Alamogordo Public Library first opened on March 1, 1900.[1]:1 Alamogordo was unusual for a Southwestern town at the time in that it was a planned community, the planning being carried out by Charles Bishop Eddy's and John Arthur Eddy's Alamogordo Improvement Company.[1]:2 The Eddys saw a library as being necessary for their community and they gave financial support to the Alamogordo Woman's Club to start the library.[4]:90 Ownership passed to an offshoot, the Alamogordo Library Association, and then to the Civic League.[4]:90 The Civic League retained ownership of the library until 1958 when it was sold for one dollar to the City of Alamogordo.[1]:7
The library had resided in a series of rented rooms until 1962 when a library building was constructed at 920 Oregon Avenue. The building was 10,280 square feet (955m2) and cost $175,000. John Reed of Albuquerque was the architect.[1]:8 The library building was doubled in size in 1987 to 20,764 square feet (1,929.0m2) at a cost of $871,042. The architect was again John Reed.[1]:16–17
In 2001 a block of land next to the current library was donated to the city to be the site of a new library building, planned at 40,000 square feet (3,700m2).[5] Bond elections in 2005 and 2009 to fund construction of the new building failed.[6][7]
Services
Alamogordo Public Library is a city-owned library, but library cards are free to all residents of Otero County.[8] (County government pays a yearly subsidy to the city for this service; in FY 2008 the subsidy was $35,320.[9]) The library has 112,000 items in its collection, including books, videos, compact discs, and magazines. There are extensive collections of Spanish-language and German-language books. (The German Air Force has a tactical training center at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, and many German families live in the city.) Inter-library loan services are provided. Through the Alamogordo Public Library's inter-library loan service, patrons can request any type of material that is usually available at a public library, including books, photocopies, microfilm, and consumer audio books. The library also has learning kits, board games, and an extensive "library of things" for checkout, including everything from cake pans to a pressure washer to museum passes. The library installed a system for automating collection and catalog records in 1995,[1]:20 and the catalog became available over the Internet in 2004.[10]
The library has 12 adult computers and 6 children's computers that are free to library customers and visitors. These provide Internet access and Microsoft Office programs; the children's computers have some educational programs. The library also offers free wireless Internet (WiFi) access.[11]
The children's Summer Reading Program is held every year. There are entertainment programs throughout the summer, and prizes given to all readers. In 2007 there were 1,496 children in the program.[12]
A homebound delivery program at the library offers free selection and delivery of books to customers who find it difficult to come into the library. The program operates in cooperation with the Alamogordo Senior Center's Retired Senior and Volunteer Program.[11][13]
Notable features and collections
Story Book Wall, created in 1963
The Story Book Wall is a collection of 247 tiles illustrating children's books and installed on the wall near the Children's Library. Drawings were created by local schoolchildren in 1963 and copied onto tiles. The project was carried out by the local chapter of American Association of University Women.[1]:9
The Eugene Manlove Rhodes Room, constructed as part of the 1987 expansion, holds the library's collection of Southwest books and materials. Within the room are a bank teller wall rescued from a bank in Vaughn, New Mexico and desks and other pieces of furniture from the early 1900s.[1]:16 In 1958 the Civic League purchased W. H. Hutchinson's collection of Eugene Manlove Rhodes materials and donated them to the library.[1]:8 The collection consists of books, correspondence, clippings, some magazines, and a few original manuscripts. These items and some other Rhodes-related items collected by past library director June Harwell have been photocopied, cataloged, and scanned into computer files and are available to researchers.
1 2 City of Alamogordo Budget FY2008. Alamogordo, NM: City of Alamogordo.
1 2 Townsend, David; Clif McDonald (July 1999) [1999]. Centennial: Where the Old West Meets the New Frontier. Alamogordo, NM: Alamogordo/Otero County Centennial Celebration. ISBN978-1-887045-05-6. OCLC41400788.
Alamogordo Speaker Series Subcommittee of the Friends of the Library, that produces an annual event with regional and cultural significance to the Otero County community
Alamogordo Public Schools sends students in the southeast of the county to Dell City Independent School District in Texas due to an inter-district agreement
Otero County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,839. Its county seat is Alamogordo. Its southern boundary is the Texas state line. It is named for Miguel Antonio Otero, the territorial governor when the county was created.
Alamogordo is the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 31,384 as of the 2020 census. Alamogordo is widely known for its connection with the 1945 Trinity test, which was the first ever explosion of an atomic bomb.
La Luz is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,615 at the 2000 census. It is located immediately north of Alamogordo and lies in the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin and on the western flank of the Sacramento Mountains. Until 1848, La Luz was a part of Mexico. The CDP gets its name from the Spanish word for "light."
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of Space History highlights the role that New Mexico has had in the U. S. space program, and is one of eight museums administered by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The museum has been accredited by American Alliance of Museums since 1993. The museum is also a Smithsonian Affiliate.
Dell City Independent School District (DCISD) is a public school district based in Dell City, Texas (USA). The district operates Dell City School, which covers grades Kindergarten through 12 and serves students in northern Hudspeth County. Dell City School is classified as a 1A school by the UIL. In 2016, the school was rated "Improvement Required" by the Texas Education Agency. In addition to northern Hudspeth County, it also serves areas of southeast Otero County, New Mexico as part of an inter-district agreement with Alamogordo Public Schools due to the area's lack of proximity to the Alamogordo district's schools.
Farmington Public Library is a public library system in San Juan County, New Mexico.
Eugene Manlove Rhodes was an American writer, nicknamed the "cowboy chronicler". He lived in south central New Mexico when the first cattle ranching and cowboys arrived in the area; when he moved to New York with his wife in 1899, he wrote stories of the American West that set the image of cowboy life in that era. He moved back to New Mexico in 1926 and continued to write novels. In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Alameda Park Zoo, located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, was founded in 1898 and claims to be the oldest zoo in the Southwestern United States. It participates in the Species Survival Plan for the Mexican wolf.
Alamogordo Daily News, founded in 1898, is a daily newspaper published in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States. It carries local news as well as syndicated content from Associated Press and others.
Thomas Branigan Memorial Library; often referred to as simply "Branigan", is the public library serving Las Cruces, New Mexico and is part of Las Cruces Public Libraries.
The Tularosa Basin Museum of History, formerly the Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum, is a history museum holding a collection of historical photographs, documents, and relics from Otero County, New Mexico. The museum is located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and is owned and operated by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society.
Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a general hospital, owned and operated by the non-profit Otero County Hospital Association, that serves the Alamogordo, New Mexico area. It is the first military/civilian shared hospital facility in the United States.
The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired is a state special education school with a residential campus in Alamogordo, New Mexico and a preschool in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It operates outreach programs throughout the state.
Flickinger Center for Performing Arts is a 590-seat theater in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This is also the name of the nonprofit organization that operates the theater. The Flickinger Center put on a variety of entertainment, including concerts, plays, musicals, dance recitals, and beauty pageants, both by professional stage companies and by local amateur groups.
Weed is a hamlet and a census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It lies alongside New Mexico State Road 24 on the southeastern slopes of the Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 7,215 ft. It has had a Post Office since 1885. As of the 2010 census, its population was 63.
Piñon is an unincorporated ranching community in Otero County in southern New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. It is in the pinon-juniper shrublands habitat with an altitude of 6,060 feet and is located at the intersection of NM Route 24 and NM Route 506.
The Alamagordo Municipal School District No. 1, also the Alamogordo Public School District or Alamogordo Public Schools (APS), is a school district that serves the communities of Alamogordo, High Rolls, Holloman Air Force Base, Mountain Park, and La Luz and portions of unincorporated Otero County in the state of New Mexico.
Alamogordo is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States.
The Alamogordo Woman's Club is a women's club based in New Mexico. It operates under the auspices of the New Mexico Federation of Women's Clubs (NMFWC). The club was created to provide Alamogordo women a way to serve their community. Of note was the Alamogordo Woman's Club's providing books to school libraries.
Alamogordo High School is a public high school in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It is a part of Alamogordo Public Schools.
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