Williams Memorial Library
221 State Avenue

The main branch of the Kerry County Library Network is a state-of-the-art facility that has occupied its current location since the late 1940s; in fact, the central section of the library is still housed within the vast, grand old four-story stone building first erected in 1948. Since that time, however, the library has been renovated and expanded repeatedly, and now features four extra wings of substantially more advanced design, filled with a surprisingly broad array of resources. In the aftermath of its most recent upgrade, in early 2004, the library now features a large number of public Internet terminals, a supervised media center open to all local students, full in-library access to the electronic archives of most major newspapers and magazines in the country, a spacious reading room with plenty of overstuffed chairs and broad tables, and even a small coffeehouse in one of the newer wings. Additionally, the Williams Library is famous throughout the region for the various special events it hosts each year, ranging from live readings and discussion groups featuring various authors, to art shows in the various galleries held within the building, to the occasional musical performance by local players and quartets.

The Williams Library's close affiliation with the Manners Library at Greyson University, the Lawson Library in Shadowgard Heights, and other libraries throughout Kerry County allows patrons in any one facility to request books and other circulating materials -- including videotapes, DVDs, audio CDs, computer software and even a selection of activity kits from the Williams Library's children's section -- from any other branch through interlibrary loan. Due to the sheer elegance and diversity of the Williams Library's offerings, however, most of the patrons who can seem to prefer to frequent the main branch exclusively. As always, East Shadowgard seems to receive the best of everything, and most of the Kerry County Library Network's users seem to know this instinctively.