The Greenville County Library serves almost half a million residents in Greenville. The library maintains almost one million volumes and circulates 3.5 million items per year. Founded in 1921, the library consisted of only 500 volumes in a vacant storeroom on East Coffee Street with the initiative of a local businessman and philanthropist, Thomas F. Parker, who then served as the Chairman of the Board. In 1923, Mr. Parker purchased a three-quarter-ton truck and introduced the first ever Bookmobile, which has been making rounds in the South throughout the country for nearly 100 years. The library system has increased and grown to twelve locations to meet the needs of the Greenville County mill communities.