Person County Public Library History

Person County Public Library began as a part of the Hyconeechee Regional Library on November 8, 1948, to establish and maintain free public libraries in the Counties of Orange, Person, and Caswell for the use and the benefit of the general Public.

In 1992 the Hyconeechee Regional Library Board of Trustees and the governing bodies of Orange, Person, and Caswell count desired to provide an improved level of public services and established county libraries as departments within each respective county to establish policies and procedures regulating procurement, personnel, accounting, travel, and facility maintenance activities thereby affording each library the rights and responsibilities of department status with in their respective county.

Orange, Person, and Caswell Counties entered into a joint contract with the Hyconeechee Regional Library to provide joint services distributed to each regional library and receive funding from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and other grants and or donations provided to the Regional Library System.

The Hyconeechee Regional Library retained the functions of establishing regional policy and priorities related to public library service, programming, collection development, materials selection, grant funds, and regional budget approval.

Over the years, Orange, Person, and Caswell developed into distinct library service areas that required targeted, focused library services based on each county’s unique population. A change in Administrative Rules and Regulations governing public libraries would increase costs to the Regional Library System that could be more appropriately absorbed by County governments. In light of those changes, it was recommended to create three distinct and independent library systems. The decision was made to dissolve the Hyconeechee Regional Library on July 1, 2012, and fully institutionalize the Person County Public Library.