The Sequoyah Regional Library System (SRLS) is a

library system A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are school, public, academic, special libraries and/or information centers. Consortia exist on a v ...

serving three counties in

North Georgia North Georgia is the northern hilly/mountainous region in the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of north Georgia were often scenes of important eve ...

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

, Pickens, and Gilmer. Funding is provided by the cities and counties in Cherokee and Pickens, and by the

board of education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

in Gilmer. The system is named for

Sequoyah Sequoyah (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏍᏏᏉᏯ, ''Ssiquoya'', or ᏎᏉᏯ, ''Se-quo-ya''; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American polymath of the Ch ...

, a

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

man who invented the

Cherokee alphabet The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate until the creation of his syllabary. He f ...

in the 19th century, so that the spoken

Cherokee language 200px, Number of speakers Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speaker ...

could be written.

History

The first city library was established in 1923 when members of the Canton Woman's Club donated a collection of books to be available to the public. Initially these books were housed in a jewelry store on Main Street and were available for checkout two days a week. As the library grew in size and patron numbers $300 was raised to purchase the old Presbyterian Church for reuse as a library building. In the 1930s with the advent of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

money was given in order to pay a clerk to run the library. In 1947 the City of Canton provided a new location for the library in City Hall. The old church was sold and the county Board of Education began contributing $25 each month to pay the salary of the clerk. Soon the library collection outgrew city hall and in 1957 the R. T. Jones Foundation in Canton provided $25,000 to purchase and remodel an old home on Main Street to serve as the library. In 1943 the State Department of Education and Georgia Legislature passed a bill aiding libraries in rural areas by granting them increased state funding if they chose to make a regional library system with neighboring counties. By 1958 the first regional library system was created with Cherokee and

Pickens County, Georgia Pickens County is a county located in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,431. The county seat is Jasper. Pickens County is part of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia met ...

. This allowed both libraries to become eligible for increased financial state support.

Gilmer County, Georgia Gilmer County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,353. The county seat is Ellijay. It was based on a historic Cherokee town also spelled as Elejoy in the ei ...

joined the system soon after and the name was updated to become the Sequoyah Regional Library System. In 1964 the Woodstock Library was constructed by the Woodstock Junior Woman's Club, and in 1966 the Canton library received $40,000 to undergo renovations to update its infrastructure. Furthermore, new libraries were constructed in Ellijay and Jasper, Georgia in 1970. After a 1985 assessment study demonstrated a need for more library space to secure state funding a new Woodstock library was opened in 1989 and plans were made to construct a new central library. On July 20, 1989 plans were completed to construct a 30,000 square foot building for the new R.T. Jones-Headquarters library. Just shy of two years later, on July 12, 1991, this library was opened to the public. The next six years brought radical changes to the rest of the library system with the constructions and renovations of the Rose Creek Library and Gilmer County Library in 1991, the Hickory Flat Library in 1993, the Pickens County Library in 1996, and the Ball Ground Library in 1997.

Branches

Library systems in adjacent counties

* Northwest Georgia Regional Library System, to the northwest *

Bartow County Library System The Bartow County Library System (BCLS) is the public library system of Bartow County, Georgia, United States. It consists of three branches serving a population of 103,000 people. The main branch is located in Cartersville, while supplementary b ...

, southwest in Bartow *

Cobb County Public Library System The Cobb County Public Library System (CCPLS) is a library system, system of 16 public library, public libraries in Cobb County, Georgia, Cobb County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, excluding its second-largest city of Smyrna, Georg ...

, south in

Cobb Cobb may refer to: People * Cobb (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Cobb * Cobb Rooney (1900–1973), American professional football running back Places New Zealand * Cobb River * Cobb Reservoir * Cobb Power ...

* Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, south-southeast in

Fulton Fulton may refer to: People * Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who developed the first commercially successful steam-powered ship * Fulton (surname) Given name * Fulton Allem (born 1957), South African golfer * Fult ...

and part of DeKalb *

Forsyth County Public Library The Forsyth County Public Library (FCPL) is a consortium of four public libraries in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States. All four branches are located in the county seat of Cumming. The Forsyth County Public Library as of 2015 had the highe ...

, east-southeast in

Forsyth Forsyth may refer to: Places Oceania * Forsyth Island, Queensland, Australia, one of the West Wellesley Islands (aka Forsyth Islands) * Forsyth Island, Tasmania, Australia * Forsyth Island (New Zealand), in the outer Marlborough Sounds of South I ...

Chestatee Regional Library System The Chestatee Regional Library System (CRLS) is a system of four public libraries serving the counties of Dawson County, and Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. The name Chestatee is from the Cherokee word meaning "place of the lights." This ...

, east-northeast in Dawson and Lumpkin

References

External links

SRLS official website
{{authority control Education in Cherokee County, Georgia Education in Pickens County, Georgia Education in Gilmer County, Georgia County library systems in Georgia (U.S. state) Public libraries in Georgia (U.S. state)