About Us
Founded in 1933 by the "Tuesday Club", a group of civic-minded women, the Utica Library is proud to be one of the oldest libraries in Macomb County. It began as a volunteer library, with the original collection donated by citizens of the city. Before the establishment of the Shelby Township and Sterling Heights libraries, the Utica Public Library also served the citizens of those communities. In 1949 Utica voters, realizing that the library needed an established source of funding to flourish, approved 1 mill in perpetuity to support it. In the mid-seventies, after years of changing locations to house its ever-increasing collection, the city of Utica built the building at 7530 Auburn Road where the library still resides. As a member of the Suburban Library Cooperative of Macomb County, the Utica Library offers its residents access to the holdings of 20 libraries with a combined collection of over 200,000 items!
Today, the library is proud of its collection of 25,000 items, including DVDs, books on CD, and Kindles, as well as books, and proud to still be serving the citizens of Utica and the surrounding areas. With a tax base of approximately 5,000 residents, the library continues to struggle with funding, having yearly bake sales and book sales to help fill the coffers. But we have great support from our city and our residents, and look forward to serving our community for years and years to come!
Mission
The mission of the Utica Public Library is to provide books and materials to inform, entertain and enrich the lives of the people of our community. Furthermore, the library strives to encourage the intellectual development of its patrons, to support the free exchange of ideas, and to offer materials that give varying viewpoints on a broad range of subjects and topics. The library serves as a gathering place for its patrons to discover the joys of reading, thus broadening their lives and the lives of those with whom they come in contact.
Our Board
The Utica Library is overseen by a board of directors, which currently includes:
Kristy Kay DeRuiter
Megan Gerbino
Barbara Montag
William Osladil
Kenneth Sikora
Library board meetings are open to the public and are held at the library. Visit our calendar to see when the next board meeting is.