The Pierce County Library System serves almost six hundred thousand residents in Tacoma, the county seat of Pierce County, Washington. The library maintains one million volumes and circulates 8.5 million items per year. Founded in 1946, it started with only seven libraries serving fifty-five thousand people. Today, about 19 libraries make up the Pierce County Library system, which provides enjoyable educational opportunities for kids and families, free access to more than a million books, CDs, and movies, as well as a wide range of programs to support reading and assignment completion, among other services, making them the fourth-largest library in the state.