Allendale County library system marks 85 years of service
At North Main Street, the county library still helps residents search family records, read newspapers, borrow ebooks and handle everyday errands online.
AHJ Regional Library is one of Allendale County’s quiet daily lifelines, especially at the Allendale County Library on 297 North Main Street in North Allendale, where residents can borrow books, use digital services, and turn to the library for schoolwork, job searches and family research. The system serves Allendale, Hampton and Jasper counties, and its network is now 85 years old.
That milestone reaches back to March 1941, when Allendale, Hampton and Barnwell counties formed the first multi-county regional library system in South Carolina. The Works Progress Administration helped pay for salaries, books, operating expenses and equipment, and the agency also funded a bookmobile to carry service into rural parts of the three-county region. The WPA project ended in March 1942, but the regional system continued and eventually grew into today’s AHJ network.
AHJ’s digital offerings include Libby for ebooks, audiobooks and magazines; Hoopla for streaming and downloads; and NewsBank’s South Carolina Newspapers database, which offers complete electronic editions of 75 newspapers and is updated daily. Patrons can use that newspaper collection from home for genealogy, local history and state and regional news. AHJ also offers South Carolina State Park Passes, VOX Books, SCLENDS, Ancestry Library Edition and blood pressure monitors.
In 2025, AHJ added 1,721 new library cards, added 3,475 items to the collection, launched one new 3D printer and introduced six new digital resource platforms. The system logged 25,383 items checked out, held 318 events, attended 41 community events and recorded 47,408 library visits.
Sena Loyd was regional director. Hoopla had 57 patron accounts and 127 items borrowed at an average cost per circulation of $2.21, and the board approved a $50,000 Impact Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a sprinter van. The bookmobile had also been repaired and was back in service, with 34 stops scheduled in January and 32 in February. Funding for the system comes from county appropriations, state aid, lottery funds and E-rate.
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