CKLS' purpose

"The mission of the Central Kansas Library System is to help member libraries give their patrons what they want by extending library service to the unserved and improving library service where it already exists.

The goal of the Central Kansas Library System is to respond to needs articulated by member librarians and trustees through specific programs that offer a level of sevice not affordable in local communities. CKLS pools resources and used modern technology to help local librarians serve their patrons better. CKLS also offers direct services to rural residents and those who need special services because of disability. Anyone living within the System boundaries can get the library materials they want by using the collections of local libraries or by contacting CKLS directly."

• Cooperating with our colleagues to help all libraries meet the needs of all Kansans.

• Working together, helping each other at CKLS meet the needs of all our clients.

• Supporting local libraries, helping them give their patrons what they want when they go the library.

• Providing direct service to those who cannot go to a library or cannot benefit from regular library services.

  2007 CKLS System Plan, p. 5

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  CKLS' region

  Central Kansas Library System supports library services in 17 counties, covering 13,988 sq. miles with a total population of 187,750.

  Barton Cloud Ellis Jewell Lincoln	Logan Mitchell Osborne Ottawa	Pawnee Phillips Republic Rooks	Rush Russell Saline Smith
  Marci Penner, author of The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers and executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, defines eight rural elements in answer to the question "What does your community have that a visitor would want to see?" Below are examples of rural elements in our territory.
  Architecture Photos of 19th Century Kansas Architecture from the Kansas Geological Survey Photo Library Garden of Eden in Lucas. Review in Roadside America. Carnegie libraries in Kansas Carnegie libraries used for other purposes. Art The customs section below lists the cultural centers in the CKLS region. List of living Kansas authors with links to email and Web site addresses. Sponsored by the Kansas Center for the Book Kansas artists, art centers, galleries, museums and organizations. Commerce US 36 Highway Association covers a major east-west highway through Republic, Jewell, Smith, Phillips counties. Solomon Valley Highway 24 Heritage Alliance covers a major east-west highway through Cloud, Mitchell, Osborne, Rooks counties. Amazing 100 Miles Tourism Coalition covers a strip of Interstate-70 between Salina and Hays that includes Saline, Ellsworth, Russell, and Ellis counties. Map of Kansas bed and breakfasts Cuisine "Fun raising" cookbooks by CKLS members Kansas recipes Customs Cultural centers in our region. Belleville - World's fastest .5 dirt track, High Banks Cawker City - World's largest ball of sisal twine Clyde - Watermelon Capital Concordia - Stained Glass Capital Cuba - Rocking Chair Capital Downs - Storytelling Capital Ellis County - German Capital Ellsworth - Drover's Capital Ellsworth County - Chicken Fried Steak Capital Great Bend - Lustron Home Capital Kirwin - Goose Capital LaCrosse - Barbed Wired Capital Lincoln County - Post Rock Capital Lucas - Grassroots Art Capital Osborne County - Homestead Literature Capital Palco - Earthquake Capital Phillips County - Cow/calf and Hamburger Steak Capital Salina - Terra Cotta Capital Wilson - Czech Capital The Kansas Explores Club Web site lists: Four soda fountains in our area: Belleville, Concordia, Glasco and Hays Three coffee shops: Ellsworth, Hays, Salina One drive-in movie theater: Kanopolis One brewery: Hays Our area has two wineries near Ellinwood and Salina. Geography North Central Kansas Rural Development Council describes seven of our counties: Smith, Jewell, Republic, Osborne, Mitchell, Cloud, Lincoln. Post Rock Scenic Byway (K-232) in Russell, Ellsworth and Lincoln counties. Wetlands & Wildlife Scenic Byway begins in Barton county. Kansas Geological Survey Photo Library of agriculture, architecture, flowers, industries, landscapes, outcrops, transportation, and wildlife. Map of Geologic regions of Kansas. All 17 of our counties are in or are touched by the Smoky Hills. Parts of Phillips and Smith in the northwest are on the High Plains. Parts of Barton and Pawnee counties are in the center hump of the Arkansas River Lowlands. The factsheets below describe the rocks and minerals in the area and list places to see interesting gelogical formations. Smoky Hills Factsheet (PDF document) Arkansas River Lowlands Factsheet (PDF document) High Plains Factsheet (PDF document) Kansas also has lots of wild areas. Wildflowers and grasses groups plants by color, time of flowering, has a common and scientific name index, etc. Wildlife watching in Kansas describes numerous places to observe wildlife. Our region is in west side of "North Central," the east side of "Northwest" and northwest corner of "South Central" Kansas. Birding in Kansas is a good introduction to birdwatching in Kansas. Kansas County Checklist Project provides checklists of the species of birds that can seen in each county. There are seven Kansas state parks in our area. Cedar Bluff near Ellis Glen Elder near Glen Elder Kanopolis became the first state park in 1959. Kansas was once the bottom of a shallow sea. Lovewell near Mankato Mushroom Rock near Kanopolis Webster near Stockton Wilson near Wilson History Histories of CKLS members Search by city, county or date for Kansas newspapers (The Kansas State Historical Society has one of the best collections of local newspapers in the country.) First Newspapers in Kansas Counties, 1854-1864 First Newspapers in Kansas Counties, 1865-1871 First Newspapers in Kansas Counties, 1871-1879 First Newspapers in Kansas Counties, 1879-1886 The CKLS region has three state historical sites. Pawnee Indian Village Museum in Republic County Fort Hays in Hays, Ellis County Pawnee Rock in Pawnee County North Central Kansas Heritage Tour lists the museums and historical sites in eastern counties in our region: Republic, Cloud, Ottawa, Saline, Ellsworth, Mitchell, Russell. Northwest Kansas Heritage Tour lists the museums and historical sites in the western counties: Ellis, Rooks, Southwest Kansas Heritage Tour lists museums and sites in the southwest corner of our region: Pawnee County Search by city or county for Kansas property on national and state historical registers On-line history books: Barton County: Biographical history of Barton County, Kansas 1912 The Ranch at Walnut Creek Crossing The Ranch at the Great Bend Cloud County: Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas c1903 A Hoosier in Kansas, The Diary of Hiram H. Young, 1886-1889 A Hoosier in Kansas, The Diary of Hiram H. Young, 1890-1891 A Hoosier in Kansas, The Diary of Hiram H. Young, 1892 A Hoosier in Kansas, The Diary of Hiram H. Young, 1893 A Hoosier in Kansas, The Diary of Hiram H. Young, 1894-1895 Ellis County: The Golden Jubilee of German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas, 1926 The Migration of the Russian-Germans to Kansas An Old Trail Plowed Under - Hays to Dodge Ellsworth County: Ellsworth as a Texas Cattle Market, 1935 Jewell County: 1878 History of Jewell County, Kansas School Yearbooks Lincoln County: Souvenir History of Lincoln County, Kansas 1908 Indian Raids in Lincoln County Kansas 1864 and 1869 Ottawa County: Geographical Names in Ottawa County, 1934 Pawnee County: The Story of Fort Larned Phillips County: Patrolling the Santa Fe Trail: Reminiscences of John S. Kirwin Republic County: A history of Republic County, Kansas, 1901 Rush County: The Golden Jubilee of German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas publ. 1926 Saline County: Salina, Kansas - past and present, progress and prosperity - Souvenir c191? Ferries in Kansas, Part VII - Saline River, 1935 Solomon Valley: Exploring the Solomon River Valley in 1869, 1937 People Kansas Indian tribes lists and briefly describes tribes in Kansas. USGenWebMap allows you to click on counties to retrieve pages with lots of genealogical links for that county. Cemetery and obituary indexes by Jim Swan, CKLS Administrator Kanopolis Cemetery Records Obituary indexes: Plainville Minneapolis Great Bend Rush County County 1990 and 2000 census data from the Policy Research Institute at the University of Kansas County population (1980-2002), per capita income (1981-2001), assessed valuation (1992-2002) and employment (1980-2002) data from the Policy Research Institute at the University of Kansas County population, socio-economic, and employment data, historical and present data by Kansas Center for Community Economic Development

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  CKLS' financing

  The Central Kansas Library System receives 89.5% of its funding from a .75 General Mill Levy on rural property (i.e., property not taxed by a city library) in sixteen of seventeen counties in the CKLS region. Pawnee County does not pay this mill levy. The Jordaan Memorial Library in Pawnee County contracts for $8,500 for CKLS services. CKLS' 2006 amended budget is below.

  General Mill Levy	$967,000	89.5%
  Motor Vehical & LAVTR	$95,098	8.8%
  Pawnee County contract	$8,500	0.8%
  Interest on savings	$600	0.1%
  Other revenue	$4,000	0.4%
  Great Bend Public Library's share on Internet	$5,000	0.5%

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  CKLS' history

  In 1965, State Librarian of Kansas LeRoy G. Fox pushed through H.B. 621 establishing seven regional systems of cooperating libraries. These systems were created for two basic purposes:

  • to extend library service to the unserved:
  • to improve library service where it already existed.
  CKL Board President Bud Lewis in Great Bend and Hoisington Librarian Mrs. Walter Jonas organized CKL's first service and headquarters at 511 East Seventh Street in Hoisington. Claflin librarian Mrs. George Brunts and her daughter, Janice, and Mrs. Jonas and her daughters, Nancy and Janetha, processed rotating books for member libraries.

  In July 1965, Hoisington Rural High School speech teacher, Clay Thompson, began delivering rotating books in a station wagon borrowed from Leon Whiteman to libraries in Plainville, McCracken, Great Bend, Ellinwood, Claflin, Ellis, Downs, Long Island, Stockton, Palco, Russell, Lucas, Smith Center, Kensington, La Crosse, Hays and Hoisington. The first deliveries were three boxes of children's books, two boxes of young adult books and one box of adult books.

  By September 1965, the system had purchased a van with "Central Kansas Libraries" on the side. Until the late 1970s, the rotating driver selected the books, placed them in red yard-long wooden boxes for delivery. The driver had a key to each library because boxes of books were often swapped when the library was closed. In 1975, the driver made several rotations to Kensington's library before discovering that the Kensington Library Club had closed the library without telling the system. In 1978, librarians began selecting their own books from a rotating truck.

  To improve interlibrary loan, CKL gave telephone credit cards to member libraries. Librarians used the cards to call the closest large library for interlibrary loan requests.

  A statewide interlibrary loan network was established by October 1965. Librarians mailed to Topeka library postcards with their ILL requests. At 8 am each morning, Topeka library teletyped these requests to Salina and Hutchinson libraries. The three libraries owned over 1 million items.

  Central Kansas Libraries held its first workshop in Great Bend Public LIbrary on November 12, 1965. Forty-three librarians and assistants from 17 libraries participated. By that time 31 libraries in 13 counties were members.

  CKLS was officially organized July 1, 1967 under Title 1 of the Library Services and Construction Act. CKLS established by January 1, 1968 funding with its own mill levy on rural property. In 1967, a group of concerned citizens, who had been working together since the System legislation had been passed, hired the first CKLS administrator, Keith Trost.