Who We Are


Located in downtown Iron River, Michigan, the West Iron District Library is a friendly, local resource for fiction and non-fiction books, DVDs, music CDs, reference books, internet, and printing access as well as engaging free programs and events for the whole family.

Our Mission


The West Iron District Library promotes knowledge, understanding, and wisdom by providing the best possible educational, cultural and recreational resources and programs, personnel, and facilities to every library user.

Our History


After the closing of the Carnegie Library in 1967, a new library was established as a one-room facility in the basement of the Iron River City Hall.

In 1995, a much-needed change of location occurred with the help of a generous donation by local attorney, Les Fisher, and his sister Aileen, a nationally known author of children’s books. They purchased the Selin building and donated it to the library. The renovated former hardware store, measuring 6,500 square feet, became the library’s new home.

Due to strong program attendance, ongoing collection development, and the public’s appetite for computers, the library once again became “space-challenged.” In 2002, the neighboring establishment-Header Inn-was purchased and dismantled. Plans for a 3,500-square-foot addition that would enlarge juvenile, young adult, and adult collection areas, provide a computer room, relocate the staff workroom, and dramatically increase program space were made.

With a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs grant, public donations, The Friends of the Library support, and generous bequests from Robert H. Loo and J. Patrick White, the new addition opened in August 2008.

In 2016, with the generously donated funds from J. Patrick White, the Les Fisher Trust, Pearl Andreoli, Eunice Jones, and fundraising efforts of the Friend of the Library, the Reader’s Courtyard was completed, allowing the Library to include green space, providing a space for outdoor programming, and space for patrons to gather and read and for our youngest patrons to play.

Library Bill of Rights


The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

  1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. 
  2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. 
  3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment. 
  4. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas. 
  5. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views. 
  6. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
West Iron District Library