About the Library

With innovative programming, an eclectic collection, and state-of-the art online offerings, the Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library keeps the best of tradition while riding the forward edge of current library ideas. We seek to redefine "library" everyday.

The Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library was born on March 12, 1936, as the Blissfield Public Library, when the Blissfield Village Council affirmed the vote of March 9, establishing a village library. Before then, in February 1935, federal and state, Depression-era programs helped establish a Blissfield branch of the newly-formed Lenawee County Library. When the federal and state dollars sputtered before running out completely, local residents joined together to put the library on solid financial footing by petitioning for a vote to establish a village library supported by village tax revenue. From the beginning, though, supporters wanted the library to serve the entire area.

The Blissfield Public Library moved around several times during the early years, finally settling in the old Jipson-Carter State Bank Building at Pearl and Adrian Streets in 1939. In 1956, the Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library was dedicated at its current location, an event made possible by a bequest from the estate of Martha Schultz. Mrs. Schultz and her late husband, Fred, designated that their combined estate be given for the construction of a library and a community room in memory of their only daughter, Erma, her husband, Harold Holmes, and their son, Fritz, all of whom had died in a tragic boating accident on Lake Superior. Library leadership also changed hands often during the early years before Carol Goff was hired in 1945. Miss Goff remained in charge until her retirement in 1978, when Barbara Klump took over for the next 25 years.

Today, an elected board of trustees establishes library policy and appoints a director. The library director and staff are paid from the library budget which is allocated to the library by the Village and overseen by the board of trustees. The Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library holds over 31,000 volumes in print, recorded and electronic formats, including local history materials, and provides public internet access, including a free wireless network. The library offers movies, evening programs for adults, the Taste the State program series, the annual Art at Your Feet public street art fair, and a number of youth programs, including StoryTime and Family Reading Night, video gaming and LEGO after-school programs, and the complex of Summer Reading Program Events and Challenges.