Seaford District Library

Mission Statement: "We partner with the community to provide resources for individual and community development and success." In 1902, there were very few libraries open to the public. In Seaford, a group of women formed the Acorn Club as a vehicle t...

Mission Statement: "We partner with the community to provide resources for individual and community development and success." In 1902, there were very few libraries open to the public. In Seaford, a group of women formed the Acorn Club as a vehicle through which they could improve their community. Their goal was to establish a public library. The first meeting of the Acorn Club was in a rented room to which each member brought a chair, a book, and a cup and saucer. They voted to start a library with books from their own homes as well as material borrowed from the traveling library available through the State Library in Dover. Each member served as librarian for a month until a part-time librarian was hired for $1 a week. And by 1909, there were 404 books in the library’s collection. Service to Seaford’s surrounding rural community was met by one of the State’s first bookmobiles in 1912. Seaford Librarian Mary Hopkins purchased a touring car, stacked books on the car seats, and visited nearby farms loaning books and magazines. The Seaford District Library continued to grow and was moved several times. The first move was from the room over Milligan’s store at the corner of King and Pine Street to the Acorn Club House on Hall Street in 1939. The library moved again to the old Henry White brick building on Pine Street until the completion of the present North Porter Street building in 1963. An addition to the building in 1987 almost doubled its size, adding more room for book shelves and offering a large meeting room for community use. In December 2009, the library relocated to the current location of 600 N. Market St. Ext. again doubling in size. The new facility has a computer training room, an exhibit/conference room, and a community multi-purpose room. A teen area was added and a children’s program room. The new building was named Seaford Library and Cultural Center. Today, the library has a collection of over 28,558 books, videos, music, audiobooks and magazines. Our library services include outreach programs to local schools, daycares, nursing homes, and children’s organizations. The library is the community center for wellness classes, job coaching, social services, GED classes and testing, parents as teachers, expungement services, high speed internet, tutoring, summer read and feed, and much more. We are a partner with the Seaford community providing resources for individual and community development and success.