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==Library== ===History=== The City of Live Oak is the headquarters for the Suwannee River Regional Library System.<ref name="LibProUSF">{{Cite web|title=Suwannee River Regional Library|url=https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0000194/00001|website=Digital Collections|access-date=28 October 2022}}</ref> Live Oak had a small town library up until the 1940s, which was financed by the County with $25 a month. This first library was a small wooden structure located on the corner of Pine and Wilbur, originally used as the public restrooms for white women.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> In 1948, a library annex was included in the building expansion program by the Board of County Commissioners. This building was made of brick and housed the public restroom for white women, a draft board office, and the library. The draft board office and library shared space and personnel until the Fall of 1954. In October 1954, half a million dollars was budgeted by the County Commissioners, and the City Council approved $500 annually for the operation of the Suwannee County Free Library.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> The library opened on February 28, 1955, and had a collection of 3,100 books, some of which they borrowed from the State Library. Mrs. Sara Rogers became the first librarian after resigning her position as Chairman of the Woman’s Club Library Project Committee. Rogers resigned on April 6, 1956, to become postmistress, and was succeeded by Mrs. W.D. Richardson on March 15, 1957.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> In an effort to receive federal funds, the Suwannee Board convinced Lafayette County to join in a regional library cooperative in 1957.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> In 1958, the first regional library system was established in Florida, servicing Lafayette and Suwannee counties.<ref name="TenYearsALA">{{cite journal|last1=Nistendirk|first1=Verna|title=Ten Years of Florida Library Progress|journal=ALA Bulletin|date=May 1962|volume=56|issue=5|pages=413–415 |jstor=25696429 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25696429|access-date=28 October 2022}}</ref> By 1958, the library's collection had grown from 3,100 books to 10,000, and a bookmobile was established. In 1959, the regional library system grew to include seven different counties. On July 20, 1959, the Suwannee River Regional Library Board hosted the five incoming counties who all officially joined October 1, 1959. In 1960, the main library was located in Live Oak, with eight local units, consisting of over 23,500 books. The Miami Public Library gave 3,000 of those as a gift. The start of construction on the new Suwannee River Regional Library on Ohio Avenue South began on January 4, 1996, and the new building was dedicated on November 24, 1996. At that time, students included a time capsule to be opened on December 16, 2045, during Florida’s Bicentennial.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> ===Awards=== In April 1960, the Book-of the-Month Club awarded the Suwannee River Regional Library with the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award. In the U.S., there were only eight rural libraries to qualify and receive the award, and the Suwannee River Regional Library was the only one from the south to be nominated and win the $1,000 prize.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> On April 7, 1992, the Suwannee County Commission signed a resolution honoring the people responsible for the library’s thirty-five years of operation.<ref name="LibProUSF"/> In 2009, the Suwannee River Regional Library was one of two-hundred and eight nationwide institutions to win a Big Read grant and The Maltese Falcon was chosen as the book to highlight.<ref name="MalteseFalcon">{{cite journal |last1=Mitchell |first1=Marlene |title=The Maltese Falcon in Live Oak, Florida |journal=Public Libraries |date=October 2009 |volume=48 |issue=5 |pages=10–11}}</ref> The library hosted a 1930s themed kick-off party on February 5, 2009 that turned into a monthlong "whodunit" when the model display Maltese Falcon was disappeared during festivities.<ref name="MalteseFalcon"/> The library used the grant to start a tween book club and created programs for middle and high school students including podcasts, art projects, and a film noir marathon.<ref name="MalteseFalcon"/> The library distributed three-hundred copies of The Maltese Falcon to the community with additional copies going to the high school and eleven life-size cut-outs of Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade were distributed throughout town to garner interest.<ref name="MalteseFalcon"/>
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