The Trinity County Library’s mission is to make a positive impact on all county residents by offering quality resources, programs and exhibits in a variety of formats and by providing services that fill the informational, educational and recreational needs of its residents. To fulfill its mission, the Library employs a knowledgeable, well-trained staff committed to excellent service.
There was private library service in Weaverville through subscription and payment of dues beginning in 1857 (The Philomathian Library) but “The Trinity County Free Library” was established by the Board of Supervisors on November 9, 1916, the Board having applied for assistance to the California State Library. The building housing the Library on Main Street was a former blacksmith shop built in 1856. It was owned by the County and remained as the Trinity County Free Library until its move into the newly constructed library building on Highway 299 in December 1991.
In 1986, the newly-formed Friends of the Library hired a consultant to prepare a planning report for a new library facility. A formal application for a State Library “Bond Act” grant was made in 1986 and approved but the grant was amended twice so that the County could come up with the required funding match and acquire a suitable property. Ground for the new library building was broken in March 1991 with the move of books occurring in December 1991. The Certificate of Completion was issued in January 1992 and the formal dedication of the new building took place on September 25, 1992
Today there are three libraries within the system: the Main Library in Weaverville, the Hayfork Branch Library and the Trinity Center Branch Library. The Weaverville Library is the administrative and service headquarters for all library branches in Trinity County and houses approximately half of the system’s collections.
Funding for the library is obtained from the County General Fund (tax revenue, fines and fees, and licenses). Library funding is supplemented by grants and contributions from the Friends.
Library collections include paid and donated magazine subscriptions, popular fiction and non-fiction in adult and juvenile format, and media in a variety of formats including an audiobook and e-book collection on OverDrive. We offer an assortment of adult fiction paperbacks that check out on the honor system. The library also maintains a sizeable California and local history collection, oral history tapes, and the California Indians Library Collection (CILC). The Trinity River Basin documents were originally cataloged into a database on Follett library software in the mid-1990’s. Currently there is an ongoing project spearheaded by the Trinity Resource Conservation District (TRCD) to scan most of the documents in this collection to make them available and searchable by the public.