The South Ryegate Public Library was founded on May 23rd, 1877. Before the library was built, there were libraries in the general stores. The main book collection was kept at J.R.W. Beatties store, until it burned down. Thankfully, all of the books were saved. The original librarian was Mr. Hibbard and the library was in his store. 

The library was founded because South Ryegate residents were sharing books, and voted to build one. The residents were also combining resources for books. The library moved from house to house until the mistress of one of the houses took care of the books and acted like the librarian.   

Years ago, Richard Fraser became the librarian until he passed away due to failing health. Before becoming a librarian, Richard was an elementary teacher at The Molly Stark School, in Bennington, Vermont. Richard was the librarian right before the current librarian, Elizabeth Achilles.

Elizabeth Achilles, has some plans for the library, like having movie days, storytime, and game days. Over the past few years, Daniel Gelsleichter, has shoveled the walkway and mowed the lawn for the library. 

The library has book sales once in a while, to raise money for the funding. Daniel Gelsleichter, has scanned books for Elizabeth Achilles. Scanning the books, puts them on the computer so that  people can find them faster and easier.

Over the past 2 years, the library has had a cookout and a pizza party for all of the kids in town. During the cookout, local author Jim Arnosky read stories, sang songs, and signed books for all of the kids. After the pizza party, Elizabeth Achilles gave the kids school supplies.

Elizabeth Achilles, wanted to run a sewing club, but she couldn’t because not enough people would sign up for it. Hopefully, she can get enough people to have a board game club. There are plenty of things to do at the library.

Last summer, Elizabeth Achilles gave the kids free meals as part of the summer meal program. The library is open from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on Tuesdays and 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Thursdays. You can also stop by the library anytime Elizabeth’s car is there.

There are currently no plans for any budget cuts at this time for the library. The South Ryegate Library’s funding in 2020 was $200.00. The South Ryegate Library has raised $5,432.00 which is more than the goal. The goal was to reach $5,000.00.