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1977–1981
The addition: Construction of a major addition to the Main Library began in 1977; the Facilities Master Plan lists the addition's build year as 1979. The wing was finished and occupied across the turn of 1980–81: the genealogy department closed on 1 December 1980 and reopened in the new wing on 19 January 1981 (its move is told in the Genealogy Center entries below), and the library's own Main profile describes "an addition for Genealogy, Young Adults, and a public access television studio" completed in 1981.
The name: On 1 January 1980 the two governing boards — the Fort Wayne Public Library Board of Trustees and the Allen County Contractual Library Board of Trustees — merged, and the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County officially became the Allen County Public Library, by act of the state legislature. The name has not changed since.
Sources:
- Slater-Putt, Beyond Books (1995) — the 1 January 1980 board merger; ch. 3 for the genealogy department's December 1980 – January 1981 move.
- Wikipedia, "Allen County Public Library," timeline — construction of the addition began 1977; the 1980 name change by act of the legislature.
- Allen County Public Library, Main Library profile — the 1981 addition's contents; ACPL Facilities Master Plan, 2022 — the build years 1968/1979/2007.