Cherokee Branch Library Background Tour

Welcome! We are so glad you can visit us today at the Cherokee Branch Library

The Cherokee Branch Library is one of the newer branches in the Memphis Public Library System, and has the distinction of serving an area that is much older than the branch itself.

Cherokee opened in 1975, and was built on a site that was formerly a golf course. The Branch serves the area bounded by Park Avenue, Getwell, Airways Blvd., and I-240. We serve the Cherokee Heights, Bethel Grove, and Orange Mound communities; the last of which is Memphis’ oldest African-American community. In fact, our service area is predominantly African-American, but we have lately observed a growing Hispanic population in the neighborhoods surrounding Cherokee. The branch serves as a polling location for its district, and although Cherokee is a relatively small neighborhood-style branch, we see a fair amount of customer activity, especially in the afternoons and on Saturdays.

Although Cherokee is not a large branch, our customer population is both growing and broadening. We are now the home branch for the Large Print/Rotating Collection, which is increasing our support of other branches in the system

We also share our facilities with the new InfoBus, a mobile library capable of reaching customers in areas that do not have access to library materials and services.

Because of our well-rounded and integrated collection, we get calls from all over the library system for books and other materials, plus a fair amount of reference activity.

We are beginning to expand the collection to include more Spanish language materials as the Hispanic population in our area continues to grow, and we hope in the coming years to continue of our tradition of “something for everyone”.

We hope you will come and visit our library!

A.J. Price, Children's Librarian