Madison Public Library

Madison Public Library , originally called the Madison Free Library, is the public library system in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, consisting of a central library and 8 neighborhood libraries. Madison Public Library is part of the South Central Library System. It is the second-largest public library system in Wisconsin after Milwaukee Public Library.
Madison Public Library was created by city ordinance in November 1874 under the persuasion of Mayor Silas Pinney. It opened on May 31, 1875 as the "Madison Free Library" in two rooms of City Hall. It would keep that name until it was renamed the Madison Public Library effective on January 1, 1959. The original collection was a gift of 3,170 volumes from the Madison Institute, whose library had occupied the same space before the Madison Free Library was created. The collection increased by 200 after city residents were invited to donate books to the library on its opening day. The first librarian, Virginia Robbins, was paid $400 per year to "function primarily as a clerk to dispense requested books" and to supervise the Library, while the Library Board of Directors controlled all book selection and arrangement. She used beans to keep track of the number of books that were borrowed and what genre they were.

Wikipedia