From a small, upstairs room with lots of space and few books, Anne Gue has watched the Cole County Historical Society's library outgrow its second location in the museum basement.
As a child, Gue recalls sneaking behind her grandmother's sofa to touch the forbidden books in the Atlanta, Ga., home's floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
"I've always loved books; they're special in my family," Gue said.
After a time of teaching college physical education and rearing her family, Gue decided to return to school in the late 1990s. Although she had never heard of the society before she applied for the job, Gue has worked nowhere else with her library science master's degree.
When she joined the late historian Elizabeth Rozier and her daughter-in-law Geri Rozier, it was a part-time position paid through a grant. But when the money ended, Gue was happy to keep working, she said.
"I loved the history."
Before the society purchased the second of the three row houses in the 100 block of Madison Street, the library was housed in the upstairs of the Upschulte House behind the museum.
"We would find books anywhere we could," Gue recalled. "Now, we've run out of room."
It's a good problem to have for the location bustling each Monday with volunteers cataloguing new acquisitions and researchers thumbing through the yellowing pages.
"It's your baby; you grew it up," Gue said. "They wanted a library. If you're going to have people come here, books were important."
That has been the best part for Gue, helping build the library.
"Everything else was established," she said. "This is special. We've been growing from the beginning."
Her only disappointment now is they don't have a larger place where more visitors could come in to use the resources.
The society has bought very few books through the years and has benefited greatly from family donations.
The most used books are those specifically about Jefferson City; they're very worn, she said.
The six volunteers are busy collecting present-day obituaries and news clips for future historians, as well as cataloguing its enormous photo collection and constantly incoming donations.
"We get genealogy requests all the time," she said.
For Gue, she's in the library at least three days a week, always with the same goal - "to clean off my desk," she joked.
That's where new items and requests go first.
"It shows people are interested and know we'll take care of things," Gue said.
The ultimate goal is to collect all things important to Jefferson City and Cole County.
They also collect occasionally for neighboring counties, which don't have a historical society.
"We'll have the best file on Jefferson City when we're finished," she said.
As 2015 begins, Gue encouraged Mid-Missourians to visit the society's library and museum or even to volunteer.
"There's no more interesting place than this to volunteer."