About Us
Mission Statement
The Lincoln Public Library supports and enriches our community by offering programs, services and materials for the life-long learning pursuits of culture, recreation, education, information technology and social connections.
Vision Statement
The Lincoln Public Library is highly valued and widely recognized as the heart of the community's social and cultural life, contributing to the local economy and to Lincoln's ability to be a progressive place to live. The Library offers residents and visitors attractive, vibrant and accessible facilities with knowledgeable and personable staff, with innovative programs and with up-to-date technology.
Brief History of the Library
In 1852 the first library in what is now the Town of Lincoln was established in Louth Township. A year later John B. Osborne started Clinton Township's first library in the upper level of the Township Hall in Beamsville. Osborne paid for the upper storey, as a lodge room, and made available a small room at the top of the stairs with space for 200 books. These tiny, under-funded libraries were not well used, however.
In 1886 Moses F. Rittenhouse started a library in the Rittenhouse School in Vineland Station. He stocked it with over 500 books, two sets of encyclopedias, 20 bound periodicals, and 12 magazine subscriptions. Upon his death in 1915, the trustees of the library received $20,000 to endow the library and Victoria Hall. Fifty years later, when the school and Victoria Hall were expropriated for the Queen Elizabeth Way interchange at Victoria Avenue, sufficient money was on hand from the Rittenhouse Trust to build a new library in conjunction with tennis courts on First Avenue in Vineland Station