The Bearden/West Knoxville Library, a publicly funded and managed library and an affiliate library of the Knox County Public Library System, serves more than 180,000 residents in Knoxville, a city on the Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee. The parent library, Knox County Public Library, was established in 1886 with a vision to serve all residents as an educational, informational, recreational, and cultural center through a wide variety of resources, services, and programs. The Bearden/West Knoxville came about and 16 other branches to help the central library in McGhee implement and contribute to the total aggregate collection of the county with 1.26 million items and 2.43 million circulation for 2020 alone.