The Ocmulgee Regional Library System (ORLS) 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 in the U.S. state of

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 ...

serving

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

, Bleckley, Pulaski, Telfair, Wheeler,

Wilcox Wilcox may refer to: Places ;Canada *Wilcox, Saskatchewan ;United States * Wilcox, Florida, an unincorporated community in Gilchrist County, Florida *Wilcox, Missouri, an unincorporated community in Nodaway County, Missouri * Wilcox, Nebraska * Wil ...

counties. The headquarters of the system is the Murrell Memorial Library, which is located in

Eastman, Georgia Eastman is a city in Dodge County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,658 at the 2020 census, up from 4,962 at the 2010 census. The city was named after William Pitt Eastman, a native of Massachusetts who purchased a large tract of l ...

, Eastman. ORLS 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 53 library systems in 143 counties of Georgia. Any resident in a PINES supported library system has access to the system's collection of 10.6 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

The oldest branch created in the current Ocmulgee Regional Library System area was the M. E. Roden Library in Pulaski County. This library began in 1878 when "a petition for the charter for the incorporation of our Public Library and Literacy Society was signed by prominent citizens" and was run until 1897 closing due to inactivity. By 1910 the Uplift Club in Pulaski organized a new library and 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 ...

aided in its growth in the 1930s. In 1936 the WPA also helped begin libraries in Bleckley and Wilcox County. The Wilcox Library was operated out of several different county buildings before moving to the county courthouse in 1983 after renovations made a library space possible. In 1986 the Bleckley County Library moved to downtown Cochran into a new dedicated building and was named the Tessie W. Norris Library. In 1940 with sponsorship from the local P.T.A. the Telfair County Library was established with 200 books borrowed from the Georgia Library Commission. By 1943 a library board was created to relieve the P.T.A. of their sponsorship. The first home for the library was the McRae-Helena School, which was later moved to a log cabin near the courthouse. On May 15, 1955 Telfair and Dodge counties decided to combine their resources and formed the Dodge-Telfair Regional Library. When Bleckley County joined in the 1960s the name was changed to the Ocmulgee Regional Library System. The Telfair library moved to the Civic Memorial Center in 1976 and shortly thereafter was granted full ownership of the property for library use. The most recent library to join the system is the Wheeler County Library in July 2000. By 2004 the county constructed a new facility for the collection, opening a new history and genealogy room for residents of the library system.

Branches

Library systems in neighboring counties

Middle Georgia Regional Library System The Middle Georgia Regional Library System is a library system which serves the counties of Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Macon, Twiggs and Wilkinson in the U.S. state of Georgia. Patrons receive a PINES library card. This may be used at any of the ...

to the north *

Oconee Regional Library System The Oconee Regional Library System (OCRL) is a public library system that serves the counties of Glascock, Laurens, Johnson, Treutlen, and Washington Georgia. The headquarters for the library system is in Dublin, Georgia and the system serves a ...

to the north *

Ohoopee Regional Library System The Ohoopee Regional Library System is a public library system serving the counties of Jeff Davis, Montgomery, Tattnall, and Toombs, Georgia. The logo of the system features a vidalia onion, as the region is home to Vidalia, Georgia where the ...

to the east * Satilla Regional Library System to the southeast *

Coastal Plain Regional Library System The Coastal Plain Regional Library System (CPRL) is a public library system serving the counties of Ben Hill, Berrien, Cook, Irwin, Tift, and Turner in the U.S. state of Georgia. The Coastal Plains Headquarters Library is located in Tifton. C ...

to the southwest * Lake Blackshear Regional Library System to the west * Houston County Public Library System to the northwest

References

External links

PINES catalog
{{authority control County library systems in Georgia (U.S. state) Public libraries in Georgia (U.S. state)