The Muleshoe Area Public Library is located in rural Bailey County in West Texas approximately 32 miles from Clovis, New Mexico.  The Muleshoe Area Public Library is the only library in Bailey County and serves a population of 5,217 in the City of Muleshoe.  The library also serves the communities of Sudan, Lazbuddie, Springlake, Earth all in Lamb County; Farwell, Friona, and Lariat in Parmer County, Threeway in Bailey County, Texico (in New Mexico), and Needmore in Cochran County.  The primary industry in the area is farming and ranching.  The library is fully funded by the City of Muleshoe.

The Muleshoe Area Public Library has a long history of community involvement.  It is considered the place to go for: lifelong learning, basic literacy, recreational and educational materials, local history and where one can find free and equal access to information.  The library serves as a community meeting place, a gateway to information, a community commons heritage center and a pre-school door to learning.  The Muleshoe Area Public Library is currently striving to also be the place to go for a technology center and for public computer access.  In the future the library would like to also become a place for cultural awareness and a center for workforce development.

 Existing Programs

The library provides a number of programs for the community.  These include:  

• Summer Reading Program for children ages 2 to 19.
• Blind date with a book.
  
• Hispanic Heritage Month.
• National Library Week.
• Interlibrary Loan.

Library Objectives

The general library objectives of the Muleshoe Area Public Library shall be:

A.    To assemble, preserve and administer, in organized collections, books and related educational and recreational material in order to promote, through guidance and stimulation, the communication of ideas to enlighten citizenship and enrich personal lives.

B.    To serve the community as a center of reliable information.

C.   To support educational, civic, and cultural activities of groups and organizations.

D.   To seek continually to identify community needs, to provide programs of service to meet such needs, and to cooperate with other organizations, agencies, and institutions which can provide programs or services to meet community needs.

E.    To provide opportunity for recreation through the use of literature, films, videos, and other art forms.

F.    To cooperate with other agencies, such as West Texas Library Systems and the Texas State Library for the betterment of all Texas Libraries, and to strengthen the services and resources of the library.