Mission Statement
The mission of the Hendry County Library Cooperative is to provide its citizens with access to materials and information for work, school, and personal life that are both educational and entertaining.

Vision Statement
Our vision is to make our public libraries indispensable throughout Hendry County with the provision of comprehensive resources, quality programming, and excellent customer service.

History of the Cooperative

The Hendry County Library Cooperative is comprised of three member libraries, the Harry T. Vaughn Public Library in Clewiston (est. 1967), the Harlem Community Library in Harlem (est. 2000) and the LaBelle Free Public Library (Barron) (est. 1930) in LaBelle.  The Cooperative was created through the adoption of a new interlocal agreement in 2004 between Hendry County, City of Clewiston, and the LaBelle Free Public Library (Barron Library).  The mission of the Hendry County Library Cooperative is to provide its citizens with access to materials and information for work, school, and personal life that are both educational and entertaining. The goals (documented in the Annual Plan of Service) are to provide up-to-date resources, including electronic media, to meet their information needs at the Cooperative Libraries; to develop specialty areas to better serve all our patrons; to enable residents to have access to increased materials reflecting current topics and titles; to provide students of all ages with access to educational materials; to take steps towards serving as information and community referral centers; and to ensure residents have access to up-to-date resources in all formats.

State Aid to Libraries Grant

The success of the Cooperative is due in part to the annual funding support received through the State Aid to Libraries Grant.  Many of the Cooperative’s services and programs are made possible by the use of State Aid to Libraries Grant funds.

Services

• The library collection includes books, magazines, audio books, videos, and DVDs that can be checked out, as well as a wide variety of reference materials.

• The library has a collection of books and reference materials for children and young people. Games and puzzles are also available for use in the library.

• The library has computer workstations for patron use. Various software programs are available, including word processing programs, publishing programs, and encyclopedias, as well as many educational games for children.

• The library offers Internet access free of charge.

• The library has "quiet" study rooms available.

• The library's on-line catalog can be accessed through the Hendry County Library System's home page at hendrylibraries.org. Through the on-line catalog a patron may browse our collection, place items on hold, or view their "patron file".

• The library is a member of Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN), which enables patrons to receive a free library card and borrow items from participating SWFLN libraries.

Interlibrary loans can be requested for books, and other resources that are not availble in the library's collection.