The Dougherty County Public Library is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

system serving

Dougherty County Dougherty County is located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 85,790. The county seat and sole incorporated city is Albany. Dougherty County is included in the Albany, GA Metr ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. The Central Library is located in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia ...

. The library is a member of

PINES A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

, a program of the

Georgia Public Library Service The Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS) is the state agency for libraries in the U.S. State of Georgia and a unit of the University System of Georgia. The service was initially founded in 1996 after the inception of the Library Services and Tec ...

that covers 53 library systems in 143 counties of Georgia. Any resident in a PINES supported library system has access to the system's collection of 10.6 million books. The library is also serviced by

GALILEO Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

, a program of the University System of Georgia which stands for "GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online". This program offers residents in supported libraries access to over 100 databases indexing thousands of periodicals and scholarly journals. It also boasts over 10,000 journal titles in full text.

History

The first library in

was a short lived subscription-based library which existed from 1879 until 1887 when the head librarian passed away. Numerous local book clubs attempted to create a new library, but no substantial associations were successful until 1900 when the Albany Library Association was formed. During the early years of the library books were collected from voluntary contributions. After some years the collection of 750 volumes was held in the east anteroom of the Chautauqua Auditorium on the second floor.

Albany Carnegie Library

As book donations continued to grow and space became scarce the city of Albany petitioned

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

for funds to construct a new public library for county use. On January 9, 1905 Carnegie granted $10,700 to be used to construct the building on the condition the town pay an annual maintenance fee of 10% of the donated price. Construction began that same year and finished in 1906, the building designed in Italian Renaissance style with two marble ionic columns ''

in antis An anta (pl. antæ, antae, or antas; Latin, possibly from ''ante'', "before" or "in front of"), or sometimes parastas (pl. parastades), is an architectural term describing the posts or pillars on either side of a doorway or entrance of a Greek ...

''. The library underwent an extensive rehabilitation in 1992, upgrading the building to accommodate for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), installing HVAC throughout, and making minor repairs to the structure and landscaping. This same year the library was sold to be used as a gallery and museum as a new, larger branch was constructed one block over to house the growing collection of the county library system.

Branches

All library locations are within the Albany city limits. File:Northwest Branch Library, Albany.jpg, Northwest Branch Library File:Tallulah Massey Branch Library, Albany.jpg, Tallulah Massey Branch Library File:Southside Branch Library, Albany.jpg, Southside Branch Library File:Westtown Branch Library, Albany.jpg, Westtown Branch Library

Library systems in neighboring counties

* Lee County Library to the north. *

Worth County Library System The Worth County Library System is a public library system serving the county of Worth, Georgia, United States. There is one branch in the system, the Sylvester-Margaret Jones Library located in Sylvester. In 2016 the library archived the entire ...

to the east. *

De Soto Trail Regional Library System The De Soto Trail Regional Library System is a public library system serving the counties of Mitchell, Baker and Early, in the state Georgia. The headquarters of the library system is the Camilla Public Library located in Camilla, Georgia. is a ...

to the south. *

Kinchafoonee Regional Library System The Kinchafoonee Regional Library System (KRLS) is a public library system serving the counties of Calhoun, Clay, Quitman, Randolph, Terrell, and Webster, in the state of Georgia. The headquarters of the library system is the Terrell County Pu ...

to the west.

References

External links

PINES Catalog
{{authority control County library systems in Georgia (U.S. state) Public libraries in Georgia (U.S. state)