About Us

The Village of Darien is a small community of approximately 1,600 people located in Southeastern Wisconsin, about 18 miles from the cities of Janesville, and Lake Geneva.

Darien’s original public library was organized by the Fairfield-Darien Book Club on December 16, 1922. On November 1, 1923, The Darien Public Library Association was organized. The first library was located in a second floor room in The Young Building in downtown Darien.

The Darien Pubic Library then moved to a small two – story house in the downtown area of our community.

In 2004, the library moved to its present location, a new building, at 47 Park Street, beside the Darien Elementary School. The new library is about 6,000 square feet.

Our public library is on the upper level. The increased size of the library’s beautiful new building has provided additional space for a new and enhanced library collection. At this time, in 2022, the size of Darien’s collection is 37,000 items, and is made up of books for children and for adults, music on C.D.s, movies, play-aways, audio-books, magazines and newspapers.

The Darien Library is a member of the Lakeshores Library Systems, which includes all libraries in Racine and Walworth counties, as well as the SHARE Consortium, which includes those counties as well as Kenosha and Rock counties. Through these associations, the Darien Library is able to be a part of a larger organization, to share databases and tech services, and to offer patrons the use of any items from the collections of these other member libraries.

The Village’s Senior Center is housed in the lower level of the library. The Senior Center has a full kitchen facility, and is used for many events, including card playing, children’s and adult’s programming, and other events. It can also be rented for something like a wedding reception or a birthday party.

Although Darien is one of the smaller libraries in the area, it is very beautiful, has a new and diverse collection, and provides excellent customer service.