Established in 1973, the Broward County Library in the United States was the result of a campaign by the Friends of the Fort Lauderdale Library. The system began issuing borrower cards on June 17 of 1974 for 270,000 items in four branches. Over the following three decades, many of the municipalities in Broward County elected to join the county library system. These included Lauderdale Lakes, Coral Springs, Miramar, Lauderhill, Hallandale, Dania Beach, Margate, Sunrise, Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach. Ongoing construction, included that funded by a $139.9 million bond issue approved by voters in 1999, has yielded the current total of 36 branch libraries and the eight-story Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The Main Library houses a Patent and Trademark Depository, the Florida Center for the Book, and the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, and Gallery Six, a public fine arts exhibition center. Image File history File links Bclmain. ...

In 2002, the BCL opened the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, a 60,000 square foot facility with a 300 seat auditorium and Small Business Resource Center.

The Broward County Library was named "Library of the Year" in 1996 by Library Journal and Gale Research. The library now operates on a budget in excess of $60 million, holds more than 2.8 million items, and has over 9 million visitors a year. This information was taken from [1]. Image File history File links Aarlcbcl. ...