Yakima Valley Libraries preserves its history in a time capsule
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Yakima Valley Libraries is celebrating 80 years as a library district. According to its website, the county library district was created around 1945.
Candelaria Mendoza is the executive director of Yakima Valley Libraries. Mendoza said reaching 80 years is an important milestone.
“The libraries are for the community. We’re very proud that for all the years since we started, we’ve been able to find and add more libraries. We are happy to serve the community,” Mendoza said.
The libraries serve Yakima County, and include over 10 community libraries in the area.
As part of marking 80 years, the library plans to create a time capsule. Mendoza explained that it is an important and traditional part of the celebration.
“It’s like a tradition we have here in the libraries. We started one in 1958 when they put up little papers of library minutes and little things of the time. And now we’re doing another one this year,” she said.
Community members are invited to donate items for the time capsule. Library staff want people to be able to open the time capsule in 20 years and have details of what happened in the library in 2024.
While the library is celebrating 80 years as a library district, the history of library services in the region dates even further back.
According to the Yakima Valley Libraries’ historical records, services to the community began in 1892 when the North Yakima Library Association established a circulating library. In 1889, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union started a reading room in north Yakima.
Historic recollections show that in the 1900s, with a growing population and more schools coming to town, different libraries were established in the valley, planting the seeds of what would become today’s library district.
Ary Esparza, the youth services coordinator with Yakima Valley Libraries, said people can bring their items for the time capsule to the Central Yakima location until the end of the month.
