From its first days as a Library Association in 1840 to becoming the Carnegie-endowed Anderson Public Library in 1908 (its building is now the site of the Anderson Arts Council), today’s Anderson County Library has grown with the community.

The East Greenville Street main library was dedicated in 1971.  Over the next 20 years, a growing population meant more patrons, more needed services, more books and materials.  With the coming of the 1990s, computers were needed as well as other technology.  The library was rapidly outgrowing its building.

The Board of Trustees and then library director Carl Stone began serious attempts to relocate the library.  A consultant was hired in 1995 to evaluate the library’s system and to present a plan for a new library and the expansion of the branch libraries.  The completed plan was presented to County Council.  Funding was obtained through bond issues authorized by County Council and groundbreaking for the new library took place in the winter of 1997.

Total cost of the new library was $13.5 million, with $10.2 million of that used for construction costs and the remainder for books and materials.  It covers approximately 96,000 square feet.  The old library on Greenville Street is now the site of the Anderson County Museum.

The new Anderson County Library was dedicated on September 24, 2000.  It  has over 75 employees, over 300,000 books, an expanded video and audiobook collection, and a new music CD collection that, features 4,000 titles in classical, jazz, rock, blues, country, R&B, gospel, and bluegrass music, as well as Broadway shows and movie themes. 

There are over 60 computers for public use, with 27 available for Internet use, two of which are reserved exclusively for Genealogy research in the South Carolina Room. There are six computers in the Children's department , which is named the Scripps Howard Children’s Library, for use exclusively by children.  Computer training courses are held regularly; just check the Computer Training link on the Community Services page for more information on the times and dates.

There are eight Meeting rooms available for use on a first come, first served basis – one large room seating 250 which can be split into three smaller rooms seating 75, and four conference rooms seating 10.  Check the Meeting Rooms link on the Services page for information on reserving any of these for your group. 

Our hours are posted for the main library on the Hours page, and for all of the branches on the Branches page. We’re very proud of Anderson County's library and hope you’ll visit us soon.