Library in Cottonwood

The Story of the Library in Cottonwood

Community support for the Cottonwood Public Library grew in 1970, when residents formed a friends-of-the-library group — chaired by Erno Bertalan and named "Bookmarks" — to help fund and expand the library. The group's first goal was a dedicated building, and after community fundraising a new library was dedicated by Jennie Garrison on October 13, 1973, during a two-day open house attended by state and county officials.

In January 1992, Cottonwood voters approved a one-fifth-of-one-cent sales tax increase to raise $1.8 million for a larger 15,440-square-foot library, which opened on June 20, 1994 and introduced the library's first computerized system. The building was expanded again on October 15, 2008, adding roughly 8,750 square feet at a cost of about $2.7 million.

About Public Libraries in Cottonwood

The Cottonwood Public Library is a City of Cottonwood municipal library and a member of the Yavapai Library Network (YLN), a partnership of dozens of public, academic, and school libraries across Yavapai County that share a single catalog of more than a million items. Library cards are free to all Yavapai County residents — you only need a photo ID and proof of your current address. A YLN card lets you borrow print materials and place holds across every member library, plus access eBooks, audiobooks, and online resources.

Reading Arizona is a free statewide collection of eBooks and audiobooks about the people, places, and history of Arizona, delivered through the Libby app and supported by the Arizona State Library. The Digital Arizona Library (DAZL) gives every Arizonan free online access to reference databases, articles, digitized newspapers, maps, and historical materials.

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