Pierce County Library System

The Pierce County Library System (PCLS) is a library system serving the residents of Pierce County, Washington. As of 2011, PCLS has 18 libraries and several bookmobiles serving more than 550,000 people in unincorporated Pierce County and 15 cities and towns which have annexed to the system for library service. It circulates more than 8.7 million items annually, hosts seasonal youth story times, teen clubs, events for youth and adults, classes for skills development and computer programs, an active summer reading program, and has expanded into online interaction using social software. PCLS boasted over 2.6 million visitors in 2010; approximately 244,000 library cards are currently issued.

History

The Pierce County Library System was established by the Washington State Legislature in 1946 as an independent rural library district to serve unincorporated areas of the county as well as towns and cities that annex or contract with PCLS. Over its 60+ years, it has had only three directors: Marion Cromwell, Carolyn Else, and Neel Parikh.

Libraries

• Bonney Lake
• Buckley
• DuPont
• Eatonville
• Fife
• Gig Harbor/Peninsula
• Graham
• Key Center (Key Peninsula)
• Lakewood
• Milton/Edgewood
• Orting
• PAC - Processing & Administration Center (Tacoma)
• Parkland/Spanaway
• South Hill
• Steilacoom
• Summit (Tacoma)
• Sumner
• Tillicum (Lakewood)
• University Place

The Pierce County Library System Processing and Administrative Center (headquarters) is in the Summit-Waller area, southeast of Tacoma, Washington. The busiest libraries are the South Hill Library, Gig Harbor Library, Parkland/Spanaway and Lakewood Library.

Pierce County Library System provides bookmobile service to many areas of Pierce County, including Anderson Island, Ashford, Browns Point, Elbe, Fife, Frederickson, Greenwater and McKenna.

Service area

The Pierce County Library System serves all of rural Pierce County and any of the cities that have annexed into its service area. This includes all of the cities listed above, but does not include Carbonado, Fircrest, Ruston and Enumclaw, although residents of Enumclaw are permitted to purchase a library card.

A library is set to open in Fife in late fall of 2011.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Pierce County Library System
• Pierce County Library's Online Catalog
• Pierce County Library on Flickr
• Pierce County Library on Twitter