Main Reading Room

The main reading room is where members can read or work, check out books from the circulating collection, or attend one of the approximately 200 events that the Library Society hosts every year. The collections include fiction and nonfiction, eBooks and audiobooks, newspapers and magazines, DVDs, and children's and young adult books. Librarians are perpetually adding new releases and requests from patrons. The Circulation Desk next to the front desk is where visitors can check out books or place holds, sign up for events, or ask for help and recommendations.

Generations of Charleston's artistic and literary enthusiasts have gathered in the reading room to work on projects, experience new ideas, and discuss current events. Many prominent figures of the Charleston Renaissance were members of the Charleston Library Society, and many of their papers and manuscripts are in the Library's Special Collections. These include DuBose Heyward (writer of Porgy, 1925), John Bennett (writer of Master Skylark, 1897), Beatrice Witte Ravenel (poet of The Arrow of Lightning, 1926), Albert Simons (architect of the restoration of Rainbow Row, 1930s), and Josephine Pinckney (author of Three O'Clock Dinner, 1945), among others.

In recent years, the reading room has hosted guests like David McCullough, Dorothea Benton Frank, John Grisham, David Rubenstein, Sandra Day O'Connor, Grady Hendrix, Stacy Willingham, and other well known writers, speakers, and performers from a variety of fields.

Charleston Library Society. Programs and Events, Charleston Library Society. Accessed August 5th, 2022. https://charlestonlibrarysociety.org/events/.

Charleston Library Society. Our History, Charleston Library Society. Accessed August 5th, 2022. https://charlestonlibrarysociety.org/our-history/.

Charleston Library Society. Using the Library, Charleston Library Society. Accessed August 5th, 2022. https://charlestonlibrarysociety.org/circulation/.