History:

Case Halstead began as a public library in 1938 when Eckstein Case donated a house, the present location, to the city of Carlyle. The house was constructed in approximately 1860. Since 1938, the library has added an east addition in 1975 and a north addition in 1993.

Our card catalog, circulation activities, and office/work area are equipped and fully automated with Lewis and Clark Library System. Also, our patrons presently have the use of five computers for Internet access.

Our total holdings at the present time is approximately twenty-six thousand items with the main portion being books. However, we do have a selection of videos for children and adults, and audio/book cassettes. The children's section has a small selection of kits (books with cassettes), and puppets. We also have a collection of magazines for adults and children, and a small collection of educational CD's for in library use for the family. Our newspapers consist of the Carlyle Union Banner, Breese Journal, Belleville News-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and USA Today.

Our library has a collection of genealogy materials which mainly deal with Clinton county history. People are welcome to come in and use these materials, however, most of the materials are for in house use only. Also, we have some microfilm reels of Clinton county censuses and the Carlyle Union Banner newspaper from approximately 1860. One of the microfilm machines is a reader printer, and we also have one manual microfilm reader. Our genealogy books are a mixture of census records, family records and miscellaneous items.