The Three Rivers Regional Library System (TRRLS) is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending 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 servic ...

system that serves the counties of Brantley, Camden, Charlton,

Long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, McIntosh, Pierce and Wayne,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States. The administrative office of the system is located in Jesup. The library system is named after the three rivers that course through Southeast Georgia: the St. Marys River, the

Altamaha River The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It flows generally eastward for from its Source (river or stream), origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Oce ...

, and the

Satilla River The Satilla River rises in Ben Hill County, Georgia, United States, near the town of Fitzgerald, and flows in a mostly easterly direction to the Atlantic Ocean. Along its approximately U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset hi ...

. TRRLS 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. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as ...

, 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 Te ...

that covers 51 library systems in 146 counties of Georgia. Any Georgia resident or property owner, any student at a Georgia college or university, any member of the military stationed in Georgia, and anyone who works in Georgia can get a free library card at any PINES library. Patrons who do not qualify for a free card may choose to pay an annual fee of $25.00 or a semi-annual fee of $12.50 and enjoy all the benefits of a free card. Patrons may use their PINES card at any PINES library to checkout, renew, or return items. Patrons may request items from any PINES library to be sent to their home library at no cost GPLS also provides access to

GALILEO Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

, 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. Library patrons may access all databases inside the library and may use their PINES library card to access most databases from home.

History

Regional History

The region began as the Brunswick Regional Library in 1949, with the Brunswick and Camden County libraries as members. The first regional meeting was held in Woodbine that year. The system was later renamed as the Brunswick-Glynn County Regional Library System in the 1960s. The Regional Office was originally located in Brunswick, Georgia. Also in the 1960s, the Camden County Library moved from Woodbine to St Marys. In 1977, a second Camden County library opened in Kingsland. In 1978, the two libraries in Kingsland and St Marys were officially designated as Camden County Public Library and St Marys Public Library. The regional library system was renamed as the Three Rivers Regional Library System in 2000, a nod to the three rivers—the Altamaha, the Satilla, and the St. Marys—that tie the region together. Several existing or new libraries joined the region over the years: Charlton County (1952), Brantley County (1954), Wayne County (1955), McIntosh County (Ida Hilton Public Library) (1961),

Long County Long County may refer to: *Long County, Shaanxi (陇县), China *Long County, Georgia, United States {{geodis ...

(1961), St. Simons Island (2007),

Sapelo Island Sapelo Island is a state-protected barrier island located in McIntosh County, Georgia. The island is accessible only by boat; the primary ferry comes from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center in McIntosh County, Georgia, a seven-mile (11 ...

(Hog Hammock Public Library) (2008), Woodbine (2020), and Pierce County (2024). In 2012, the libraries in Brunswick and St. Simons Island left the Three Rivers Regional Library System to form the Marshes of Glynn Libraries. The Regional Office moved to Jesup after the departure of the libraries in Glynn County.

Wayne County Library

Built in 1937 through efforts by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

, the Wayne County Library started off with a small, inadequate building. By the end of 1938 many of the books in the collection were already in bad repair, and public funding of the library was minimal. Constant financial support was afforded to the library by the Georgia Library Commission for its first decade in order to stay afloat. Towards the beginning of 1950 the Tecoma Garden Club helped to alleviate some of the library's financial issues. The club first secured permission and petitioned interested parties for monies to construct a library space in the local Community House. The initial goal of $2,000 was met and exceeded, and in the end the Garden Club has raised $6,000 to be used for the project. In order to incorporate the ideologies of the Garden Club with the wishes of the Public Library blueprints called for a library which included large windows and French doors looking out onto a grassed terrace, nestled in a grove of pine trees. Due to problems in construction the entire $6,000 fund was spent before the building saw completion. The City of Jesup provided $200 for plumbing and heating, and the rest of the $2,000 deficit was raised through more efforts by the Garden Club. The library officially opened on November 9, 1949, and is the building which is still in use today. The library holds a WPA mural titled "General Oglethorpe Concludes a Treaty of Amity and Peace with the Creek Indians – May 18, 1733", painted in Jesup's United States post office in 1938 by artist David Hutchison.

Branches

NOTE: * Originally, the Camden County and St Marys libraries were a single library.

Library systems in neighboring counties

* Ohoopee Regional Library System to the north * Live Oak Public Libraries to the northeast * Marshes of Glynn Libraries to the east * Okefenokee Regional Library System to the west

References

External links

PINES catalogThree Rivers Regional Library SystemBrantley County Public LibraryCamden County Public LibraryCharlton Public LibraryHog Hammock Public LibraryIda Hilton Public LibraryLong County Public LibraryPierce County Public LibrarySt. Marys Public LibraryWayne County LibraryWoodbine Public Library
{{authority control County library systems in Georgia (U.S. state) Public libraries in Georgia (U.S. state)