Who We Are
Vision: Enriching Libraries Transforming Communities.
Mission: WMRL enhances its member libraries’ ability to serve their communities.
Strategic Focus: July 2015 - June 2020 (PDF) | (Webpage)
- Research and Development - Provide member libraries with research and development services to help them effectively leverage resources.
- Region-Wide Communications - Help facilitate a flow of information among WMRL and member libraries so that each can effectively serve their communities.
- Staff Development - Provide for the tools, training, and time to help ensure that every library staff member is engaged, skilled, and equipped to serve their communities.
- Collections & Support - Provide collections and support to help meet the needs of each member library.
Established May 13, 1967 as the “Western Maryland Area Library Service,” the regional library was created to “improve library service to all residents of Allegany, Garrett, and Washington Counties by providing a central collection of materials to augment and supplement the materials available in local library outlets and by providing staff for consultant, advisory, training, planning and coordinating functions in various fields, both general and specific.” The role of the regional library as the Regional Resource Center is formalized in Maryland Law, Education § 23-202 to § 23-205. The law established regional libraries and shaped their role in providing, through mutual cooperation and coordination, materials and services that individual libraries cannot adequately provide alone. Operating as “Western Maryland Public Libraries” for many years, the name of the regional library was formally changed in 2008 to “Western Maryland Regional Library.”
Key services currently provided by WMRL to the public libraries of Western Maryland include:
- Materials (DVDs, Blu-ray, audio CDs, and nonfiction books)
- Delivery
- Interlibrary Loan
- Online subscriptions (magazine and encyclopedia databases)
- Downloadable ebooks and audiobooks
- Staff training
- Web services
- Printing
- A unified online catalog system for Garrett and Washington Counties
- Western Maryland Historical Library (WHILBR) - digitization of historical documents
We can be contacted by mail at:
Western Maryland Regional Library
100 South Potomac Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740.