The Charleston Library Society holds over 110,000 volumes, dating from the medieval to the present, representing a plethora of interests and subject matters. Our circulating collection contains tens of thousands of volumes of fiction and non-fiction, with hundreds of new books accessioned each year. A thousand audio titles and over two thousand video titles are also available. Our Children’s Library contains over 7,500 volumes for young readers, from picture books to Harry Potter to summer reading list standards.

The historic core of the Library is now in our non-circulating collections. The largest of these is the Hinson Collection, originally the personal library of 19th century Charleston planter William Godber Hinson. Today, the Hinson Collection includes thousands of volumes, from 15th century manuscripts to new accessions of materials of Southern, South Carolinian, and local interest.

The Courtenay Collection, the personal library of Charleston mayor William Ashmead Courtenay, remains separate from the Hinson Collection. In addition to the many volumes representative of Courtenay's personal interest- art, architecture, European politics- they contain his splendid scrapbooks on the Earthquake of 1886, the relief mission to Ireland, Enston Homes, the Cowpens Centennial, and many other unique events in late 19th century Charleston.

Other special collections include thousands of documents in our manuscript collection. This includes letters of George Washington, Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, and Francis Marion; South Carolina's first medieval manuscript; and an original, handwritten edition of John Locke's Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. Our very comprehensive newspaper collection, including Charleston newspapers dating back to the early eighteenth century, is one of the best chronicles of Charleston history available. The Society also has extensive holdings of maps, art and ephemera.