Library services thrive in this community. We can review more than 100 years of public library service with pride and distinction. The Bryan + College Station Public Library System serves the citizens of Brazos County.

From the opening of the historic Carnegie Library in 1903, to the construction of the Bryan Library in 1969 and its remodeling in 1995, the beginning of the College Station Branch Library in 1987 and its new building in 1998, we came full circle with the restoration of the Carnegie Library in 1999. The expanded Sterling C. Evans Library at Texas A&M, restoration of the Cushing Library, the Bush Presidential Library and the ever expanding school libraries add to library resources available to residents of this community.

A comprehensive look at the history of library services from 1903 through 1986, is in a chapter of the publication "Brazos County History--Rich Past, Bright Future", the city of Bryan's award winning Sesquicentennial project, available to check out from the Bryan and College Station Libraries.

Old and new photographs, scanned and digitized, are reproduced in this document to help the reader visualize the history of the library system.

This background paper describes the growth of the system, innovations and transitions over the past.