Mary Ann Mongan

Mary Ann Mongan served as Director of the Covington, and later Kenton County Public Library, from 1958 until 1999. Under Miss Mongan’s leadership, the Library grew from a Carnegie Library with 11 employees and a budget of $66,000 with circulation of 95,123 items into a library system with 108 employees, a budget of $4,000,000 and circulation of more than 1.3 million items from 3 locations.

Miss Mongan oversaw the merger of the Covington Public Library, the Erlanger-Elsmere Public Library, and the Kenton County Bookmobile in 1967 to create the Kenton County Public Library. During her tenure, the Library System saw the construction of 3 modern facilities and the creation of the Northern Kentucky Talking Book Library. She managed migration of the Library into the information age, making the Kenton County Public Library the first public library in the area with an automated catalog and circulation system. More than 22,000,000 items were circulated by the Library during her tenure.

In 1998 Miss Mongan was honored by the Kentucky Public Library Association with the Margaret F. Willis Award for Outstanding Community Library Service. Upon her retirement in 1999, the Library’s Board of Trustees chose to honor her faithful service to the people of Kenton County by naming the main branch of the Kenton County Public Library in her honor.