Live Oak Public Libraries
The Live Oak Public Libraries are a consortium of sixteen public libraries in the Savannah metropolitan area and Hinesville – Fort Stewart metropolitan area of Georgia, United States. The library provides services for Chatham County, Effingham County, and Liberty County. The library headquarters are located in the Bull Street Library in Savannah, which is one of two Carnegie libraries in the system. In February 2018 the library system joined PINES, a program of the Georgia Public Library Service that includes of Georgia. Before this change, residents serviced the library by use of a Power Card, which has since been changed to a PINES card. Any resident in a PINES supported library system has access to the system's collection of 11 million books. The library is also serviced by GALILEO, 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 Savannah Public Library The first recorded history of the Live Oak Public Libraries began in 1809 in Savannah. This first iteration was a subscription based library and is the first known library to exist in the state of Georgia. The Savannah Public Library merged with the Georgia Historical Society in 1847, transferring its entire collection to the society. By 1903 the historical society restarted the Savannah library with the original volumes, along with new materials, as the bulk of the collection. This library was the result of the cooperation between the Georgia Historical Society, who housed and maintained the 23,000 volume collection, and the City of Savannah. Service for the public began in June 1903 on a limited basis until the library fully opened on November 1. When the library opened in 1903 it was allowed a three-year trial to see whether or not the public would generate enough interest to warrant more funding for its maintenance. For the first three years the city was providing $3,000 to the library annually, with the Georgia Historical Society providing $500 annually. Public attitude towards the system was encouraging, and by 1906 the city took on a bigger role in providing support for the library. By 1909 the Georgia Historical Society found itself unable to provide support to the library and gave full control to the city. Looking to expand into their own space, and return the library building back to the historical society, the City of Savannah petitioned industrialist Andrew Carnegie for funding to construct a new building. In 1913 the Colored Library Association of Savannah similarly petitioned the Carnegie Corporation for funding to construct a new blacks-only library. Carnegie era Carnegie Colored Library On November 1, 1903, without Carnegie funding, the city of Savannah and the Georgia Historical Society partnered to open a public library beginning on a three-year basis which was located in Hodgson Hall on the north side of Forsyth park in Savannah. The opening