The Libraries of South Carolina
by Mary Frayser
Page 31 		Bulletin 292 page 31
  (Click on image
to view scanned image
of Mary Frayser's booklet)

Circulating School Libraries

The circulation of book collections among the white schools was being made in only 13 counties of South Carolina in 1931-32, and such exchanges were not general in all of these.

County-wide circulating library service is provided more or less adequately according to their financial resources by Greenville. Richland, Charleston, Dillon, and Laurens county libraries for their white school populations.

Where there is no county library to be the source of supply and medium of circulation, the need of such library book exchange among schools is evident since only in rare instances are the books in the local school libraries sufficient in number to serve adequately the pupils of each school.

The Greer branch of the Greenville library
Figure 7. -- The Greer branch of the Greenville library

The Greenville Library reports the following circulation of books to the schools of the county during one school year:
From September, 1930, to June, 1931, the county department of the Greenville Library circulated 155,184 books to school children through its various agencies. This does not include the books circulated in the children's room of the main library to county children, which would probably add about 10,000 more.*
Only Charleston, Chester, Greenville, and Richland counties reported circulation of school library books among the negro elementary schools, and only Greenville and Richland counties for the negro high schools. The number of volumes was inadequate to negro pupil needs for both elementary and high schools.
Table 11. -- Circulating School Libraries among White Elementary and High Schools in South Carolina, 1931-32
County Elementary schools High schools
Total number pupils enrolled in county Number volumes in circulating library Volumes per pupil enrolled Total number pupils enrolled in county Number volumes in circulating library Volumes per pupil enrolled
Charleston 7,273 4,686 0.64 2,348 ----- -----
Chester 3,115 725 0.23 786 ----- -----
Colleton 2,556 3,000 1.17 744 350 0.47
Dillon 2,804 9,942 3.54 608 1135 1.87
Greenville 20,004 26,874 1.34 4,508 2,540 0.56
Hampton 1,811 1,500 0.83 523 1,500 2.87
Laurens 4,942 706 0.14 1,156 124 0.11
Marlboro 2,837 97 0.03 590 ----- -----
Richland 8,526 22,672 2.66 2,601 3,505 1.35
Sumter 2,984 20 0.01 908 ----- -----
Union 4,001 200 0.05 751 ----- -----
York 6,204 2,500 0.40 1,476 ----- -----
*Greenville Public Library unpublished report, 1931.

back to page 30 to Table of Contents on to page 32

Back to page 30

To Table of Contents

On to page 32