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About Henderson District Public Libraries

The roots of HDPL go back to 1943 when a petition to create the Henderson School Public Library was introduced, and then approved by the Board of County Commissioners, Clark County, Nevada, on January 22, 1944. The first library was located on Pacific St. in 1943.
On August 1, 1946,a larger library opened through a building lease at 55 Water Street in downtown Henderson to serve the residents of the Railroad Pass school district.
In the summer of 1950, the first Children's Summer Reading Program began with an enrollment of 76. A visiting exhibit, Indians of the Southwest attracted over 1,200 children to the library, with groups visiting every half-hour all during the day. Because of the increase in the number of children using the library and the number of new homes in the community, the Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the library building for renovation and modernization. The building program began in February 1953. The Henderson School Public Library became a county library district in 1956 during a special session of the Nevada Legislature in a major overhaul of education laws. At that time, statutes were written to convert school library districts to county library districts with identical boundaries. Subsequent to 1967, several additional library districts were formed including Clark County Library District, Pahrump, Smokey Valley, Amargosa, and Tonopah. Henderson and Boulder City Library Districts remained as previously formed in 1956. The original Henderson Library remained in the townsite house on the corner of Water and Pacific Streets from 1953 until 1989. It was replaced by the current James I. Gibson Library, designed by Tim Massanari of Massanari, Bemis Associates, and dedicated in April of 1989. Located in downtown Henderson in the civic complex, Gibson Library is a 16,000 sq. ft. full-service facility built at a cost of two million dollars funded by the sale of statewide bonds for library construction as approved by Nevada voters in 1985. The land has been leased from the City of Henderson for ninety-nine years. The building is named for State Senator James Isaac Gibson, 1925-1988, who served in the state legislature for twenty-nine years from 1959 to 1988.
The Mary Theresa Boyd Children's Room in the Gibson Library was furnished with a gift from the Eldorado Casino and is named for the late wife of Sam Boyd. Mr. Boyd started his business in Henderson in 1962, where his son, Bill, and grandson, Sam Boyd, Jr., continue to serve as leaders in the community. The Alper Aviation & Space Port is a gift from Arby Alper, former owner of the Sky Harbor Airport in Henderson, to the children of Henderson.
The Lydia Malcolm Library opened in September 1995 in a 4,000 sq. ft. storefront facility to service Henderson residents in the Green Valley area. With the opening of the Paseo Verde Library at Liberty Point in 2002, the Malcolm Library began sharing their space with the Southern Nevada Talking Books Library which offers services to the blind and physically handicapped. In February 2005, the Malcolm Library, along with the Talking Books Library, moved to a new building in the Seven Hills area, reverting to 4,000 sq. ft. for the public library. The Talking Books Library moved in July of 2006 to a new, separate location. At the Malcolm Library, patrons can find a wide variety of services and materials including Internet access, children’s story times, popular fiction and nonfiction materials, a comprehensive Classics collection, and a large audio book collection.
The Pittman Library is located off Boulder Highway in Wells Park. This library originated in 1988 when the Pittman Women's Club deeded its 1200 sq. ft. building to the City of Henderson, which in turn leased it to the Library District. In 1996 the old building was replaced with the current facility, named the Artie Cannon Building. In 2002, the library became the Library, when LSTA funds were used to set up a computer lab and training program involving volunteer youth trainers teaching young people aged 8 to 14 about using computers. The Library shares this building with the Boys and Girls Club and the Henderson Parks and Recreation Department in a cooperative relationship that supports special programs for children and youth.
Construction of the Paseo Verde Library in the Liberty Pointe Cultural Center in the Green Valley Ranch area was completed in August 2002. This building houses a Genealogy Collection, a Government Documents Collection, and a Friends of Henderson Libraries Bookstore and Coffee Shop, as well as the District's administrative offices.
Henderson District Public Libraries cooperates with the the other public libraries in Southern Nevada, the University of Nevada System, the Clark County School District, and all other libraries around the state to provide quality service for the residents of Henderson, Clark County and the state of Nevada.