The Chicopee Public Library is the public library for the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts. A member of the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System (WMRLS), the library participates in resources sharing and collaboration with all other libraries in the WRMLS. The library owns approximately 109,000 books according to the 2005 IMLS Public Library Report. In addition, they have 4,200 media items and send and receive over 35,000 interlibrary loan requests. In the fiscal year 2008, the city of Chicopee spent 1.1% of its budget ($1,401,141) on its public library, around $25 per person. History In 1851, Massachusetts towns and cities were legally authorized to designate funds for libraries. On March 11, 1853, an article was issued "to see if the town will take measures to establish and maintain a public library for the use of the inhabitants of the town and appropriate money therefore, as petitioned for by John Wells and others". The town accepted the article, establishing the first free public library in the Western part of the state. In 1853, 900 books were donated to the city by the Cabot Institute, a literary and social club of at least 150 members, including D.K. Pearson, a local doctor who also donated money to Mount Holyoke College for the building of Pearson's dormitory, and John Chase, who planned and built the dams to power the mills in Chicopee. In 1863 library duties were performed by the town clerks, among them J.R. Childs, William L. Bemis and Lester Dickinson. In 1864 the Town of Chicopee voted to "put [the duties of the library] in the hands of a library committee and such remained the official designation of the officers until acceptance of the present charter". John Wells (1864–1875), Edwin O. Carter (1864-1800) and Simon G. Southworth were among the first committee of the library. From 1857 to 1864, George V. Wheelock was the elected librarian of the library. The first library catalogue was printed in 1859, with a supplement issued in 1866. In 1872 the library moved Cabot Hall to City Hall. A second catalogue was printed in 1875. In 1879 the library committee began sending books to a second branch of the library in Union Hall, Chicopee Falls, where Miss Gorton acted a librarian for the salary of twenty cents per week. In 1884 the library received US$500 to pay for the expansion of the Chicopee Falls branch into a room