Mission, Vision and Purpose
The Mission of the Alma Public library is to promote literacy, build community, and encourage lifelong learning.
The Alma Public Library is an essential, beloved, vibrant destination at the heart of our community on the banks of the Mississippi River where all generations can gather, connect, discover, create, and belong. We provide resources, programs, and services that enrich, engage, and inspire.
Find Us
Alma Public Library
P.O. Box 217
312 N Main Street
Alma, WI 54610
Located on The Great River Road, Highway 35, at Lock & Dam No. 4
We are part of the Winding Rivers Library System.
Library Policies
Library Staff
Director/Librarian
Laura Toone is passionate about libraries serving their communities in relevant ways, going beyond books to become a place where all feel welcome to gather, explore, grow, and belong. To that end, the library continues to offer and add programs for a variety of ages and interests. Check out our events page for more details and come be a part of it!
Laura is originally from California and lived many years in the mountain West, where she graduated from Utah State University. She has also lived in and traveled to many other interesting places around the world, including Argentina, where she learned to speak Spanish. Laura currently lives in Mondovi with her husband and four of her five children. She’d love to meet you. Stop in and say hi!
Collections Care: Nikki Herold
Programming & Publicity: Laura Pettersen
Assistants: Judy Stoltman, Sarah Cook
Library Board
President: Cindy Duley
Vice President: Shelly Cherry
Secretary: Andrea Goeldner
Treasurer: Kim Brommer
Trustee: Carolyn Grisen
Trustee: Gary Wolf
School Representative Trustee: Sherry Brevick
City Council Representative: Gary Jepsen
Volunteers
If you are interested in volunteering at the library, please give us a call or stop in. What a great way to support your community!
Library History in Brief
adapted from a history written by Marie L. Marquardt, Former Library Director (~2010)
Ledgers and meeting minutes from 1939 listed Mohr, Brevick, Harrison, Bachhuber, Anstensen, Drew, Kelly, McCabe, and Gladys Stohr. These first participants in an official library association (the Alma Free Library) were concerned with paying $6.00 a month to lease space in the Schreiber building; worried about overflow of donated books on the shelves, electing officers, sending notices to the Buffalo Journal, and assigning responsibilities. Eventually Miss Ottilia Neumeister was hired as librarian in 1943. It seems that for only twenty-five cents a year you could join the Alma Free Library association and have a vote in how it was run. So this was the official beginning.
The library officially became “public” back in 1965 when it moved into the city building (formerly the teacher’s college and which is now the Alma Museum). With a spacious room, paneled walls, new carpet, a collection of 4,200 books and Miss Alice Johnson as the librarian, the public library was launched.
APL celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1989. What a milestone that must have been! The library had just expanded to a large, bright room adjacent to the City Hall with 8,500 volumes, modern equipment, cassettes, tapes, TV, VCR, all under the direction of librarian Linda Torgerson. One special speaker for the open house was Gladys Stohr who had continually served on the library board for the entire 50 years. This was an impressive stepping stone, full of hard work and service, but it was not the first.
Alma Public Library joined the shared system (part of Winding Rivers Library System) in May 2007: a next step up after automating the library in the year 2000. It took one year to re-barcode the entire library so that our new barcodes could be read at any library in the Winding River Library System. So many new services for the public were gained by this automation, namely the ability to request books from one’s own home computer and have them delivered to the library.