1969. The library had outgrown their club and it became a public supported library in 1970. With community support, a new library was built in 2000 and the Lieber Library became the Osage City Public Library. A Community Room, that can be rented, was added in 2016. A plaque honoring the Sorosis Club’s years of service was put on display in the library.
The library’s motto is “More Than Just Books” and is very fitting. The library has a collection that loans out not only books, but a variety of items including Audiobooks, Cake Pans, Magazines, Movies and Television Shows, Music CD’s, Puzzles, and Video Games. The Audiobook collection includes CD’s, but also Playaways and Wonderbooks. Customers of the library also have access to Flipster, Hoopla and Libby; all are digital borrowing services that provide access to eBooks, digital audiobooks, music, movies, TV shows and magazines for users to enjoy free.
The library provides a variety of programs and services for all ages. During the school year, Story Time is held twice a week for those five and younger, programs for school age children are held after school on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s each week and Lego Club each month. When school is not in session, additional programs are held as well. A Teen Group meets to work on projects for themselves and for the library and the Adult Book Club and Bingo are held monthly. Art classes for adults and youths are also held at the library.
During the Summer, the library provides library programs and incentives to promote reading, as well as providing summer meals to those 18 years and younger. If you need to laminate, fax, scan or make color or black and white copies, the library provides those services as well as Wi-Fi and computer usage and a genealogy collection that includes local newspapers dating back to the 1800’s and Osage City High School yearbooks starting with the 1913 yearbook.
35,907 people visited the library in 2023. While at the library, patrons borrowed 25,826 items, used the computers 2,474 times and logged into the Wi-Fi 4,729 times. Patrons also borrowed 5,108 e-materials. 303 programs for all ages were held at the library with a total of 3,874 people attending those events. During the school year, 3,958 snacks were handed out to students after school, a program that is funded by grants and donations. The 2,131 people who have an Osage City Library card have access to a collection of 1,513,921 items.
The Osage City Community is important to the library. Library staff visits local daycares to provide Story Time and visit assisted living and nursing homes to play Bingo with the residents. In 2023, the library made over 200 visits to homebound patrons to deliver library materials to those who can’t make it to the library. The library partners with AARP to provide Tax Assistance and Catholic Charities who bring a Resource Bus that has food, hygiene and baby items.
Osage City Library is located at 515 Main and is open Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00 pm, Friday 10:00-5:00pm and Saturday 10:00-2:00pm. For more information, visit their website, osagecitylibrary.org, call or stop by the library to sign up for a library card and to pick up the monthly activity calendar.
The staff at the library includes Jeanette Stromgren, Library Director; Mavet Cooper, Assistant Director; Clerks Debi Totman, Cherida DeWitt, Cathy Brace, Pam Carey and Mary Buek.