Residents of the Village of Shorewood and Troy Township are served by the Shorewood-Troy Public Library. Fountaindale Public Library (Bolingbrook), Lemont Public Library, White Oak Library District (Romeoville, Crest Hill, and Lockport), Plainfield Public Library, and Joliet Public Library are all members of the Pinnacle Library Cooperative (Ottawa Street and Black Road locations). Patrons can put and receive holds from other libraries using a cooperative catalog. Residents of the Village of Shorewood and Troy Township had to obtain a non-resident card from a neighboring library to use the library before 1972.
The Burr Oak Library System bookmobile was scheduled to visit the Village twice a month under the Project Plus Books Program in 1972. A group created by the Village of Shorewood’s Park and Recreation Committee generated funds to pay for the bookmobile.
The committee contacted residents in February 1975 to see if they would support a community library. According to the poll, four out of five locals want a library. In August of that year, a demonstration library was inaugurated in Shorewood Plaza, pending ratification of a referendum scheduled for April 1976.
The 1976 referendum was carried by a 2-1 majority, and the demonstration facility became the official, tax-supported library for the Village of Shorewood and Troy Township. The library relocated to a larger location in Shorewood Plaza a few years later. In June of 1984, the library sought for and received a $250,000 Library Services and Construction Act funding from the Illinois State Library. In August of 1985, it was moved from Shorewood Plaza to its current location and opened to the public.
The Shorewood-Troy Public Library completed the lower level in 1992-93 with the help of a $75,000 Library Services and Construction Act grant, which presently houses the Youth Services department and a conference space. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prompted the installation of an elevator and wheelchair-accessible toilets.
