On March 21, the Greater Easley Chamber of Commerce presented its Annual Small Business Awards at Tri-County Technical College-Easley Campus. Sponsored by Truliant Federal Credit Union, several businesses and individuals were honored for their leadership and community service.
Among those awards, the Pickens County Library System was honored as the 2023 Pillar of the Community, which honors a long-standing business that contributes to building a strong foundation for our Easley-Powdersville community and is highly respected as an important stakeholder in making our community resilient, vibrant and successful.
The Pickens County Library System is an organization with over 90 years of service and leadership to our community. In 1929, local efforts began to establish a public library for Easley with two bookcases housed in Edwin Bolt’s store on Main Street. While small, this library was to become the nucleus of what is now the Pickens County Library System. By 1935, the Pickens County Library Association was organized, and by the end of the first year, over 4000 books had been donated. In 1947, the City of Easley bought a corner on West First Avenue where a colonial building was constructed and later expanded in 1968. In 2001, nine acres of land were purchased on Biltmore Drive in Easley, providing the location of the current Captain Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library, which opened to the community in February 2005.
In addition to the Easley location, the library system has expanded over the years to include three other branch locations: the Sarlin Branch in Liberty, the Central-Clemson branch, and the Village Branch in Pickens. The Library’s Connect project also provides a partnership with the Dacusville Community Library, as well as remote pick-up lockers in Six Mile. They have also established reciprocal borrowing agreements with library patrons in Greenville, Anderson, and Oconee counties.
Today, the Library system employs 56 staff members including 13 Masters Degree accredited librarians. Their network of locations & resources supports almost 104,000 library cardholders and serves over 132,000 residents and visitors to our area. Here are a few statistics for 2022 alone:
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Last year, library visits totaled over 292,000 and outreach visits totaled another 49,000
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Materials borrowed totaled 454,700 and catalog searches totaled 1.3 million
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There were 8,000 Meeting Room reservations with meeting room attendance exceeding 34,000 individuals
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Last year, 458 Adult Programs were offered catering to over 10,000 attendees
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And 689 Children’s Programs and 105 Teen Programs were hosted, with a combined attendance of over 17,000 youth
Along with fulfilling the traditional role of a library, the Pickens County Library System is a true community builder and champion. Through their programs, partnerships, and outreach efforts they have been improving and enriching lives in Pickens County for over 90 years.
Please join Greater Easley Chamber of Commerce in honoring the Pickens County Library System as the 2023 Pillar of the Community recipient.
