About Us

The Charleston Library was founded in 1936 as a county unit supported by the Words Progress Administration (WPA) and eventually became the headquarters for the library system. By 1956, the Tallahatchie County Library System was fully operational, featuring branches in Charleston, Sumner, and Tutwiler, as well as a bookmobile catering to a community of around 35,000 residents. In 1966, a new branch was inaugurated in Webb, and the library system earned a reputation as one of the best in the state. Three additional library buildings were constructed in 1968 in Charleston, Webb, and Sumner and by 1977, funding from the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors, the town of Tutwiler, and the State Trust Fund for Revenue Sharing, overseen by the Mississippi Library Commission, enabled the establishment of a new library building in Tutwiler. 

However, The county began to face a gradual decline in population, which posed economic difficulties for the area. Library funding struggled to keep up with the expenses of maintaining and equipping four library locations. Insufficient financial resources could not cover the increasing costs, resulting in the closure of the Webb Library branch in 1998, followed by the Sumner Library in 2001. Despite stable funding levels, the absence of increases, ongoing maintenance challenges, and dwindling patronage made it exceedingly difficult to sustain the two remaining library locations and by 2023, the Tutwiler Public Library closed, leaving the Charleston Library as the sole provider of library services in the county.