The Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1929 decided to offer aid to libraries in the southern states. According to the terms of the offer two libraries in each of the 13 states of the section would be helped to extend their service to include all residents of the county in which the library operated. In order to be eligible, the applying library must provide a total budget for service, including the Rosenwald help, of at least fifty cents per capita for the total population of the county. It was believed that the two libraries selected in each state would serve as demonstration libraries in the states of their location and would be the instruments of powerful stimulation of the movement for tax supported libraries. The conditions of the grant called for service to all elements of the population, city and rural, white and negro. Emphasis was laid on service to rural people, and it was proposed that branch reading rooms be established and that books be carried also to people living in isolated sections of the open country. The Columbia and Charleston libraries applied to their respective county delegations for support, which was granted. This action led to the receipt by them of financial assistance from the Rosenwald Fund in 1930 and 1931 respectively which aid is to be continued to each county library for five years but in amounts which decrease annually. At the end of the five-year period, the grants from the Rosenwald Fund will cease and the entire support of the library must be assumed by the county which it serves.