When Lucile Nix was growing up in Commerce, there was no public library, true for most counties in Georgia in 1903. When Nix returned from college and working in Tennessee and North Carolina’s libraries in 1945, only six libraries serving 14 counties and 41 additional public libraries existed in Georgia’s 159 counties. When she retired and died 23 years later in 1968, there were 36 regional libraries serving 134 counties, and 25 other counties had their own services.