Columbia County will become a single county library system, but is not leaving the state library system.
In a tense meeting Tuesday night, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners voted to submit an application to the state to leave the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System and become a single county system within the state library system effective Jan. 1, 2026.
“What this would mean is Columbia County would have (more) autonomy to address the needs of our citizens in Columbia County,” said County Manager Scott Johnson. “However, we would still continue to receive state funding, access to all the current state library resources, such as PINES, GALILEO, all the things they have in place.”
Johnson said the county would still have a regional board as the governing body. However, since the board will be made up of only Columbia County residents, Johnson said the new regional board and the library advisory board might be consolidated into one board.
“We would still have a regional board that would be the governing body over the library that would be appointed by this board, but they would be the governing body,” Johnson said. “So, nothing changes there.”
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There would also be a regional director that would be a state position, Johnson said, which is how it is now with the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System.
Columbia County has been in contact with the state library system, with Johnson stating they recommended the county become a single county region.
“We have been given the preliminary approval from the state that we could be a single county region within the state library system effective Jan. 1, 2026,” Johnson said.
As for social media reports that Columbia County was leaving the state system altogether, Johnson said they were exploring all options but never wanted to leave and become independent.
“We were just looking for the opportunity to best serve our system,” Johnson said. “Our commissioners have a certain set of values and ideas that they want to apply to every county department. We’re in a regional board. We are pretty much stuck to the decisions made by people from other counties because that regional board consists of people from multiple counties. So, this is really the best of both worlds. …We don’t have to be independent, which would be costly, which we never really wanted to do anyway. But by being a single county system, our board will be appointed by our board of commissioners. We think it’ll better reflect the ideals of this community and we still have all the benefits of being in PINES and getting all the state benefits.”
Johnson reiterated that every service the library provides now will remain and that nothing will change. It’s similar to when Columbia County left the Augusta Judicial Circuit to form its own judicial circuit.
“Becoming our own judicial circuit was really more about the judicial philosophy in Columbia County versus the entire circuit,” Johnson said. “Same thing here, just our philosophy here versus other counties that may have a different philosophy. They may not, they may agree with us. But they may have a different philosophy, so this gives us an opportunity to have our own philosophy.”
Comment from the community
There were several comments from community members about the library system. Karin Parham, CEO of Freedom to Read Coalition of Columbia County, spoke about the county possibly leaving the state library system.
“Recently as you are aware, I uncovered through an open records request that Columbia County was considering withdrawing from the Georgia Public Library Service,” Parham said. “The email traffic revealed a level of inquiry that clearly would not have occurred without direction by county leadership. Ordinarily I take time to reflect before sharing information, but in this case I released the documents quickly. Why? Because across the country we’ve seen government bodies, much like this one, call sudden special meetings and vote to withdraw from library systems without getting public input first. Based on previous actions taken by this board and by county leadership, we did not trust that this process would be transparent. We wanted the public to have a chance to respond before you had an opportunity to act.”
Parham referenced the library shelving guidelines that were approved last year, calling them unconstitutional. She also told commissioners that “your power is not unlimited” and said the public is watching and the U.S. Constitution still stands.
District 2 Commissioner Trey Allen asked Parham if she was a journalist, and she said no. He then asked if she had a blog, and she said yes. He then asked her if she knows the terminology for the First Amendment.
The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
He added that the commissioner have received many emails recently claiming they are violating the First Amendment. He asked what exactly it was of the First Amendment that was being violated.
“We have the right to receive information,” Parham said.
Allen said that’s not part of the First Amendment, with Parham responding that through case law it is.
“If you want to further discuss this, I’m going to have to direct you to my attorney,” Parham said.
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Allen then asked her if she was familiar with Roth vs. the United States, with Parham stating she wasn’t going to answer those questions.
“Freedom of speech does not include the right, according to the Supreme Court, to make or distribute obscene materials,” Allen read.
Parham responded that there are no obscene materials in the library. They do not meet the legal definition of obscenity. When Allen asked her what the legal definition was, she said she didn’t have it in front of her to tell him, but that the materials don’t meet it.
The two went back and forth for a bit before Parham sat down and others came up to speak during public comment.
New library board appointment
During the meeting, the commissioners approved the appointment of Austin Rhodes to the Library Board to fill the term of Barry Paschal, who resigned.
When she spoke during public comment, Parham voiced her disapproval of appointing Rhodes to the board and said her organization recommended Sandara Bowers for the position. She said Bowers is a retired circulation clerk with a lot of institutional knowledge and a degree from Georgia Tech.
“Instead you appointed Austin Rhodes,” Parham said. “While I have no personal issues with Mr. Rhodes and have not interacted with his show, he is widely known for holding strong partisan views. The choice suggested a deliberate rejection of balance and a missed opportunity for community unity.”
Other single county library systems in the area
This move to a single county library system wouldn’t be unusual for the area. The Augusta-Richmond County Library System was previously with the East Central Georgia Regional Library System and is now its own system.
