In 2004 when the Collinsville Memorial Library District decided to change its name to the Mississippi Valley Library District, it was with the idea that if the district  ever opened another library in its area, the new library satellite would have the name of the community for personality and ownership reasons for its constituents.

On June 1, 2008 the MVLD opened a small satellite library in a small classroom in the Fairmont City community to test the viability of maintaining a service for the outreaches of its boundaries and to test the reactions of the people to the effort. The Fairmont City Library Center now joins the Collinsville Memorial Library Center in the Mississippi Valley Library District.

The Mississippi Valley Library District is located in the MetroEast portion of Illinois just adjacent to St. Louis, Mo. in the Lewis and Clark Library System. Today it covers the communities of Collinsville, Caseyville, State Park and Fairmont City. A total of approximately 35,000 residents voted in 2006 to join the then library district serving only the city limits of Collinsville.

The Fairmont City Library Center was only to remain open for the months of June and July of this year but with less than one month of service time in the community, MVLD was approached by an interested group to make the Center more permanent. The American Legion of Fairmont City has been struggling for a number of years to remain open due to declining membership. Some of its officers approached the Board of Trustees of the Library District and offered a partnership that would allow the Library Center to share parts of its existing building with the American Legion. The offer was gladly accepted and both groups are now working toward moving the collection of books and other various media to the new location at the end of July and opening again in mid-August. 

One of the interesting aspects of the new Library Center is that it will share the building with an existing American Legion bar. With assurances from noted library lawyer Phil Lenzini, the Board and the community of Fairmont City has been assured that this will not cause any conflicts legally.

The Fairmont City Library Center will serve a previously large unserved Illinois area. So at this time the Board of Trustees and the Staff at the Mississippi Valley Library District would like to proudly announce the birth of the newest library service in a successful growing Illinois community of libraries!