Like many public libraries across Kentucky, the Marshall County Public Library was founded under humble circumstances. As early as the mid-1940s, Marshall County residents were provided library materials through a collection owned by Murray State University. In the mid-1950s, a regional bookmobile shared with Calloway County was made available through funding from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

It wasn’t until 1955, members of the Benton Senior Woman’s Club began operation of the county’s first official library in a small room at Benton City Hall.  The Marshall County Board of Education provided some of the funding, but the responsibility to maintain a library in the county came primarily from members of the civic organization. Partially stocking the library with donations of books from their personal collections, the determined group of women operated the library for nearly a decade.

The Calvert City Lion’s and Woman’s Clubs embarked on a similar venture by joining forces to provide library services in the northern portion of the county in 1962. The first Calvert City Library, located in a back room at the United Methodist Church, held a collection of just 300 books stored on three shelving units.  Staffed with volunteers for the first couple of years of operation, the library would eventually move first to an old three-room house on Main Street, then to the former U.S. Postal Service building in the Main Street Shopping Center. When the city of Calvert City built a Municipal Services Building on Fifth Ave. in 1977, the library was housed in the basement of the facility.  Since 2006, the Calvert City Library has been at its current Park Road location and serves as a hub for activity in the north end of Marshall County with programs for children and adults, meeting facilities, along with the traditional offerings of books and movies.

The Hardin Homemakers, along with a group of concerned citizens, were responsible for securing library services in the south end of Marshall County. The Hardin Library opened in 1968 in the center of the community in a storefront next door to the town’s barber and beauty shops.  In 1975, the library board received a donation of land and a state grant to build a new library that opened in 2006 on Commerce Street. In 2010, the library opened a new constructed facility on Murray Highway.

The growth of the county’s three libraries was solidified by the decision to create a taxing district to help with needed funding in 1967.  Having operated for several years on small or no budgets, financial constraints were beginning to present problems for the independent library branches in the county in the mid-1960s. State funding was set to continue only if the county contributed a portion of the costs to operate the libraries.  In 1967, a meeting was held at the courthouse in Benton to discuss those financial challenges. During that meeting, the group decided to petition the Marshall County Fiscal Court to create a taxing district to fund library services. The measure was passed by the court after the group secured 2,700 resident signatures in favor and the Marshall County Public Library District was formed. This move united branches in Benton, Calvert City, and Hardin, along with the Bookmobile, under the direction of a five-member board of trustees.  It launched a series of expansions and improvements that have served to enrich the lives of residents in every corner of Marshall County.

The Benton facility that once occupied a small room staffed by volunteers has moved several times, first in 1968, to the old Marshall County Co-op building on Twelfth Street. Then in 1971, Marshall County was awarded a $184 thousand grant from the Kentucky Department of Libraries amortization program. Marshall was one of only three Kentucky counties in the commonwealth to be selected for grant funds to construct a new library that year. After its opening on Poplar Street in downtown Benton in 1971, ongoing growth led to an addition being completed in 2002 which added space for computers as well as larger meeting rooms.

In 2018, library officials found they were once again outgrowing the building in Benton and announced plans to construct a modern new facility at the former site of The Marshall County Health Department on Birch Street. The $6 million, 30,000 square feet, state-of-the-art facility which features several large community meeting locations, study rooms, a genealogy room, computer space, and a Makerspace was slated to open in March 2020. The planned opening was delayed when it coincided with the Covid-19 Pandemic that effectively shut down the entire country.

Eager to serve the Marshall County community and aware of the unique needs of residents during the Covid-19 shutdown, library employees in Marshall County joined those across the nation, tapping into creativity to keep books, movies, and other materials flowing into the hands of patrons. Contactless curbside pick-up of materials, craft take-home kits for children and adults, and online book clubs became the norm for several months in the early stages of the pandemic.

The library branches, including Benton’s newly constructed facility, finally began reopening to the public in phases during early summer 2020, though it would still be several months before in-house programs such as the weekly Story Hour and After School programs would resume with regularity.

The staff of Marshall County Public Library take great pride in continuing to build on the rich history our early founders set in motion nearly 70 years ago.  Just as that dedicated community of volunteers who came together to begin forming an organized library in communities across Marshall County, staff members see it as their mission to provide something for everyone who walks through the doors of the library. While our facilities are second to none, it is the employees who provide the creativity and passion for reading that has positioned Marshall County Public Library as one of the finest in western Kentucky and beyond.