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About WADSWORTH LIBRARY

Location:

24 CENTER ST, GENESEO, NY 14454, US

Mission Statement

The mission of Wadsworth Library is to provide a comfortable and welcoming place for the creation and encouragement of young readers; for customers to access the tools required to find and evaluate the information they need; and to facilitate the discovery of materials that will stimulate their imagination.

Description

In 1869, the New York State legislature established the Wadsworth Library as a public library in the Village of Geneseo to serve the communities and schools of Livingston County. Geneseo is the county seat, nestled in the Genesee River Valley, bordered by the nearby Finger Lakes. Geneseo is a combined residential and agricultural community of 10,500 residents, 35 miles south of Rochester. It is home to the State University of New York at Geneseo, a liberal arts college serving 5,600 students.

The library meets the educational, informational, and recreational needs of the community through materials, informational resources, services, and programs offered in a welcoming, professional, and technologically-advanced environment. Originally endowed by the Wadsworth family, the library is now funded by the taxpayers of the Geneseo Central School District which enrolls approximately 900 students in grades K-12.

The library is included in a National Landmark Village listed by the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. An addition to the library was dedicated in March 1996 and a new Children’s Room was added in 2020. The library regularly offers educational and recreational programs for customers (preschoolers through senior citizens), which reached 5,440 people in 2019. The library had nearly 4,000 card holders, more than 46,000 visitors, and circulated nearly 70,000 items during 2019. Its collection is approaching 30,000 volumes.