Onondaga County Public Library history

Did the Syracuse library shut down in 1918 for the flu epidemic?

Provides access to a wide range of resources for genealogical and historical research. It includes all available records from the United States Census (1790-1940); military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; passenger lists and more.

A digitized collection of yearbooks from the North Syracuse School District going back to 1950.

In 1962, Onondaga Library System was organized as a cooperative non-profit association of SPL and other member libraries in Onondaga County, to provide shared services that would not have been economically feasible if attempted by individual libraries.

Following recommendations of a special committee formed to explore cost-saving consolidation, on January 1, 1976, SPL and OLS ceased independent operations and became the Onondaga County Public Library, with the city paying for branch library services and the county funding the remaining costs.

Beauchamp Branch Photodocumentation Project, 1994 Photographs of an African American community in Syracuse, New York that were collected as part of a photo-documentation project.

Michael Bragman introduced legislation in the NYS Assembly on January 30, 1995.

The library began operations on January 1, 1996.

By the fall of 1997, less than two years after its’ beginning, the new library board went out to the voters with a 4.25 million dollar building program.