About Us

About Southern Maryland Regional Library Association, Inc.

Who We Are

Southern Maryland Regional Library Association, Inc. is a regional resource center for the public libraries in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. It was formed in 1959 to provide additional services to the citizens of rural Maryland through their local county libraries. It is part of a statewide resource network of three regional centers, working in collaboration with the State Library Resource Center, to provide efficient, economical and coordinated library services county libraries cannot adequately provide themselves.

The regional library is governed by a board of trustees composed of a library trustee from each county library system and up to one member of the public from each county served by the library systems. Board members serve five-year terms and may not serve more than two consecutive terms. To find out more about our board and when they meet, please visit our Governance page.

Although the primary source of support is state funds administered by the Maryland State Library Agency, the regional library also receives special federal grants.

As part of the State Library Network, the regional library is charged with the following responsibilities under §23-202:

Making interlibrary loans of books and materials
Supplying collections and exhibits of specialized materials
Providing consultant services
Organizing in-service training for library staffs
Developing and operating cooperative services among libraries

Strategic Plan

The Southern Maryland Regional Library Association (SMRLA) board of trustees has adopted a six-year strategic plan to help the organization sustain forward momentum, anticipate challenges and seize opportunities.

The plan covers fiscal years 2021 through 2026. To develop the plan, SMRLA considered stakeholder research, best professional practices and the insights of its board of trustees members.

Our Vision:

Advancing Library Excellence

Our Mission:

The citizens of Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties will have equal access to information through the efficient, economic and effective sharing of resources among public libraries and all types of information agencies.

Our Goals:

Model excellence in institutional governance.
Optimize operational effectiveness and sustainability.
Ensure the highest quality technical, training, resource-sharing and research services to the public libraries of Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.
Collaborate with partner libraries to grow their technology, collections and governance capacity.
Leverage the collective talents and energies of partner libraries to advance literacy, access to information and entertainment, and academic achievement in SMRLA’s service area.